Rebirth 99 to become a car giant

One stone has stirred up a thousand waves. C-NCAP, which has gradually formed a certain influence in the industry and consumers in recent years, is now at the center of the whirlpool.

As one of the driving forces behind it, Cao Yang calmly held a kettle and watered the dieffenbachia next to the window sill.

The Dieffenbachia that has been cultivated for many years can be said to have luxuriant roots and luxuriant leaves and is growing very well.

"Mr. Cao, so far, China Automotive Research Institute has not given a satisfactory reply to everyone. Can we simply take this opportunity to ask the wind tunnel testing laboratory to conduct car collision experiments?" Get up?"

When Yu Yu was interviewing Xiang Changle some time ago, he began to wonder if there was a better way to end this matter.

In his view, the wind tunnel laboratory jointly funded by Nanshan Group and other enterprises and institutions and managed by Lingnan University of Technology can actually further expand its influence.

Although C-NCAP is not feasible, consumers' attention to car safety will definitely increase in the future.

There will definitely be more and more tests related to automobile collisions.

"I'm afraid this won't be that easy."

"Crash tests must be done by relevant government agencies and are not for profit."

"Either we can refer to the United States and let insurance agencies do it."

"For insurance institutions, the collision safety performance of vehicles can be linked to premiums, which has a certain interest."

"So they have no incentive to cheat, and may even think of using this test to push OEMs to improve vehicle safety performance and reduce the risk of car accidents, thus reducing the burden on insurance companies."

Cao Yang saw the problem very clearly.

Although Yu Yu's statement is somewhat attractive, Cao Yang does not think it is feasible.

"That's true. It's not profitable, there's no funding, and this test is quite expensive."

"If you want to do it well, you really have to think about it carefully."

Yu Yu is not stupid, so he can naturally think through the problems.

"Based on C-NCAP's current evaluation standards, there is no way to highlight the excellence of our Xingchen Motors."

"A car with six airbags as standard is as five-star as a car with two airbags."

"A car that uses a lot of hot-stamped parts is just as five-star as one that doesn't use any hot-stamped parts."

"As long as they are willing to spend money, when the test results are not satisfactory, the manufacturer can spend money to buy back the test data and pretend that nothing happened."

“Their way of playing the game can easily cause bad money to drive out good money. We have to find a way to cure it.”

Cao Yang doesn't think it's a good idea to let the automotive wind tunnel laboratory conduct crash tests.

But he is indeed dissatisfied with the current situation of C-NCAP.

It is still possible to promote some relevant reforms or changes behind the scenes.

After all, C-NCAP, which gives star ratings to many cars, is neither a national standard nor an industry standard. It is just set by the C-NCAP organization itself.

Many car companies definitely have opinions on this, but they may not dare to speak out.

Such an organization has neither funds nor staff, and has a wide range of cooperation projects, but its business is quite large.

It ranges from car seat cover cutting to engineering design, management and supervision.

There are not only factory inspection-free inspections for complete vehicles and environmental product certification tests, but also 3C certification for complete vehicles and seat belts.

"Mr. Cao, how about I discuss it with people from some car companies and see if they have any good suggestions? Then I will report to you the next step?"

When Yu Yu saw that Cao Yang was not going to let this matter go so easily, he naturally began to take it seriously.

"Well, three Zhuge Liangs are better than one Cobbler."

"Let's see what other car companies think, and then think about what's next."

Cao Yang does have some ideas, but Nanshan Group alone cannot handle this kind of thing.

So we still need to recruit more people to do it.

However, this matter made such a big fuss that China Automotive Research Institute was finally a little anxious to put out the fire.

"Director, this matter cannot be allowed to develop, otherwise our reputation will be ruined in the future."

As soon as Wu Wei came back from his business trip, he found Zhao Wenming, director of the center, who was also the director of C-NCAP.

Although as the executive deputy director, Wu Wei is responsible for daily business.

But if such a big mistake happened, he would definitely report to Zhao Wenming.

"At that time, we will go to the higher-level organization to communicate in Taiwan and see if we can stop talking about these things all day long."

"Other OEMs don't have any objections. Why do they have such big objections?"

Zhao Wenming felt that this time it was purely a case of a dog meddling in another's own business.

C-NCAP does not deceive ordinary people. The money earned from car companies is all the other parties are "willing" to pay.

There are so many problematic institutions in China that don’t report on it, but why are they having trouble with themselves?

"This is the truth, but now the public opinion on this matter is aroused on the Internet, and even the relatively popular Han Han has jumped out to attack us."

Wu Wei felt a little aggrieved.

All along, I have been connected to the windows of various OEMs, and all of them treat me with respect.

At the dinner table, everyone called "Director Wu" more enthusiastically than anyone else.

When had he ever tried to be criticized by so many people?

"What did Han Han say?"

Zhao Wenming asked with a frown.

As a well-known writer born in the 1980s, Han Han is now at the peak of his fame.

In 1999, he won the first prize in the first New Concept Composition Competition. His representative work "Three Gates" has sold more than 1.9 million copies. Later, "One Degree Below Zero" was released, causing a sensation again.

He is currently a professional racing driver for the Modu Volkswagen 333 team.

Since he is engaged in car-related competitions, the composition of the car's safety system has always been his top priority.

Regarding the C-NCAP matter, Han Han put forward his own point of view, and he pointed the finger at the key points of the C-NCAP organization.

"Director, let me show you a video of the other party being interviewed. You will know after you take a look."

Wu Wei said while operating the computer.

Soon, a video appeared in front of Zhao Wenming.

Han Han: "I can only question it, I can't evaluate it."

Han Han: "I just think what kind of organization this is, I don't know specifically what kind of authorization or what kind of supervision it is an organization."

When C-NCAP fell into the "media scandal", Han Han suddenly made an effort to question the C-NCAP agency that formulated the star standards. Not only that, he also raised his own questions about the basis and scientific nature of the standards.

No wonder Wu Wei wanted to show this video to Zhao Wenming specifically.

Han Han: "The key is that all the rules are set by their family. They play the game by themselves and make the rules of the game by themselves. I think there are always some things that people think are worth thinking about."

Han Han is not the only one who has doubts about C-NCAP. Now that he is a celebrity, he jumps out to question it, which is equivalent to adding fuel to the fire.

After watching this video, Zhao Wenming's face became obviously uglier.

"Immediately contact those people from the car companies who have good relations with us and ask them to find ways to help reduce the heat on this matter."

"Whether it's Autohome or the auto channels on various portals, the people at the OEM are definitely more familiar with it than we are."

"This time, let them do their best."

"Especially for those car companies with poor performance, we have helped them before, and now it is their turn to contribute."

Soon, Zhao Wenming found an entry point to reduce the popularity of public opinion.

You can let your superiors communicate there, and let the OEMs communicate with other media.

As for China Automotive Research and Development Co., Ltd., just wait for the heat to subside and the storm to pass.

From now on, just keep doing business and keep making money!

Anyway, Zhao Wenming felt that he had never experienced any big storms, and he would definitely be able to survive this time.

Besides, after various exposures, nothing changed, and he had seen too many things that ended up being ignored.

The most obvious one is domestic oil products. Don’t you know whether they are good or bad?

Is there no one to expose it?

What's the final result?

With just a C-NCAP test, he felt that everyone would soon turn their attention to other more interesting things.

Just like the "nude photo scandal" in January this year, as long as there is another hot news recently, everyone can forget about C-NCAP.

However, not everyone is happy with Zhao Wenming trying to muddle through.

At about the same time, Yu Yu also preliminarily investigated some of the means and methods of C-NCAP to make money.

"Mr. Cao, we have some clues about the matter. Let's first find out the current situation clearly."

"The next step will be to discuss specific plans with other car companies."

"C-NCAP has evaluated nearly 50 cars in the past two years. According to normal procedures, to test a car, you need to buy three cars for testing. Just buying these more than 100 cars requires a lot of money. In addition, The other expenses are definitely not a small amount.”

"Our initial entry point is who provides these evaluation funds?"

Yu Yu reported while watching Cao Yang's reaction.

"We learned through interviews and surveys that there are two main sources of cars for star rating."

"One is that C-NCAP purchases it on the market with its own money."

"The second type is when the manufacturer applies for a star rating, and the manufacturer pays for it out of his own pocket."

"Just like the Zephyr Honda C-RV that was just rated 5 stars+, they applied for the star rating themselves."

"This information can be seen in the registration materials of China Automotive Research Institute. At the same time, our investigation revealed that the C-NCAP receipt stated that Xifeng Honda must first pay the purchase price and crash test fees for three cars."

Yu Yu's investigation was very detailed and it obviously took a lot of effort.

"If a car company applies for experiments, all costs will be borne by the company, which includes vehicle fees and test fees."

"The cost of the experiment is 380,000 yuan for the three experiments."

"These are relatively easy to understand. After all, someone is paying the bill."

"But the situation is a bit interesting for the models that C-NCAP has paid for testing itself."

"Through investigation, we learned that in addition to the 9 cars that the manufacturers applied for testing, the remaining 39 cars, 3 cars of each model, a total of 117 cars, should have been purchased by C-NCAP with its own money."

"If each car is calculated at 180,000 yuan, the cost of purchasing the car alone is as high as more than 20 million yuan."

"But C-NCAP has neither personnel nor funds, and the high costs are all paid by China Automotive Research and Development Corporation."

"20 million is not a small number for any company. We spend our own money to buy cars of various brands to cause collisions, and then rate others with a star rating. We can't help but think: Why does C-NCAP make such a loss? What about the business?"

As soon as Yu Yu finished speaking, Cao Yang also said: "Yes, why does C-NCAP do this kind of loss-making business?"

“In the words of C-NCAP’s Wu Wei, they don’t make money from this.”

"But it's fine if you don't make any money, but if you throw 20 million in for nothing, I'm afraid no company is willing to take advantage of it."

"After some investigation, we finally discovered the secret inside."

Hearing this, Cao Yang's interest was also aroused.

He really didn't know how people made money in this situation.

"In fact, from its establishment in 2006 to the present, although China Automotive Research Institute has paid for its own testing, the damaged cars and data after the crash test can be sold at a good price. The crashed car is worth a lot of the purchase price at that time. Sold to manufacturers.”

"In addition, the data from the test site can be sold for 490,000, and if the manufacturer applies for a star rating, since the car model and test fee of 380,000 have been paid in advance, the manufacturer still needs to pay 110,000 to get various data. "

"In other words, although they do not charge for testing at the beginning, they can make profits from it after you test the results, including taking away the scrapped vehicles, including data sharing, etc."

"So C-NCAP is a purely operational structure, and there is no way to recognize their testing authority."

"Especially if you use the manufacturer's money to conduct testing, then this calls into question their fairness even more."

"To put it mildly, they can even use this method to blackmail some manufacturers."

"For example, if you know whose car model has poor crash performance, you will deliberately do a test, and then sell some not-so-good test data at a very high price."

"In order to prevent this data from leaking out, even if the OEM has any objections, they can only hold their noses and admit it."

Yu Yu explained the secrets to Cao Yang in great detail.

It can be regarded as giving Cao Yang a lot of experience.

Business can still be done like this.

"In the final analysis, the C-NCAP test is paid for by the car manufacturers. Among those cars that have been crash tested, how many test cars and crash data are bought by the manufacturers at a high price? How much do they charge in this way? I guess many people are interested in this information, right?”

Cao Yang felt that the more the other party wanted to avoid him, the more he would hold on to him.

"Many people are asking this question, but so far, they still refuse to disclose it on the grounds of commercial confidentiality."

If Yu Yu knew this kind of information, the other party would definitely not disclose it.

Unless someone from the inside leaks the information.

However, the relevant materials currently available are basically enough.

"Well, until there is no better solution, our next step is to push forward the 25% small offset crash test."

"All products of Xingchen Motors are developed with reference to the highest global standards, and there are no double standards."

"As far as these test items of C-NCAP are concerned, there is no way to highlight the differences between everyone."

"Some people get 100 points on the exam because their level is 100 points, while some people get 100 points because the test paper only has 100 points."

"Once this test project is added, it will be enough for many companies to drink from it."

Cao Yang is quite familiar with some key indicators of automobile crash tests.

C-NCAP's star rating is divided into three aspects of crash tests: 100% frontal impact, 40% frontal offset impact and side impact.

Although the difference between 40% and 25% is only 15%, the difference is actually far greater.

The 25% small offset collision can well simulate actual traffic accidents such as car-to-car collisions with small overlapping areas and vehicle collisions with trees and telephone poles.

A 25% small offset crash test is implemented on both left and right sides, which will provide all-round protection for the main and passenger seats and even the entire vehicle occupants, and will also impose more stringent requirements on the OEM.

This is something that many car companies, especially joint venture car companies, cannot do at present.

Self-owned brand car companies such as Chery, Geely, and Great Wall have put more effort into this aspect because of their extensive use of hot stamped parts and the benefit of previous crash tests.

The projects of joint venture car companies are all developed abroad, and they develop China's special models according to China's testing standards.

In this case, their collision level is not as good as that of independent brands.

I have to say that this can be regarded as a change brought by Cao Yang's butterfly to this era.

"Well, I am now launching a public opinion offensive in this area online."

"Then we will work with independent brands that have confidence in crash tests to promote this matter."

"If C-NCAP continues to go its own way and becomes its five-star wholesale department, it will really cause public outrage."

Yu Yu obviously does not have a clear enough understanding of some people's bottom line.

There are indeed some people in this world who are stubborn and stubborn, like stones in a latrine, smelly and hard.

And just when Autohome is uniting with a group of car companies to promote the issue of 25% small offset collision, the two brothers Guo Shuyin and Guo Shufu in the Yangcheng Huaqiang Factory are in a very beautiful mood.

"Brother, in the past week, we have been communicating with us about hot stamping parts projects, and there have been several more projects."

“Even some new customers have come to us and want to come and inspect us.”

"If we continue at this pace, our dominant position in the domestic hot stamping market will be firmly established."

In the past two years, Yangcheng Huaqiang Factory has invested or is in the process of investing more than a dozen hot stamping production lines across the country.

Its production capacity ranks first in the country.

But competition is not without it.

After all, after seeing the prospects of this industry, many other peers also purchased hot stamping production lines from Nanshan Equipment and began to enter this field.

However, the first-mover advantage of Yangcheng Huaqiang Factory is not so easy to break.

"The more serious the C-NCAP media scandal becomes, the better it will be for our industry."

“As everyone realizes the importance of collision safety, they will pay more attention to the use of ultra-high-strength steel.”

"Until now, the strength of our hot-stamped parts has been completely unmatched by cold stamping."

"Even in terms of cost, the cost of hot stamped parts is not much more expensive than cold stamped parts using high-strength steel plates."

"This gives more OEMs the willingness to expand their enthusiasm for hot stamping formed parts."

As the general manager of the company, Guo Shuyin naturally has his own judgment on the development trend of the entire industry.

In the beginning, the cost of hot stamping formed parts was very high.

A set of molds costs 10 million yuan.

The processing fee for one part is 50 yuan, while the same cold stamped parts cost less than 10 yuan.

Coupled with the difference in material costs, the cost disadvantage of hot stamped parts is very obvious.

This is also the reason why hot stamping parts appeared relatively early, but their large-scale application in China was relatively late.

Without Cao Yang, it would basically be models after 2010 that would slowly expand the use of hot stamping parts.

"I think we can take this opportunity to promote hot stamping technology within various OEMs."

"We can join forces with Nanshan Equipment and Nanshan Mold to hold a hot stamping technology traveling exhibition."

"At that time, it should be able to stimulate more OEMs to increase their enthusiasm for using hot stamping parts."

Guo Shufu's proposal received an immediate response.

Soon, the Yangcheng Huaqiang Factory started moving.

Regardless of whether you are interested or not, no one will refuse such a technology display at this time.

Let’s get started with the early steps first.

As for Autohome, after discussions and consultations with various car companies and relevant stakeholders, Yu Yu has also formed a preliminary plan.

"Mr. Cao, based on our discussion, everyone feels that some car models have bright and beautiful outer shells and fashionable and novel designs, but inside they contain technology from decades ago."

"Things that consumers know about such as ABS and airbags will be equipped, and the version will be as high as possible, but the anti-collision bar, body structure, material use, etc. can be saved."

“On the surface, it’s hard to tell whether this type of car is good or bad, and most car owners are ‘laymen’ who don’t understand it. But once an unfortunate collision occurs, you don’t know whether these ‘tofu dregs’ can effectively protect the people inside the car.”

"But in China, the automobile industry lacks such a 'third party' to supervise the safety of vehicles."

"C-NCAP certainly cannot afford this kind of third party because it has already been commercialized."

"Relevant laws and regulations alone are not enough. There are many things in the Chinese automobile industry where there are laws and regulations but no enforcement."

"So we came up with a new approach."

Yu Yu made an appointment for a conference room today, threw the PPT on the wall, and personally explained to Cao Yang the new plan developed by Autohome.