Rebirth 99 to become a car giant

Normally, November is not the peak season for car sales, but this year the situation is a little different.

All car companies are trying their best to gain additional shares in the fiercely competitive market.

As an SUV model whose market share has grown rapidly in recent years, it is naturally a top priority for various car companies.

Among SUV models, mid-size SUVs have the largest market share.

For example, Great Wall Motor's H6, Chery Automobile's Tiggo, Nanshan Hongqi's HS5, and Yangcheng Trumpchi's GS4 all fall into this category, and each is responsible for the sales volume of its respective car company.

Among joint venture car companies, Volkswagen's Tiguan and Zephyr Honda's C-RV are definitely the leaders.

Even the mid-level SUVs of independent brands in the early years were basically developed based on the Honda C-RV.

It can be said that the originator of mid-level urban SUVs is Honda's C-RV.

Relying on this model alone, Honda has made a lot of money in China over the years.

However, in the face of fierce market competition, C-RV is also under great pressure.

This year's new generation C-RV was officially released at the Imperial Auto Show and will be launched in August this year.

Then came the Gold Nine and Silver Ten, which made a big contribution to the sales increase of Xifeng Honda.

Such popular models on the market, whether actively or passively by the manufacturer, are often sent to China Insurance Research Institute for crash testing.

But the crash test results this time were very surprising.

Normally, a car of this level can achieve a five-star collision result.

However, as a result of the collision of the C-RV, the A-pillar was bent as if broken.

Obviously, this result is unqualified.

After the data was released on the official website of China Insurance Research Institute, it immediately attracted the attention of many people.

After all, as an authoritative organization on the domestic automobile collision market, various automobile companies and automobile media attach great importance to the data released by China Insurance Research Institute.

When many media were preparing to make a fuss about this matter, they suddenly discovered that the link on the official website of China Insurance Research Institute was missing.

This time, it exploded immediately.

Many people are questioning this approach of China Insurance Research Institute, and feel that the other party is definitely due to being recharged by the OEM.

That’s why we urgently removed this link and “lost” all the test data.

Faced with this situation, China Insurance Research Institute calmly issued an announcement.

"Statement on the theft of sensitive data on Zephyr Honda C-RV test results"

The general meaning is that the C-RV test data published online is not published by them, but the data was stolen and used by others.

Then they have reported the data theft.

Any unit or individual is required not to disseminate or copy stolen data without authorization, and they will pursue legal liability for individuals and units that use and publish stolen data without authorization.

Then they will conduct a comprehensive inspection of the security of their websites, and then announce the test results of each model at a later date.

China Insurance Research Institute's crash test is different from CNCAP. One of its test items is quite special.

That's crashworthiness and repair economy.

This test is closely related to the insurance industry, because it is related to the repair costs in the event of a low-speed collision, allowing the insurance company to know whether the car is expensive to repair.

Therefore, in the insurance industry, the test results of China Insurance Research Institute are more popular than CNCAP.

But now such a thing suddenly comes out, which immediately caused an uproar in the automobile industry.

"Mr. Yu, Zhongbaoyan's appearance is a bit ugly. He can even do such a thing."

As a senior editor of Autohome, He Ling has her own unique views on many things in the industry.

Under normal circumstances, her judgment is relatively accurate.

Like this time, in her opinion, the test results of the C-RV were unsatisfactory for some reason.

Originally, China Insurance Research Institute was prepared to announce it truthfully. However, after the OEM realized that something was wrong, they recharged the information.

China Insurance Research Institute will not be at odds with the RMB even if it has trouble with anyone.

As long as the recharge is in place, many data can be changed.

In other words, if you slightly adjust the way you do the test, the results will be different.

Of course, this time the test data has been released, so it will be very difficult to change it.

But the other party gave me too much, what should I do?

Then leave the blame to the thieves and hackers.

The test data of C-RV is lost, the test structures published on the official website are not released by them, and the relevant test videos are not known to be true or false.

This method of fooling everyone is actually useless sometimes.

After all, it's hard to prove they're lying.

“Be it C-NCAP or China Insurance Research Institute, they have gradually lost their purpose when they were first established.”

“They are more of a business than a testing facility.”

"As long as you have a good relationship with them and usually conduct various tests with them, then the collision results of your car model will not be too bad."

"After all, the main ones doing testing in China are China Insurance Research Institute and C-NACP."

"And these two institutions are also very stupid. The models they choose for testing are as non-overlapping as possible."

"This will avoid the contradiction that my test results are very good, but the results you announced are very bad."

As the boss of Autohome, Yu Yu naturally knows no less than He Ling.

The two of them discussed the hot news in the automobile industry today.

"In fact, since Xingchen Automobile started the boom in the large-scale application of hot stamping parts in automobiles, the collision performance of most domestic models has been greatly improved."

"Not to mention luxury brands such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW, even independent brands such as Chery and BYD use a lot of hot stamping parts."

"As the largest hot stamping molding manufacturer in China, Yangcheng Huaqiang Group has more than 50 hot stamping molding production lines across the country, which explains a lot of problems."

“It’s just that I’ve heard that Honda and Toyota have been slow to adopt hot-stamped parts.”

"Most of the time, they prefer to use high-strength cold stamping, which they are good at."

"It stands to reason that this is not impossible. It's just a matter of thickening the steel plate. I just don't know what happened to the C-RV this time."

He Ling tried her best to analyze this matter with a relatively objective attitude.

It is a shame for China Insurance Research, but it is an indisputable fact that the collision performance of various models in the entire industry is improving.

"Yes, I estimate that there are probably some problems in the production process of the A-pillar reinforcements, either the wrong materials are used, or there are problems with the welding."

"After all, normally when the C-RV is being developed, Honda will also conduct some internal tests."

Although Yu Yu doesn't like Japanese car companies, he doesn't blindly criticize them.

After all, I am just chatting with He Ling now, not publishing an article online.

"Yes, many models suffered from collisions back then. I didn't expect that after so many years, someone would actually roll over in this place."

"It's probably because there have been fewer reports in this area in recent years and everyone has done a good job, so no one thinks there is a problem."

"As a result, something happened suddenly, and all parties were a little confused and used too much force."

"Normally, after the data from China Insurance Research Institute comes out, you can make a phone call to the OEM first and tell them that the results are not good."

"If you want to recharge, you can do so at this time. Everything is controllable."

"But I guess the person responsible for summarizing the test results at China Insurance Research Institute is a novice and doesn't understand the unspoken rules at all."

Yu Yu felt that He Ling's speculation was very likely to be true.

But now, the facts are definitely not that easy to figure out.

Taking this opportunity to suppress the momentum of Japanese car companies is also what Autohome must do.

"CRV's main competitors will definitely not miss this opportunity. When the time comes, we will just take advantage of the trend."

Yu Yu's words set a direction for Autohome's arrangements.

But for other companies, the situation is definitely different.

"Mr. Wang, I have arranged for someone to buy a C-RV, and I am going to arrange for our H6 to have a head-on collision with it."

"If the collision performance of the H6 is much better than that of the C-RV, the sales department can do a good job in marketing and win over C-RV customers."

As the director of the Great Wall Motors Technology Center, Zhu Jianbo, together with Lian Furong, the director of the sales department, specially reported to Wang Ying the next marketing plan for the company's most important model, the H6.

After so many years of market cultivation, H6 has become Great Wall Motors' most well-known model, with a very good market reputation.

And now no one bothers about the fact that the H6 copied the C-RV.

"Normally speaking, the material of the C-RV's A-pillar is not that bad. A collision can actually bend it like that."

Although Wang Ying comes from a sales background, she also knows a lot about technical matters.

Otherwise, how could we lead Great Wall Motors to develop rapidly?

"It's true, normal is not what it should be."

"It's possible there was a problem in the production process."

"But no matter what the reason is, as long as the collision result is beneficial to us, we can make good use of this matter."

When Zhu Jianbo said this, Lian Furong couldn't help but echoed: "That's true. After all, facts speak louder than words. When the time comes, we can develop a special set of speaking skills for the salespersons in 4S stores, and we can also use them on the Internet. A handful of marketing.”

"Let everyone know that as a Chinese independent brand car company, our products of the same level are already better than those of joint ventures."

"By then, not only the H6 will benefit, but the sales of other models are also expected to further increase."

Seeing that the intentions of his two generals were very clear, Wang Ying naturally would not object.

Soon, Great Wall Motors began to arrange people to take action.

Since we want to present a more intuitive collision result to everyone, professionalism is not the most important issue at this time, and visual effects are the core thing.

To achieve a good visual effect, it is naturally best to collide on the road.

For this kind of collision, all it takes is a simple modification so that the remote control can control the movement of the car.

So the crash test was completed on the day Zhu Jianbo reported to Wang Ying.

That night, Great Wall Motors' sales department organized manpower to start taking action.

Pictures of the collision between H6 and C-RV appeared on the Internet. The bending angle of the A-pillar is very similar to the previously "stolen" data from China Insurance Research Institute.

Now, things get interesting.

"Mr. Feldspar, the situation is basically clear. The manufacturer of the A-pillar had a problem of virtual welding when welding the two components of the A-pillar."

"The quality department did not discover this problem when confirming receipt of the goods, so there are current adverse effects."

"Now we have specially arranged people to station at the site to follow up and solve the problem, and there will be no problems with the subsequent A-pillars."

"Only for those models that have been sold, the situation is more troublesome."

As the head of the Purchasing Department of Xifeng Honda, Ichiro Arakawa must report to Honda China General Manager Seiji Nagaishi on the supplier's situation with the quality and R\u0026D people at this time.

Fortunately, the final situation was quickly figured out, otherwise we would have been even more passive.

"Our new CRV has been in this situation just a few months after it was launched. This has a huge impact on the company's reputation."

"Many people are already hacking C-RV on the Internet. I'm worried that consumers will go to 4S stores and ask to return the car."

Honda has encountered various things in China over the years.

Especially last year, due to the island dispute, it was hit even harder.

Now it has only barely recovered, and sales have returned to the level of 2011.

But the car market in 2013 is actually completely different from that in 2011.

"If this trend continues, it will be a bit bad for us."

"I suggest you consider recalling this batch of models and just add a few more solder joints at the 4S store."

The quality side put forward its own suggestions for improvement.

It is not possible to replace parts.

The A-pillar has been welded to the entire body-in-white, so you have to cut it off if you want to replace it.

This is definitely not a solution acceptable to consumers.

Fortunately, welding can also be used to strengthen the solder joints and improve the strength of the steel plate on the contact surface of the solder joints.

"If you just repair a few solder joints, the cost is still relatively low."

"And this is the fastest way to eliminate this problem."

Soon, relevant plans were unified within Honda China.

However, even though they have announced the results on their official Weibo and made their recall plans clear, competitors will obviously not let them go easily.

"Vondel, the current joint venture car companies and American cars are finished."

"Korean car companies have been unable to recover after their sales dropped."

"That means Japanese car companies can still compete with us."

"However, China's own brands have always spared no effort to suppress Japanese car companies."

"I think this is a good opportunity. As long as we suppress the Japanese car companies, we will get more room for development in China."

"Those independent brands have room for growth and will not stare at us every day to cause trouble."

Strauss feels that this time the Honda C-RV incident is a good trigger for dealing with Japanese car companies.

Volkswagen China can definitely end it personally and start a war with Japanese car companies.

"China's independent brands are all taking action. It would be a pity if we pretended that nothing happened."

"We can unite Spring City Automobile Group and Modu Automobile Group on this matter, and we can all act together."

"They should be more experienced than us in this regard."

Vondel knew this was not the time to be polite.

Although the direct competitive relationship between Volkswagen and Honda is not that strong, they are essentially models of the same level.

Especially in China, the competition between the two is still fierce.

For example, Tiguan and C-RV are the most obvious opponents.

"Indeed, especially Spring City Automobile Group. Their subsidiary Nanshan Hongqi has been developing very fast in recent years, which is already putting a certain amount of pressure on us."

"Some of the other party's practices are worth learning from."

Volkswagen's development in China has not been ideal in recent years.

Vondel has also been reflecting.

"Our Volkswagen brand still has some die-hard fans in China. As long as we protect these consumers, future sales are worth looking forward to."

After Strauss and Vondel finished communicating, they began to arrange people to deal with Zephyr Honda's C-RV.

And taking advantage of this incident of China Insurance Research Institute, it is not just various car companies that feel that their own development opportunities have come.

"Ayang, the wind tunnel laboratory we jointly built has now become the largest automotive wind tunnel laboratory in the country, and it can even provide assistance for wind tunnel tests of some aircraft."

"At the same time, the laboratory has also carried out other related testing work, which has been highly recognized by the OEMs in South China."

"But for consumers, the car crash test is the test that everyone is more familiar with. I think the next step is whether we can consider adding this test to the test?"

"In this way, each OEM will not have to build its own collision laboratory."

"It just so happens that the reputation of China Insurance Research Institute and C-NCAP is not very good this time. If we can build our reputation in the future, the future is still worth looking forward to."

Xiang Changle is an ambitious person.

As the president of Lingnan University of Technology, automotive-related majors, semiconductor-related majors, equipment-related majors and other industries closely related to Nanshan-based enterprises are all his trump card majors.

So far, this thing has been going very smoothly.

Lingnan University of Technology is now considered a well-known university in the country.

Unlike ten years ago, many students in the north have never heard of the name Lingnan University of Technology.

Everyone’s priority is universities such as Imperial University of Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, and Beihang University.

But the situation is different now. The influence of Lingnan University of Technology is obviously one level higher than them.

Especially for many candidates in Lingnan Province, unless they can go to Qingbei, they must go to Lingnan Institute of Technology.

"Crash tests can be done, and we can even cooperate with Autohome to do some tests."

“Let’s build a reputation first, and then consider how to run it in the long term.”

Cao Yang naturally fully supports the expansion of the wind tunnel laboratory.

Although Lingnan University of Technology is responsible for the daily operations of this laboratory, Nanshan Automobile Group still has a great influence on it.

The Lingnan area now has automobile companies such as Nanshan Automobile Group, Yangcheng Automobile Group, BYD and Xpeng, and their influence in the country is growing.

Especially with the continuous development and growth of Nanshan Automobile Group, its Xingchen Motors, Jaguar Land Rover, and Future Automobile are all car companies with global influence.

This makes Yangcheng the city with the best development of the automobile industry in the country.

Still one of a kind.

After all, just for automobile factories, there are a series of factories of Xingchen Motors, Future Motors, Yangcheng Trumpchi, Yangcheng Aian, Yangcheng Honda, Yangcheng Toyota, Xifeng Nissan and Xpeng.

Correspondingly, there are naturally a number of parts companies built around these OEMs.

To put it bluntly, the automobile industry is definitely the pillar industry of Yangcheng, and its importance is no less important than real estate.

"Well, regarding specific operational issues, I can ask the person in charge of the laboratory to have a detailed chat with Nanshan Automobile Group, and then convene all parties to discuss it."

Xiang Changle was very happy to get Cao Yang's support.

This means that the wind tunnel laboratory is expected to become a business card of Lingnan University of Technology in the future and become a national key development laboratory.

After communicating with Xiang Changle, Zeng Tingting came over to report on some things before the Yangcheng Auto Show.

"Mr. Cao, according to the current confirmed situation, the general managers of major automobile groups will come two days before the Yangcheng Auto Show."

"The China Automobile Industry Development Forum hosted by the Automobile Industry Association and hosted by our Nanshan Automobile Group will also be held one day before the official opening of the auto show."

"Most of the issues will be discussed on the opening ceremony, and we have sorted out the main issues here."

For the Chinese automobile industry, the appeal of Nanshan Automobile Group is definitely not comparable to that of other car companies.

Even Spring City Automobile Group is resigned to being defeated. Which other car company dares to challenge Nanshan Automobile Group's position?

Therefore, the most important conferences in the automobile industry are now basically held in Yangcheng every year.

Even the influence of the Yangcheng Auto Show is slowly surpassing the Shanghai Auto Show and the Imperial Capital Auto Show.

This situation was unexpected by many people.

“In the past two years, everyone’s focus was on the formulation of standards for new energy vehicle-related parts. What is everyone’s focus this time?”

Cao Yang asked while taking the information handed over by Zeng Tingting.

There is no doubt about the importance of industry standards, but it is impossible for every meeting to only discuss standards.

The influence of the automobile industry is so great, and there are so many things worthy of everyone's attention.

Nanshan Automobile Group is the industry that Cao Yang started, and the automobile industry can be regarded as his basic base.

So naturally there is no room for error.