Rebirth 99 to become a car giant

The day after Venus Technology and the European Space Agency officially signed the contract, the first batch of contract funds arrived in Venus Technology's account.

The European Space Agency's first batch of Starlink satellites were officially airlifted to Yangcheng and are ready to be launched a week later.

These arrangements are all announced on the official website of the European Space Agency and the official WeChat account of Daystar.

In Europe, after Cao Yang participated in the signing event of Daystar Technology, he immediately signed a huge order with Volkswagen to purchase gearboxes.

In the next five years, Volkswagen will purchase more than 5 million units of various automatic transmissions such as 6AT, 8AT and 10AT from Nanshan Transmission globally, with a contract value of more than 50 billion yuan.

These actions appear one after another, which has brought huge impact to many enterprises.

"Okumura, Volkswagen has completely come together with Nanshan Transmission. They actually signed a large order to purchase 5 million transmissions in five years."

Hisato Yoshikawa looked at the news about Volkswagen and Nanshan gearboxes reported on the Yahoo Japan website, feeling quite heavy.

Aisin used to be a supplier to Volkswagen. Even in the American market, Volkswagen has recently been communicating with Aisin and is preparing to use Aisin's gearboxes in some models.

But this scale is definitely not as many as 1 million units a year.

More often than not, Volkswagen purchases gearboxes from Aisin as a measure to diversify its supply system, and it does not really want to cooperate in depth with Aisin.

Otherwise, Volkswagen would not have signed such a strategic cooperation agreement with Nanshan Transmission separately.

As for Aisin, Volkswagen has never mentioned signing such a thing.

"Volkswagen's market distribution determines that it is impossible for them to abandon the Chinese market. After all, it is their largest market besides Germany."

"The parent company of Nanshan Transmission has a strong influence in China's automobile industry. Even Volkswagen's two partners in China have a very close relationship with Nanshan Automobile Group."

"Under such circumstances, if Volkswagen wants to develop smoothly in China, it cannot continue to offend Nanshan Gearbox."

"Their choice is not so much that Nanshan Gearbox defeated us, but rather that the Chinese market defeated the Japanese market."

As the head of Aisin's sales headquarters, Okumura is responsible for global sales.

He has a very good understanding of the ideas of various OEMs.

To some extent, his analysis cannot be said to be unreasonable.

"The Chinese automobile market is already the largest market in the world, and it continues to grow every year."

"In this case, we really have no way to compare with their market influence."

"However, we cannot allow Nanshan Gearbox to continue to develop, otherwise our situation will become more and more troublesome."

Hisato Yoshikawa felt a crisis from the cooperation between Volkswagen and Nanshan Transmission.

Ford and General Motors, two major manufacturers, will definitely continue to use their own transmissions in the future.

Honda and Nissan, two Japanese car companies, basically use their own transmissions.

Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW basically rarely use Aisin gearboxes. People consider more ZF and Nanshan gearboxes.

As for Korean car companies, they also have their own gearbox companies and will not purchase them from outside.

As a result, Aisin can basically only do Toyota Motor business.

Although Toyota Motor is very large, the business of this company alone can make Aisin a world-renowned gearbox company.

But Hisato Yoshikawa is definitely not willing to simply supply Toyota Motor.

“To compete with Nanshan Transmission, we must have sufficient advantages in cost.”

"Otherwise, it will be difficult to attract various car companies to change their minds."

Okumura knows how to compare technologies, and Aisin and Nanshan gearboxes have no special advantages.

As for quality, Nanshan Transmission's products have not had any major problems over the years. Not to mention that the quality is better than Aisin, at least it is not worse.

Then the only thing left to compare is the cost.

If compared with European and American companies in this regard, Aisin definitely has an advantage.

But compared with Nanshan Gearbox, which is a Chinese company, it is completely inferior.

In Japan, a worker in his thirties can earn more than three million yen a year.

Around 2013, when the value of the Japanese yen was relatively high, one yuan could only be exchanged for about 13 yen, and even exaggeratedly, it could only be exchanged for 12 yen.

How is it like in later generations, 1 yuan can be exchanged for 20 yen, or even 21 yen.

Based on this calculation, the annual salary of Japanese workers reaches more than 200,000 yuan, which is close to 300,000 yuan.

In China, a company whose front-line workers can earn an annual salary of 100,000 yuan is definitely a conscientious company in the industry.

Even in 2013, workers could get an annual salary of 70,000 to 80,000 yuan, which was already considered very good.

The labor cost varies greatly, and ultimately it falls on the processing fee, management fee, and development fee of the parts, and there will be a big gap.

This will even cause the raw materials, outsourced parts and other things you purchase to be higher than those from Huaxia. It is normal for the final production cost to be higher than that of Huaxia.

“To reduce costs, we can only build factories on land where labor costs are relatively low.”

"From now on, all the gearboxes we supply in the Chinese market will be produced in the Huaxia factory."

"Transmissions supplied in other markets should be produced in Southeast Asia or Mexico as much as possible to reduce production costs to the greatest extent."

Hisato Yoshikawa was forced to make a difficult decision.

For many Japanese companies, all parts are produced locally in Japan and then sold around the world. This is the situation they most want to see.

This is also the easiest situation for them.

However, in the fierce market competition, this situation is destined to be unsustainable.

Unless the products you produce have their own unique advantages on a global scale, others will have to choose to buy from you all the time.

Otherwise, in the end, companies that are unwilling to go abroad will not be able to continue to develop and grow.

"Raw materials, components, equipment and other things must all be purchased locally from production plants to fully reflect the cost advantage."

"Especially in China, we have to try our best to achieve the same cost level as Nanshan Transmission, or even a lower cost."

Okumura specifically emphasized the situation in the Chinese market, which made Yoshikawa Hisato a little depressed.

Because everything is produced in China, this is actually inconsistent with Aisin’s previous internal development strategy.

But the situation is stronger than the people. If Aisin doesn't make some changes, it will be very difficult to get more orders in China in the future.

Unlike Aisin's internal struggles, BMW China is much more optimistic about the agreement signed between the headquarters and Nanshan Transmission.

"Vondel, the headquarters has completely figured it out this time, so our situation in China should be much better."

"At least Nanshan Automobile Group will not specifically target us."

Strauss has been tortured in recent months.

Affected by the DSG gearbox, Volkswagen's sales in China have dropped by 30% this year compared to last year.

Although sales have stabilized in the past month and have not continued to fall, there is no sign of recovery.

Faced with this situation, Strauss was very depressed.

Now I finally see some hope

"This is indeed very good news for our Chinese branch."

"For other parts in the future, we can also increase cooperation with Nanshan Auto Parts and fully integrate into the Chinese market."

Even such a core part as the gearbox is chosen to cooperate with Nanshan Gearbox, so there is not much meaning to worry about other parts.

Anyway, if you don’t buy from Nanshan Auto Parts, you have to buy from other parts companies.

The final cost may be greater.

In this case, it is better to consider Nanshan Auto Parts carefully. Maybe if Nanshan Auto Group's share of parts in a car increases, the other party will find ways to help Volkswagen increase sales in China.

At least when Volkswagen faces competition from Toyota, General Motors and other car companies, the other parties are likely to stand on its side.

"Yeah, I think so too."

"Now that Ford Motor and General Motors are developing their own gearboxes, this will definitely have a certain impact on the cooperative relationship between Changan Ford and Modu GM and Nanshan Automobile Group."

"Under this situation, our relationship with Nanshan Automobile Group can be taken to a higher level."

"Spring City Automobile Group and Modu Automobile Group definitely hope that our sales can continue to increase."

"We can communicate more with them at that time and see how we can strengthen the cooperative relationship with Nanshan Automobile Group."

In the past, Vondel had always refused to admit defeat and felt that Nanshan Automobile Group was nothing great.

But now that he has been beaten so many times, his attitude has completely changed.

"How about we find a time to go to Nanshan Automobile Group for inspection. On the one hand, we will visit the Nanshan gearbox factory, and on the other hand, we will communicate with their senior management and establish some trust relationships as much as possible."

"Although the Chinese market is already the largest automobile market in the world, everyone believes that the scale of this market will continue to expand."

"In the future, maybe the second, third and fourth companies in the market combined will not be able to compare to the Huaxia Company."

When Strauss said this, Fondel couldn't help but nodded.

Now that you have chosen to bow your head, let's improve the relationship.

Only in this way can benefits be maximized.

…

This change of Volkswagen is also seen by Mercedes-Benz and BMW, both German car companies.

The relationship between BMW and Nanshan Automobile Group has been good over the years. Now due to the development of electric vehicles, the cooperative relationship between the two parties has deepened.

Therefore, Phillips and Aimoha are only paying attention to the cooperation between Volkswagen and Nanshan Automobile Group, and they do not have any special anxiety.

But with Mercedes-Benz, the situation is a little different.

"August, if we want to achieve the same growth rate as BMW in China, then it is necessary to have a good relationship with Nanshan Automobile Group."

"If we don't ask the other party to support our development in China, at least they can't actively come out to oppose us."

"This is the long-term solution."

Yang Ming has been the sales director of Mercedes-Benz China for many years.

It's not like he has no merit at all over the years. After all, he has been responsible for the continuous increase in sales of Mercedes-Benz.

But I am afraid of comparison in everything.

Not to mention comparing with other car companies, just comparing with BMW, the sales volume of Mercedes-Benz China lags far behind BMW China.

Looking around the world, the sales volume of the two companies has always been relatively close, and their positioning is also relatively similar.

This situation is definitely unacceptable to many people within Mercedes-Benz China.

Why should I buy something inferior to others?

This is not normal.

"Nanshan Automobile Group has not reached the point of being able to dominate the world with one hand in China, right?"

"They are nothing more than a few brands such as Xingchen Motors, Jaguar Land Rover, Future Motors and Nanshan Hongqi."

"Compared with the global sales of Mercedes-Benz, the global sales of these brands are not at the same level at all."

August was obviously still a little unable to lower his head.

Making him bow to a Chinese company would be even harder than beating him to death.

This made Yang Ming very depressed.

He didn't know what to do when he encountered such a stubborn boss.

He had even thought about reporting to the headquarters to see if August could be replaced.

In this way, Mercedes-Benz's sales in China may even reach a higher level.

"Although it can't be said that you can cover the sky with one hand, it may be a little difficult for others to make you more successful, but they have enough strength to make you a loser."

"August, I believe you don't want to see Mercedes-Benz fail in China, right?"

"Ten years ago, who could have imagined that China's automobile market would be like this?"

"In China, everything is really possible."

Yang Ming's words immediately silenced August.

But fortunately, he was also a reasonable person and knew that what Yang Ming said made sense, so even though he was very unhappy, he did not lose his temper at Yang Ming.

If it were some people from Japan or Korea, it might not be the same thing.

"Did Volkswagen take into account the factors you mentioned this time when it cooperated with Nanshan Automobile Group?"

Volkswagen's status in Germany is higher than Mercedes-Benz, or it has greater influence.

Therefore, August naturally noticed the changes in Volkswagen.

Now that Yang Ming is discussing this topic with himself, it is inevitable that he will discuss this aspect.

"Although there is no evidence, I think the possibility is very high."

"On the one hand, Volkswagen's self-developed DSG does have problems of one kind or another, so they cannot always insist on using their own gearboxes in all models. That will definitely lead to more consumer complaints and recalls. This is Something that Volkswagen cannot accept.”

"So it is inevitable to replace the transmissions of some of the models with AT transmissions."

"In the field of AT gearboxes, Nanshan Gearbox has the strongest comprehensive QCD level and has a special influence in China. Therefore, it is inevitable for Volkswagen to choose to cooperate with Nanshan Gearbox."

"On the other hand, after China revealed Volkswagen's DSG issues on March 15, many local Chinese car companies and media jumped out to deal with Volkswagen, with Autohome and Weibo posting the most negative news."

"And these two platforms are industries under the Nanshan Group, and they are completely under Cao Yang's command."

"There's no way Volkswagen doesn't know this."

Yang Ming spoke so straightforwardly that August naturally understood.

At this time, he also felt that he needed to carefully consider the development of Mercedes-Benz in China.

In the past, Mercedes-Benz cars were very arrogant and felt that no matter what happened, they had to follow their own pace.

But now the competition in China's luxury car market has begun to become fierce.

Xingchen Motors, Jaguar Land Rover, BMW and Audi all performed better than Mercedes-Benz.

Lexus and Cadillac are also chasing after them, and Ford's Lincoln is also preparing to be produced in China.

Coupled with brands such as Porsche and Volvo, which have good sales, the situation faced by Mercedes-Benz is actually not that optimistic.

If someone is not careful, in a few years Mercedes-Benz's sales may not even be able to maintain its position in the top five luxury cars.

This was certainly not something August could accept.

"We will also give a good report to the headquarters and try our best to maintain a good relationship with Nanshan Automobile Group in China."

"Some parts don't have to be sourced from Bosch and Continental. You can also source Nanshan Auto Parts, which also gives Bosch and others a sense of crisis."

After thinking about it, some decisions will be easier to make.

"Well, if that's the case, it will be good for our development in China."

…

If various car companies see the cooperation between Volkswagen and Nanshan Transmission and are reflecting on how they will develop in China in the future, then the formal cooperation between the European Space Agency and Venus Technology has completely stimulated the relevant departments in the United States.

Especially the day after the contract was officially signed, the two parties announced that the European Space Agency's Starlink satellite will be launched for the first time next week using Venus 9.

This speed made the United States feel a crisis.

They absolutely cannot accept that both China and Europe built the Starlink system before them.

In addition, the relevant departments in the United States have also been grasping some secret information about Venus Technology in recent times.

Therefore, many people began to plan how to give Daystar Technology a hard blow.

Since the United States and China were generally at the end of their honeymoon period in 2013, their relationship was not so rigid.

Therefore, in the past, the relevant departments in the United States were relatively restrained towards the Nanshan Group's affiliated companies and did not do anything too extreme.

However, the United States found that this method could no longer completely contain the development of Nanshan Group, so it naturally began to think of some new methods.

"John, I think the Pentagon must correctly understand the huge threat that the rapid development of Daystar Technology poses to us."

"Whether it is the development and production of various drones or the construction of the Starlink satellite system, it is very detrimental to us."

"The most important thing is that I got news that Daystar Technology is in contact with Persia and North Korea and is preparing to launch reconnaissance satellites for them."

As the director of NASA, Griffin is now in disgrace.

Since the collapse of the Polar Bear team, NASA’s highlight moment has passed.

Without such sufficient funds, it would be much more difficult for him, the director, to make money through various means.

But the most important thing is that now his old face has no place to rest.

The aerospace industry in the United States is actually on the verge of being surpassed by a Chinese private enterprise.

This matter is absolutely intolerable.

Just like in Hollywood blockbusters, it must be American heroes who save the earth.

The most developed aerospace industry and the most technologically advanced companies must be American companies.

Any competitor who challenges this conclusion must be suppressed.

Even the development of the aerospace industry in Europe has been suppressed by the United States, not to mention other countries.

"Venus launches reconnaissance satellites to Persia and North Korea?"

John was shocked when he heard this, "Is this news accurate?"

As an important member of the Pentagon responsible for contacting various companies and other organizations, John is very well-informed.

But what Griffin said was obviously the first time he had heard of it.

"The news is very accurate. These two satellites will be officially launched within this year."

"If Venus moves quickly enough, maybe next quarter we will see news that they use Venus 9 to help those two evil objects launch reconnaissance satellites."

Griffin gave his answer very definitely.

It is not NASA’s opinion to deal with Daystar Technology this time.

All companies in the U.S. aerospace industry chain hate Daystar Technology.

"If this is the case, then we really have to find a way to stop the rapid development of Daystar Technology, otherwise they may directly help North Korea and Persia develop missile technology next time."

Missile technology and rocket technology are interlinked.

It is impossible for a country with excellent rocket technology to have poor missile technology.

Both John and Griffin are very clear about this.

Even when North Korea developed intercontinental ballistic missiles, it was done in the name of developing rocket technology.

Even some test launches are conducted in the name of rocket launches.

"That's what I mean too."

"As long as it can suppress the development of Daystar Technology, I think any means can be used."

"Everyone must open up their minds and push Venus Technology directly to the road of death!"

Griffin expressed his opinion categorically.

As a result, the attitude of the United States has naturally changed dramatically.