Set sail1992

Chapter 1179 We Don't Play Gearboxes Anymore

Zhang Qihang thought for a while, and then said: "This matter involves the overall strategic planning of the group, and it is said that you cannot tell Li Gong, but your position is indeed quite special. Work also affects..."

Involved in the company's strategic planning?
Hearing Zhang Qihang's words, Li Gong couldn't help feeling a little nervous. He hesitated for a moment, but said, "Then...Mr. Zhang, if this is the group's strategic plan, why don't you just stop talking about it?"

Since Mr. Zhang said that what he heard was inappropriate, Li Gong felt that it would be better for him to be smarter.

"It's okay to say it briefly, strategic planning is not technology," Zhang Qihang smiled and waved his hands, but after saying this, he didn't explain right away, but after pondering for a while, he spoke again Ask Li Gong: "Li Gong, you should have your own ideas about the long-term development plan of our group's gearbox, right? What do you think?"

"Uh... this..." Li Gong was a little embarrassed when he heard this: "Mr. Zhang, I have some ideas, but those are all my own ideas, which may not be consistent with the company's strategic plan..."

"It's okay, we're just chatting in private," Zhang Qihang said with a smile, "Just say what you think."

Li Gong knew Zhang Qihang's character. Since he asked this question, he thought so in his heart, instead of just saying it like some executives did. If you really said what you thought, he would be unhappy instead.So hearing what Zhang Qihang said, Li Gong didn't hesitate, he wanted to talk to Zhang Qihang about this before...

"I did have some ideas before," Li Gong said: "The future development trend of the transmission must be more and more gears, and our parallel shaft automatic transmission wants to increase the gears further. Of course there is no problem, but the size and cost are difficult to control. If you want to achieve 6 speeds, you have to add an additional shaft, and it is also 6 speeds. Due to the inherent structure, our 6 speed parallel shaft The overall manufacturing cost of the structural gearbox is much higher than the cost of Aisin 6at and ZF 6at. I roughly calculated it. It is conservatively estimated that the cost of a single gearbox will increase by at least 2000 RMB.

Considering that our market terminal price is slightly lower than theirs, the extra cost of 2000 yuan will quickly weaken our competitiveness. "

"Um……"

Zhang Qihang responded and signaled Li Gong to continue.

"I noticed that major international OEMs have begun to develop gearboxes with a dual-clutch structure," Li Gong continued, encouraged by Zhang Qihang, "Afterwards, I did some research on this gearbox, and I found that Compared with the traditional planetary gear automatic transmission and our parallel shaft automatic transmission, the basic structure of the dual-clutch transmission is closer to the traditional manual transmission. This structure inherently has huge cost advantage.

Moreover, in addition to the advantages in cost, compared with traditional gearboxes, dual-clutch gearboxes have faster shifting speeds and higher transmission efficiency. Not only is it more driving, but the higher transmission efficiency also helps to save fuel... ..."

Speaking of this, Li Gong became excited: "Mr. Zhang, I think dual-clutch transmissions are the future of automatic transmissions. We should vigorously develop dual-clutch transmissions!"

"Dual-clutch gearbox?" Zhang Qihang nodded with a smile: "Dual-clutch gearbox is really good, with many advantages."

Hearing what Zhang Qihang said, Li Gong was a little excited: "Mr. Zhang, are you also optimistic about the dual-clutch gearbox?"

Zhang Qihang's attitude gave Li Gong some thoughts: Could it be that Mr. Zhang intends to make efforts in the field of dual-clutch gearboxes?If so, great!

Zhang Qihang nodded: "I am indeed optimistic about the future market performance of dual-clutch gearboxes," but then he changed his tone and said, "But I am not planning to develop dual-clutch gearboxes."

"..."

Zhang Qihang's words made Li Gong stunned: You are so optimistic about the dual-clutch gearbox, but you don't plan to develop the dual-clutch gearbox?

After being stunned for a moment, Li Gongcai, who didn't know how to describe his expression, asked Zhang Qihang in a particularly incomprehensible way: "Then... Mr. Zhang, what do you mean..."

Zhang Qihang didn't answer this question right away, but instead asked Li Gong: "Li Gong, I don't know if you have noticed that Stealing Oil Otter has already started to fully exert its strength in the hybrid field."

"what?"

Li Gong was taken aback when he heard that, and subconsciously said: "Is there?"

Zhang Qihang nodded: "In addition to the Prius you know, last year, Stealing Oil launched their second hybrid car in the North American market: a hybrid version of the Camry. The powertrain is installed on their flagship model: the Lexus LS..."

When he first heard the news, Li Gong's first reaction was surprise: Is that so?

But when he thought about it carefully, he was suddenly surprised: he was not very clear about whether the Stealing Oil Otter had launched a hybrid version of the Camry in the North American market, but the Lexus LS series models imported to China this year did have a hybrid version. Version, called LS600HL, so to speak... so to speak...

Under Li Gong's shocked gaze, Zhang Qihang went on to say: "In addition to the Lexus LS 600HL, the Crown sold in Dongying also has a hybrid version. In this way, the Stealer has Prius in the compact segment. , There is a hybrid version of the Camry in the B-segment segment, a hybrid version of the Camry in the mid-to-large segment, and a hybrid version of the Lexus LS in the large segment.

Judging from these situations, I even think that the oil stealer has completed the development of the hybrid version of Corolla, but they feel that it is not the time to launch a hybrid version of Corolla...

As a result, Stealing Oil Otter has achieved a full range of hybrid vehicle coverage, and Stealing Oil Otter’s biggest competitor: HTC Motors, as well as the old automakers such as General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler in the United States have also begun to sell in succession. Power on the hybrid system..."

Speaking of this, Zhang Qihang looked at Li Gong and said: "Li Gong, don't look at all the automobile companies in Europe who are desperately making efforts in the field of diesel engines and dual-clutch gearboxes, but I think the future of the automobile industry should be more about hybrid vehicles." , and will even develop into pure electric vehicles in the future, based on such expectations, do you think it is necessary for us to vigorously develop traditional gearboxes?"

Zhang Qihang has already talked about this point, why doesn't Li Gong understand what he means?
But it was precisely because he wanted to understand Zhang Qihang's thoughts that he was particularly shocked: "You mean, we will maintain the existing automatic transmission situation, and only optimize the transmission through technology and software, but we will no longer develop new ones. structure of the automatic transmission, and our existing 4AT and 5AT automatic transmissions are more used to meet the loading needs of entry-level models, as for the advanced version, use this E-cvt hybrid transmission?"

"Yes, I think so."

Li Gong frowned and thought for a while before saying: "In this case... technically there is no problem, but will it be too radical to do so?"

Radical is only a relatively euphemistic statement. In Li Gong’s view, Zhang Qihang’s approach is really too risky: all your judgments are based on the fact that vehicle hybrid power systems will enter a stage of great development in the future, and the great development It will cause the cost of the entire hybrid system and battery pack to drop to a lot, and eventually reach the time when it can compete with traditional automatic transmissions, but what if the situation does not develop as you think?
Zhang Qihang smiled and said: "I understand what you mean, so we have a parallel shaft gearbox to back it up."

Today in 2007, who would have thought that a company producing pure electric vehicles would be born in the United States a few years later, and would quickly stir up the situation in the global automobile industry, making the development of the global automobile industry present a kind of "running into electrification" " What about the trend?No one would have thought that after more than 10 years, a Chinese national automobile company would resolutely decide to stop the development and production of traditional fuel vehicles, and turn to hybrid and pure electric vehicles in an all-round way.

When the CEO of this company made this decision under tremendous pressure, countless people were not optimistic about its move, thinking that even international supercar giants such as Volkswagen and Toyota would not dare to completely stop production of fuel vehicles. However, the "little shrimp" with 50 million units dare to stop the production of fuel vehicles and switch to hybrid and pure electric vehicles?
You really don't even know how you died!

When the CEO of this company announced this decision, countless people waited to see his jokes, and the capital voted directly with their feet, selling their stocks one after another, causing the stock price to fall all the way, and these made everyone look at him more firmly. Intention of the joke: Look, even the capital and the market are not optimistic about his decision.

However, the subsequent performance of this company was just like when they decided to enter the automobile manufacturing industry. The subsequent performance proved how correct their decision was: after a short-term decline in sales, they immediately stepped out of an upward curve, and then became more and more prosperous. It got better and better, and when everyone was struggling, they got better and better, and finally even counterattacked all the way, surpassing the major domestic car companies in a very short period of time, becoming the leader in sales.

With such a living example in front of him, Zhang Qihang naturally knows what to do is the most correct.

It’s just that Zhang Qihang’s decision was too risky in Li Gong’s opinion. He hesitated for a moment and said, “It’s not impossible to use our 4AT and 5AT gearboxes as a backup...but I don’t think it’s the best. Or do you have a backup plan?"

"Are you worried that the situation will not turn out as I expected?"

"Well," Li Gong responded, and said, "I'm not afraid of ten thousand, just in case."

"Is that so..."

(End of this chapter)