Countercurrent 1982

Chapter 470

On the train bound for Kyoto, Ruiyang sat in front of the window of the empty sleeper car, watching the passing scenery with a somewhat stagnant expression.

In front of him, there were several internal reference reports.

In the photo on the front page of this internal reference, a group photo of a row of well-dressed Chinese workers and foreign engineers is published. In the middle of the photo is a white car with a Volkswagen logo.

The headline of the report reads, "The first Santana sedan was assembled in Shanghai."

This time, Ruiyang is going to a meeting in the BJ department. Among them, the internal reference, this matter about the assembly of Santana cars will also be included in the discussion topics of the meeting.

It was in 1984 that German Volkswagen officially established a joint venture factory in China, but in fact, on April 1983, 4, the assembly of the first Santana sedan had already been completed in China.

There are many interesting and tortuous stories about German Volkswagen in the Chinese market.

As early as 1978, when my country was just reforming and opening up, the country decided to implement automobile projects in Shanghai. However, at that time, the foundation of China’s domestic car industry was weak, and the consumption of cars in the market began to release. Manufacturers do not have the technology to independently produce cars.

In order to introduce technology to produce domestically produced cars with excellent performance, the country initially traded technology for the market, but at the very beginning, the process of negotiating with foreign automakers was not smooth.

In 1978, the country sent a delegation to European countries to investigate the local automobile industry. The leader of the delegation was Zhou Zijian, the minister of the Ministry of Machinery Industry. Before Zhou Zijian went to Germany, he had the impression that the roads in Germany should be It's a Mercedes Benz.

As a result, when he arrived in Germany, he found that many of the cars running on the road were Golfs, Beetles, etc., and they all had a brand called Volkswagen. He didn’t know what a Volkswagen was, so he asked the locals, and the locals said that Volkswagen is a family. A large automobile company is headquartered in Wolfsburg, so Zhou Zijian came to Wolfsburg.

He was wearing a blue Chinese tunic suit at the time, and when he got to the door, he went out to the guard of the company. I am the Minister of Machinery Industry of the People's Republic of China, and my name is Zhou Zijian. I want to see your factory director.

The doorman was very curious about what he saw, so he called the company. The person who answered the phone was a vice president of sales management named Dr. Smit. At that time, Smit had nothing to do, so he said that Invite him to come in, this is the first act of China's introduction of Volkswagen at that time.

Later, Dr. Smit became the vice chairman of Shanghai Volkswagen.

In fact, at that time, the country also negotiated with Japan and the United States about the joint production of automobiles. The first consideration was Japan, because Japanese products were in China at that time and had a very good reputation, and most of the imported cars were Japanese cars.

However, Japanese automobile manufacturers are not interested in the automobiles produced by joint ventures in China. Their attitude is obvious, that is, they only sell products, not technology.

But in the negotiations with American automakers, the United States agreed to set up a joint venture factory in China, but the condition is that the cars produced must import American parts, and at the same time, it will also help domestic manufacturers produce some spare parts, which will become part of the supply chain of American cars. a part of.

However, at that time, the country's top officials were all hoping to use the automobile industry to enhance domestic industrial power, so the conditions of Japan and the United States were too harsh and did not help the growth of the domestic automobile industry, so after several rounds of negotiations, nothing was achieved.

The German Volkswagen gave very generous conditions. In order to show its sincerity, the German Volkswagen once opened up 14 patented technologies to China at one time. Without the patent law, the relevant legal system is not perfect, and it is impossible to guarantee the interests of foreign manufacturers investing in China.

However, after arduous negotiations, the German Volkswagen joint venture factory in China finally got the support of the country's top management. In April 1983, the first car production in China began, and this first model was Hehe The famous Santana sedan.

All parts of the first batch of 100 Santana cars were imported from Germany. At that time, 7 workers from Shanghai Automobile Factory installed more than 10 meters of hand-pushed guide rails in the workshop, and it started to assemble Santana.

Before China assembled the Santana for the first time, China only had experience in producing two-ton trucks and Shanghai brand cars. Not only was the output extremely low, but the craftsmanship was also very poor.

Due to lack of experience, the car could have been assembled in two days.The Chinese master spent more than a week, and it took a long time to find the parts, and the assembly was not standardized. If the screws were not tightened tightly, they would be smashed with a file and a hammer.

Later, through the guidance of German engineers, Chinese workers figured out the correct way to assemble the Santana car. It turned out that this car was not produced by being naked, but by screwing. Each screw must have its own torque requirements, and even complete temperature and cleanliness requirements during installation. Once installed inappropriately or incorrectly, it means scrapping.

Seeing that the imported parts were completely scrapped after spending a lot of money, the domestic still quietly took out the parts from the trash can for scrapped parts and continued to use them in a hard-working, simple and frugal style. This made the German engineer in charge of the supervision work almost caught Crazy, after going crazy on the spot for several times, the domestic workers obediently followed other people's regulations to work, during which many parts were scrapped.

But fortunately, the quality of the Santana cars produced at that time was still very good. A Santana would not need to be overhauled after driving for 10 years.

The successful assembly of the Santana sedan is only the first step in the country's development of advanced automobile strategy. Next, the localization of the Santana sedan is the most important step in the layout of the national automobile industry.

This time, Ruiyang went to the BJ department for a meeting, and the main discussion was the localization of Santana car parts.

The standard of this meeting was relatively high, and the officials present were basically cadres from the provincial bureau, and Ruiyang was able to participate in such a meeting because of its background in Kyoto.

In fact, in the past two years, Ruiyang has also been concerned about various trends in the introduction of foreign technology in China.

The domestic industry is undergoing tremendous changes.

Ruiyang wholeheartedly wants to be a participant and witness of this change.

He wants to make a difference, wants to become the winner of this national chess game, but now, he still needs a chance...

(End of this chapter)