Longteng Automobile Base, Temporary Design Institute.

Why temporary?

Because this is an office space converted from a workshop - Hu Shengbiao's brain is lacking in tendons, and when building this base, he desperately built a factory, and there are very few other buildings, which are not enough at all. Many supporting facilities Li Yadong has to be rebuilt, and it has been carried out on the newly purchased land, but it is not so fast, and it can only be done first.

In a corner of the venue, in front of the open conference room and the huge oval conference table, all 27 designers from the United Kingdom arrived, as well as 13 young Chinese boys, all of whom were newly recruited "senior intellectuals", and the least educated were also secondary school graduates. Li Yadong intends to train them to become domestic automobile design talents, but they still have to eat one bite at a time, starting with apprentices and giving a hand to the British. For this reason, they have been desperately learning English lately.

The first batch of equipment in the base is in full swing to assemble and commission, and the more than 100 British engineers from the Solihull factory have been busy lately, and this busyness will continue for a while, until this autumn, when the last batch of Land Rover equipment arrives at Hailan. And these designers in front of him, Li Yadong naturally has no reason to let them be idle.

They don't have to worry about the Land Rover brand, the design institute at the Solihull plant will be in charge, and what they have to do is to develop new models that belong to China's own brands.

This is also the reason why Li Yadong brought them together today, and he had to plan a general direction for these designers.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the purpose of the establishment of China Hailan Design Institute has been told to you earlier. You will be responsible for the development and design of two Chinese independent brand cars in the future, let's come one by one, based on the Land Rover brand you are familiar with, design and develop a new Chinese off-road vehicle brand, and the name of this brand, I have already thought of it, called 'Tiger'. Li Yadong said solemnly, and the small glasses on the side quickly translated.

Taking a name has never been Li Yadong's forte, and he can't think of any higher names, thinking that since this brand was born from Land Rover technology, he retained one of the "tiger" words, and then began to combine them arbitrarily, thinking a lot, such as what is the tiger, hunting tiger, brave tiger, tiger and so on.

In the end, the name "Tiger" was finalized. Let people check, the trademark has not been registered, and quickly preemptively registered it.

"Tigers?"

"Yes, just listening to the fame is full of vigor. ”

"It's easy to understand, it's domineering, and I feel like it's okay. ”

When everyone heard this, they nodded their heads, feeling very domineering, and they used it as the name of the off-road vehicle brand, which seemed to complement each other.

"The Tiger brand, I intend to make it the best off-road vehicle brand in China. However, it is also clear to everyone that China's current economic conditions are limited, and even the best brands should not be sold too high. At present, the price range I have set for it is between 6-250,000 yuan. And within this price range, we also have to go to the market segment and design at least three large, medium and small off-road vehicles. You should be able to understand what I say, right?"

You look at me, I look at you. They must understand, but this is too difficult......

Stephen raised his hand and said: "Boss, if you design a new model with reference to this price range, I am still somewhat sure of the large off-road vehicle, the price of 250,000 yuan is equivalent to about 67,000 US dollars, and it is not a problem to build a car." Can...... A small off-road vehicle, the starting price of 60,000 yuan, this ...... How do you build it?"

In the past, they designed high-end luxury off-road vehicles, and the manufacturing cost was at least more than 100,000 US dollars, 60,000 yuan, which is equivalent to more than 16,000 US dollars.

"Difficult?" asked Li Yadong with a smile.

"This ...... There must be. Stephen nodded and said: "Boss, your so-called 60,000 yuan should still be the selling price, which means that on the premise of ensuring profits, it may be necessary to compress its manufacturing cost within 10,000 US dollars, which is ...... It's too hard. ”

Li Yadong smiled and said, "It feels difficult, that's because your ideology has not changed, if I tell you that in some automobile factories in Chinese mainland, you can build an off-road vehicle for 3,000 US dollars." What would you think?"

"Oh my God, it can't be, right?"

"yes, three thousand dollars, the price of one engine is not enough. ”

"Can you call a car, or is it an off-road vehicle?"

The group of Brits at the bottom, all staring at each other, felt incredible.

"Alright, alright. Li Yadong smiled lightly and waved his hand: "I know that you are all very good designers, with your own professional standards, there must be difficulties, but you have to learn to overcome them." You have also been in Hailan for more than a month, I believe that you have some understanding of China's economy, although I personally do not want to admit it, but I also have to admit that if we build a car according to the standards of the Land Rover brand, then, even if it is built, few people in China can afford it. So, based on the current economic conditions in China, we have to make changes. ”

The group of British designers below nodded subconsciously, and they naturally knew this. But how to change it is a difficult problem.

"First, change from raw materials. ”

Li Yadong crossed his fingers and gave some of his own thoughts, "Land Rover uses an all-aluminum body, the Tiger brand doesn't have to be so luxurious, we can use cheaper steel." At the same time, Land Rover cars are used as a reference to appropriately reduce the body size to balance fuel consumption. And this change and shrinkage, you can save two costs. ”

"Second, change from the parts. Although China's heavy industry technology is not developed, but the land is vast, and the factories are countless, including some high-quality parts suppliers, such as a brand, called 'Wanxiang', I don't know if you have heard of it, they produce universal wheels with good quality and low price, and even have been exported to foreign countries, we can sign a strategic cooperation agreement with them, get the lowest price of good products. There are many other parts suppliers like them, and we can set our own standards, sign agreements with them, and let them do the manufacturing. China's labour is cheap, and they are able to reduce the cost of a component to a very low level without sacrificing quality, which is an advantage that you are not destined to have in the UK. Moreover, I have asked Director Zhu to arrange staff to come to negotiate these matters, and I believe that there will be results soon. This should reduce a large part of the cost of your design and development. ”

"And then there's a third, a change from a technical level. Chinese's understanding of cars is still very jerky, so the expectations are also very low, you may not believe it, many Chinese, for a car, the expectations are low as long as it can be driven, not easy to have problems. On the contrary, if we put a lot of high-tech features in the car, they won't use it at all. Therefore, for the research and development of the Tiger brand, you don't have to think too much about comfort, as long as you grasp the two points of safety and practicality, it is enough. Not only that, but there are many technical aspects that you have to condense or even reduce as much as possible. For example, the engine, oh my God, just say Range Rover, 5.0L, and even 6.8L alloy V8 engine, I can tell you very clearly, for now, Chinese car consumers have far less requirements for power, even if it is an off-road vehicle, the displacement of 1.6-2.3L is completely sufficient. There is also a gearbox, you don't have to choose the unstable, expensive and expensive five-speed automatic transmission, or manual-based, in the middle and high configuration models, add a stable and affordable four-speed automatic transmission. ”

After Li Yadong's words, everyone below was thoughtful, and these words completely subverted their car-making philosophy - in the past, they always aimed to build the best car. But now, listening to the boss's meaning, it is probably to abandon technology and build a car suitable for the Chinese people, so that it will be "worse".

"Boss, the three points you mentioned can indeed greatly reduce the cost of building a car, but ...... With all due respect, if this were the case, the car would have been completely devoid of highlights and would look very modest. Stephen sighed.

"Eh, don't say it, what I want is moderation!" Li Yadong clapped his hands and said.

He understands the psychology of Chinese car consumers better than anyone else in this world. For at least the next 30 years, the "moderation style" will be loved by Chinese car consumers – there is no need to go so far, they simply won't need it. Similar styling, similar safety, similar comfort, similar handling, similar fuel consumption, and similar price. Together, a lot of them make up a mediocre model.

This is also the reason why the Volkswagen brand has been able to endure in China for a long time, and the Germans have captured the taste of Chinese car consumers very well.

"In that case...... You can give it a try. Stephen smiled wryly.

He really didn't dare to agree with the boss's idea, in his opinion, how can a brand with no personality and characteristics stand out in the fierce market competition?

After coming to Hailan, he also had some understanding of China's automobile consumer market: China is not as backward as imagined, and there are dozens of large and small automobile factories in China. There are also joint venture brands such as Volkswagen and Jeep. BJ Jeep, in particular, is their most direct competitor in the future.

However, there is no way, who made him the boss, he said to do it.

Again, after spending some time with his boss, Stephen also found that although their boss was very young, he was a very far-sighted and talented person. He wanted to see if the boss was as far-sighted as ever, and whether this golden mean could work in China.

"Good. Li Yadong smiled and nodded, "It's still the same sentence, the meal must be eaten one bite at a time, and things must be done step by step, we will first focus on the research and development of the flagship model of the Tiger brand, that is, a large off-road vehicle, as long as it is brought out, the remaining small and medium-sized models will not be worried." During this time, I will accompany you, let us complete the research and development of this model together, do you have confidence?"

"Yes!" everyone at the bottom replied in unison.

If you don't have it, you have to have it, don't you see the boss with high morale, if anyone dares to disagree at this time, it is purely looking for abuse. 8)