Rebirth 99 to become a car giant

As the largest professional automotive media in China, Yu Yu has gained a lot of experience during this period.

More than half of China's major automobile companies have called her to deal with Toyota.

This grand occasion felt like eighteen princes besieging Dong Zhuo.

In response to this situation, she naturally had to find a suitable time to report to Cao Yang.

"Mr. Cao, competition in the domestic automobile industry seems to have become a bit more intense in the past few months."

"The tight production capacity of various OEMs is expected to begin to ease soon."

"Starting next year, the situation of supply exceeding demand is expected to change significantly."

"In particular, independent brands are generally building new factories. It is likely that there will be oversupply starting next year and there will be some price wars."

"Many companies must have felt this market change, so they began to think of ways to expand their market share and suppress their opponents."

"What happened to Toyota this time is the most typical. Whether it is General Motors, Volkswagen or independent brands, they are all trying to find ways to deal with Toyota and want to carve up its share."

Yu Yu prepared the actions of various OEMs to deal with Toyota during this period, and explained them specifically to Cao Yang.

At this time, the importance of mastering publicity channels is fully reflected.

If other manufacturers want to establish the Nanshan Group, at least there is no way to do so through Autohome.

However, Autohome, the most authoritative automotive professional media in China, did not report on it, and Weibo is also under control. Even if other manufacturers take action, the effect will be greatly reduced.

The power of the ecosystem that Cao Yang has slowly built is constantly amplifying.

"The domestic automobile market should exceed 18 million vehicles this year. From more than two million seven or eight years ago to the current figure, this is already a very exaggerated figure. It cannot continue to develop like this."

"Now we are uniting to deal with the world's number one Toyota Motor. It is expected that the competition among China's independent brands will become more and more fierce in the future."

"Autohome should try its best to show that this matter has no specific relationship with us, and I am just passing on the microphone."

Cao Yang has heard a lot about various topics related to Toyota cars during this period, so he is naturally very clear about what Yu Yu reported.

"Yes, this time the tactics of each OEM are much more diverse than before, and I feel that there was no prior communication between independent brands and joint venture car companies, but they thought of dealing with Toyota at almost the same time. "

"This incident also provides us with a warning from another dimension."

"Being an industry leader is likely to cause subsequent competitors to join forces to deal with it."

"We at Nanshan Group are now number one in the industry in many fields. I am also worried that some competitors will want to deal with us in the future."

It has to be said that Yu Yu is taking precautions.

The problem she mentioned is indeed not impossible.

For example, Honor mobile phones and Nanshan Special Steel may definitely cause other competitors to take action.

Domestic competition is often extremely intense.

Many manufacturers cannot see others doing better than themselves.

The automobile industry is still in the process of overall accelerated development. If competition intensifies in the future, all kinds of strange things will happen.

Cao Yang also had a clear understanding of this.

"You are right. When the time comes, I will arrange for people to make some plans and also ask the brand public relations department to do some investigations."

Cao Yang thought about it and felt that he really needed to make some preparations in advance.

He is now the richest man, and Nanshan Group is so big.

The big tree attracts the wind!

It is also time for Nanshan Group to consider splitting up.

When the time comes to form several groups, it can be considered to a certain extent to avoid the situation of a big tree attracting trouble.

Of course, to what extent this matter should be achieved is definitely not something that can be concluded in a day or two.

…

The automobile industry is developing so fast now, and everyone's new ideas will definitely continue to emerge.

I don’t know if my plan happened to be at this point in time, or if I felt the coldness of my lips and teeth, both Yangcheng Honda and Xifeng Nissan suddenly made some special moves.

Joint venture independent brand!

Such a strange name suddenly appeared in the Chinese automobile industry.

The concept brand of Yangcheng Honda and the Venucia brand of Xifeng Nissan were released to the public at almost the same time.

The two companies also announced their ambitions to jointly develop independent brands.

These actions will naturally arouse the vigilance of domestic independent brands.

For example, Nanshan Hongqi, which has always wanted to position itself as a self-owned brand higher than Chery, Geely and other independent brands, but lower than Volkswagen, Toyota, etc., is very sensitive to this matter.

Zhu Zhengfeng even called Cao Yang personally to discuss the matter.

"Mr. Cao, I did some research. This so-called joint venture independent brand means that the joint venture company purchases and introduces foreign product technology platforms, and on this basis, re-develops brands and models whose intellectual property rights belong to the joint venture company."

"In terms of brand positioning, the joint venture's own brands will be quite different from the existing joint venture's leading brands, which will ultimately be reflected in price, product positioning and regional markets. The joint venture's own brand products generally have a lower positioning and focus on cost performance, which will be similar to the existing joint venture's leading brands. The existing traditional domestic 'independent brands' are at war with each other."

"With the support of mature technology and joint venture brands and channels, its competitiveness cannot be underestimated, and it will be easy to find markets in second- and third-tier cities and rural markets."

“I think that in the future, joint ventures and independent joint ventures are likely to restrict the growth prospects of domestic ‘independent brands’, and even squeeze the living space of domestic ‘independent brands’.”

"Most joint venture independent brands are replacement models of joint venture cars, so buying such products is very affordable for consumers. You can spend the money of domestic independent brands and buy a joint venture car with very good technology and quality. '."

"This is very attractive to many consumers."

Obviously, Zhu Zhengfeng attaches great importance to the emergence of joint venture independent brands. He feels that this will bring a huge threat to domestic independent brands.

His view can be regarded as representing the common view of various domestic independent brand companies.

After all, even if the reputation of independent brands is slowly improving, there is still a gap compared with international automobile giants.

The joint venture independent brands are essentially the same as those of international automobile giants, except that they have changed the car logo, taken out the old models, modified them and then produced them.

Zhu Zhengfeng feels that a product like this is still very intimidating.

However, Cao Yang had a different view.

"Mr. Zhu, I don't think you need to be particularly worried."

"China's auto market is changing too fast. Those joint venture car companies are re-developing outdated models. The supply system has not changed, and the cost level is unlikely to change dramatically."

"The most important thing is that they are definitely relatively backward in terms of configuration in all aspects and are not competitive compared with our independent brands."

"In my opinion, there shouldn't be any joint venture independent brands. There are problems with its positioning and it can be said to be inherently deficient."

"So in the end it will not bring much pressure to everyone, and it will even bring a certain burden to those car companies that develop joint ventures and independent brands."

Cao Yang has personally witnessed the development of China's automobile industry.

In later generations, there were many OEMs that launched so-called joint ventures with independent brands, but only a handful of them were truly successful.

Although the sales of Zephyr Nissan's Venucia were pretty good for a time, the result was that the Nissan brand also collapsed. It is difficult to say that it was successful.

As for Yangcheng Honda’s philosophy…

How many people know this brand?

It is estimated that if time could be turned back, Yangcheng Honda would never engage in any joint venture and independent brand!

"this……"

"Mr. Cao, do you really think so?"

Cao Yang's answer was very different from Zhu Zhengfeng's expectation.

Originally, Zhu Zhengfeng wanted to discuss with Cao Yang how to deal with such a situation, and see if everyone could find a way to deal with them while the joint venture's independent brands were not yet in mass production.

Why does it now sound like they are letting others develop, and even think that this is a pit, encouraging joint venture cars to jump into it?

"Mr. Zhu, don't you think that the models designed by various independent brands have slowly begun to get rid of plagiarism and reference, but they are also quite beautiful in design?"

“This trend will definitely become more and more obvious in the future.”

"Chinese talents are the ones who best understand the aesthetics and needs of Chinese consumers."

"The appearance and corresponding configurations of the models designed by each independent brand in the future will definitely be more suitable for the needs of Chinese consumers."

"Originally, joint venture cars have no advantage in this aspect. If the joint venture itself has to sell the outdated products of other joint venture cars, what's the point?"

"For example, the concept brand of Yangcheng Honda, as far as I know, is a secondary development based on the previous Sidi car."

"How strong do you think the R\u0026D strength of a newly established joint venture car company's R\u0026D institution can be?"

"They basically can't do too many core movements, and in the end most things are still the same as Sidi."

"But if you look at Sidi's appearance, ten years ago maybe people wouldn't think it was ugly. But now..."

"Let's put it this way, Yangcheng Honda has launched this joint venture as its own brand. Apart from bragging about it before the model is mass-produced, it will be too embarrassed to brag about it in the future."

Seeing Cao Yang's affirmative answer, Zhu Zhengfeng breathed a sigh of relief.

But he must still be very worried.

After all, Nanshan Hongqi is now in a critical period of development, and he does not want to lose track.

Taking this opportunity, he also had a good discussion with Cao Yang about Nanshan Hongqi's next arrangements.

However, Zhu Zhengfeng can be comforted by Cao Yang and put aside his worries about the impact of joint venture independent brands on his own company.

However, some companies did not bother to discuss this issue with Cao Yang, and there was some progress internally.

As an enterprise in Lingnan Province, BYD has the strongest response in this regard.

"Mr. Wang, I feel that the joint venture independent brand between Xifeng Nissan and Yangcheng Honda is aimed at us."

"When the price of their concept brand models is similar to ours, it will have a huge impact on our model sales."

Wu Hua Cake specially arranged for people to collect and organize relevant information, and made an appointment with Wang Fu to give a special report.

BYD has developed to this point, and Wu Huabing has felt that its sales have reached a bottleneck stage.

It is very difficult to continue to improve.

So stabilizing the situation is what Wu Hua Cake really wants to do.

At this time, the biggest fear is that competitors will launch new products that directly suppress BYD models.

In Wu Huabing's view, Nissan and Honda's joint venture independent brands are used to suppress independent brand car companies such as BYD.

The South China market has always been an important market for Japan and BYD, and BYD is likely to become the chicken that kills the chicken to scare the monkeys.

This is something Wu Hua Cake absolutely cannot accept.

"Xifeng Nissan and Yangcheng Honda have now announced plans to develop their own joint venture brands, but according to the way these people do things, their new models will not be launched until at least 2012, or even later."

"The market environment at that time should be completely different from now."

"I think in addition to being alert to their threats, taking some targeted measures is also something that must be considered."

Wang Fu was naturally aware of the impact of what Wu Huabian reported.

China's automobile market has always been a rather strange market, and now there is a rather strange joint venture independent brand emerging.

Whether it's Toyota, Volkswagen, or GM Ford, they naturally don't worry about the threat that Nissan and Honda's actions will bring to them.

After all, although it has the word joint venture, it is essentially an independent brand.

So it is obvious who the competitors of joint venture independent brands are.

If they are successful, more car companies may use similar methods.

"Yes, it is indeed not that fast, but I am also worried that they will take out an old model that has been discontinued, directly replace it with a joint venture brand's car logo, and then sell it at a reduced price to seize the market from us. That's what it looks like The situation is completely different.”

"At that time, we will fall into a passive position, and our selling price advantage will be greatly weakened."

Wu Huabing has made a lot of efforts over the years to barely raise the prices of BYD's various models.

He doesn't really want to continue to let BYD take the low-price route.

But if a competitor is trying to lower prices in another way, it will definitely not work if he does nothing.

"Whether Honda or Nissan, the supply chains of these Japanese car companies have relatively fixed circles."

"They will not easily accept the entry of too many other manufacturers, so their cost competitiveness has not been very strong."

"Unless they can completely change this, I think even if they put the old models on sale, they won't be able to reduce the price much."

"After all, they want to get more sales and more profits by launching this strange joint venture independent brand. No one wants to do a loss-making business."

When Wang Fu said this, Wu Huabing felt that it made sense.

It seems that you are worrying too much?

However, there is definitely nothing wrong with preparing in advance to avoid being beaten in a hurry.

…

"Werner, does the sales department have plans to promote a joint venture for its own brand within the company?"

As Volkswagen is the sales champion of a single brand in China, the personnel within the two joint ventures are naturally very concerned about changes in the market.

In the past few years, North and South Volkswagen have encountered some setbacks in China. Now they have finally recovered a little bit. Naturally, they are also very worried that they cannot keep up.

Therefore, Xifeng Nissan and Yangcheng Honda came up with a joint venture to create their own brand, and relevant discussions started within Volkswagen Volkswagen immediately.

"Bu Defan, if we propose to establish an independent brand belonging to Modu Volkswagen, can you completely reconstruct the supply system?"

Werner did not respond directly to Budfan's questions.

As the head of the sales department of Modu Volkswagen, he has a relatively clear understanding and opinion on the competitiveness of joint venture independent brands.

Lower the price, lower the price again!

It is also a model of the Passat level. After changing the brand, the price must be reduced by at least 50,000 yuan to be competitive.

But to reduce the price by 50,000 yuan, it is unrealistic to rely solely on negotiation.

Which supplier has set aside such a high profit to lower the price for you?

If there were, then the purchasing department led by Bu Defan would be pulled out to beat the corpse.

"Comprehensive supplier restructuring is very difficult. It's not a problem that our purchasing department doesn't think about, but it involves various areas such as R\u0026D and quality departments."

“This requires full support from the headquarters to re-develop each part to make it possible.”

"Even some were originally developed by the manufacturer together with Volkswagen, and the drawings are patented drawings belonging to the manufacturer. It is very troublesome for us to develop other suppliers."

Having been engaged in procurement for so many years, Bu Defan naturally knows the difficulty of reconstructing the supplier system.

If you just want to change the supplier of the car body and interior and exterior decoration, the difficulty is relatively low.

But the effect of price reduction is also relatively low.

If the manufacturers of core components do not change, the cost will not be significantly reduced.

But if you want to change the core parts manufacturer, this move is huge.

It is equivalent to re-developing a model. It takes a long time to develop, and by then the model will definitely become even more backward.

This is something that Bu Defan is not optimistic about.

"If we can't build a model with a completely different cost profile, then there's no point in building a so-called joint venture independent brand."

"It would be easier to continue selling old and new cars together."

When Werner said this, Bu Defan couldn't find a reason to refute.

A joint venture independent brand, this thing is really weird!

It seems that it is really not suitable for the public in Magic City?

…

Different people will definitely have different opinions on whether joint ventures and independent brands will succeed.

But the car of the future has been successful, and this is something that many people have seen.

At the beginning, Future W9 was only sold in China, and sales exceeded 3,000 units in the first month of its launch.

There is no way to further reach 4,000 or even 5,000 vehicles, not because they cannot be sold, but because the production capacity cannot meet the requirements.

Anyone who has been involved in the automobile industry knows that the production of new cars is a climbing process.

Under normal circumstances, if you do not conduct sufficient trial production verification in the early stage, you will definitely encounter various problems during the ramp-up process.

Some problems need to be solved by adjusting equipment parameters, and some problems need to be solved by changing part specifications.

In short, the production and quality departments of the factory are very busy during this period.

Only after the first three months of mass production have been successfully passed can the quality be considered stable.

Future cars are no exception.

In particular, this is an electric car that adopts a new architecture, which is different from Xingchen Motors and Jaguar Land Rover.

Many things are original to Nanshan Group, and there are no rivals to refer to.

This means that when you encounter a problem, you often need to find a solution yourself.

However, after more than a month of mass production, all aspects of Future Car W9 have slowly stabilized.

Next, we can start to consider further increasing production capacity and increasing domestic sales while meeting the export layout.

"Mr. Cao, our W9's performance in the United States and Europe is pretty good. It is estimated that there will be no problem in stabilizing monthly sales at more than 3,000 units in the future."

"Even after further expanding the market in other regions, it is possible for export sales to stabilize at more than 5,000 vehicles."

"As long as our production capacity increases, it will not be a problem for our W9 to sell over 10,000 units per month if we produce 5,000 units domestically and 5,000 units abroad in the future."

"If this is achieved, the future of automobiles will be limitless."

"Now many institutions want to invest in future cars, and the valuation has reached 10 billion yuan."

“Some institutions even said that as long as W9’s sales exceed 5,000 units, they can participate in financing at a valuation of 20 billion yuan.”

Zeng Tingting is in a very good mood now.

Future Auto is the first company she has served as vice president of. If it develops and grows in the future, her status in the Chinese automobile industry will be completely different.

"If the valuation of 20 billion is in U.S. dollars, I will consider it. If it is in RMB, I won't be in a hurry."

"Based on the current sales volume of W9, Future Cars will be able to achieve profitability next year, and the profit data will be pretty good."

“Even electric car companies like Tesla, which has no proven models and no profit expectations, have a market value of more than one billion US dollars.”

"Now our future cars are almost the same as Tesla. The sincerity of these people is very limited."

Cao Yang plans to finance and list the future car project in the future.

But you have to find the right time.

Therefore, it is not impossible to introduce strategic investors.

But the valuation must be overestimated, and this organization must be able to provide assistance to the development of future automobiles.

Otherwise, even if you wave the banknotes, Cao Yang won't accept the money!

Based on the current situation of Nanshan Group, as long as Cao Yang is short of money for cars in the future, there will be no problem in borrowing as much money as Cao Yang wants.

Why give up your shares to others?

In the eyes of others, these shares have certain return risks, but in Cao Yang's eyes, they are a sure profit!

"I also think this valuation is a bit low."

"Once sales exceed 100,000 vehicles next year, sales will directly reach more than 50 billion, and net profit is expected to reach 10 billion."

"Under such circumstances, a valuation of only 10 to 20 billion yuan is obviously not in line with the strength of future automobiles."

Zeng Tingting just reported to Cao Yang the current situation of future cars, not to persuade Cao Yang to accept these financings.

Although Zeng Tingting is not particularly clear about the financial situation of Nanshan Group, she still knows the general situation.

The company is not short of money now and is not in a hurry to raise funds.

However, the explosive development of future cars has brought great excitement to many people.

This has also brought many variables to China's automobile industry.