I want to be emperor

Chapter 1092 Song Erniu’s Billionaire Dream

The power of cars these days is not very good, especially three-wheeled motorcycles, because these things are mainly aimed at the suburban and rural market, and the price cannot be high. In order to control costs, they are basically single-cylinder. Petrol Engine.

The smaller one only has five or six horsepower, and the larger one only has about ten horsepower.

To be honest, this little horsepower is simply not enough...

However, this does not affect the load capacity of the tricycle.

After all, the power is small, it just depends on whether it can be pulled and how fast it can run. But as long as the body tires can withstand it, then there is no problem at all when loading hundreds of kilograms of cargo. It’s just that after loading the cargo, these tricycles need to be hung. In low gear, it runs very slowly, and it can only drive on flat roads. If it encounters an uphill slope, it cannot go up. It needs someone to push it...or move the goods down first.

However, this does not affect the fact that the actual load capacity of the tricycle can reach two to three hundred kilograms... It is a small horse pulling a big car.

The same situation actually occurs in other vehicles, especially military vehicles...Those armored vehicles with a body weight of six or seven tons, although the engines they are equipped with are said to be the best in the contemporary era, in fact, they only have 50 horsepower.

Fifty horsepower pulled a six- or seven-ton armored vehicle. From the perspective of future generations, it was a small horse-drawn vehicle.

But in modern times, this is really how it is used...

But the speed is much slower. The highway speed is not fast. If it is off-road, it will be even slower. It can maintain a speed of more than ten kilometers per hour.

The same is true for civilian vehicles. It is common to have small horses and large carts. The power provided by common high-end car models is generally around 20 horsepower...

It was originally positioned for agricultural production, but now it shines in the field of short-distance freight transportation. The small four-wheel tractor produced by Songhe Automobile Company, which was reorganized from Hekou Machinery Company... This thing actually only has 12 horsepower. That's it, the power is very small.

Therefore, we cannot look at early contemporary cars with the eyes of later generations... Don’t think that because they have low power, they cannot pull people and transport goods. At most, they are slower, have poor climbing ability, have higher fuel consumption, and have more faults. …

The same is true for the military-to-civilian tricycles produced by Liaodong Automobile Company.

The cargo version of this thing has no problem at all on a flat, hardened road, hauling 300 to 400 kilograms. If you don't care, just like the demonstration, there is no problem in directly loading more than 500 kilograms of cargo.

Don't be surprised... You must know that the four-wheeled heavy freight carriage is pulled by four horses, but it can also carry more than a ton of cargo.

This tricycle with seven or eight horsepower can naturally pull more than 500 kilograms.

However, such a powerful three-wheeled vehicle has posed a huge threat to Tangshan Automobile Company, which mainly promotes trucks... Their Type 15 trucks are also military-to-civilian models, but they are not selling well.

Now through performance downgrading, the six-cylinder fifty-horsepower black-tech engine was taken out and replaced with a four-cylinder overclocked version of the thirty-horsepower engine, and other configurations were reduced, finally lowering the price. It reaches seven to eight hundred yuan... but the designed cargo capacity is only about one ton.

And this thing... probably won't be sold in the contemporary car market... With this money, people can sell three or four tricycles.

Therefore, people at Tangshan Automobile Company are now thinking that the proposed light truck may not be available in the civilian market. If they want to sell it, they will have to rely on orders from the military. Anyway, the military is not short of money, so It doesn't matter whether the price is expensive or not, it only cares about performance, and the light truck developed by Tangshan Automobile Company absolutely beats other car manufacturers in terms of performance... There is no way, their engine technology is too awesome.

The reason for this is actually that people from the truck R&D department of Tangshan Automobile Company still couldn't get rid of the design thinking of one or five trucks when designing this light truck...

What is a one-five truck?

That thing is not a civilian truck, but a military truck. The various design indicators are very high, from the power system to the gearbox, to the chassis, brakes and even tires, etc., they are all made of the best, and the manufacturing process is also very high. …These are all to ensure the reliability of these military trucks and ensure that they do not fail on the battlefield.

This kind of thinking is similar to Tangshan Automobile Company's idea of ​​focusing on the high-end market in the field of passenger cars and striving for excellence in performance and craftsmanship.

So when the two are combined, they inevitably want to make trucks better... and then the cost cannot be reduced.

Industrial products mean you get what you pay for... You need high performance, good reliability, easy maintenance, etc., and the costs are going to skyrocket.

As a result, the civilian version of a 15-truck truck costs from 1,800 yuan, and the one with better configuration costs more than 2,000 yuan... Except for the military, no one would buy this thing for cargo transportation.

Similarly, their proposed One-Zero truck also faces the same problem.

Not only the people from Tangshan Automobile Company looked worried after seeing the latest cargo version of the tricycle from Liaodong Automobile Company.

After the heads of the other two car companies saw this violent tricycle, the expressions on their faces were not very good... This damn thing, from design to market positioning, can be said to be the best, and it will be officially followed. After being introduced to the market, I'm afraid there will be another chaotic situation!

As a result, their tricycle business, truck business and even small four-wheel tractor business will be severely impacted.

For example, Songhe Automobile Company's 12-type small four-wheel tractor, which is mainly used in the agricultural and freight fields... Although its ability to pull goods is very good, the price is actually much more expensive than a tricycle. The basic version costs three to four hundred yuan. It is easy to be hit by a tricycle.

It's just that this kind of small tractor can be used for agricultural production in addition to freight. Later, the harvester and plow can be transformed into agricultural production machinery, and the overall impact is smaller.

However, Songhe Automobile Company's fledgling tricycle business may be facing a huge impact.

Songhe Automobile Company saw the launch of a three-wheeled vehicle by Liaodong Automobile Company at the beginning of the year and it was welcomed by the market. They followed suit and designed and developed a three-wheeled vehicle for the market, using a six-horsepower single-wheel vehicle developed by themselves. cylinder engine, equipped with a low-speed gearbox, and a three-wheeled vehicle was put on the market. In the more than three months since it was put on the market, the sales volume has not gone up, with only more than 3,000 units sold.

This was not selling well to begin with, but now that it is being impacted by Liaodong Automobile Company's new three-wheeler, the subsequent sales growth may not meet expectations.

The same goes for the people at Li's Power Company next to them. They are also preparing to launch a tricycle business... but their engine development success was relatively late. Their early focus was also on the passenger car market, and they paid slightly less attention to the tricycle business. , the research and development has not been completed yet...

But comparing the performance and selling price of both parties, the people from Li's Power Company are already preparing to take back the original design and redo it... Forget about the poor performance. Based on today's cost, the selling price is estimated to be still high by then. If it is higher than the other party's new version of the tricycle, it may not be able to open up the market.

They must come up with a cheaper and market-competitive tricycle.

While people from the four major automobile companies had their own ideas about a new three-wheeled motorcycle from Liaodong Automobile Company, Prince Luo Li in front also continued to visit other vehicles.

The conference venues of the four major automobile manufacturers are all in the same area, so the first thing to look at are the four major automobile manufacturers. The product lines of these four major automobile manufacturers are very rich, from agricultural vehicles to trucks, and then three-wheelers, passenger cars, and pickup trucks. , and then there are buses and so on... Regardless of whether these subdivided car businesses are good or not, and whether they sell a lot or not, the four major car companies basically don't let it go. The main thing is that I want to have what others have. I want to have what others don’t have, and I do everything.

However, each company also has its own unique advantages and projects, and there are also projects that are not doing well.

The several cars that left the deepest memory for Prince Luo Li are also the superior projects of their respective manufacturers. For example, the Tangshan brand sedan of Tangshan Automobile Company can be said to be the best in terms of overall performance, and the price is not too high, maintaining at At about five to six hundred yuan, the sedan projects of the other three automobile companies are far worse than those of Tangshan Automobile Company.

At the same time, Tangshan Automobile Company's truck project and large tractors are also very good, with outstanding performance... but the price is also very outstanding, basically much more expensive than other companies' trucks and large tractors... This has also led to a lack of individual users. Basically they are institutional users.

For example, the truck project is a cooperation with Hebei Weapons Company to launch a military version of the No. 15 military truck. The military has ordered a lot of it. Tangshan Automobile Company has independently launched a civilian version of the No. 15 truck. The main users are some large construction companies. , mainly used on construction sites, such as the famous Panama Canal and Suez Canal construction sites, where one or five trucks can be seen.

Some of the orders for large tractors are also from the military, while civilian users are mainly medium and large farms, agricultural development companies, etc. There are very few ordinary small farm customers, because their large tractors are also very expensive, often hundreds or even hundreds more. One or two thousand Chu yuan.

As for the small tractor project, Songhe Automobile Company has done the best. Their 12-type small tractor has been sold all over the world, with an annual output of tens of thousands, and it continues to rise. It is deeply loved by small farms and even local micro-farm farmers and families. In addition, there are also many individual transportation practitioners or transportation companies who will purchase the freight version of this thing for commercial transportation of goods...

Songhe Automobile Company's other projects, such as passenger cars, are doing so-so. Although sales seem to be okay, the main sales areas are in Jiangnan Province and several surrounding provinces, and sales in other places are very poor. , can't do the same as Tangshan brand cars, they are bought almost all over the world, even the poor West African Kingdom in Africa has imported dozens of them.

The dominant project of Liaodong Automobile Company is tricycles, which sell very well in East Asia, with sales of tens of thousands. The main users are East Asia, especially the suburbs of central and eastern coastal areas. Some in rural areas are engaged in carrying passengers. , an individual transport practitioner in the transport business, or a small transport business establishment…

As for Li's Power Company... they are not very good at anything at the moment... After all, they emerged too late. They just developed the spark plug ignition engine not long ago. In addition to launching cars, other businesses are still in the process of being brewed.

But as soon as their cars came out, they had a big trick: low prices!

It is said that you can buy a high-end car with a four-cylinder engine and a three-speed gearbox for 380 yuan... It can be said to be full of sincerity in terms of cost performance, and it has also attracted quite a few people who want to buy a car, but they have a little money on hand. tight, or high-income customers who value cost-effectiveness... As for middle-income customers, they can't afford a car worth around 500 yuan.

But even so, Li's Power Company also brought out a lot of prototype vehicles that are still in the design and preparation stages to participate in the expo.

After looking at the four major automobile companies, Prince Luo Jian continued to look at other manufacturers... The first thing he looked at were the seven or eight engineering vehicle manufacturers that have deep ties with the four major automobile companies, which are the ones that develop and produce various excavators and bulldozers. For manufacturers such as low-speed heavy-duty trucks, these equipment are basically used on construction sites. They are production equipment with low output and low sales volume, but are very expensive.

Although these manufacturers can be regarded as third-party manufacturers, they basically do not have the ability to develop and produce engines by themselves. They all need to purchase engines from the four major manufacturers, but other things are basically developed by themselves or have other cooperative manufacturers. , so their independence is still relatively high, and they also have some exclusive technologies.

For example, Anton Machinery Company was the first manufacturer in the Dachu Empire to launch a gasoline version of the excavator. The 165 series excavator they introduced to the market currently occupies a very large excavator market. The gasoline engine they use, according to the model Different specifications are purchased from the engine factories of the four major automobile manufacturers at the same time.

Although core parts need to rely on the four major automakers, they are actually independent and have very high bargaining power. They are customers that all four major automakers are competing for!

It is rumored that in order to break into the supply chain of Anton Machinery Company to supply the high-horsepower engines they are still developing, Lee Power Company negotiated with Anton Machinery Company early and did not hesitate to take very large price concessions. . After looking at these engineering equipment at a glance, Prince Luo Jian came to the exhibition area of ​​third-party automobile manufacturers. The automobile exhibits here seemed to be quite diverse, and they had everything.

Many third-party automobile manufacturers do not have their own core technologies and all core components need to be purchased. In order to cater to consumers and compete in the market, they often focus on the appearance, interior view, and special uses of the vehicle.

So you can see all kinds of cars, some good-looking and some very weird.

If Luo Zhixue were to take a look at one of them, he would probably feel a sense of familiarity... Because this so-called sci-fi version of the concept car was launched by a third-party car company in Hunan, using a body design and... Later cars in the 1940s and 1950s were very similar, using a boat-shaped body.

It's a pity... This thing has nothing but appearance. The engine and gearbox used are all sub-par export products purchased from the four major automobile manufacturers. Most of the other configurations are also not good.

The car body is very beautifully made, and the paint is very high-end. It even looks like science fiction when placed in contemporary times... Therefore, it attracted the attention of many people, including Prince Luo Jian.

After Prince Luo Li saw this thing, he went up to see it with great interest, and even went in to sit and experience it.

Although the performance is not great, the exterior and interior are really good. Prince Luo Jian even ordered his entourage to buy one back.

When I bought one, on the one hand, I felt that the appearance of the car was really good and had a sci-fi feel. On the other hand, it actually showed that I attached great importance to third-party car manufacturers.

The Chu Empire is so big, it is impossible for there to be only four major automobile manufacturers... There are only four major automobile manufacturers now. That is because of patent restrictions, but everyone knows that in five or six years, some core patents for engines and gearboxes will be available After the expiration date, other manufacturers will gradually launch their own engines and gearboxes, thus entering a situation where a hundred flowers are blooming.

Even the four major manufacturers know this... This is also the reason why they have not used their own engines and gearboxes completely for their own use and not sold them to the outside world in recent years... If they don't sell them now, they won't be able to sell them in the future... ...If you sell it now, the profit is super high. It is more profitable than simply selling cars, and it saves trouble. The money earned can be invested in research and development, production base construction and other fields to further consolidate and expand its technology and scale advantages.

Besides, the competition among the four major car manufacturers is very fierce. If you don't sell it, the other three will sell it... so we might as well sell it together.

This is also why there are so many third-party car manufacturers in the Dachu Empire.

Later, Prince Luo Jian saw another interesting third-party car manufacturer...a car manufacturer from North America. This is also the only car manufacturer from overseas. The most important thing is that this North American car company actually produces... not bad.

According to the introduction, they are launching pickup trucks specifically for the North American market, with annual sales reaching 7,000 units, and sedans with annual sales of one to two thousand.

It is expected that Chengshun's car sales will reach 8,000 or 9,000 units in the next 50 years.

This number is already very dazzling. It is the third-party automobile company with the largest production and sales volume among the four major automobile companies.

Prince Luo Li also attached great importance to this and listened to the introduction of Song Erniu, the head of the company. After hearing that during the design and development stage, they specifically investigated various situations in North America, they finally decided to develop a brand new product. When the pickup truck model that can seat people and haul cargo was introduced, Prince Luo Jian also praised it, saying that their customer-demand-oriented business philosophy is worth learning.

The rapid rise of North American Automobile Company has actually aroused the vigilance of the four major automobile companies... Especially Tangshan Automobile Company, which noticed the sudden rise of North American Automobile Company a few months ago, has also taken some preventive measures, such as refusing to sell With a newer generation of engines, Tangshan Automobile Company also changed the design based on the Tangshan brand sedan and created a pickup truck model. Unfortunately, the market acceptance was very poor after it was launched in East Asia.

Consumers here in East Asia have little interest in this stuff.

Because most of the car consumers in East Asia are high-income groups and wealthy people. What they want is decent and comfortable high-end cars, and they don’t need to buy goods... So if you want to buy one, it costs hundreds of dollars. It is too difficult to give them a pickup truck.

And farmers in rural areas cannot afford this thing.

This is very different from the situation in North America, because farmers in North America... you say they are farmers, let alone farmers. Any family has as little as hundreds of acres of land, and some businesses It is normal for a relatively good farmer family to have several thousand acres of land.

These peasant families cannot be considered farmers, but should be farmers... When they farmed, they used to use horses, but now they use tractors to farm, and they also have money to buy cars... But ordinary cars are not suitable for the North American countryside. region, so the front half can be used as a car and the rear half can be used as a truck, which very well caters to the needs of a large number of farmers in North America.

This resulted in a huge market sales.

Later, Tangshan Automobile Company changed the marketing method of pickup trucks and promoted them in Northeast China, northern grassland areas, Central Asia and Eastern Europe, which helped it gain some pickup truck sales.

As for the pickup truck market in North America, it will be difficult to squeeze in for a while... North American Automobile Company took the first step in North America, and then the prerequisite promotion was very successful. At the same time, North American Automobile Company's pickup trucks are indeed doing very well and are well established in North America. ’s farmers all decide that when buying a pickup truck, they should buy a North American pickup truck from North American Motor Company.

There are multiple reasons for the sudden rise of North American automobile companies... It is difficult for other automobile companies to copy it, and it is even difficult for the four major automobile companies to stop it.

Again...the four major car companies are not one...they are also each other's biggest competitors.

Tangshan Automobile Company had just stopped supplying high-end four-cylinder engines to North American Automobile Company, while Liaodong Automobile Company accepted these orders and sold all its own high-end four-cylinder engines... Anyway, Liaodong Automobile Company itself The high-end car business is not doing well, and he can't sell his own cars. He can make a lot of money by selling engines at a high price, so why not do it.

Then Lee Power Company is also actively contacting North American Automobile Company, trying to supply their new engines to North American Automobile Company.

After Tangshan Automobile Company saw this scene, it came back to North American Automobile Company and promised to continue supplying high-end four-cylinder engines... It couldn't be restricted anyway. If the other three major competitors made this money, it would be better for itself. Earn first.

The same goes for gearboxes, which are supplied by the four major automobile companies. Suspension of supply by one or two companies will not affect it at all... Since it can't be affected, we might as well continue to supply and continue to ship goods to make money.

Therefore, the risk of supply interruption for North American Automobile's core components, namely engines and gearboxes, is currently relatively small.

But even so, it aroused Song Erniu's great vigilance... It would never be safe if these core components were in the hands of others.

So in the second half of this year, Song Erniu quietly increased R&D funding for the automobile R&D center in Songjiang... The purpose of increasing the funding is simple, that is, to increase research on engines and gearboxes, and strive to achieve some core results in five years. After the patent expired, we immediately produced our own engines and gearboxes for commercial application.

Only if we have core components such as engines and gearboxes can we be invincible... No matter how bad things happen, the four major automobile companies will have more scruples and dare not cut off the supply of engines and gearboxes casually.

In Song Erniu's heart, North American Automobile Company will eventually grow into a completely independent large-scale comprehensive automobile manufacturer with its own R&D and production of engines, gearboxes, chassis and other core components!

Not only does he hope so, but the government offices of the three provinces in North America and a large number of automobile supply chain companies surrounding North American Automobile also hope so!

Otherwise, North American Automobile's second round of financing would not have gone so smoothly.

After this second round of financing, North American Automobile Companies will be able to have sufficient funds for manufacturer construction and the research and development of core components such as engines and gearboxes.

Their Songjiang Automobile R&D Center has more than 400 employees... Most of these 400 people are technical R&D personnel with very high salaries.

There are technicians with an annual salary of hundreds of yuan here, and they are all low-level technicians. The backbone of R&D basically has an annual salary of several thousand, and the leading staff even have an annual salary of tens of thousands and also hold hefty options...

In order to meet research needs, the R&D center also possesses a large number of the most advanced scientific research equipment. A large number of research experiments are carried out at all times, swallowing up a large amount of research funds.

This is the automobile R&D center in the automobile industry, second only to the R&D institutions of the four major automobile manufacturers. This automobile R&D center alone is expected to burn nearly one million R&D funds in the past fifty years...its money burning intensity , already has the scale of the four major automobile manufacturers in previous years.

Without the support of a large amount of financing and interest-free loans from the governments of three North American provinces, it would be impossible for Song Erniu to maintain such intensity of research and development with his own financial resources... It is also impossible for Song Erniu to use his private assets to burn like this!

Only a fool would use his own money to start a business...especially in an industry like the automobile industry that is heavy on capital and has high technical risks.

But burning investors' money...that's different. Song Erniu has always been good at spending other people's money.

No, now it has achieved annual sales of eight to nine thousand vehicles, and has also made considerable progress in technology research and development, allowing a group of investors to see the hope of making huge profits!

Under such circumstances, Song Erniu is also planning a third round of financing... According to the current cost-burning intensity of technology research and development and the cost of factory construction, the North American Automobile Company's cash reserves cannot last long, even with the profits from the pickup business Support, at most, it can support it for more than half a year.

Therefore, it is necessary to obtain the third round of financing as soon as possible so that we can continue to invest heavily in research and development, develop the two core products of engines and gearboxes, build a high-standard comprehensive automobile factory, and finally develop the North American Automobile Company into an independent company. A comprehensive automobile company, and then go public to make money!

Song Erniu has never forgotten...the purpose of establishing North American Automobile Company. It was not to build cars, but to make a big fortune by going public.

Otherwise, why would he bother so much and travel back and forth between North America and East Asia every three days... He has no passion for cars!

If this vote goes well, he estimates that his net worth will skyrocket by tens of millions... The current financial institution valuation of North American Automobile Company is already over 10 million... By the time it goes public, I'm afraid it will be huge. Market value of tens of millions or even hundreds of millions.

And Song Erniu, who owns a large number of shares, will also see his value skyrocket again!

By then, Song Erniu should be considered a super rich man even within the entire empire... Being a billionaire is not a dream!

Song Erniu is extremely looking forward to this!

(End of this chapter)