Not long ago, the Supreme People's Court appointed the Second Intermediate People's Court of the Capital to bring together the cases in which Suzuki and General Motors sued Zhonghua Group for infringement of intellectual property rights, and Zhonghua Group's countersue Suzuki and General Motors for unfair competition.

Because this is the first case of automobile intellectual property rights after China joins the TO, the SPC transferred the case from Hujiang City to the capital court.

At the first hearing, the two parties were in the stage of exchanging part of the evidence with each other, and the trial process of this kind of case of being sued and counterclaimed was very cumbersome, after all, several independent cases were combined for trial.

On the day of the trial, the case attracted many reporters from home and abroad, and the outcome of the court's judgment will be related to the future business trend of tens of billions or even hundreds of billions of dollars in China's auto market.

What foreign media are worried about is that if Zhonghua Group wins or loses, then domestic independent auto brands will have the confidence to unscrupulously copy mature foreign brands. What the domestic media are concerned about is that once Zhonghua Group loses the lawsuit, then in the future, foreign brands will use patents as weapons to sue independent brands at every turn to hinder their development and growth.

Depending on the position, the outcome of the concern will not be the same.

Because it was a trade secret matter, the case was not heard in public, and the reporter was not allowed to attend the hearing.

At the end of the trial in the morning, reporters from home and abroad who were squatting at the gate of the Second Intermediate People's Court in the capital surrounded them when they saw the lawyer coming out.

"We have reached a settlement agreement with General Motors, and both sides will drop their lawsuits. ”

The lawyer representing Zhonghua Group, who had a spring breeze on his face, announced the above news to the media.

Based on the conditions for withdrawing from the restructuring of Wuling Group, General Motors agreed to the request to withdraw the lawsuit, and today came to the court to formally submit the application, which was approved by the court.

GM's compromise did not deter Suzuki, who insisted on winning or losing the plagiarism scandal in court.

"GM is GM, Suzuki is Suzuki, the fact that Huaxia Light copied Suzuki models will not change, we do not accept the settlement, and we resolutely ask the court to give a verdict!"

GM's withdrawal is a big blow to Suzuki in terms of morale, but GM has already been angry with Suzuki before the trial, so Suzuki's lawyers have already prepared to deal with it today.

After the case was transferred from Hujiang City to the capital, a lawyer familiar with China's national conditions persuaded Suzuki to accept the settlement plan of Zhonghua Group and get back the 30 million settlement money, because this is not just a commercial case.

But this proposal was vetoed by Suzuki's head Osamu Suzuki, who said that it was not a matter of money, but a matter of the dignity of Suzuki Motors.

With the top ten foreign car brands entering China, Suzuki Motors, which came to China early in the morning, is facing a situation of being marginalized in addition to secretly falling out with its partner Changan Automobile. Osamu Suzuki has always believed that what China needs is a micro-car of less than 100,000 yuan like India, and cars with more than 100,000 yuan are not the mainstream of the market. However, joint venture brands have put into production cars of more than 100,000 yuan, and the market reaction indicates that Suzuki's market judgment has been deviated.

Now that the door to reconciliation is closed, the China Group can only meet with Suzuki in court.

Although GM withdrew the lawsuit in court, this does not mean that they ignore the China Group. After announcing the establishment of the SAIC-GM-Wuling joint venture, GM is ready to challenge Zhonghua Group's supremacy in the domestic micro-car field.

They will introduce global resources to create a micro-face that can compete with Huaxia Light, and will also introduce QQ's prototype Daewoo Matiz to China, so as to strive to compete with Zhonghua Group in the field of micro-cars.

In addition, GM has also prepared a killer Lacetti model, which was born from Daewoo's R&D team, which will integrate GM's global resources to enter the Chinese market. The new car will be designed by Pininfarina of Italy, the power system provided by Horton of Australia, the chassis provided by Opel of Germany, and the interior provided by GM Pan Asia Center of China.

This model, which was highly anticipated by GM, entered China with a nice name - Kaiyue.

The target range of Kaiyue will be locked in the 150,000 sedan range, and the current competitors are not only the old three, but also newcomers such as Elantra, Fumilai, Polo, Vios, and Lingshuai.

Every joint venture brand that enters China claims to occupy 10% of the market share, so it will have to take advantage of Volkswagen, which accounts for more than 60% of the sedan share. Under pressure from many competitors, Volkswagen continues to make efforts in the Chinese market.

Gower and Golf were introduced to China respectively, and were given to SAIC-Volkswagen and FAW-Volkswagen as two major partners.

Although there is only a one-word difference, the Gower and the Golf are not comparable, the Gower comes from the two-door sedan developed by Volkswagen specifically for the Brazilian market, and is the lowest-level entry model in the Volkswagen family, one level lower than the Polo. The Golf, on the other hand, is Volkswagen's magic weapon, with more than 20 million hatchbacks and four-door models sold worldwide, and is a star model that Volkswagen is proud of.

Judging from the selling price, Gower is 7.5-100,000 yuan, and the Golf is as high as 15-180,000 yuan, which shows that one Golf can be worth two Gowers.

I heard that the Volkswagen brand car was only sold for 75,000 yuan, and the landing was less than 100,000 yuan, and many consumers ran to SAIC Volkswagen's 4S to see the car with great interest.

Seeing the newly listed two-door version of Gower, everyone's heart is cold, in addition to being a hatchback, it is still a two-door version of the model, which is really not in line with the appetite of the Chinese people. What's even more chilling is the low-profile version of Gower, the configuration is outrageously low, there is no radio and air conditioning, there is only a bare steering wheel in the car, and all the equipment that can be saved is saved.

"Four wheels, two sofas, one steering wheel, that's it!"

This is the first reaction of many consumers after watching Gower.

Consumers who hope to be able to pick up big bargains after joining TO find themselves still too naïve, and Volkswagen's purported cars below 80,000 yuan can't be driven at all.

"After comparison, I think it is still a domestic brand, and this Gaoer is too far behind the Chinese 'Qin'!"

After comparing the cars in their hearts, consumers feel that it is more cost-effective to see Chinese cars.

To celebrate the first anniversary of the launch of the Zhonghua Qin, Zhonghua Motor launched the 1.6-liter and 1.8-liter anniversary models. In addition to the increase of 3000-5000 yuan configuration in the whole system, it is also 2000 yuan lower than last year's price, 1.6L entry-level Zhonghua "Qin" price is only 68,800 yuan, and 1.8L entry-level model is 89,800 yuan, one plus one minus compared with last year's Zhonghua "Qin" actually reduced the price by 5000-6000 yuan.

However, due to the announcement that all the old models will be discontinued, the negative impact of the price reduction on consumers will be minimal, because the price reduction of the old model is not directly announced, but the new model is used instead.

In order to ensure the first camp of domestic car sales, on the basis of many joint venture brands have launched car products, Zhonghua Group has taken the initiative to make profits and continue to maintain the ultra-high cost-effective advantage in the domestic market.

Domestic independent brands and joint venture brands have formed a certain tacit understanding, the joint venture focuses on the 150,000 yuan market, and the domestic brand makes a fuss around the 100,000 yuan market.

For example, the fourth-generation Golf produced by FAW-Volkswagen has a starting price of 149,800 yuan, and after Citroen's introduction of China's Fukang model to arouse the awareness of hatchbacks, Volkswagen continues to introduce the best-selling hatchback in Europe into China, striving to achieve a new sales myth.

"There is no end to the end, and it is not beautiful at first sight", hatchbacks have always been unsuitable in China, but Volkswagen is determined to develop this new field, so the new Polo, Gower and Golf are all hatchback models.

In addition to the two months when SARS was at its worst, the sales of the Zhonghua "Qin" fell to 6,000 units, as the epidemic dissipated and the new anniversary version was launched, the sales of the Zhonghua "Qin" quickly climbed back to the 10,000 mark, becoming the most eye-catching star sedan in the market.

Since its birth, Pangu Engine has been in service for almost 5 years, and has made indelible contributions to the rise of Zhonghua Group in these 5 years.

Whoever wins the engine wins the world, this sentence has been fully verified.

However, with the advancement of technology, the first generation of Pangu engines is also about to be retired.

After the birth of the first generation of Pangu engine, Zhonghua Group continued to cooperate with AVL to develop the second generation of Pangu engine.

After more than 4 years of joint research and development, the successful development of the most critical intelligent variable valve system has made the Pangu engine equipped with the international mainstream technology of I-VVT, and has become a product that can stand shoulder to shoulder with the international standard. In addition, the overcoming of multi-point EFI technology has further shortened the gap between Pangu Engine and international giants.

The most important thing is that Zhonghua Group's own EMS can be developed in tandem with the second-generation engine, and significant progress has been made, and it may be matched with the second-generation engine in the future.

Today is the routine test of the second-generation Pangu engine, from the data that has been obtained, the power of the new generation of 1.8L Pangu engine will be increased by 25% compared with the original, and fuel consumption will be reduced by 30%.

At the push of the switch button, the new generation of Pangu engine began the bench durability test again.

The measurement system continuously reads the power output value of the engine and applies the corresponding load to the engine, including alternating stress, alternating thermal load, etc., to simulate the situation that the engine may encounter under actual conditions, so as to test its reliability.

On the other side, an auxiliary system continuously delivers cooling water, lubricating oil and gasoline to the prototype to ensure that it can run continuously for a long time.

High-temperature cameras installed in the combustion chamber continuously transmit engine injection, ignition, and combustion to the engineer's computer screen, helping designers to improve the intake airflow, fuel injection angle, piston top shape, and more.

Judging from the current test progress, the new second-generation Pangu engine is expected to be available early next year and be installed on the new model.

Among the domestic independent brands, the development path of Zhonghua Group has become the object of imitation by many other manufacturers.

Chery Automobile's existing 1.6-liter engine was outdated, so they had to develop a new engine. Since AVL can help Zhonghua Group to develop and find new gold mines in the Chinese market, many local manufacturers here need their help.

Soon, Chery and AVL formally reached an agreement, and AVL will assist Chery in developing more than a dozen engines ranging from 0.8L to 4.0L, including gasoline and diesel. Such a large amount of money is unmatched even by the Chunghwa Group, and Chery's plan shows its ambitious development goals.

From 3 cylinders to 4 cylinders, and then from 6 cylinders to 8 cylinders, Chery wants to make up for all backward products in one go, and invests heavily in engines.

On the contrary, Zhonghua Group only made enough fuss on the 4-cylinder engine, and after the development of the second-generation Pangu engine, it directly entered the turbine stage, and no longer spent effort to pursue 6-cylinder and 8-cylinder products that were destined to be eliminated.

Both international and domestic auto brands are preparing for the war in order to survive in the fierce market competition in the future.