African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 967 Alto
The population of a city is an important indicator of its development, but it is not completely related to whether the city is developed. For example, in today's India and the cities of the Far East Empire, their urban development is mainly based on the huge inland market.

After all, the basic needs of food, clothing, housing and transportation are impossible to change. There is a huge difference between a market with hundreds of millions of people and a market with tens of millions of people, and it is not something that can be challenged by a market with a million people or even less. This is why European and American powers were so greedy for India and the Far East Empire.

While Tirpitz and Aaron were talking, a car drove past on the street. East Africa is a major automobile producing country in the world, so Tirpitz was not surprised to see cars in Mbeya. He had seen many cars in Dar es Salaam and other places before.

"I don't think I've ever seen this car on the market before. It looks great!" said Tirpitz.

"That's an East African official car. Usually only government officials can ride it, so it's not sold on the market. But it's not impossible to buy it, it's just that most people can't afford it." Aaron said.

"What brand is it? If possible, I would like to have one brought to Germany."

"Alto is second only to the Crown. Generally, only the really big shots have the opportunity to ride the Crown."

This Otto is actually the name of the previous generation Prince of Hechingen, Ernst's grandfather. The capital of Hechingen Province is Otto City (formerly Pretoria). Of course, it is translated as Otto in the Far Eastern Empire. Ernst remembers that this brand existed in the Far Eastern Empire in his previous life, and "Otto" has the metaphor of progress and development, which is in line with the aesthetic taste of the people of the great Eastern country. In other regions, using the name Otto is also in line with European traditions. Ferrari and Benz are just the names of their founders.

It is worth mentioning that Benz is currently in charge of the Hechingen Group’s automobile production business in Germany, and the “Mercedes-Benz” brand was naturally created.

As for the Crown brand that Aaron mentioned, Tirpitz had also heard of it. East Africa had sent cars of this brand to some European royal families, including William II, who also had one. However, William II preferred domestic cars, so his Crown car was placed in the garage. However, this did not prevent the Hechingen Consortium from controlling many German car companies.

Tirpitz himself would certainly have liked a Crown if possible, but the car was too expensive and its production was quite low.

"I think if the Alto we just mentioned can be exported to the market, it should sell well. Its appearance design is eye-catching."

As a government car, Alto's design is relatively stable, which is very attractive to politicians.

Aaron said: "In fact, it only looks good on the outside, but the interior experience is not much better than other vehicles on the market. However, if there is an export version in the future, the interior may be improved."

As luxury goods, European and American cars are decorated quite luxuriously, but in East Africa, there are many differences in the definition of cars. Even though the current car production in East Africa is not large, the positioning of cars in East Africa is divided into two types: ordinary consumer goods and luxury goods.

This also reflects the ambition of the East African government, which is to promote cars to the civilian class in East Africa. This plan seemed crazy in the 19th century, but for Ernst, it was very reasonable. After all, in his previous life, cars were a normal means of transportation.

Of course, while East Africa was vigorously developing automobiles, it did not give up research on trams. In the past, research on trams was actually not much later than that on automobiles. It was just that there were few cars in the world in the early days and the world's oil energy was sufficient. However, with the rapid increase in the number of industries and automobiles and the impact of the oil crisis, people had to re-research trams in the 21st century. However, nearly a hundred years of time was wasted in the meantime, which seriously hindered the development of trams.

Therefore, East Africa can retain the development of electric vehicles when other countries in the world are turning to the development of gasoline vehicles, which is beneficial to the future development of East Africa. Moreover, electric vehicles have a wide range of application scenarios. In Ernst's view, electric vehicles, motor vehicles, and new energy vehicles in the past are all electric vehicles, including the current trams.

It can be said that Ernst has clearly arranged the direction of development of the next world science and technology in East Africa. As long as there is no outflow of talent and technology due to defeat like in Germany, the fruits grown from the seeds planted by Ernst will be enough for East Africa to consume for hundreds of years in the future.

Of course, for now, the East African government’s car popularization plan still has a long way to go. Take the current domestic car production and sales model in East Africa, for example, which is very different from that in foreign countries.

However, this difference will not hinder the development of East Africa's automobile industry. In the past, the Soviet Union implemented a more thorough planned economy than East Africa, and was able to achieve a car ownership level similar to that of European and American countries. East Africa can naturally do the same.

What the Soviet automobile industry lacked was a slow response to market demand. After all, the Soviet people could only enjoy what vehicles the Soviet automobile factories produced, rather than what the Soviet people needed and what the Soviet automobile factories produced.

East Africa can still avoid this. After all, East Africa's automobile production is composed of two major parts, the Heilongjiang Consortium and state-owned enterprises. The Heilongjiang Consortium is an out-and-out private capital. The production of its automobile brands is completely on the same track as the international ones. It also covers and participates in many foreign automobile manufacturers and can feed back data to East African state-owned enterprises.

As a naval personnel, Tirpitz did not pay much attention to East Africa's cars. East Africa has always been a major automobile producing country. The world's first car was produced in East Africa, and there are many car brands sold in the international market in East Africa. However, this does not reflect the production situation of East Africa's domestic automobile industry.

Naturally, the East African government would not reveal the secrets of the development of East Africa's automobile industry to Tirpitz, an outsider. Cars are not just a form of transportation, but are also closely related to East Africa's military, transportation, and industrial development.

Especially when the East African military is equipped with a large number of vehicles, this is quite advanced among the armies around the world.

Although they only wandered around the station in Mbeya, it was an eye-opener for Tirpitz and other Germans. Mbeya broke the Germans' imagination that the inland of Middle East Africa was "desolate", "dangerous" and "uninhabited".

After all, East Africa is a closed country, and almost no outsiders have been able to penetrate into the heart of this country before, so the existence of the city of Mbeya shattered the false fantasies of Tirpitz and others.

The climate here is pleasant and the scenery is magnificent. It is not the place where "malaria is rampant" or "civilized desert" as rumored. Of course, this is only limited to East Africa. If it is other places in Africa, it is still very appropriate.

Apart from anything else, it is easy to figure out the situation in Cameroon, the Germans' own colony, which basically corresponds to the negative propaganda about Africa.

Of course, the environment in Cameroon, Gabon and Belgian Congo in Africa is indeed worse. They are basically tropical rainforest areas. Even East Africa cannot have a significant ability to transform tropical rainforest areas, let alone these colonies with even more sparse populations.

The core area of ​​West Africa is still the tropical savannah region north of the Gulf of Guinea. However, from a climate perspective, it is still somewhat inferior to East Africa. After all, West Africa has relatively fewer plateaus and a relatively low altitude, so it is hotter. However, West Africa's mineral resources are indeed very rich, especially oil, iron ore, bauxite and other resources.

(End of this chapter)