Rebirth 99 to become a car giant

Cao Yang is serious about technology.

After officially taking over the research and development task of aircraft carrier steel plates, he actually came to Nanshan Special Steel in person and conducted technical discussions with a specially formed team.

Of course, in order to keep it as confidential as possible, this project will not be directly said to be a research project on aircraft carrier steel plates, but will have a tacky name of "New Generation Special Steel Technology Research."

Except for a few senior executives such as Cao Yang and Xie Lingyun, no one else in the company knew the inside story.

Of course, smart people can actually guess the use based on the performance requirements of the material.

But speculation is speculation, and the company will not officially say so anyway.

Once the project is successful, that's another story.

And just when Cao Yang was investing in aircraft carrier steel plate research, there was another news in the automobile industry that was related to Nanshan Group.

Before Xingchen Automobile acquired the BMW F1 team, domestic automobile industry professionals and ordinary people did not pay special attention to F1-related news.

However, Xingchen Racing Team will start competing in F1 next year. Various domestic automobile websites have reported on the arrangements for next year's F1 event.

One of the stops is scheduled to be held in Shanghai.

Therefore, the popularity of F1 in China is increasing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Mr. Cao, yesterday Mercedes-Benz announced the acquisition of 75.1% of the shares of Brawn GP Team. Brawn GP F1 Team has officially changed its name to Mercedes-Benz Racing Team, referred to as Mercedes Team."

"In the past year, F1 teams have undergone very big changes."

"It is also a good thing for us that Mercedes-Benz enters the market at this time."

Mi Ying has been dedicated to understanding the situation of F1 in the past year.

Before this, she didn't pay attention to F1 at all.

"Team Brown?"

"Isn't this a team that has just been established for one year?"

Cao Yang really didn't expect Brown Racing to be sold so quickly.

"Yes, the Brawn GP F1 team was formerly the Honda team. On December 5, 2008, Honda CEO Takeo Fukui announced that he would no longer inject capital into the Honda team."

"The Honda team withdrew from F1, so before the new season in 2009, team manager Ross Brawn successfully took over the team with 80 million euros from his own pocket and established the Brawn GP team."

"This year's results of the Brawn GP F1 Team have completely subverted everyone's perception, becoming the first team in F1 history to win the team championship and driver championship in the first year of its establishment."

When Mi Ying said this, Cao Yang was a little speechless.

I chose to buy a BMW team instead of going to Honda to buy a team earlier. Did I miss such an important opportunity?

This Brown team is amazing, right?

Forget it, the past is past.

Anyway, after the acquisition, I also have to redesign the car. I have to overthrow everything and start over. I still have a chance to compete next year.

Even if it is not as magical as the Brown Racing Team, the results should be worth looking forward to.

"The engines used by Brown's team are provided by Mercedes-Benz, right?"

Cao Yang vaguely remembered that the people below had reported to him the situation of Brown's team before, but he couldn't remember clearly.

"Yes, so this time Mercedes-Benz acquires the Brawn Racing Team, it is in line with everyone's expectations."

"Especially since Brawn Racing's results this year are so impressive, even if Mercedes-Benz doesn't take action, other companies will."

Mi Ying's performance was as stable as ever.

As long as it was a question asked by Cao Yang, she could answer it smoothly nine times out of ten.

It is rare to be able to achieve this level of secretarial work.

"When the time comes, you can go with me to the first race of the 2010 season and see if the Mercedes team can continue the greatness of the Brawn team."

"Let everyone see how unique the Star Racing Team is."

To Cao Yang, this news was just news, and there was nothing special that needed to be done.

So he quickly turned his attention to other meetings that followed.

However, for others, it is not necessarily so calm.

For example, BMW's Phillips and Aimoha have more complicated feelings.

Naturally, they have no right to object to the headquarters' decision.

But they can feel the changes in public opinion in China.

Did BMW withdraw from F1 because it could no longer survive?

Look, Mercedes-Benz cars are now back in the game!

"Ai Moha, you said that the popularity of F1 on the Chinese Internet is getting higher and higher. Is it because Nanshan Group is behind it?"

I just read a few F1-related articles on Autohome today, and Phillips couldn't help but chat with Aimoha.

He has a hunch that BMW's withdrawal from the F1 competition may not have a bad impact on sales globally, but it may have an impact in China.

Especially in terms of sports cars, they may not be sold in China in the future.

Although the sales of BMW's sports cars are not that good, no matter how bad they are, they don't want to see a decline.

"To say that Nanshan Group has done nothing, no one will believe it."

"Before, neither Autohome nor the auto channels of the four major portals had a dedicated F1 column."

"At most, when there are some special news in F1 events, we will simply report it."

"Special follow-up reports will basically never happen."

"But now not only does Autohome have a dedicated F1 column, but other car portals also have dedicated F1 sections in their car channels."

"This change is directly related to Xingchen Automobile's acquisition of our fleet."

"Then the Yangcheng side also started preparing to build an F1 track in Huadu. In the future, the FIA ​​may hold a grand prix in Huadu and Yangcheng each year."

"Under this situation, China's attention to F1 will naturally continue to rise."

Aimoha sighed silently in his heart.

The F1 race costs BMW two to three billion US dollars every year, so he can understand why the company wants to cut it.

After all, the company is now beginning to direct more research and development resources towards electric vehicles.

But after withdrawing from the F1 competition, he did not expect that China would bring such changes.

If we had known earlier, we should have stopped Xingchen Motors from purchasing the BMW F1 team, then there would not have been so many things.

Of course, in this case, he could only keep it silently in his heart.

Otherwise, Phillips is probably going to grab him.

"It is said that Nanshan Group is very good at marketing, and now it seems that it is indeed the case."

"It's not easy for an F1 to be able to do tricks in their hands!"

"When the F1 Grand Prix is ​​held in Shanghai, the popularity of Xingchen Racing Team is expected to reach an unprecedented scale."

"The FIA ​​is probably happy to see F1's popularity in China continue to grow."

"Mr. Cao chose a very good time!"

Although BMW gave up F1, Phillips also admitted that Xingchen Automobile's entry into F1 is a very valuable thing.

At least the popularity F1 brings to Xingchen Automobile cannot be matched by other advertisements.

"Xingchen Auto seems to be following the path of Porsche. Except for Ziweixing, most of its models are priced at more than 1 million."

"Under this situation, Xingchen Auto's product positioning will gradually deviate from BMW's positioning in the future."

"The prices of the X3 and X5 that we are going to produce in China are well below 1 million."

"In the future, the X1 that will be further domestically produced will be sold for less than 300,000 yuan."

"In addition, the prices of 1 series, 3 series and 5 series are all within 100."

"So I think we don't need to pay special attention to the situation of Xingchen Automobile in the future. Everyone's positioning will be different."

"Look at other people's Starry Sky Sports Car. The price of a sports car is several times that of our sports car."

"Looking up, the positioning is relatively high, and our X7 may not be able to be on par with others."

"It's better to benchmark against Mercedes-Benz and Audi and be number one among these three."

"After all, when our X1 and X3 are domestically produced, the sales volume will definitely be higher than that of Xingchen Automobile."

Aimoha felt that it was necessary to let him go and ask his boss to stop staring at Xingchen Automobile all day long.

Aimoha really doesn't want to compete with Xingchen Automobile, and he doesn't know what to do.

And he discovered an interesting thing, that is, in China, as long as the car companies have a good relationship with Xingchen Motors, their lives are going very well and they are prosperous.

But for companies that have trouble with Nanshan Group, the situation is more complicated.

"What you said is not unreasonable, but we must first surpass Audi and Xingchen Automobile and become the number one sales volume of Chinese luxury car brands."

"At that time, if we don't compare it with Xingchen Automobile, no one will say anything."

Phillips didn’t completely agree with Aimoha’s point of view, but he basically agreed with it.

This made Amoha breathe a sigh of relief.

As a rival of BMW, the people at Mercedes-Benz hope to use the F1 incident to further expand their influence in China, just like Xingchen Motors.

"Yang Ming, I heard that China TV Sports Channel and the FIA ​​have reached a cooperation in broadcasting the 2010 F1 event."

"Think of a way to see if you can win advertising on sports channels during next year's F1 event."

August was starting to feel a little anxious now.

Although Mercedes-Benz's development situation in China is very good, it is compared with itself.

If compared with BMW, Audi and Xingchen Motors, it is not impressive enough.

Last year, Mercedes-Benz sold 1.26 million cars globally, but its sales in China were less than 40,000.

This year it can be significantly increased to more than 60,000, which is definitely a very good increase.

But compared with BMW's target of 100,000, and the 100,000-year sales target that Audi and Xingchen Motors have already achieved, it doesn't look so impressive.

When the headquarters evaluates the work of Mercedes-Benz China, in addition to looking at Mercedes-Benz China's own sales growth, it will also look at Mercedes-Benz's ranking in China's luxury car market.

You are excellent, but others are even better, so sorry, there is something wrong with you.

"It shouldn't be a big problem. China Television has always been quite positive about our advertising cooperation."

"However, the positioning of the sports channel is not very consistent with our Mercedes-Benz brand image. Would it be better to place ads on the financial channel?"

Yang Ming naturally understood why August asked him to place advertisements on sports channels.

But he felt that the significance of doing so was not that great.

Even if the F1 race is broadcast in China, Yang Ming feels that the popularity still needs a process to slowly increase.

After all, this event is a bit too niche.

Just like sports such as ice hockey and fencing, they are far away from ordinary people. Even if they are broadcast live on China Channel, the ratings are relatively limited.

In Yang Ming's opinion, the popularity of F1 events cannot be more eventful than these events.

Even if Nanshan Group is constantly pushing behind it, it still needs a process.

Think about it, in a market where car buying is basically based on appearance and price, how can consumers be able to enjoy F1 races so quickly?

"The financial channel has already launched it this year, and it will be a good time to change it next year."

"The headquarters has now acquired the Brawn Racing Team and will officially enter the F1 competition next year. We want Chinese consumers to know that Mercedes-Benz cars are not only noble and elegant, but their power performance is no worse than BMW's."

"Otherwise, Chinese consumers will always think that we drive a BMW or ride a Mercedes-Benz," think that our driving performance is not good, and that our engine performance is not good. In fact, this is completely a misunderstanding! "

When August said this, it was hard for Yang Ming to refute.

A sports channel is a sports channel.

Anyway, sales have increased by 50% this year and profits have increased significantly, so it’s a good idea to spend some.

At worst, I'll just find a few more platforms to place ads on.

…

There are more and more news reports about F1 on the Internet in China. You can easily find news reports related to F1 by logging into any professional automobile website.

The FIA ​​is very happy about this.

"Todd, I think after next year's season is over, we can consider holding an extra grand prix in China to completely develop the market there."

"Now China's Yangcheng is ready to start building an F1 track. Normally it would be available for the 2011 season."

“When the time comes, we will hold more races at the Shanghai Circuit and Yangcheng Circuit, and even introduce some other competitions besides F1 races to China, which will definitely increase the FIA’s popularity in China. "

"At that time, the ratings and number of viewers of the competition will increase significantly, which will also be very beneficial to increase the advertising expenses of other teams."

Among F1's various interest distributions, the FIA ​​occupies the core interests, which mainly include bidding fees, ticket revenue, advertising revenue and television broadcast rights revenue.

The FIA ​​can get a generous application fee from each competition venue every year. Each competition venue is basically tens of millions of dollars, and this fee will increase every year.

Was it an accident?

You read that right, if the FIA ​​holds a race on your track, not only will it not pay you to rent the track, but it will require you to pay the application fee.

This is the influence of being famous.

In addition to the bidding fees, the ticket revenue from F1 events does not entirely belong to each venue. According to different agreements between each venue and the FIA, the FIA ​​enjoys different proportions of sharing.

At the same time, the FIA ​​also has the right to use VIP seats and boxes in the venue. They can freely choose to sell these tickets or give them to the teams.

If the venue has boxes in addition to the prescribed boxes, then according to different agreements, the FIA ​​will also enjoy a certain share of the revenue.

In addition, advertising inside the competition venue is a major source of revenue.

According to the rules, the FIA ​​controls this part of the revenue and only allocates about 5% to each venue.

For new venues such as Magic City and Bahrain, as well as future F1 venues, the agreement with the FIA ​​clearly stipulates that the TV broadcast rights must be bought out, while old venues can choose whether to buy the TV broadcast rights.

Regardless, the proceeds from the TV rights belong to the FIA.

In addition to collecting money from each venue every year, the FIA ​​can also collect registration fees of millions of dollars from each team.

Finally, the "F1" logo can now also bring benefits to the FIA.

Among them, Huaxia is the first buyer of the golden sign "F1". This year, a private company purchased the right to use this logo.

This logo can appear on hats, cups and other souvenirs.

This is why the FIA ​​attaches so much importance to Xingchen Racing Team now.

Do you really think people like Huaxia?

It’s all about profit!

"Your suggestion is good, but I think the first step is to establish good relations with various professional automobile media in China and give them a portion of the profits."

"Let them help us make the cake bigger so that we can gain more benefits."

Todd's words made Vanizh's eyes light up.

Give up some of the benefits and make the cake bigger. In the end, the FIA ​​will take the biggest piece of the cake.

This thing is totally worth doing.

"In China, the largest professional automotive media is Autohome, a subsidiary of Nanshan Group, and Xingchen Motors is also a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nanshan Group."

"If we want China's automotive media to help promote F1, the most important thing is to rely on Xingchen Automobile."

"Vaniz, you can take appropriate care of some arrangements related to the Star Racing Team in the 2010 season."

"Even in terms of some of China's profits, we can also give some tilt to the Xingchen Racing Team."

"As long as the Chinese market becomes bigger and stronger, the benefits it will bring to our FIA will definitely be more."

Todd is not a simple character either.

Otherwise, he would not be able to sit in the special position of Ferrari president.

Only by giving up can you gain!

He saw this truth very clearly.

As for the FIA's plans, Xingchen Automobile is naturally very clear.

However, this kind of thing is consensual and benefits everyone.

Cao Yang naturally arranged for people to fully cooperate.

However, just when the Internet was advocating F1, a different voice also appeared.

"Mr. Cao, I did some research and found that these posts were basically sent by collaborators from Toyota and Honda's advertising companies."

"It should be that they are cooling down the F1 fever in China. They don't want their withdrawal from the F1 competition to have a negative impact on their sales in China."

Yu Yu is very good at finding opportunities to report to Cao Yang.

In the workplace, they are often the best people who are good at dealing with superiors.

Some honest people are afraid of dealing with their leaders and wish that their leaders would not come to them even once a year.

Then they passively wait for the leaders to recognize talents, hoping that all leaders will be talented and able to recognize their own thousand-mile horse.

The final consequences...

Society has taught them what reality is!

"The sales growth of several Japanese car companies in the past two years has lagged behind the overall growth. Now that the topic of F1 has come around, they are naturally a little nervous."

"However, I don't think you need to pay special attention to it. Their public opinion will not become mainstream."

"In the past, Toyota and Honda's cars left a good impression on everyone with high quality and low fuel consumption, so sales were very good whether in the United States or China."

"But now that independent brands have used our powertrains for a long time, their fuel consumption is even lower than that of Toyota and Honda models."

"It has been proven over the years that the quality of our powertrains is no worse than Toyota or Honda."

"In this case, the brand premium of Japanese car companies such as Toyota and Honda will naturally gradually become smaller."

"They can't turn this corner. It's impossible for sales to keep up with the market."

"In a few years, Toyota and Honda's sales in China may stagnate."

Cao Yang is not very optimistic about the development of Japanese car companies in China.

The current market situation is completely different from the previous life.

Because of the emergence of Nanshan engines and Nanshan gearboxes, the powertrain technology of independent brands has been greatly improved.

Whether it is quality or reputation in all aspects, it is no worse than joint venture car companies.

But the price is much lower.

Under such circumstances, it is basically an inevitable result that the sales of independent brands continue to rise and the market share of joint venture car companies continues to decline.

Now it is just because the overall market is still growing rapidly, so whether it is Toyota, Honda or independent brands, everyone is growing, and the differentiation is not so obvious.

But there will eventually be times when the market adjusts, or when growth slows down.

At that point, you can tell who is swimming naked.

"Or we reveal this information to the FIA ​​and let the FIA ​​come out to deal with them?"

Yu Yu saw that Cao Yang had no intention of taking action on this matter, so he immediately changed his proposal.

She is very aware that the FIA ​​has recently attached great importance to the Chinese market and attaches great importance to the promotion of F1 by professional automotive media such as Autohome.

The FIA ​​even spent 10 million yuan to advertise on Autohome.

This kind of scene was simply unimaginable before.

"You can have this!"

"The biggest beneficiary of the F1 competition is the FIA. They have taken away the main profits in all aspects. It's time for them to do something."

If you can borrow a knife to kill someone, that would be the best thing.

Cao Yang also wants to see how the FIA ​​will compete with Toyota and Honda.

After all, they have now withdrawn from the F1 competition, and the FIA's influence on them has dropped to a new level.

Of course, as long as Toyota and Honda still have the idea to return to this arena in the future, the FIA ​​will be able to take the initiative.