Rebirth 99 to become a car giant

Although the Jaguar Cullinan project has been finalized, it will definitely take a certain amount of time to be officially launched.

The automobile industry is different from other products such as mobile phones. The development of a new model, even if shortcuts are taken, will take one or two years.

It’s not surprising that it even takes four or five years.

Under this circumstance, Jaguar Cullinan certainly has no way to immediately change Jaguar Land Rover's current situation.

If you want to further increase Jaguar Land Rover's sales and influence, you need to start elsewhere.

Both Cao Yang and Pan Jianghui have a relatively clear understanding of this.

Of course, Pan Jianghui came all the way to report on his work, so Cao Yang naturally had to give guidance.

So soon, a news story appeared on Autohome: "After decades of driving without a license, the Queen drives a Land Rover."

Such a controversial title naturally attracted the attention of many netizens as soon as it appeared.

This topic even became a hot search topic on Weibo that day, attracting the attention of a large number of people both within and outside the automotive industry.

"This topic was chosen really well. Range Rover became very popular right away."

He Ling looked at the various data in the background and was very impressed by Jaguar Land Rover's marketing campaign this time.

"As a representative work of British cars, the Queen once owned dozens of royal custom-made cars such as the first-generation Range Rover, and she also used to drive a Range Rover to various hunting activities."

"Range Rover has unparalleled luxury and passing capabilities. It is perfect to drive it into the wild."

"Originally, this was just a normal event, and this was not the first time that the black Range Rover was driven to an event."

"But Jaguar Land Rover was able to make good use of this event this time, which is equivalent to letting others give them a free advertisement."

"With this kind of marketing ability, I feel like I have learned the true meaning of Nanshan Group."

Yu Yu is also a full participant in this Range Rover marketing campaign.

The last time Range Rover was so popular was when we were climbing the stairs in Tianmen Mountain.

Now that it has once again become a hot search on Weibo, it will definitely promote the sales of Range Rover.

Land Rover is originally a recognized luxury brand, and now it is taking this opportunity to further enhance its style, which is definitely very beneficial to compete with BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

"The rapid development of Jaguar Land Rover in China in the past two years has a lot to do with the acquisition of Nanshan Group."

"Otherwise, even sales will increase. It is estimated that it will be difficult to break through the 100,000 annual sales mark."

"Even now, it has surpassed Mercedes-Benz and caught up with BMW."

When He Ling said this, Yu Yu couldn't help but nodded.

This is indeed the truth.

Although your product is good, if the marketing is not in place, the sales volume may not be very good.

Especially in highly competitive industries, good products don’t necessarily mean they sell well.

"Jaguar Land Rover will now shift its focus to China, and the research and development of various new models will gradually be placed in China."

"It is expected that there will be more promotional activities in the future."

"We also need to work well with them here to ensure that Jaguar Land Rover's sales can always be higher than the market growth rate."

Yu Yu knew very well the purpose of Nanshan Group's establishment of Autohome.

Contributing to the sales increase of Xingchen Auto, Future Auto and Jaguar Land Rover is the core mission of Autohome.

Of course, there is no way to write this task down in writing, and we can only rely on core personnel to understand it.

If you can't even understand this basic principle, you definitely have no chance of becoming a core member of Autohome.

He Ling is naturally aware of this.

So there's definitely no slacking off.

However, Autohome has worked so hard to promote Range Rover. As Range Rover's competitors, the pressure is a bit high.

"Aimoha, our X7 has just been officially launched in China, and now Land Rover has begun to vigorously promote the Range Rover model."

"This is very detrimental to the development of X7. You must take action as soon as possible to increase the popularity of X7."

As president of BMW Asia Pacific, Phillips has always been very concerned about the development of the Chinese market.

In recent years, the Chinese market has been almost the fastest growing market for BMW cars in the world.

Accordingly, BMW headquarters has also invested a lot of resources in China.

For example, the construction of Tiexi Factory is one of them.

The X7 was born seven or eight years earlier than in history. It is a product of BMW that was affected by changes in the popularity of China's SUV market and the popularity of Xingchen Automobile and Xingtu.

All X7 series come standard with all-round airbags, automatic anti-glare rearview mirror, automatic high-beam control, active protection system, aluminum roof rack, electric front seat adjustment/lumbar support/heating/driver's side memory , third-row seats, keyless entry, smart touch keys, smart sensor ambient lights and other rich configurations.

It is BMW's main model to further impact high sales.

It can be said that both Phillips and BMW headquarters are full of expectations for the X7.

After all, if the sales of such a car increase, the profit will definitely be very considerable.

It is also very beneficial for improving the influence of BMW cars.

But just after it was launched, it encountered the popularity of Range Rover.

This worried Phillips.

After all, in terms of model positioning, the Range Rover is definitely a direct competitor of the BMW X7.

"We have contacted China's major automotive media, and relevant advertising and marketing activities are proceeding as planned."

"In the next marketing campaign, we will also cooperate with film and television companies in Shanghai to embed X7 advertisements in urban dramas."

"Although there is a certain gap between our popularity and Range Rover, at present, consumers are still looking forward to the X7."

"Drive a BMW, ride a Mercedes-Benz. The influence of this slogan has always been there. Both we and Mercedes-Benz are consciously promoting this statement."

Aimoha felt that he was a little wronged.

BMW China has done a lot of work, but Phillips didn't seem to see it.

Or it was selectively ignored in the face of the better performance of the Range Rover.

"The X7 is a brand new model, while the Range Rover has been around for several years."

"We need to find ways to make more consumers aware of the advantages of the X7, so that when they choose to buy a large luxury SUV, they can give priority to the X7."

"The headquarters has high expectations for the X7, and the current market response in the United States is still good."

"Today, China's automobile market is the largest automobile market in the world. I hope that the sales volume of X7 in China can also exceed that in the United States."

Phillips gave Aimoha a challenging goal.

Although the Chinese market is the largest market in the world, it is not BMW's largest market in the world.

It is not that easy to sell more X7s in China than in the United States.

But since Phillips said so, Aimoha had no choice but to go ahead and do it.

…

Xingchen Motors has never independently sold various models in the American market under its own name.

What Cao Yang did was to cooperate with Ford Motor, share part of the profits with Ford Motor, and make full use of Ford Motor's dealer system to promote models.

Although this method cannot maximize benefits, it can avoid related risks to the greatest extent.

In the United States, once quality problems or other problems are encountered, the amount of claims can often be in hundreds of millions of dollars.

As an outsider, Xingchen Automobile is in the same group as Nanshan Carbon Fiber and other sanctioned companies, so its business risks in the United States are relatively high.

Therefore, from the beginning to the end, Cao Yang had no intention of operating Xingchen Motors independently in the United States.

This naturally has its pros and cons.

For example, the launch of the G series models this time, the marketing plan in the United States and the launch plan of the G7 require full communication with Ford.

This also gives Ford a more intuitive understanding of the situation of the G series models.

"Melgen, is the hardcore SUV market starting to recover now?"

Mulally is also paying more attention to the situation in the Chinese market. After all, it is the largest automobile market in the world.

Ford's sales performance in China has been quite good in the past two years.

Xingchen Motors' G series models are sold in the United States through Ford Motor, and Mulally got some news from the Chinese market.

That's why I called VP Melgen, who was in charge of sales, to discuss the planning of new models.

"The SUV market has always been very popular, especially in China, where the share of SUVs continues to increase every year."

"Recently, Xingchen Motors' G7 has frequently appeared in Chinese media, which has sparked the topic of hardcore off-road vehicles."

"When it comes to market size, hardcore off-road vehicles are definitely not comparable to urban SUVs."

"But the popularity now is indeed higher than before. At least the pre-sale performance of Xingchen Motors' G7 is very good."

"I estimate that the global monthly sales of this car can exceed 10,000 units, and may even challenge 20,000 units."

Melgen's opinion is still relatively objective and neutral.

In fact, even if Mulally didn't ask, he would arrange for someone to investigate and understand the situation of hardcore off-road vehicles.

It's not like Ford didn't produce hardcore off-road vehicles in the past, but as the market changed, hardcore off-road vehicles couldn't compete with Toyota's Prado and Land Cruiser. Ford gradually focused on urban SUVs.

"Do you think it's necessary for us to resume development of the Bronco model?"

Mulally didn't mince words and directly stated his concerns.

The Bronco car still has a certain status in the history of automobile development.

Long before the term SUV officially appeared, the first-generation Ford Bronco, born in 1966, was the first to propose the concept of Sport Utility, which is a sports utility vehicle.

The first-generation Ford Bronco was balanced in all aspects, with bold styling, spacious space, a stable four-wheel drive system, and control brought by a short wheelbase.

At the same time, many breakthrough designs such as front coil spring suspension and front and rear limited-slip differentials have made Bronco attractive to many American families.

However, due to high fuel consumption and an uncomfortable driving experience, the sales of this car have slowly declined.

Therefore, Ford Bronco was discontinued in 1996. There were 5 generations of models before the discontinuation.

Now that the hard-core off-road vehicle market seems to be recovering, Mulally is naturally thinking about whether to resume the development of the Bronco.

"If you just develop a model, the development cost will be relatively high."

"If it is to be developed, I think it can be formed into a series like Xingchen Automobile."

"How can we reduce development costs to the greatest extent when the shapes are similar and many parts can be shared?"

Melgen thought for a moment and gave his opinion.

As the vice president in charge of sales, he will definitely support the development of new models.

After all, the more new models there are, the easier the sales job will be.

But if the cost is too high, resulting in a high selling price, it would be a bit embarrassing.

Then the sales pressure will be great.

"This is indeed a good idea. Different consumers have different preferences. We provide everyone with several different options based on the same platform. This may be the most beneficial solution for the company's development."

"Volkswagen has done this very well in China, and Toyota is also doing this."

"So their cost control is better than ours, and their annual profits are also considerable."

Mulally is definitely very motivated to reduce costs.

After all, the Ford Motor Company he took over was a mess.

Through "selling, selling, selling", the current situation has finally changed.

But there's still a long way to go before Ford can return to its peak form.

Thinking about the glory of the Model T back then, and then thinking about how it was almost going bankrupt a few years ago, Mulally felt a sense of urgency.

Although he is only a professional manager, he is undoubtedly an excellent professional manager.

He still has the necessary sense of responsibility.

"The company's best-selling model is the F150. The hard-core off-road vehicle and the pickup truck have many similarities."

"Should we simply develop a new hardcore off-road vehicle based on the F150 platform?"

"At that time, both the powertrain and chassis can be shared with the F150."

"It just needs some development on the body and the interior and exterior."

Now that the boss has become interested in platform vehicles, Melgen naturally has to come up with some plans of his own.

Ford Motor Company is a big business and has quite a lot of models to choose from.

The F150 is undoubtedly a very suitable choice.

"Let's have a good communication with the design department and make a detailed model plan."

"At the same time, you should also pay more attention to the market performance of Xingchen G7. We will comprehensively judge when to launch the hard-core off-road vehicle."

Following Mulally's instructions, Ford also began to take action internally.

Even during the course of this action, someone directly proposed to cooperate with Xingchen Motors to build a hard-core off-road vehicle belonging to Ford based on the G series model platform.

This special idea was quickly fed back to Cao Yang.

"Chris, your proposal is indeed very creative, but if Ford does this, then the lowest cost can be achieved by producing the models at Changan Ford and then exporting them for sale around the world."

The cooperation between Nanshan Group and Ford Motor is relatively deep.

Whether it is in engine technology, gearbox, or other parts, there are various cooperations.

So when Ford Motor proposed such a bold idea, Cao Yang did not directly reject it.

Anyway, you can propose a plan, and I can create conditions.

It's all about making money. If this cooperation can help Nanshan Group make more money, there is nothing wrong with it.

"What you say makes sense. China's parts production costs are much lower than those in the United States. Especially when it comes to stamped parts and injection molded parts, the difference is even more huge."

"But isn't your 5% technology royalty set a bit high?"

Although Chris is now the general manager of Changan Ford, this time he is communicating with Cao Yang on behalf of Ford Motor Headquarters, so naturally he has to negotiate various terms with Cao Yang.

"The cost of developing a model is very high, especially a brand-new model. I believe Ford has a lot of data to refer to in this regard."

"Various joint venture car companies in China will also pay a similar proportion of technology royalties to the brand owners, and Ford Motor also collected this fee from Changan Ford."

Although Cao Yang is somewhat interested in this cooperation, he is not particularly active.

After all, it’s hard to say whether this cooperation will affect the sales of Xingchen Automobile’s G series models.

It will be bad if the gains outweigh the losses.

So there are certainly no shortage of conditions that should be met.

By then, even if Ford produces a similar hard-core off-road vehicle, the final selling price will not be very impactful due to the high cost.

At least it won't have a huge impact on Xingchen Automobile.

"Mr. Cao, this situation is a bit different."

Chris didn't know how to refute Cao Yang's words. After all, what they said was not unreasonable at all.

However, he only came here to test Cao Yang's attitude and see the pros and cons of this plan.

Ultimately, that doesn't mean Ford has to do this.

…

Naturally, Ford is not the only one who sees the trend of Xingchen Motors’ big G series becoming popular.

Within Nanshan Group, there are also ideas for future cars.

"Mr. Cao, I think Future Auto will also be able to produce hardcore off-road vehicles in the future?"

"Electric vehicles have unique advantages in terms of power output, and they can also come up with some special configurations."

Zeng Tingting is now slowly focusing on future cars.

Today, the development momentum of future automobiles is very good, but there are relatively few models.

According to Zeng Tingting's idea, the car model classification in the future can be directly aligned with Xingchen Automobile.

Of course, this is definitely not a one-step process.

After all, although the electric vehicle market is developing rapidly, its base is relatively low.

"You can arrange relevant personnel to make technical reserves here."

"Let's see how to fully utilize the advantages of electric vehicles."

"But there is no need to launch specific models so quickly."

Although the current development of electric vehicles is much faster than the same period in history, it is far from being able to compete with fuel vehicles.

A relatively niche market segment like hard-core off-road vehicles is definitely not suitable for electric vehicles so quickly.

This kind of off-road vehicle is often walked in the wild, and charging is very inconvenient.

For fuel vehicles, you can also have a more flexible way to respond.

The worst option is to add an oil drum.

But the same cannot be said for electric cars.

You can't let a supply car follow you, right?

"Well, I will organize people to discuss it as soon as possible to see if there are any special things that can be done in electric vehicles."

After Cao Yang said that, Zeng Tingting naturally couldn't insist anymore.

However, the disappointment on his face could not be concealed.

Cao Yang naturally saw all this in his eyes, so he continued: "For example, four-wheel independent control technology, each wheel is independently controlled by a separate motor, which can independently adjust different speeds and torques to realize the driving and braking of each wheel. Not only is it more powerful when moving, forward and backward, but the torque on the four wheels can be large or small, positive or negative.”

"If this function can be realized, the off-road performance will definitely be greatly improved, and even lead to subversive results."

"Another example is that we can make some improvements based on the current air suspension in terms of chassis height control."

"A set of intelligent hydraulic body control systems has been specially developed. Through this system, the three core technologies of mechanics, hydraulics and electronic control are integrated into one, to realize the intelligent linkage between the key components of the lower body and the whole vehicle, and to build a system of perception, decision-making, The complete system architecture implemented injects intelligent genes into body control."

Cao Yang casually mentioned a few unique technologies used on the U8 that future generations would look up to, which would be enough for future cars to be studied for several years.

After all, without participating in it, it would really take time to develop these technologies.

Especially things related to control systems require a certain amount of data accumulation.

Hearing what Cao Yang said, Zeng Tingting's eyes lit up.

These suggestions sound very feasible.

This shows that what Cao Yang said just now was not just perfunctory, but he thought about it seriously.

Then there is nothing to say.

"The automobile industry has developed for hundreds of years, and there should have been many interesting technologies. However, they were not fully mass-produced or were stopped due to various problems after mass production."

"I'll arrange for someone to sort it out to see if we can find some interesting technologies for redevelopment."

Zeng Tingting probably understood Cao Yang's thinking.

Combining some interesting technologies with modern intelligent network technology will definitely have a great publicity effect.

Even when she was preparing a plan, she directly considered it in conjunction with future publicity.

This kind of technical development combined with publicity needs in advance will have an absolutely amazing publicity effect.

After finishing his communication with Zeng Tingting, Cao Yang immediately went to the conference room next to him to attend a meeting related to Honor mobile phones.

The first half of 2011 has passed, and China's mobile phone industry has undergone earth-shaking changes.