On 15 March 2001, the National People's Congress adopted the Outline of the Tenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development. For the first time, the words "encourage cars to enter the home" are explicitly included in this "outline" with legal status.

From this day, China officially entered the first year of family cars, and the long-awaited four-wheeled society of Chinese is about to open the curtain of history.

1908, 1937, and 1966 were the first years when automobiles entered the homes of Americans, Germans, and Japanese, respectively. Half a century behind, until 2001, it was finally the turn of Chinese to step into the automobile society, and cars were no longer luxury goods, but incarnated as daily necessities and flew into thousands of households.

This is equivalent to a big reassurance for the long-awaited international auto giants, and the eastern country, which accounts for a quarter of the world's population, is undoubtedly the next gold mine with unlimited potential. Whoever can take the lead in the Chinese market will be able to win the initiative in the industry qualifying battle in the new century.

In April, Changan Ford joint venture was officially established, and Ford first sounded the clarion call to attack the Chinese market. The company announced that it will launch all three major players in the Chinese market, namely Carnival, Focus and Mondeo, to meet the Chinese consumers' pursuit of first-class automotive products.

Immediately afterwards, Volkswagen announced that it would launch the Polo and Bora sedan models to its two major joint venture partners in the north and south of China, respectively, in order to further consolidate Volkswagen's leading position in the Chinese market. The Germans were slow to change from their previous arrogance because they felt threatened by other competitors.

Volkswagen has used a good balancing act in China, treating the two partners of FAW and SAIC without distinction between them, and taking advantage of the competition between the Chinese side to seek maximum benefits. Give a date here, and immediately send a candy there, firmly tying China's two major automobile state-owned enterprise groups to their chariots.

In the face of the pressing of competitors, General Motors, which has just tasted the sweetness from the Chinese market, also immediately announced that it will launch the Sail station wagon and the new generation of Buick Regal sedan. In the face of the aging of the old three models in the Chinese car market, it is a good opportunity for the car to reshuffle and start again.

Driven by these competitors, Honda announced that it would launch an Odyssey, and Citroen would introduce the Picasso MPV into production.

All of a sudden, a new round of arms race has been set off in China's auto market, and the major joint venture foreign giants have brought their home models to China, preparing to fight a big war in this eastern land.

For ordinary consumers, these are great good news, but for China's independent car companies that are just starting out, they are a big bad news.

Take Zhonghua and Chery, which are now hot in the market, for example, the models launched all have the shadow of foreign sedans, which belong to the primary imitation stage products. Now these imitation products have to face the competition from the most advanced cars in the world, and it is clear which is stronger and which is weak.

Although it has not officially joined the TO, its negative impact has already been felt, and China's own brand cars have begun to be hit by foreign giants.

"How long can the red flag last?"

A press release has attracted the attention of the whole society, and the "red flag" here not only refers to the FAW Xiaohongqi car, but also contains the meaning of the entire Chinese independent car brand.

In the article, the reporter called on the people to support their own brands, and the state should consciously support and protect their own brands, and not let their own car brands fall victim to TO.

Han Hao saw the signature and found that it was written by Li Guoan, who had been campaigning for China's own automobile brands.

Although the state has won a five-year tariff protection period for domestically produced cars, it is powerless to control the product launch of the joint venture. Multinational auto giants can easily suppress the fledgling national car industry by launching globally synchronized models in joint ventures.

The worst-case scenario for the top management is that China's own brand sedans will collapse, and only joint venture brand models will be left in the market. However, due to the existence of a 50% holding ratio, in a certain sense, it can ensure the presence of Chinese auto companies, after all, the joint venture brand car is produced in China, and to a certain extent, it can be regarded as a "domestic car". Behind the attitude of self-deception is pessimism about China's own brands.

"Brother Guoan, the heart of a child can be seen in the world, and I am very pleased to read your report. I invite you to Jiangzhou, and I will show you a good thing. ”

Taking the initiative to call, Han Hao invited this old friend of the Zhonghua Group to come for inspection.

The China Automobile Research Institute has been in full swing with many top-secret projects, and now Han Hao specially called, there must be a breakthrough in major projects, Li Guoan immediately handed over the work at hand and stepped on the plane to Jiangzhou.

When he arrived in Jiangzhou, regardless of the fatigue of the journey, Li Guoan asked Han Hao to quickly show off the good things to see.

In the test site of the new China Automobile Research Institute, Li Guoan saw a QQ car parked in the middle of the site.

It looks no different from the mass-produced models on the market, and Li Guoan walked in to watch it, and then he saw some clues.

The back seat of the QQ was removed and replaced with a black square, and in the driving position he noticed a rather big anomaly - there was no transmission.

"Is this ......?"

Li Guoan frowned, continued to circle the car, and then opened the hood.

"Sure enough!"

His thoughts were not wrong, and Li Guoan happily patted his thigh.

"You guys got it out? It's a secret, and there's not a word about it. ”

As he spoke, he opened the car door, and Li Guoan sat down.

It turns out that the so-called good thing is a pure electric QQ car, and the black square in the back seat is the battery pack.

Under the guidance of Han Hao, Li Guoan started the vehicle and carefully drove three laps at the test site.

"It feels like you're driving a scooter motorcycle, but with an extra compartment. The instantaneous acceleration is very fast, but the power is still insufficient. ”

After the test drive, Li Guoan walked down to summarize his feelings.

"This is China's first autonomous electric car, and I can't imagine that your Zhonghua Group is one step ahead. After winning the first concept car in China, he also won the title of the first electric sedan. It was a lifetime for me to drive this 'good thing' that will go down in the history of China's automobile industry. ”

Stroking the roof of the electric QQ, Li Guoan sighed emotionally.

When foreign auto giants have seized the time to develop electric cars, Zhonghua Group has quietly come up with its own products. Judging from my own test drive experience, this car is not a prototype, and it has the feasibility of mass production in the future.

"On a single charge, it can travel 30 kilometers and reach a maximum speed of 80 kilometers per hour. ”

Han Hao introduced the product data of this electric QQ, which can be driven on the road, but it is only an experimental product.

Thanks to the technology accumulation of Huaxia electric motorcycles, the achievements in motors, batteries and electronic control can be smoothly transformed into the automotive field.

Due to the restriction of motorcycles in large and medium-sized cities, it provides a broad market opportunity for electric motorcycles. Taking advantage of first-mover technology and scale effect, Huaxia Electric Motorcycle has now become a leading electric vehicle brand in the market, with annual sales rising from 100,000 units last year to 400,000 units.

This shows that in the city, ordinary people have a strong demand for transportation, since motorcycles are not on the road due to pollution problems, then now green energy electric motorcycles do not have environmental protection problems, can be purchased and used.

Public transportation in cities is underdeveloped and there is a strong demand from the public, so the government has turned a blind eye to the development of electric motorcycles.

Taking advantage of the practical opportunity of electric motorcycles, Zhonghua Group has accumulated valuable experience in electric technology, which has been naturally transplanted to the automotive field.

Now this QQ electric car is a new achievement, jointly developed by China Automotive Research Institute and Zhehai University of Technology.

"This is a good number, but for mass production, the battery needs to make breakthrough progress, and the range is too short to be commercialized on a large scale. ”

As half an automotive expert, Li Guoan advised.

Battery technology is indeed being tackled all over the world, and everyone knows that the future will be the world of electric vehicles, but to achieve this goal, the first problem is to solve the battery technology.

After visiting the QQ electric car, Li Guoan asked about the transmission, after all, the breakup of Zhonghua and Getrag caused a lot of trouble in the domestic industry.

Han Hao took him to another laboratory, where a large group of engineers were busy.

"You've already developed a 5MT transmission, no wonder Getrag wants to break up with you, are they afraid that the apprentices of the church will starve to death of the master!"

Seeing the gear structure diagram of the 5MT marked on the gear knob of the transmission, Li Guoan knew that this was a new product of Zhonghua Group.

"The manual transmission is technically difficult, but we were able to get some technology transfer results from GETRAG and it was only natural that we developed the 5MT. Compared to automatic transmissions, which are college students, manual transmissions are only at the level of middle school students.

To be honest, we didn't really think about breaking up with Getrag, they took the initiative to ask for it. I suspect that there is a loose alliance between German OEMs and parts manufacturers, and they are working together on some strategic choices. ”

Taking advantage of Li Guoan's presence, Han Hao expressed his suspicions.

The timing of Getrag's choice to break up with Bosch's palace was too coincidental for him to have doubts.

"Yes, it is also normal, whether it is Germany, Japan and other countries, their automobile companies are all together to safeguard the overall interests of the country.

In the future, if our country's automobile industry grows, I hope to learn from their collective consciousness. The competition between enterprises is not only the enterprise itself, but also the embodiment of the will of the country. ”

After a long time on the battlefield, Li Guoan took this opportunity to instill in Han Hao the idea of independent brands joining forces to fight together.

On the bench, I tried the domestic 5MT transmission by hand, and Li Guoan found that the gear speed was good, and the only problem was how reliable it was.

"I should be able to try mass production in three months, and I learned some technology from Getrag before. I plan to build a new transmission plant with an annual production capacity of 150,000 units in the first phase. This episode of Getrag may also be a good thing, forcing us to produce core components and products independently. ”

Foreigners are unreliable, and they still have to rely on themselves to develop, and Han Hao has a deeper understanding of the phrase self-reliance.

"Elder Chen and I were quite optimistic about you at the beginning, and you really didn't disappoint us. I'm going to call and tell Mr. Chen the good news here, so that he can be happy too. To tell you the truth, the article I wrote before was instructed by Mr. Chen, who has always been concerned about the development of our domestic independent brand. ”

In front of Han Hao, Li Guoan dialed Chen Lao's phone.

Sure enough, on the phone, he heard that the Zhonghua Group had come up with an electric car, which made Chen Lao as excited as a child to learn that there was a new toy, and he asked to go to Jiangzhou immediately to see China's first electric car.

The date of the Hujiang International Auto Show is quite close, and Han Hao can't bear to let Chen Lao rush over just to take a look at the QQ electric car. It took him a lot of effort to persuade Mr. Chen to calm down, and at that time, the China Group will publicly display this electric car, which can be carefully appreciated at the auto show.

Li Guoan returned to the capital, and at the same time brought back a big news.

Soon, the report that Zhonghua Group successfully developed China's first electric car came out, and with a large picture, the electric QQ became the lucky one recorded in the history of Chinese automobiles.

This immediately attracted the attention of other central media, including the People's Daily and CCTV, who came to Jiangzhou to catch a glimpse of China's first electric car.

With their reports, soon the electric QQ has become a well-known hot spot for the people of the whole country recently, and everyone knows that Zhonghua Group has made a new high-tech thing.

The media reports also alarmed the central ministries and commissions, and they specially sent a team of experts to the site to investigate and see if the electric QQ lived up to its name.

"We are on the same starting line as foreign countries, and now we see that the level of electric QQ has reached the international advanced level, and it is not an exaggeration to call it China's first electric car. ”

The members of the expert group commented that it seems that they are very satisfied with this QQ.

From the first concept car to the first electric car, Zhonghua Group has begun to gain many supporters in China with its excellent R&D capabilities.

On the online forum, they called themselves the "China Guard" and began to take the initiative to promote the products of the China Group, calling on everyone to support domestic brands with real conscience.

Many people also practice it and post the Zhonghua Group products they buy on the Internet, ranging from motorcycles to cars.

When international auto giants have expressed their intention to increase investment in the Chinese market, there is a figure absent from the scene, and Toyota has not announced any major moves.

Huge whirlpools often lie beneath the calm surface of the lake, and since Akio Toyoda took the helm of the China business, Toyota has been as silent as a master of the game.

The Xiali 2000, which had high hopes, did not sell well in the market, and its 100,000 yuan family car positioning was defeated by GM Sail, and it had to face the attack of Zhonghua and Chery's domestic sedans.

In addition, in the micro-car market, Xiali Automobile continued to stage the tragedy of high-platform diving, and Xiali, which was originally China's first micro-car brand, suddenly seemed to be half-dead as if suffering from a serious illness.

Although the Xiali direction asked Toyota to launch new models such as the Corolla, Akio Toyoda ignored it. Toyota Motor has used up two major joint ventures in China, one is Shuchuan Automobile and the other is Tianjin Automobile Group. Now it seems that the two joint venture partners have a very poor market position in China, and Akio Toyoda can't understand why his predecessor wanted to find such a joint venture.

From the perspective of Volkswagen, the most successful car company in the Chinese market, they turned to FAW and SAIC, two of China's strongest automobile companies, as a joint venture, and achieved very good results. Whether it is management ability or government resources, the Chinese companies listed in the top three have unparalleled competitive advantages.

Therefore, Akio Toyoda intends to make a strategic adjustment to Toyota in China, and Toyota will also follow the example of Volkswagen and only cooperate with China's strongest state-owned automobile group.