I want to be emperor

Chapter 1148: Is this building a car or an airplane?

At the Songjiang Automobile Exhibition, headed by the five major automobile companies, a group of independent automobile manufacturers and some auto parts manufacturers participated in the exhibition.

Although the Songjiang Auto Show is not the only auto show in the empire, it is the largest and most influential auto show.

The reason is very simple. Songjiang City is the largest city in the Dachu Empire. Together with the surrounding small and medium-sized cities and cities in several nearby prefectures, the urban agglomeration formed is the most densely populated in the Dachu Empire, and the per capita income is also the highest. an area.

This will inevitably make the Songjiang area with Songjiang City as its core a super market for all kinds of consumer goods.

This is especially true for high-value industrial consumer goods with high unit prices like automobiles!

The Jiangnan region in the narrow sense composed of Songjiang City and surrounding areas consumes at least 40% of various cars and conventional freight trucks in the Chu Empire.

Therefore, the five major automobile companies and some independent manufacturers attach great importance to automobile marketing in the Songjiang area. The company headquarters directly participates in the annual Songjiang Auto Show, instead of being organized by local companies like the small and medium-sized automobile exhibitions in many other regions. Car dealers went to participate on their behalf.

Not only will they participate in the exhibition, but the five major automobile companies and some independent manufacturers will release their new models at the Songjiang Auto Expo.

Anlong Automobile Company is one of them, and it is considered the most important independent automobile manufacturer.

They specially brought the new Anlong luxury sedan here for the new car launch.

Thousands of people of all kinds flocked to the press conference. In addition to industry insiders, there were also potential customers and customer representatives, as well as ordinary people watching the excitement.

And when the new car launch conference officially began, along with a lot of exaggerated explanations, the curtain of the new car in the center of the booth was also opened, allowing everyone to see the new generation of Anlong luxury cars.

When they saw this car for the first time, many people couldn't help but exclaim. The appearance of this car is different from all the current models. It is a streamlined body that has never been seen before... The first time I looked at the entire body. It gives people a sense of beauty at a glance.

This is an aesthetic of industrial design, full of smoothness and power.

The appearance of Dachu Empire's cars has also undergone three major changes in the past ten years or so.

The appearance of the earliest automobiles was actually not much different from a horse-drawn carriage, and it was also an open-top horse-drawn carriage... Yes, the early cars were all open-topped. Of course, they would be equipped with a soft canopy. When it rained, you could park your car and manually lift the soft canopy. Put it on.

Later, closed bodies began to appear. This was mainly because open-top models were not practical, so people began to introduce closed carriages in some public carriages and private large carriages.

This kind of body is mainly a trend led by Tangshan Automobile Company. The whole shape looks similar to the carriage of a carriage. The front and rear of the carriage are relatively low, and there is a tall closed carriage in the middle. This is a typical four-wheeled private carriage shape. ... Of course, there is a big difference between a car and a carriage, so although they are both shorter at the ends and taller in the middle, the front is taller because of the engine, and the body is also narrower.

This type of car, also called a box car, was the mainstream body shell in the past few years and even now.

A few years ago, boat-shaped bodywork began to appear. This was the type that was first launched by Anlong Automobile Company and also had a patent. Later, a patent exchange was carried out with the five major automobile companies, and the five major automobile companies also obtained this patent. The patent right to use a special boat-shaped body.

The biggest difference between this kind of boat-shaped body and the previous box-shaped body is that it is actually fully wrapped... Unlike the box-shaped body, which has very narrow front and rear positions and a high bulge in the middle, it uses a way to connect the front and rear of the car. All wrapped up, as wide as the body.

However, it is worth noting that compared with the mature boat-shaped body of later generations, it still looks more retro. At the same time, this kind of shell is just a pure shell, and the inside is still empty... It is purely for good looks, and there is no consideration for wind resistance and other things. Not fully enclosed.

This time, the new car brought by Anlong Automobile Company still uses a boat-shaped body for the overall design of its body shell, but it uses a lot of streamlines, making the whole car look very smooth and round, and it also uses large area of ​​​​front windshield glass and door glass, and for the first time a fully enclosed body structure is adopted.

But judging from the outer shell, it is actually almost the same as the car body in the 1950s and 1960s in the original time and space... But again, this is just a shell, and many places inside are actually empty... It's not that empty these days. The components need to be installed and take up a lot of space.

Not to mention performance, the V-shaped six-cylinder engine this thing is equipped with is already very powerful, but due to size and weight, as an engine used in passenger cars, its maximum horsepower is still only A measly thirty horsepower.

But...what does Anlong Automobile Company sell? What they are selling is this car shell!

As soon as the true face of this car was revealed, it naturally attracted everyone's attention... Ordinary people were amazed, people in the industry were shocked, and people from the five major automobile companies were dumbfounded...

Damn, why does this car look so unrealistic... This thing shouldn't appear in reality at all.

Also, this kind of fully enclosed body shell makes the whole car so much wider. Let’s not talk about the internal structure. It adds a lot of structural weight. Just adding so many steel plates to the body is not light. .

With the current engine power level, can it pull this car?

Especially the people from Li's Power Company, they know very well what level of engine is used in this car... V-shaped six-cylinder, with a maximum horsepower of 30 horses... Compare it to the passenger cars of the same specification used by the other three car companies. There is still some gap between the V-type six-cylinder engines. The new V-type six-cylinder engine developed by Tangshan Automobile Company and installed on their new flagship luxury sedan has a maximum horsepower of 35 horsepower, and the displacement of both it's the same.

With the level of our own engine, it feels a bit unreliable to pull such a big, heavy-looking Anlong sedan...

People from these five major automobile companies obviously had preconceptions, thinking that such a large car body must be full of stuff inside... In fact, Anlong Automobile Company didn't think that much at all... They just sell car casings.

Strictly speaking, their new luxury car has a shell design first, and then uses the previous car chassis according to the shell and then makes modifications, and then matches it with a new engine and gearbox...

Therefore, despite the appearance of this car, it looks very heavy... but in fact, the engine compartment at the front of the car is quite empty... The rear part of the car is simply left empty to create a large-capacity luggage compartment.

In order to control the weight of the car body and prevent the entire car from being overweight and unable to pull the engine... so the car body is actually very thin... they specially found their strategic partner Daye Steel Company to develop a very thin steel plate material. When it comes out... there is no new technology, let alone new alloy materials, it is just thin...

In addition, due to the overweight, some structures of the body and chassis, such as anti-collision beams, have been reduced in order to control weight.

Of course, when introducing the thickness of the car shell at the new car launch conference, they specifically cited a brand-new marketing concept: collision energy absorption.

It is said that after their long-term and rigorous vehicle collision tests, they found that if the car shell and anti-collision beams are made softer, they can buffer the kinetic energy of the collision, which will not only better protect pedestrians, but also better protect the passengers in the car... When a severe impact occurs, it first passes through the car shell and the energy-absorbing buffer of the anti-collision beam, so that the kinetic energy is gradually reduced to a safe range and then transferred to the passenger compartment.

Regarding this statement, a senior engineer from North American Automobile Company could not hold back and laughed out loud in the audience on the spot...

Many engineers at their North American Automobile Company unanimously believe that the thicker and harder the car, the safer it is... If you don't believe it, there is no need to look for any theory, you will know it if you hit it once with a car or an armored vehicle.

Armored vehicles are hard to find, but you can also find a large truck or something to do a crash test.

After the collision, you will find... At most, some paint will fall off, and the people in the car won't even feel much, but your car and people will be broken into pieces...

Whether it's a sedan or a pickup truck from North American Motors, the main feature is that it's thick, especially the anti-collision beams that are significantly larger than those of other car companies.

Therefore, people from Anlong Automobile Company seriously say that energy absorption can more effectively protect the safety of passengers.

Of course, collision energy absorption and the like are not the focus. The host of the new car launch of Anlong Automobile Company used more words to describe the design language of the appearance of this new model.

And it introduced a design concept that interested everyone, and even people from the five major automobile companies frowned upon hearing it: low wind resistance!

People from Anlong Automobile Company said: During the discussion, their designers discovered a problem, that is, cars are much slower than airplanes.

Slowness is not the point, the point is why?

In order to find the answer, after many years of expensive research by their top design team, they finally discovered that when the car speed reaches a certain level, the oncoming wind becomes an important factor preventing the car from further accelerating.

For this reason, based on this, they have specially optimized the appearance of the new generation body to make the wind resistance lower... This is why the new body is streamlined and looks smooth.

This is to reduce wind resistance...

After reducing the wind resistance, they found that not only the maximum speed of the car could be further improved, but also the fuel consumption was reduced, and the car was more stable during driving.

These words shocked ordinary people, people in the industry such as reporters marveled... and people from the five major automobile companies frowned.

Damn, just build a car, but you still have to consider wind resistance?

It's not like building an airplane...

Besides, even for airplanes, wind resistance is actually not considered when designing airplanes these days.

Almost everyone present has never heard of the word wind resistance before... In fact, this is indeed the case. The word wind resistance is a new word specially created by Anlong Automobile Company to market its own new cars.

The resistance of the wind is simply called wind resistance.

After introducing this, the host above introduced various other features. Seats wrapped entirely in leather are nothing new. They even wrapped the steering wheel in leather.

Car lights were also highlighted... In addition to selling car casings, Anlong Automobile Company also sells car lights. The combination of the two is the core selling point of Anlong Automobile.

This time, they brought a luxurious and bright car lighting system. In addition to the headlights, they also continued to use turn signals and brake lights. In addition, they also optimized the headlights and installed them in addition to the main lights. The auxiliary light is used for close-range lighting... mainly to prevent the car lights from being too bright and blinding the eyes of people on the opposite side. It is a very user-friendly little design.

There are also small lights in the car, and the yellow lampshade creates a warm light inside the car.

Then while talking, the host also took out two umbrellas from the car... He said that the car is equipped with a special umbrella stand as standard, and that the car comes with their specially customized high-end umbrellas... Such a distinguished car owner will not be disappointed when encountering the situation. On rainy days, you can ask the driver to pick you up and get off the bus under an umbrella without having to worry about getting caught in the rain...

Don't laugh, Anlong Motors really takes this thing as a selling point and introduces it seriously...not just umbrellas, but also special hot water bottle holders and water cup holders in the rear of the car with soft spring shock absorption. , you can let the distinguished car drink tea brewed by the driver or secretary and attendants while riding in it. Anlong Automobile Company attaches great importance to these small designs like this, and introduces and promotes them in a grand way.

After all, for customers who buy Anlong Automobile Company's luxury cars, it doesn't matter whether the car is good or bad. They don't drive it themselves anyway... but the car must look good, be comfortable to sit in, and have dignity.

All the efforts of Anlong Automobile Company are to meet the last three needs of customers.

Obviously, this new car launch is extremely successful... Anlong Automobile Company has raised the price of its flagship luxury sedan by a higher price. The flagship version is priced at more than 2,600 yuan. Yuan, it’s so expensive and you can’t just buy it if you want. You need to go through deep qualifications. For ordinary people, if you have money, they won’t sell it to you.

The popular luxury version is priced at 1,800 yuan, making it the most expensive car in the country. The flagship version of the luxury car from Tangshan Automobile Company next door only costs more than 1,500 yuan.

But even though the price was expensive, there were quite a few people placing orders that day... A few rich people present placed orders in person, but more of them were placed by agents or subordinates of those rich people.

In fact, there are quite a few of these people who come here for the new flagship sedan of Anlong Automobile Company, and will place an order as long as it meets their expectations.

Seeing the staff at Anlong Automobile Company's booth busy going around and receiving many customers, a senior manager of Tangshan Automobile Company's luxury car business department at the booth next door couldn't help but sigh.

Time is so unfair...

Their Tangshan Jiatianxia series of luxury sedans are superior in terms of engines, gearboxes, and even chassis tuning, and are even cheaper... but they are not as popular as those assembled by the Anlong Automobile Company next door.

After the exhibition on this day, orders for the Jia Tianxia series were only received over a hundred cars... You must know that this is Songjiang City, and there is no shortage of rich people. The reason why the cars cannot be sold is definitely not because there are not enough rich people in Songjiang City, but because there are not enough rich people in Songjiang City. Your product is not competitive.

No, the orders from Anlong Automobile Company next door are just like snowflakes... According to the information quietly inquired by subordinates, Nima and their flagship version of the Anliu series have received orders for more than 100 units, which is 2,000 units. It costs more than 800 Chu Yuan. In terms of hardware configuration, its price-performance ratio is so low that even a fool would shake his head after looking at it!

As for the deluxe version, which is called "Zouqiu" and actually sells for 1,800 Chu Yuan, which is more expensive than their Jia Tianxia flagship version, orders have already reached more than 800 units.

This is still the first day. Although orders will plummet in the next few days, the cumulative number of orders is estimated to exceed 2,000.

Even based on the unit price of the luxury version of more than 1,800 Chu Yuan, Anlong Automobile Company will be able to obtain a total order volume of at least 3.6 million Chu Yuan at this auto show alone!

This is just a car show!

And everyone in the industry knows that the gross profit of Anlong Automobile Company is terrifyingly high...

For models from other car companies, it would be great to have a gross profit margin of more than 20%. However, in the low-end and mid-range markets where competition is fierce and gross profit is low, the gross profit margin is only more than 10%.

But the gross profit margin of Anlong Automobile Company... No one knows the real data, but it is conservatively estimated to be at least 50%.

That's all, it's because outsourcing core components gives away part of the profit, otherwise the gross profit margin would be higher.

The price/performance ratio is super low...that's not a joke, it's real.

So even though Anlong Automobile Company's annual sales volume is not very good, and the sales amount is actually not too high, it is really making money.

It has made so much money that Anlong Automobile Company has not yet gone public...

The reason for refusing to go public is very simple. It is too profitable, and shareholders are reluctant to part with their shares... As for some of the funds needed for research and development, building production bases, etc., you can definitely seek bank loans.

The local Chunan government is happy to help connect people and protect the development of Anlong Automobile Company!

Under such circumstances, Anlong Automobile Company, which does not develop core engines or gearboxes, naturally refuses to go public.

Well, not if they want to develop engines and gearboxes... The funds needed to develop these two things are not several million, but a minimum of ten or twenty million. What they get out of this is just usable. If you want If the performance is better, you have to continue to throw money into it. Millions of dollars every year are just light... It's like a bottomless pit.

Let's put it this way, even if the entire Anlong Automobile Company is sold, it will not be able to raise the money to develop engines and gearboxes... Therefore, it is necessary to introduce strategic investment funds, and investment funds will naturally be promoted for the smooth launch in the future. The company is listed.

This is why the five major automobile companies are all listed companies... In the early years, Lee's Power Company was split off and listed independently because R&D was too expensive. Its parent company, Lee's Iron Steel, found that it was impossible to rely on the strength of just one company. Can't afford it.

Back then, in order to develop engines and gearboxes, Li's Power Company invested millions in pure research and development every year. The investment was frightening... and it had no results for many years in a row, and even more so. Without a marketed product, Li's Power Company itself has no hematopoietic capabilities and can only rely on external funds to maintain its operations.

This also forced Lee's Steel to give up its wholly-owned holding, introduced strategic investment, and then simply went public independently... After multiple rounds of strategic investments, listings, and additional share issuances after listing, today, Lee's Steel In fact, only 16% of the shares held by Li's Power Company are left.

However, it is still the major shareholder and has reached an agreement with investors. With the support of investors, it still has the right to operate the car company.

In fact, many strategic investors also strategically invested in Lee Power Company because of their identity as Lee Steel!

Li's Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. is the comprehensive super-large enterprise with the highest market value in the Chu Empire. Its many core businesses are all super-large enterprises if you break them down at will.

Such as shipbuilding, general machine tool business, electrical business.

In addition, they also have many small and medium-sized businesses, such as special machinery business, shipboard steam engine business, steel business, metallurgical business, transportation business... If these so-called small businesses are separated and listed independently, they will be properly medium and large enterprises.

The only ones that can stabilize Li's Steel are the dozens of super-large government-owned enterprise groups directly under the Ministry of Industry... But then again, most of the shares of Li's Steel today are owned by official capital. To some extent, they are actually not much different from government-owned enterprises.

Of course, it is the Li family that is in charge of the giant Li Steel Corporation.

Multiple core members of the Li family, plus a group of professional managers, form the operating team of this giant company, which is then responsible to the board of directors composed of official capital.

Lee's Steel, a giant enterprise, is quite complex. It is difficult to position it as a private enterprise or a government enterprise because it has the characteristics of both.

Backed by such a Li's Steel Group, Li's Power Company can develop better.

Therefore, if Lee Iron and Steel gives up the management rights of Lee Power Company and takes no action, investors will not be at ease.

However, even in preparation for Lee's Steel, Lee's Power Company still needed to raise funds for research and development through many methods such as introducing strategic investors, going public, issuing additional shares, etc.

It can be seen how expensive it is to engage in research and development related to engines, gearboxes and other automobiles these days... And as time goes by, as the five major automobile companies gradually establish more new technology patent barriers, latecomers want to It becomes increasingly difficult to enter.

The patent wall is not easy to get around.

Although Anlong Automobile Company is very happy in the field of luxury cars, it is not confident enough to develop these core technologies on its own... Several major shareholders of the company have the same goal, to become a third-party independent automobile manufacturer, and then Do branding and assembly.

Ignore the rest and make a big profit first!

As for bringing in investors, listing the company, and then letting the value skyrocket...that's too imaginary. The company's market value is very fictitious, especially in a capital-intensive and technology-intensive industry like the contemporary automobile industry...hundreds of dollars If you invest tens of millions of R&D funds, you might not be able to get even a single hair left.

Under such circumstances, those big capitals are all heading for the future... You are not allowed to withdraw dividends at this stage, nor are your founding management team allowed to cash out and leave.

Song Erniu, the richest man in North America... has invested in North American Automobile Company for many years. North American Automobile Company has developed into one of the five major automobile companies, but until now, he has not received a penny in dividends!

Doesn't he want to?

no!

He also wanted to pay dividends...but other shareholders disagreed and wanted to invest the profits in research and development and expand production.

The shares have not even been sold. According to the investment agreement, if his shares are to be sold, he will have to wait another three years... and only a small part can be sold after three years, and a batch of shares can be unwinded year by year.

If you want to fully cash out, it will take ten years!

Investors are not stupid... Investing so much money in a high-risk investment like automobile research and development will not allow you, the founder, to cash out easily.

Song Erniu is like this, not to mention some small bosses of other independent manufacturers... If you want to embrace the future, it's hard to say what the future will be like, but the good days now are definitely gone.

Therefore, many independent manufacturers do not accept strategic investment or go public. Instead, they develop their own business honestly and pay dividends when they make money...the gains are also very rewarding.

After all, the current automobile market is a super incremental market. As long as you don't go too far and don't have too many ambitions, if you just act as an ordinary small and medium-sized third-party independent manufacturer, you can actually make a difference.

There is no big money, but small money is still easy!

After all, the empire is too big and has a large population... No matter how powerful the five major automobile companies are, they cannot occupy the entire empire's automobile market... because the governments where the independent automobile manufacturers are located do not allow it!

For example, the local magistrate's office in Changsha Prefecture in Southern Chu...is constantly in trouble with the local dealers of the five major automobile companies!

The reason is simple. As a local automobile company, Anlong Automobile Company has brought a large number of jobs and tax revenue to the local area!

For the sake of their own political achievements, these local officials in the empire prevented local enterprises from being bankrupted by large foreign companies and preserved local employment and tax revenue.

In many cases, local trade protection is blatantly carried out... It is not as simple as taking a partial position, but directly helping local companies to compete with foreign companies.

Are big foreign companies dissatisfied? Come over and invest in building a factory. As long as you come, I will also arrange this kind of protection policy for you... The main thing is 'differential treatment'!

This is also the case for many very large enterprises in the Chu Empire, which often establish production bases in many places... On the one hand, they are producing and selling nearby, and on the other hand, they are also trying to avoid this kind of hidden underwater local trade protectionism.

(End of this chapter)