With their wisdom and hands, human beings have transformed nature, standing out from the hundreds of millions of living beings on the earth and possessing the ability to change the world.

But when it comes to nature, human beings are still small and helpless.

"Boom—"

On March 11, a loud tremor sounded at the bottom of the western Pacific Ocean, and a magnitude 9 earthquake suddenly occurred, which was the fifth strongest earthquake since mankind preserved the record of earthquake observations, and it had a huge power to destroy the world.

The earthquake then triggered huge waves, 6 to 10 meters high, crashing towards the shore and striking Japan with a tsunami that had never been seen before.

"Wow-wow-wow-"

Sirens sounded over Japan's coastline, alerting residents in low-lying coastal areas to evacuate and prepare for the arrival of a super tsunami.

Despite the tsunami warning, the sudden impact of the huge waves ruthlessly destroyed the human home, and the originally lively streets and quiet communities were instantly turned into an ocean.

More than 20,000 people have died in disappearances, many people have been displaced, and the Fukushima nuclear power plant has caused a nuclear accident that has dealt a major blow to the Japanese economy.

Among them, most of the core components such as engines and transmissions are locally produced Japanese cars, which were hit hard by the impact of the earthquake, and many parts factories were suspended, which directly affected the normal operation of OEMs.

Toyota, Honda, and Nissan have announced the suspension of production at their local factories one after another, and have begun to assess the impact of the disaster on the global automotive supply chain in order to adjust the production plans of overseas plants.

It is reported that the disaster is preliminarily estimated to cause a disruption to the global automotive supply chain for one to two months, and when Japanese companies can resume factory production depends on the disaster relief situation.

In the wake of the disaster, international economic institutions have lowered their global car sales targets for this year by 5 to 10 percent. As the world's largest export base for automobiles and parts, Japan will affect the global market if there is a change. ”

Reporters who rushed to the scene immediately sent back various reports from the disaster area, showing that the automotive industry, which is the backbone of Japan's manufacturing industry, has suffered heavy losses.

Under the globalization of the economic division of labor, the interruption of production by Japanese suppliers has not only affected Japanese automakers, but also automakers in the United States, Europe, and even China.

Japanese automakers, which had just come together to make a big splash in the Chinese market, had to turn around and go home to deal with the post-disaster reconstruction, and the plans they had promised to help their Chinese partners were further delayed.

Akio Toyoda was very depressed, and Toyota, which was gradually recovering from the subprime mortgage crisis, just wanted to make a big difference in the U.S. market when it encountered an "acceleration gate" blow. He was about to go all out to develop the Chinese market, but suddenly suffered from the impact of the earthquake and tsunami, and had to temporarily interrupt the planned plan and rush back to the base camp to fight the fire.

According to the current bad situation, the Japanese auto giants are too busy to take care of themselves, and they will not have time to take care of too many foreign markets this year.

Iron also needs to be hard.

Volkswagen's large-scale purchase of Aisin AT transmissions could not escape the aftermath of this disaster, and Aisin will definitely be choked by the neck to limit the supply, which is expected to strengthen their belief in popularizing the self-developed dual-clutch DSG.

The auto giants that have suffered the least from the impact of the earthquake are South Korea's Hyundai and Chunghwa Group.

Because in line with the principle of independence, Hyundai Motor has a complete set of auto parts industry system located in South Korea, and Zhonghua Group, not to mention the layout of parts enterprises in China has blossomed everywhere.

Zhonghua Group can complete 100% of the procurement alternatives of the whole vehicle in China, and the confidence lies in the fact that the main parts of the vehicle, such as the engine and transmission, can be independently developed and organized for production, and the lifeblood is firmly in its own hands.

Although Han Hao is very sympathetic to the plight of the people in the disaster areas in Japan, he has to admit that this has given the Zhonghua Group an excellent opportunity, and the market gap left by Japanese automobiles after the vitality is greatly damaged will be filled by newcomers.

He also didn't know that the original Japanese joint crackdown on the Chunghwa Group had to be postponed due to unexpected disasters, which in turn gave him greater opportunities for development.

God bless China!

As China's largest car company, Zhonghua Group has only one joint venture partner with BMW, which is significantly different from the state-owned "three big and three small" car companies, which often have several joint venture partners.

Of course, if strictly from the legal sense, two joint ventures, Land Rover and Volvo, were added later, both of which entered the Chinese market according to the nature of foreign brands, but they all had the same father behind them.

Who is the president of the Chung Hwa BMW Joint Venture?

Han Hao!

Since BMW entered China, he has always put the promotion of the BMW brand in the first place.

It is precisely because of the efforts of Zhonghua Group that the joint venture brand of Zhonghua BMW can catch up with the latter, which is enough to wrestle with the pioneer Audi in China.

However, after Han Hao bought the Land Rover and Volvo brands, the situation changed a little, and BMW's German headquarters had more ideas.

Originally, according to Han Hao's plan, BMW X1, X3 and even X5 will be introduced into China, especially the X3, a mid-size SUV will be a strong competitor for China's wealthy families to buy cars.

The rise of SUVs in the global market is already an unstoppable trend, and it can gradually compete with sedans.

When he learned that Audi was preparing to introduce the Q3 and Q5 into China, Han Hao, as the president of BMW China, suggested to the German side to speed up the pace of introducing BMW SUVs.

However, it is a pity that the German headquarters believes that what is lacking in the Chinese auto market is not the expensive X3, but the 1 Series BMW model, which is more suitable for entry-level families.

According to their forecast, it is more appropriate for the X3 to have annual sales of less than 3,000 units in the form of imports, and if the 1 series is produced in China, it will bring 3 to 50,000 new market shares.

It is difficult to support the sky of the Chinese market with the 3 Series and 5 Series alone, so the sales of domestic BMW in China have been hovering around 120,000 in the past two years, which is a big gap with Audi's announcement that its annual sales in China will exceed 240,000 units.

Since the BMW headquarters was not in a hurry, and Han Hao did not take the initiative to urge, the two sides temporarily shelved the dispute over the introduction of more domestic models. Anyway, the Land Rover Aurora has already begun to be produced in China, and Volvo's joint venture plant is also under construction, and once the XC60 is released, it will take the lead in the Chinese market.

Unexpectedly, after the domestic Audi Q5 was launched in March 2010, it triggered a rush to buy, and the price increase of 3 to 50,000 yuan lasted for a whole year. In that year, the 40,000 unit mark was completed, and now monthly sales are stable at more than 5,000 units.

The market gap of domestic luxury mid-size SUVs is monopolized by Audi Q5, and there are no competitors in the price range of 40-550,000 yuan.

That is to say, the sales volume of the domestic Q5 in China in one month exceeded the performance of the BMW X3 in one year, and the Chinese market once again proved its magic, slapping the predictions of foreign experts in the face.

At this moment, BMW's headquarters can no longer sit still, and cannot watch Audi grab money in the Chinese market, just from the Q5 car calculation, the Volkswagen Group can take no less than 500 million US dollars of net profits from China. The transfer of imported parts and components makes a profit, and then takes half of the dividends from the joint venture company, which is really a huge profit.

Based on this, BMW's German headquarters took the initiative to send people to Jiangzhou to inspect, in fact, to contact Han Hao again to negotiate, hoping to introduce the new X3 to the Chinese market.

In the past few years, BMW has been able to look down on China's independent growth partner, and they have been circling in the economy car circle. However, the rapid development in recent years, especially after the annexation of Land Rover and Volvo, coupled with the fact that its annual sales have jumped to the fourth place in the world, and the revenue and profitability are extremely impressive, BMW has to treat this Chinese joint venture partner equally.

Among all BMW's global factories, BMW's joint venture factory can be ranked among the top three in terms of management and quality control, and has been awarded the title of "Model Factory", which is not inferior to the local model Leipzig plant in Germany.

The products of the Jiangzhou plant in China are of better quality than those of the BMW plant in Thailand, which is unanimously recognized by both consumers and the German headquarters.

In the past, it was an honor to be able to work in the BMW factory, and the treatment was better than that of the self-owned brand factory, so it attracted many outstanding talents to join. However, with the efforts of the two major brands of Zhonghua and Huaxia, the sales of independent vehicles have risen sharply, and the salary and bonus treatment have begun to surpass a head higher, so that the light of the joint venture plant of China BMW is no longer dazzling.

"Zhonghua BMW is at most a foundry, while the factories of Zhonghua and Huaxia brands are real OEMs. ”

The words that circulated among the internal employees are enough to explain what everyone really thinks.

Insisting that there is only one BMW and one standard in the world, the joint venture company of China BMW has no decision-making power to modify the product, even if the previous lengthening design has to be carried out at the German headquarters.

"Let the Germans wait a little longer and show them more of our new factory, and the new Volvo factory can also be visited. If their spirit is not dampened, the stubborn Germans will copy foreign experience and come to China.

The mouths of the BMW headquarters keep saying that their rival is only Mercedes, and barely add an Audi, but what they do is not at all. ”

Han Hao has been using a business trip as an excuse not to receive representatives from the BMW headquarters in Germany, and he wants to dry the other party to get more chips.

The success of the Q5 proves that the introduction of the X3 is just around the corner, but Han Hao hopes to delegate more power to the Chinese market, such as the establishment of the BMW Research Institute in China, which will be completed in the future.

China BMW is a major source of stable profits for the group, and it is also a powerful weapon against Audi and Mercedes-Benz.

After two days, Han Hao, who was "busy with everything", finally had time to meet with the representatives of the German side and sat down at the negotiating table.

"What kind of impact will the domestic production of Land Rover and Volvo have on our BMW?"

After many days of anxious waiting, the German representative bluntly asked questions.

"BMW's main competitors in China are Audi and Mercedes-Benz, and as for Land Rover and Volvo, they will develop in segments. Even if there is competition, it will be healthy and sustainable.

Who are our enemies and who are our friends?

I'm sure you'll understand what I'm doing now. ”

Han Hao does not believe that Land Rover and Volvo can threaten BMW's global position, but that doesn't mean they don't have the right market space.

The two sides had very frank talks behind closed doors, exchanged views with each other, and finally reached an agreement.

BMW announced that it will launch the X1, X3 and 1 Series models in the Chinese market in the next five years, with the X3 coming in as a pioneer. At the same time, the China BMW Automotive Research Institute was established in Jiangzhou to carry out R&D and design for the Chinese market, and to decentralize power to China, the largest automobile market.

"We have had a very pleasant cooperation with Chung Wah Group and have not sought the possibility of another joint venture partner.

In China, becoming the No. 1 market share of luxury cars will be our goal in the future. ”

In response to the suggestion that BMW may cooperate with SAIC, the German people gave a negative answer, and they did not want to offend the prosperous China Group. According to them, the benefits of a joint venture with Zhonghua Group in China are far greater than those of other new partners.