I want to be emperor

Chapter 1089 The explosion of the automobile market

In the 50th year of Chengshun, as Li's Power Company also released a gasoline engine with its own patented spark plug ignition technology, the automobile market of the Dachu Empire also ushered in greater market competition.

Because just one month later, Lee Power Company released their first car, a car equipped with a four-cylinder engine, with a maximum highway speed of 70 kilometers per hour, and a three-speed gearbox (two-speed gearbox) independently developed by Lee Power Company. forward and reverse), a high-end sedan with a soft roof.

However, although this car is equipped with contemporary high-end configurations, its price is directly below the price of previous mid-range models.

The basic model only costs 380 Chu Yuan... This price can be said to be so cheap that it makes people question their life!

In the previous automobile market, the models with four-cylinder engines and three-speed transmissions introduced to the market by the three major automobile manufacturers were all high-end models, and the models shipped in large quantities were basically priced at NT$500 to NT$600. between models.

Luxury models with better configurations often cost thousands of dollars, but these are generally luxury models with relatively small production and sales volumes.

But as soon as Li's Power Company took action, it directly sold this four-cylinder engine model for less than 400 yuan... Although many people know that this basic model is just a gimmick and cannot be sold on a large scale. You If you have to buy this basic model, people will tell you that it is out of stock and recommend you a model with higher configurations. The price is estimated to be around 500 Chuyuan. This 500 Chuyuan model is actually the Li model. The model mainly promoted by Dynamic Company.

However, even so, it also means that the price of previous high-end models has dropped from the common 600 Chu yuan to about 500 Chu yuan... a direct reduction of about 100 Chu yuan in price. This price reduction can be said to be quite large.

And it also caused a violent market reaction... The first ones to bear the brunt were not the high-end models of the same level from the other three major automakers, but some mid- to low-end models.

In the past, these mid- to low-end models basically used two-cylinder engines. As for heat pipe ignition engines, they have gradually disappeared. A two-cylinder engine plus a low-end three-speed gearbox is a mid-range comparison. With standard configuration, the price in volume is around 400 Chu Yuan... However, the market size of this so-called mid-range model is actually not large because the performance of the car is not very good and the price is not cheap.

As for the lower-end ones, they are often twin-cylinder engines or older-generation heat-pipe ignition engines, etc., which are not equipped with multi-speed gearboxes... Well, that means they don't even have gearboxes, and cost basically two to three hundred yuan... This thing is actually just a toy, not very practical, so fewer people buy it.

This is also a special aspect of the contemporary Da Chu Empire's automobile industry. That is because the technology is not mature enough. The so-called low-end and mid-range cars are really not impressive in terms of performance, and they are not cheap either, so the sales volume is actually not that good. Really The best ones to buy are actually cars at the level of 500 to 600 yuan.

However, in some agricultural or engineering fields, some mid- to low-end agricultural machinery and equipment still have considerable sales, such as tractors.

The agricultural machinery business of Hekou Machinery Company is basically low-end and small-medium agricultural machinery. Even in the era of heat pipe ignition engines, their sales were quite good. In the past year, they have launched another model on the market. A rather special tractor, this thing uses a two-cylinder engine, and can also be equipped with a small carriage... In other words, this thing can pull goods.

Although it is small and the power is actually not very good, because it is a tractor, it has good off-road capabilities and can pull a load of goods on dirt roads and even muddy roads. This is quite popular with small and medium-sized farmers, even in addition to these farmers. In addition, some engineering companies have also seen the transportation capabilities of such small tractors and purchased many of them for pulling construction materials or transporting soil on construction sites.

However, in the automobile market, this situation is not seen... How to put it, because passenger cars cannot be used for production, buyers generally use them for themselves, while for pure consumer goods that cannot generate value, people purchase There will be more to think about.

Unlike agricultural vehicles and engineering vehicles...even if the price is high, as long as it is profitable, businessmen will buy it...farmers and engineering companies are actually businessmen.

Their thinking mode when buying agricultural vehicles and engineering vehicles is different from the thinking mode of passenger car consumers when buying cars.

You know, even in the steam engine age, steam engine tractors worth thousands of dollars were purchased and used by a lot of large farmers or agricultural companies...for no other reason than because the profits from using steam tractors were higher. .

But it is impossible for an individual to buy such a stupid and thick steam engine tractor that requires the service of many professionals.

This also leads to the fact that the current passenger car market in the Dachu Empire is quite strange...the expensive ones sell better, and no one wants the cheap ones...or those who can afford mid- to low-end cars look down on them. The so-called low-end and mid-range cars are in a very awkward market position.

On the other hand, the lower-level tricycles and even two-wheelers, that is, three-wheeled motorcycles, have a clearer market positioning and better sales. The three-wheeled motorcycles in the book are not sidecar motorcycles, but three-wheeled motorcycles from later generations.

The first motorcycles and three-wheeled motorcycles were actually very typical military vehicles. They were not available in the civilian market at the beginning. The first person to develop motorcycles was Changan Automobile Company, a subsidiary of the Shaanxi-Gansu Weapons Company... A serious arsenal.

The purpose of research and development is to bid for the military's three-wheeled vehicle and two-wheeled vehicle projects, and it has been successful, and has successively received orders for thousands of vehicles.

Then the Shaanxi-Gansu Arms Company discovered that people in the private market were also inquiring and wanted to buy the civilian version of this two-wheeled or three-wheeled vehicle.

However...according to the management regulations for weapons companies from above, weapons companies are not allowed to directly get involved in the field of civilian commodities...not even investing.

So after some selection, they reached a patent licensing agreement with Liaohe Automobile Company, and provided Liaohe Automobile Company with many core patent licenses for their motorcycles and three-wheeled motorcycles in the form of royalties.

Based on these authorizations and chassis technology, Liaohe Automobile Company develops civilian versions of motorcycles and three-wheeled motorcycles.

After being introduced to the market, it has been quite popular... especially the three-wheeled motorcycles.

Because people discovered that this thing still uses a single-cylinder engine, and other materials are also cheap, making the whole vehicle very cheap, with the civilian version only selling for more than a hundred yuan.

In addition, this kind of tricycle is very adaptable to terrain. Because the vehicle is very small, it can also travel on country roads. It is also a three-wheel structure. In fact, it is even more adaptable when traveling on such dirt roads.

Although the car is small and the cargo compartment at the back is also very small... there is still no problem in pulling hundreds of kilograms of cargo.

It is precisely because of this that the military previously selected this thing as a standard three-wheeled motorcycle instead of the three-wheeled sidecar motorcycle proposed by Hebei Weapons Company... There is nothing they can do about their three-wheeled sidecar motorcycle. Pulling so many people and so many goods, it is difficult to control at the same time. It is easy to turn. It is also difficult to install a rainproof shelter, making it difficult to move out in bad weather... The only advantage is probably that the change bucket can be added directly. Attach a machine gun, and the view ahead opens up.

A standard three-wheeled motorcycle can pull people and goods, is easy to control, and is more fuel-efficient; in addition, the driver's seat and even the rear compartment can be equipped with a rainproof shed, and a machine gun can also be installed on the top of the rear compartment, allowing it to shoot forward. Good vision and shooting range.

After the military tested the two types of three-wheeled vehicles separately, it was found that even though the overall cost of the standard three-wheeled motorcycle was higher due to factors such as transmission, rainproof canopy, and heightened machine gun positions, the Army still did not Hesitantly chose a standard three-wheeled motorcycle to be used as a light armed motor vehicle for the experimental motorized regiment.

This kind of military vehicle has also received good feedback in the civilian market. Many people like this cheap and easy-to-use thing, especially in suburban and even rural areas. This kind of vehicle has already gained some sales!

But what’s interesting is that people who buy these vehicles are basically not using them for personal use or transporting goods, but for soliciting customers... People find that these vehicles are cheap, easy to maintain, and cheap to use, so they can be used in rural areas. It's more cost-effective to solicit passengers in the suburbs than to use a horse-drawn carriage!

This kind of three-wheeled vehicle, coupled with the new generation of small tractors owned by Songhe Automobile Company... has spread rapidly in suburban and rural areas, and its sales have been rising steadily. Its growth rate is much stronger than that of any passenger car... It has even penetrated Entered the city.

Three other car companies have also followed suit and introduced cars with similar positioning to the market.

So much so that it has created a very special trend, that is, the four major automobile companies have successively promoted it, especially the trucks strongly promoted by Tangshan Automobile Company. However, the single-cylinder small tricycles and the widely used double-cylinder small tractors have not. It's selling very well. How should I put it? In the future, it is very likely that trucks will not replace horse-drawn carriages, but tricycles and small tractors will replace horse-drawn carriages... becoming new tools for short-distance land transportation.

This has to be said to be a very embarrassing thing!

However, this is actually a necessity... Who allowed the automobile company of the Da Chu Empire to make trucks so expensive... They can easily cost seven to eight hundred Chu Yuan or even one to two thousand Chu Yuan, which is more expensive than ordinary high-end cars.

The civilian model of the Type 15 truck cooperated by Hebei Weapons Company and Tangshan Automobile Company, that is, the Type 15 truck launched by Tangshan Automobile Company, has a starting price of 1,800 yuan, which is more expensive than their luxury cars!

Whatever you say, they all use high-horsepower engines, starting with 30 horsepower, and the high-end configuration is a black-tech 50-horsepower top engine... This is of no use, and it is expensive... In today's world, except for the military, Accept it, and even think it's quite cheap... Other conventional transportation companies or individuals would be stupid to buy this thing for transportation, and they would lose their pants!

Trucks are too high-end to buy or use... but using cars to pull goods instead of horse-drawn carriages is an irreversible historical trend, and the potential market demand is actually very huge.

Under this circumstance, a tricycle derived from a military light tricycle, coupled with a small tractor originally positioned for agricultural production, inexplicably squeezed out the truck market and began to compete with freight carriages. In the early 1950s, Liaohe Automobile Company has just begun to supply tricycles to the outside world on a large scale, but in just over half a year, it has managed to sell more than 30,000 units without any fanfare. The other three companies were very jealous and rushed to buy tricycles. went.

The same is true for small tractors. After Songhe Automobile Company launched this new type of small tractor last year, it has sold more than 40,000 units in about a year...

Moreover, both of the above-mentioned vehicles have one characteristic, that is, the profit of the bicycle is very high...

Although the price is also low, the profit is actually considerable when the cost is lower, and the gross profit margin is even higher than that of a car.

Of course, this does not mean the profits of cars. In fact, the profits of cars these days are also very high...otherwise, the four major car manufacturers would not be crazy about building factories everywhere and expanding production capacity.

However, tricycles and small tractors... although the profit per bicycle is not high, their gross profit margin is high!

Looking at the entire automobile market, the main products now are cars with a price of 500 to 600 yuan, and then there are tricycles and small tractors between 100 and 200 yuan... Although there are others, the production and sales volume are Neither works well.

Just adding up these three, many previous analysts believed that Chengshun's production and sales would reach more than 300,000 units in 50 years, and its production and sales were very strong.

Although there are other types of vehicles, they are not to this extent.

The car market is already very hot, and analysts are very optimistic about it. Now Li's Power Company has started to make big moves, directly adopting the price reduction model... directly reducing the price of high-end cars with high volume on the market from the average price of 6 One hundred Chu Yuan has been reduced to five hundred Chu Yuan... This will definitely further stimulate the automobile market.

Because just three days later, Tangshan Automobile Company announced price cuts for all its passenger cars, ranging from 50 yuan to 150 yuan.

Subsequently, Liaohe Automobile Company and Songhe Automobile Company also followed suit and successively reduced prices and promotions for passenger cars.

This has led to a further increase in consumer enthusiasm in the market...many ordinary high-income people are also beginning to consider purchasing a car.

After all, a car with an average price of about 500 yuan is no longer expensive for many high-income families... and there are many, many so-called high-income families in the empire!

This group of people is much larger than the wealthy class whose annual income is several thousand or even more!

In the past, most of these people had their own private carriages, but many still had to drive themselves without hiring a driver. But without a driver, it would actually be very inconvenient to drive a carriage for daily travel... There are parking places, but there are places to park horses. Not much, and when a carriage is parked in many places, the coachman is required to take care of the horses... If there is no coachman to look after the horses, they have to be entrusted to a caretaker in the parking lot, which costs extra.

But switching to a car is different. Once you drive to the roadside or park in a parking lot, you can go to work and do errands.

Therefore, ordinary high-income groups actually have a more favorable impression of cars and are more looking forward to them... As soon as Li's Power Company announced the launch of its new car, many ordinary high-income groups have placed orders.

After the other three car companies successively lowered their prices, they also ushered in a wave of car bookings.

As a result, shortly after Li's Power Company announced its new car, many analysts gave their own optimistic expectations: in the next 50 years, Chengshun's pure passenger car sales will exceed the 150,000 expected at the beginning of the year. Reaching the standard of 250,000 vehicles.

Coupled with the sales of non-cars such as tricycles, small tractors, trucks, buses, engineering vehicles, and agricultural vehicles, the entire automobile industry, or the overall sales volume of the gasoline engine platform, is expected to reach 500,000 units.

This is a quite optimistic estimate, but people generally believe it...because many people actually know that the reason why analysts gave a sales estimate of 500,000 gasoline platforms...that is because of the four major car companies The engine factory here will only have a production capacity of 500,000 gasoline engines when it is exhausted... The production capacity of the engine directly determines the production of various gasoline engine platforms, including passenger cars.

Even though the four major automobile companies are now frantically raising funds to build factories, Tangshan Automobile Company has established five gasoline engine factories across the country to produce gasoline engines of different specifications. The annual output of its various gasoline engines has Reached more than 250,000 units.

These engines will be used to supply not only our own agricultural vehicles, cars, tricycles, and trucks, but also the military, third-party automobile manufacturers, and engineering vehicle strategic partners, etc. However, they are still unable to meet the huge market demand... Tangshan Automobile companies are still frantically expanding their engine factories. The engine factory in Songjiang has just completed the first phase and is immediately starting to build the second phase of the factory non-stop.

Today's cars...especially gasoline engines are truly in short supply!

As a result, the three major automobile companies and Lee's Steel Company were separated, and the shares of Lee's Power Company, which had been independently listed, experienced another rapid surge.

Not only the automobile companies themselves, but also the supply chain of the automobile industry, and even the stock prices of oil companies that have nothing to do with automobiles and only sell gasoline, have all seen a rise... After all, people have to use gasoline to buy cars. Although, There are not many cars now, and they don’t need much gasoline. The gasoline business is a small business among major oil companies. The revenue from gasoline cannot be compared with kerosene, a living commodity, or even with lubricants. The demand for lubricants in industry is also very large.

However, there are few cars now, but what about in a few years? What about too many cars? The gasoline business will definitely become an important business by then.

The value of stocks basically does not reflect the current value, but reflects the future value. To be precise, it is people's judgment of the future value of the stock... So in essence, investing in stocks is actually value investment.

I am optimistic that this company can make more money in the future, so I am willing to buy and hold their stocks...or I am not optimistic about the future development of this company, so I sell the stocks...

It is precisely because two people with different views have different opinions on the future price of a stock that stock buying and selling occurs...

As for the series of so-called stock operations brought about by stock trading, especially short-term trading, that is another matter and has nothing to do with value investing... It has evolved into a pure financial gambling game and has nothing to do with the operation of the company itself. It doesn't matter whether it's bad or its future value...

However, the stocks of companies in the automobile and related industries have generally risen. This is not a matter of financial gambling, but that people, or almost everyone, is optimistic about the development of the entire automobile industry and recognizes the future value of the automobile industry.

The substantial increase in automobile production and sales has not only driven the development of the four major automobile companies and third-party automobile manufacturers themselves... it has also driven the development of countless upstream and downstream industries, thereby greatly promoting the development of the overall economy.