The so-called platform development, in fact, is not a very new concept, as early as the sixties, the United States General Motors and Ford have been developing new models in this way, but after entering the nineties, affected by the economic crisis, car manufacturers in order to reduce costs, the platform strategy has once again gained the attention of major car companies.

And over time, almost every automaker has developed several platforms of their own.

However, Wang Yuanchao and others did not know much about the concept of platformization, so after listening to Zhou Jingming's words, the three of them looked at each other, and it was obvious that they did not know what a "platform strategy" was.

Zhou Jingming smiled, "Let me explain to you this, when consumers buy a car, they are most concerned about whether they only have the specific performance of the vehicle, as well as what the color of the vehicle is, how the interior parts are, etc., how the chassis of the vehicle is designed, whether the engine is horizontal or vertical, how the gearbox is designed, these invisible and intangible parts, consumers will not pay too much attention when buying a car." ”

Zhou Jingming said this, Wang Yuanchao and others also nodded in agreement, after all, the car is a highly specialized product, when consumers buy a car, what can attract them at once is the shape of the vehicle, how the interior parts, and the price and performance, really tell them how the engine of the car is, consumers may not be able to understand.

So from a sales point of view, enhancing the design of vehicle styling and reducing the homogenization between cars is actually a good competitive strategy.

"Therefore, the idea of the platform strategy is very simple, since consumers do not pay too much attention to the chassis and engine components, then when we develop vehicles, can we share these systems? The engine and suspension components are used as a common architecture, and while designing a car, we also take into account the design of the next car, and only carefully crafted in terms of body shape and interior, which is actually the core idea of the platform strategy. ”

"For example, when we develop an SUV project, we can use the engine and chassis of the Kirin sedan or Phoenix sedan, and then we only need to redesign the exterior and interior of the SUV."

"It's understandable. However, for the development of SUVs this time, I do not plan to use any model of Kirin sedan or Phoenix sedan as a development template, I want to start with this SUV and redesign a development platform, and in the subsequent vehicle development, you can share the engine and gearbox components according to the platform formed this time, so as to improve the versatility of the parts as a whole. Zhou Jingming said ambitiously.

At the beginning of the platform design, the planning of all models on the same platform is taken into account, forming a situation in which three levels of platform development, model development and assembly development go hand in hand.

At present, the car manufacturer that has gone further in the platform strategy is the German Volkswagen, and one of the most famous platforms is the MQB platform that consumers are more familiar with, which is specially used to produce all models from A0 to B-class with transverse engine structure, such as Volkswagen Golf, Tiguan, Audi A3, Passat, Magotan and other cars, all of which are produced on the MQB platform. Later, 95% of the Volkswagen brand cars produced in China were produced and designed on the MQB platform.

In addition, Volkswagen has also been a leader in the platform strategy of all models with MLB platform for longitudinal engine structures, and MSB platform for all models with front-wheel drive and rear-wheel drive structures.

In addition to Volkswagen, Toyota's TNGA platform, BMW's UKL platform, and Volvo's SPA platform are all well-known development platforms in the automotive industry.

"According to what you just explained, the platform strategy can indeed greatly reduce the development cost and development cycle of vehicles, but in the long run, will it cause the face-painting of our company's models?" Zhao Ke, who had not spoken, said with a frown.

Zhou Jingming smiled, "There will indeed be such a trend, but the platform strategy is the general trend, companies like Volkswagen, in fact, have begun to study their own design platform, as for the model you said face-painted, as long as we pay attention to a little when designing, it should not be a big problem." ”

In fact, the problem Zhao Ke said is very obvious in Volkswagen's series of models, Volkswagen's many models, and even models of different levels, all have a similar front face, so some people jokingly call this scene "Volkswagen nesting doll face".

However, despite the disadvantages of "mass matryoshka face", it still can't hide the fact that mass sales are very good, so compared with the benefits of platformization, this disadvantage is not worth mentioning at all.

Zhao Ke thought about it carefully, and didn't say anything more, he was not very familiar with the so-called platform strategy, but since it was proposed by Zhou Jingming, it must be beneficial to the development of Tianming Company, otherwise Zhou Jingming would not have specially called them over to talk about this matter.

After talking to the three of them for a while, Zhou Jingming began to prepare materials for the meeting in the afternoon.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the meeting on the SUV development project was officially held in the conference room of Tianming Company, and Zhou Jingming was responsible for presiding over it.

At the meeting, Zhou Jingming explained in detail the key points of this SUV development project to each participant, and preliminarily explained the idea and significance of the platform strategy.

"The development project of SUV is the main project of our company in the second half of the year and even next year, the development of SUV project will be of great significance for us to consolidate our position in the European and American markets, so after the end of this meeting, please take the lead in the project department, the product engineering department and the research institute of the relevant factories are responsible for cooperating, according to the preliminary technical plan I proposed, further refine the task, and assign the design of relevant components to the specific unit. ”

Zhou Jingming looked at the crowd, and then continued, "As for the design of the platform, this time I will be responsible for presiding, and then the main members of the SUV project team will also participate in it, I will let Tianming University organize the relevant training of the platform in the next few days, all the technical personnel of the company, participate in the training in batches, and must implement the idea of the platform strategy into the development of each project in the future." ”

"Then do we need to carry out the development of the engine and gearbox separately, or should we arrange it uniformly according to the progress of the overall SUV project?" After Zhou Jingming finished speaking, Wang Yuanchao asked.

"I have other arrangements for the development of the engine and gearbox, and after a while of the meeting, Director Wang and Director He will stay alone. Zhou Jingming replied.

After this meeting was over, the rest of the people left one after another, leaving only Wang Yuanchao and He Yingxun still there.

"Jingming, do you have any special requirements for the development of the engine?" Wang Yuanchao found a place close to Zhou Jingming and sat down and asked.

"This time, I want to use a V6 engine for the SUV model, so in terms of engine structure, it is tentatively set to V6, and in addition, I plan to use a turbocharger on this engine to improve the power of this car. As he spoke, Zhou Jingming put a technical information that had been prepared a long time ago in front of Wang Yuanchao.

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