After staying in Yanjing for one night, Zhou Jingming and Li Mingzhe and others came to Chuncheng by car, because they had received a notice in advance that Li Mingzhe was going to come here to inspect the work, so as soon as the two of them came out of the station, they saw several leaders of FAW who came to pick up Li Mingzhe.

After getting in the car, several people soon came to the Hongqi R&D center, and several people in charge of Hongqi R50 R&D were already waiting for Li Mingzhe outside the door.

"Tell us about the development of the R50. After some introductions, Lee Ming-che went straight to the point.

"Minister Li, the development of Hongqi R50 has been completed, and the online trial assembly was just carried out last week, and there are still some small flaws in the assembly process, but our engineers are already working on solutions. The general manager of R50 hurriedly replied.

"What about performance?" Lee continued.

Completing the development is only the first step, the performance is the most important thing.

"We have already started to prepare for various road tests, reliability tests and performance tests, because this car is of great significance, in order to ensure that there are no problems, each test, we will be divided into two teams, and repeat it twice independently, to ensure that all the performance of the R50 car meets the requirements 100%. ”

The mechanical engineering department grasped it tightly, and FAW Group naturally did not dare to slack off, and has always put the research and development of Hongqi R50 in the top priority, and treated this car with the highest specifications.

Lee Ming-che nodded, "Can all the tests of this car be completed next year?"

"Yes, surely!" the person in charge nodded hurriedly, "This car can be delivered by October next year at the latest." ”

Li Mingzhe turned his head to look at Zhou Jingming again, "Xiao Zhou, what else do you want to ask?"

All the questions Li Mingzhe just asked were some of the most basic information, and rarely involved technical aspects, so he brought Zhou Jingming over.

However, Zhou Jingming did not ask too many technical questions, since the development work has been completed, and the technical team of Tianming Group is responsible for checking, there will definitely be no problems at the technical level, so he just asked a few questions that Li Mingzhe did not expect.

"Minister Li, the Hongqi R50 used for the National Day Celebration, I suggest that it be built by hand, and if the craftsmanship on the FAW side does not meet the requirements, this car can be put in the Rolls-Royce factory in Crewe County for production. After asking a few questions, Zhou Jingming looked at Li Mingzhe and said.

"I think it's okay to build it by hand, but is it appropriate to put it in a Rolls-Royce factory for assembly and production?" asked Lee Ming-che.

"There's nothing wrong with it, it's just a car, it's produced and shipped back from England. Zhou Jingming paused, and then continued, "In addition, next year's Yanjing and Shencheng International Auto Shows, as well as several major auto shows in Europe, Hongqi R50 will be the key exhibition object and exposed in advance." ”

Although it was named "R50" because of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, this car was not only designed and developed for this purpose, but also the beginning of Hongqi's entry into the world, and was designed as a production car.

With the help of the platforms of major auto shows, it can accumulate the necessary heat and popularity for this car, which is convenient for subsequent launches.

"Okay, you all remember this, do what Xiao Zhou said. Lee Ming-che nodded.

Next, Li Mingzhe and Zhou Jingming and others went to visit a Hongqi R50 that has been assembled, I have to say, compared with Hongqi's previous luxury models, this R50, just from the appearance, gives people a different feeling.

In addition to retaining several unique features of the Hongqi car, the newly developed Hongqi R50, under the advice of Rolls-Royce designers, has made drastic innovations, and the whole body looks more slender and fashionable, changing the stereotypical image of the original Hongqi car to consumers as an "official car" and "classic car".

It can be said that as long as it is operated properly, the sales of Hongqi R50 will definitely not be bad, and Hongqi's brand value will be further enhanced.

"Not bad, very good!" Looking at the familiar red flag sedan in front of him, Li Mingzhe couldn't help but praise again and again, "Such a red flag car, how can people not love it!"

"Judging from the appearance alone, I think this R50 is even better than our Tianming Group's Yanhuang car, plus there is the brand influence of Hongqi, I dare not guarantee it in the international market, but the domestic sales will definitely not be worse than our Yanhuang car, and it may even exceed the Audi 200 and Yanhuang car. Zhou Jingming couldn't help but admire.

Zhou Jingming's words are not exaggerated at all, the reason why Hongqi sedan sales were dismal at the beginning was because of design problems, price and performance could not match, on the other hand, it was also because the brand's initial positioning was not close to the people, and consumers rarely dared to try such models.

After several years of promotion, the image of the Hongqi brand in the minds of consumers has long been greatly improved, and it has even become a trend to open Hongqi, coupled with the fashionable design of the R50 car, as long as the price is reasonable, the sales volume must not worry.

"So, it's not that our designers are incompetent, but that we lack the spirit of craftsmanship to keep improving?" asked Lee Ming-che suddenly.

Zhou Jingming smiled, "Frankly speaking, our design capabilities, and Europe, America, Japan and South Korea and other countries still have a big gap, this I deeply understand, domestic car designers do not have foreign designers to turn fast, the more to the field of high-end cars, the more obvious this gap, this, the spirit of craftsmanship alone may not be enough to make up." ”

Clearly aware of how big the gap between domestic and foreign designers is, Zhou Jingming also began to realize from the Hongmeng car, why can foreign countries produce supercars such as Ferrari and Lamborghini, while the designers of Tianming Group are struggling to design a supercar by themselves?

It is necessary to face up to the gap in capabilities, but it is also related to the overall environment of the entire automotive industry. Whether it was Ferrari or later Koenigsegg, its founders had an almost insane love for cars, and the employees at the factory were very proud of what they were doing and had a high level of self-recognition.

But what about domestic?

Not to mention other factories, even many employees of Tianming Group are engaged in the automotive industry and work in Tianming Group only because "the wages here are high and the benefits are good".

Working with such a mentality can only ensure that there are no problems with mechanical labor, and it is difficult to have the collision of divergent and innovative thinking sparks, so that the design ability is naturally not as good as that of foreign countries.

However, Zhou Jingming also knows that if he wants to change this status quo, it cannot be achieved overnight, and he has now begun to do a series of training for the rigid thinking of Tianming Group.

"That's right. Lee Ming-che laughed at himself, "But at least there has been great progress, isn't it? I believe that it won't be long before the gap between our domestic designers and foreign automobile designers will become smaller and smaller." ”

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