Chapter 032 Tianchen Automobile

Since my aunt is sure to get the Kuwaiti government through the "Little Bush Children's Shoes", and then get Chrysler from Daimler, and at the same time, she is also confident that she can buy the three luxury brands of Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford at a low price, then plus Chrysler's own Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and after the Xinlan consortium controls Chrysler Automobile Company, Chrysler will have six big brands, and its strength can definitely be called strong. However, relatively speaking, the life of the luxury brand under his command is now a little difficult, and Xinlan has to work hard to save Chrysler.

As long as he is guided in the Chinese market, he will become the world's largest car market in a few years, and the sales will not be worried.

Here, Xiao Chen even plans to take advantage of the "admiration of foreigners" psychology of many Chinese people: as long as he first publicizes the long history and glorious past of Chrysler and its six major brands, and then touts the mythical economic strength of the Xinlan Consortium, the "world's No. 1 consortium" that controls Chrysler, and then enters the mainstream market of China with a more friendly attitude towards other foreign companies, so as to arouse the mentality of "Celestial Empire v5, friendly countries" of Chinese people. Finally, it will cooperate with local automobile companies in China to carry out joint production...... It's definitely an invincible battle.

It's just that the problem is that what Xiao Chen wants is not Chrysler's strength in the future, but hopes that the future of China's automobile industry will be powerful, and the key is to cultivate China's domestic automobile companies. So, he is now mainly thinking about two things: 1) who will come forward to form this car company; 2. Who is the learning goal of this car company?

Although Chrysler is an American company, Xiao Chen is still skeptical about whether he wants to fully learn the culture of American car companies.

In fact, the controversy over the advantages and disadvantages of the world's three mainstream automobile manufacturing schools has never ended. Among them, the dispute between Europe and Japan (which can also be said to be Germany and Japan) is the best subject of the war of words in the major car worlds. If you only look at the performance of the three in the Chinese market, it is easy to be biased. Xiao Chen tried to combine what he saw with his own eyes in Europe, the United States and other places, thought about their respective characteristics and performance in the global market, and finally returned to the Chinese market.

The ancients said, "If an orange is born in Huainan, it is an orange, and if it is born in Huaibei, it is an orange." "It is said that the same fruit gene will have a completely different taste due to the different water and soil in the place where it is grown. Automobiles, as consumer goods closely related to people's daily life, are inseparable from the geographical environment, economic development, demographic status, and consumer car habits of the location.

Let's start with Europe. The situation in Europe is not the same from country to country, and there are obvious differences in automobile consumption between northern and southern Europe, and between Eastern Europe and Western Europe. However, with the advancement of European integration, the euro, the Schengen Agreement, and so on, the trend of convergence of European countries has become more and more obvious in the last 20 years. Specific to the automobile, that is, the dominant position of the German car in Europe, with its car-making concept and culture, gradually defeated or merged the locomotive industry in Northern Europe, Britain, Southern Europe, Eastern Europe and other countries, of course, among them, France is an outlier (culturally, they absolutely cannot accept Germany, therefore, the European car characteristics discussed later are not applicable to France in many places). Therefore, when it comes to the European automobile industry and automobile manufacturing concepts, more than 90% can be represented by Germany. Europe is characterized by the following: high level of affluence, small gap between rich and poor, generally small country area, relatively even population distribution (unlike the United States and Japan, where the population mainly lives in large cities), relatively few highly concentrated megacities (such as Dongfang and Tokyo), very high oil prices (higher than that of the United States and China, and similar to Japan), the average annual vacation time is among the highest in the world, the highway is in good condition, and the urban roads are generally narrow (because many European cities have a very long history, In addition, there are many historical sites in the city, and it is very difficult to widen the roads), and from a cultural point of view, it is more adhered to the culture of Europe (not necessarily traditional culture), and it is not easy to be influenced by foreign culture.

It is common for European households to own multiple cars, for different purposes, both because they are financially wealthier and because the population density is much smaller than in China. The garage at home can generally park two cars, plus the yard, it is no problem to park one or two more cars. If you look at the residential areas of Huaxia City, every car parked after work can be squeezed like a canned sardine, let alone one more. It is precisely because of the ownership of multiple cars that people divide the use of cars very carefully. Usually, children go to school, the main fù buy groceries, or men go to work in the company, mainly drive compact hatchbacks, such as Polo, Peugeot 307, etc. Fuel efficient, easy to find a parking space. If a man is executive-level, he may drive a BMW 3 Series, Volvos 80, or a Passat. For this kind of daily driving car, the chance of sitting in the back seat is very small, basically just to put things or emergency, so Europeans don't care about the back seat space of these cars. Moreover, because the area of European cities is generally not large, and the traffic congestion is not as serious as that of large cities in China, even if there are temporary people sitting in the back row, the time is not long, and it will not be too sinful. On weekends or holidays, when a family goes out shopping, traveling and vacationing, Europeans generally drive relatively large cars, such as station wagons, MPVs, SUVs, etc. The space is relatively large and the ride is relatively comfortable. Moreover, large supermarkets in Western countries are generally located in the suburbs, with ample parking spaces, and there is no shortage of parking spaces in holiday destinations. This means that Europeans basically choose to drive different cars depending on the type of trip. However, Chinese families generally only have one car, and they cannot achieve subdivision of uses, so they can only hope to integrate the uses and characteristics of a variety of cars as much as possible. It's the same for going to work, shopping, going out to play, and there are still great opportunities for people to sit in the back seat, especially for families with three generations. So we wanted the back seat of the car to be big, in order to make it easy to park, the car should not be particularly large, but also fuel-efficient, and there should be face when driving out, and so on. In short, it is required that a car be as comprehensive as possible, combining the uses and advantages of multiple models. This determines that the Chinese people's requirements for a car are far stronger than those of Europeans.

The characteristics of European cars can be basically summarized as: very good at building small cars, fuel-efficient cars; The utilization rate of rear space in the car is not high; Due to the influence of European culture, the design of the car's exterior and interior is generally relatively plain and restrained, with few huā whistles; Cars are more energy-efficient, so station wagons and compact MPVs, which can transport large quantities of cargo/passengers in a relatively economical way, are very popular in Europe (which is also related to European holiday culture); Diesel vehicles with relatively high combustion efficiency are also popular in Europe, even luxury brands such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW; It is a global leader in automotive technology (many of the latest technologies were first born in Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Volvo brands, and then gradually influenced low-end brands and models, and then affected the world).

Thinking of the mainstream of the European automobile industry, German automobiles, we cannot ignore the traditional "engineer culture" of Central and Northern European countries, Germany, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway and other countries have obvious this characteristic. Specifically, engineers are highly respected in society and have an unquestionable dominance in the enterprise. In contrast, the majority of CEOs of German automotive companies are engineers (many of whom have PhDs), while most of the CEOs of American or Japanese automotive companies are businessmen (most of whom have MBA backgrounds). Don't underestimate this distinction, it's not just at the CEO level, it's a top-down distinction that runs through the entire organization. To put it to the extreme, it is the engineers of the German automobile companies who have the final say, and the American and Japanese automobile companies who have the final say in sales and marketing.

One of the characteristics of an engineer's personality is that he is "technically oriented", that is, he insists on what he thinks is right and is not easy to compromise. Moreover, there is a tradition of "perfection" in the blood of German engineers. This is why Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi are out of Germany, and many times, high-end brands lose their dedication to technology and lose themselves. Reflected in the concept of car design, that is, German (European) cars are designed based on the local situation in Europe, which is true, the European market with a population of more than 300 million is already a huge market in itself. However, when it came to exporting to markets outside of Europe, German cars refused to make changes, because the engineers could not tolerate changes to "perfect technology" (in Huaxia, the situation is slightly different, more on this later). As a result, we hardly see any localisation of German cars outside of Europe for the local market. Golf, which is sold in Germany in exactly the same style as it is exported to Brazil; There is no difference between the jetta you see in the United States and the one you see in South Korea. Germans think in their hearts that they design their cars to be the world's cars, suitable for the global market, and that there is no need to change.

But is that really the case? For Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi, it is absolutely correct to insist on global consistency in design, because the people who buy these cars originally bought a gene, a pedigree, and if they change it, they will become tasteless and no one wants it. But for European brands such as Volkswagen, Skoda, Fiat, and even Peugeot and Renault, which are positioned in the mid-range to low-end, is it right to insist on this global consistency in design? A look at their sales outside of Europe speaks for itself, with both North America and Asia losing to Japanese cars across the board. (Here, the Huaxia market is another exception, more on that later.) ）

Look at Japan again. Japan's national conditions and how the Japanese live in daily life, the Chinese people actually know a relatively good idea, so I won't be too specific. Here's a quick summary: Japan's population is highly concentrated in a few large cities in the central and southern regions, with a lack of resources, high oil prices, narrow city streets, and a small land area. These characteristics determine that most of the small displacement (many less than 1L) cars launched by Japanese car manufacturers in the local area, many of them are still square-headed, with low fuel consumption, low emissions, and high space utilization, which are very suitable for crossing the streets and alleys in the city. The sedan is also dominated by small and medium-sized displacements. That's not the point, though. What matters is how Nikkyo is in overseas markets.

The biggest difference between European and American automakers is that Japanese automakers do not have a large enough domestic market (EU countries can be considered as the same market) to support their development and share the huge platform R&D costs. In order to survive and thrive, they have to be based on the global market, and the focus must be absolutely on overseas markets.

In order to achieve this, in order to compete with American car manufacturers for the American market and European car manufacturers for the European market, the first thing to do is to achieve as much localization as possible, forget about their own local models, and try to be more American than American cars and more European than European cars. However, this is not enough, in order to achieve a larger market share, it is necessary to have more places than just copy local models.

The strategy of the Japanese car manufacturers is very similar to the famous advertising slogan of the British HSBC bank, "globalbrand, localbranch". In addition to the brand is global, in all other places where customers can see and feel, do everything possible to become a local car factory. So, you're never going to see a Japanese automaker sell their own homegrown K-Car's K-Car's in the U.S., because that's a sure thing. It can be said that Japanese automakers are completely market-oriented, producing what the local market needs. Technology serves and is subordinate to the market. Toyota in the United States and Toyota in Europe, from the inside to the outside, are completely different, so to speak, except for the bull head logo hung on them, you can't find anything in common with them.

Toyota in the United States, whether it is driven or looked, is more like Dodge or General Motors, and Toyota in Europe is more like Volkswagen or Ford in Europe. Many of the models that Japanese automakers put on the Chinese market will not be seen in other countries at all, because they have been greatly transformed and are unrecognizable. If you ask a European consumer what Toyota's design is, he might think about it for a while and say, I don't know, it should be the kind of design that we like and are used to, nothing special. If you ask him again what is the association that Toyota brings to you, he will say, probably quality and reliability. That's why people often say japanquality, but no one says japandesign, that's the reason.

The Japanese automaker's strategy for entering the U.S. and Europe is exactly the same: start by copying the local mainstream design. However, relying on the cost and quality control that Japanese companies are good at, Japanese cars can be more competitive in price and more reliable in quality. Do U.S. consumers like pomp? Love big cars? No problem. I'll build you a car that's as big as the Chrysler 300C (just yet, the 300C doesn't appear in this book), but I'm more fuel-efficient, better at ergonomic design, longer warranty, and lower failure rate. The most important point is, cheaper, do you like it or not? Relying on this method to enter the local market, it takes 10-20 years to accumulate experience, establish brand reputation, understand the market, and grasp the trend of cháo flow, and the Japanese car factory can gradually achieve the design from following the cháo flow to guiding the cháo flow, and start to compete with local brands, and finally strive to surpass local brands in market share.

Taking Lexus as an example, it started by imitating Mercedes-Benz and BMW, attracting customers with its workmanship quality and relatively low price, which is not weaker than that of Double B. After 20 years of experience accumulation and brand reputation building, the latest generation of Lexus models can already see a lot of original, only Lexus own design language, this young luxury brand tried to go out of a completely different route than the double B, Audi, Cadillac. Moreover, now we have also seen the phenomenon of imitating the design details of Lexus in the new cars of some European and American brands.

The most important thing to be able to achieve such a thorough localization is the local design. Japan's three major automakers, Toyota, Nissan and Honda, have large R&D centers in North America and Europe, and the designers are mainly locals, and the number of Japanese personnel is small. In this way, it is possible to design a model that caters to the local consumer to the greatest extent possible. The number of overseas R&D personnel of Japanese automakers is much larger than the number of local R&D personnel, which shows how their strategies differ from those of European automakers. European car manufacturers still insist on putting the core of R&D in Europe, and radiate from Europe to the world. Even if there are a small number of R&D personnel in the overseas market, they can only do a relatively small "face-lift", change the part of the appearance, and translate the display text of the driving computer into the local language. In-depth R&D, involving product facelifts and new designs at the product line level, has no strength and will never be allowed to do overseas R&D.

For example, Toyota has a compact MPV that sells well in the European market, called Verso, and its direct rivals are Ford's C-Max and Renault Xiaojing. The whole body is full of typical European design language, and it is not sold in North America and Asia. Some of the Opel Safigliar's shadows can be seen in the body lines.

Another example is Toyota's main mid-size touring car in Europe, the AVENSIS, which shares the platform with Camry and Camry. In terms of design style, it is quite different from those two cars, and it is closer to the mainstream European design.

And Toyota's pickup truck Tundra, which is very popular in North America, if you pick the bull head mark, some people may even mistake it for a Ford or Chevrolet pickup truck, and similarly, you don't want to see this car in Europe.

The reason why Xiao Chen is skeptical about completely learning the American automobile corporate culture newspaper is because: if Europe is technology-oriented and Japan is market-oriented, then American car manufacturers can be said to be less technologically than Europe, and the market cannot do Japan. Backed by the United States, the world's largest single consumer market, there is always the illusion that serving the local market well is enough for the three major American automakers to live. However, this is not the case. Perhaps, this is one of the reasons why American cars are gradually declining in the world car world.

It is often said that the United States is a country that lives on wheels. Anyone who has been to the United States will have a deep understanding of this statement. The percentage of Americans who use public transportation is very low in the world. Without the dense and advanced high-speed rail networks of Europe and Japan, railways are limited to serving a portion of freight transport. Many Americans have never traveled by train in their entire lives. Except for some big cities, many cities do not have subways and buses, and even if there are buses, they often run only once a day, morning and evening, and there are not many people who take them.

Short-haul low-cost airlines, which have sprung up like bamboo shoots in Europe and Asia, are nowhere to be found in the United States. Americans generally drive for short or even medium-distance trips, and travel too far (across several states) to fly. In many parts of the United States, it is simply difficult to move without a car or without a car. As a result, the U.S. road network is extremely well developed, the roads are mostly in good condition, and due to the low population density, the roads are generally wide and rarely congested.

Such a strong dependence on automobiles, a vast territory, a population of more than 300 million, a developed economy, and extremely strong purchasing power (in addition to their own money, Americans have the highest loan consumption in the world, and many people are already buying a third or fourth car before the loan for their first car is repaid), making the United States the world's largest car consumption power. As in Europe, it is common for a family in the United States to own multiple cars, but there are significant differences in model preferences. Due to the different geographical environment, the obvious low oil price, and the "làng fee" culture that we often call in the United States, Americans' hobbies for cars can be summarized as "big" and "luxurious". Models with high energy efficiency, such as compact hatchbacks, station wagons, and compact MPVs, are not popular in the United States. Compared to Europe, energy-efficient vehicles (diesel and hún combined) are even more difficult to find. Americans prefer mid-to-large sedans, mid-to-large MPVs, SUVs of all sizes, pickup trucks, sports cars, and other models that are stylish but energy-intensive. You often see the kind of huge pickup truck with a displacement of 5 liters and 6 liters on the street, with only the driver in it, and the body is empty and nothing is pulled. But I went to a convenience store three streets away and bought a bottle of mineral water. This is not an exaggeration. Cars like the BMW X5 and Volkswagen Touareg are absolutely big on the streets of Europe, but a lot of the time, surrounded by Hummers and Ford 150 pickups in American traffic, you will feel that they are "small".

With such a local market, it can be said that the three major automakers of Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler have been "spoiled". You don't need to spend any effort on technological innovation, energy saving and consumption reduction, as long as the car is built big enough and the luxury equipment is piled up, no one will be worried. The energy utilization rate of engines in the United States is generally lower than that of Europe and Japan, and the technology is also much behind. For example, the European and Japanese car factories spent a lot of money to do wind tunnel experiments to optimize the appearance of the body, just to reduce the drag coefficient by 0.01, this kind of thing American car manufacturers will not do. Why is it just to reduce fuel consumption? We in the United States have oil, and when we run out of oil, we will find those unjust oil sellers in the Middle East, and beat them up if they are not obedient, we don't care about that. Therefore, most American cars are designed not only to be large, but also square-headed, with large wind resistance, and large-displacement engines. As for the 3-liter engine horsepower of the American and inferior to the 3-liter engines of Europe and Japan? Not afraid, there are also 5-liter ones (everyone look at the Chrysler 300c and Cadillac those new generation sedans, the best examples). In terms of innovation in safety equipment, American car manufacturers are far behind Europe and Japan. No matter how fully equipped it is, it's not as good as my big pickup truck. Don't think I'm exaggerating, it's a mindset for many Americans: the bigger the car, the safer. Actually, this can't be said to be wrong, but this is a way to achieve security in a way that làng fee.

Over the years, U.S. automakers are significantly less competitive than their European and Japanese competitors. Not only is it difficult for products to leave the United States, but even the share of the local market has been challenged by outsiders. In terms of high-end luxury brands, Cadillac and Lincoln are stretched thin in the face of several major German luxury brands. The encroachment of Japanese and Korean brands on the low-end market of American brands has brought the three major American automakers to the brink of life and death. This competition is magnified even more when it comes to the backdrop of the US recession and the global energy crisis.

However, when it comes to American cars, one cannot generalize. The overseas development strategies of the three major U.S. automakers are very different. Xiao Chen still felt the need to look at them one by one.

Ford has a similar strategy to Japanese automakers. For example, Ford Europe and Ford America are relatively independent. Models developed by Ford in Europe, such as Meng Diou, Focus, S-Max, etc., are specifically aimed at the European market and are not sold in the United States (Ford also has a car called Focus in the United States, but it is far from the Focus we are familiar with). And those models of Ford in the United States, such as the Fusion and Taurus, are also not seen in Europe at all. However, Ford has done little in Asia, and basically sells Ford cars directly from Europe. Ford's own premium brand Lincoln has little recognition in overseas markets, and Ford's high-end brands overseas are mainly the PAG Group, which is a patchwork of Aston Martin, Jaguar, Volvo and Land Rover.

Of course, it is important not to ignore the Mazda brand, which Ford mainly uses to compete in the Asian and European markets. Unlike Japanese automakers, which mainly rely on their own development, American automakers and Volkswagen have adopted a similar development approach, relying on acquisitions to expand rapidly. It's just that Volkswagen's sub-brands are more like different shells on the same platform, and Ford's sub-brands are much more different, and they are relatively independent, and the integration of R&D and production is not as thorough as Volkswagen's.

GM does not have GM or Buick cars in Europe, and its main brand is Opel (called Vauxhall in the UK), supplemented by Saab and Chevrolet (like Chevrolet in China, they are basically models developed by GM Daewoo). The Cadillac did not sell well in Europe, and its exaggerated design style did not please conservative European consumers. In the home of German luxury brands, it has little chance. GM has done a good job of localization in Asia, especially in Greater China. However, in terms of R&D strength and the maturity of the models developed, it is still not as good as Ford Europe. Cadillac's life in Asia is better than in Europe, especially in mainland China, where many Chinese people feel that the United States is the most powerful country in the world, and American luxury brands are of course quite exemplary.

At present, Xinlan has not acquired Chrysler, although DaimlerChrysler is a group, but they are relatively independent, especially in the collaborative research and development of models, there are a few (for example, the 300C will use some Mercedes-Benz E-class technology in the future), but it is very limited. Daimler-Benz aside, Chrysler's own development in overseas markets is very limited, and neither Europe nor Asia is far inferior to Ford and GM. Brands such as Chrysler and Dodge are also poorly known outside of the United States. Dodge's main midsize RV in the United States, the Charger, was chosen as a police car by many states. But stylistically, it's hard to imagine that the car will sell well in Europe or Asia.

If German cars refuse to localize, and Japanese cars are completely localized, it can be said that American automakers are learning from Japanese competitors to localize, but it should be said that they have not yet learned home, and only Ford is still doing more decently in Europe.

Xiao Chen pondered for a long time, and finally pondered back to Huaxia. First analyze how these three schools compete in China in my heart.

Due to the advantages of policy and foresight, European cars were the first to come to China. Not to mention Volkswagen, which came 10-20 years earlier than the Americans and Japanese, even Citroen and Peugeot entered the Chinese market much earlier than their American and Japanese competitors. Unfortunately, due to their lack of localization and cultural rejection of localization, they have not been able to turn the experience and knowledge of the Chinese market accumulated over such a long period of time into a localization advantage. It's like an introverted person who goes to KTV with a few lively colleagues, and is pushed by his colleagues and has to go up to let go of the performance, the inner struggle and the pressure of the external environment will make his performance very clumsy, which makes people look awkward.

Volkswagen has been in China for so many years, in fact, there is not even a three-plate axe for localization, only a two-plate axe: "extended wheelbase" and "fake mahogany". In some models, at some times, it works, but it doesn't work anymore, and the only thing I remember is that "Chinese people love sedans" and use them on the Beverly 988, Elysee, 307 sedan and Triumph. The effect is self-determined. It can be said that the localization of European cars is more on the surface, and has not been able to reach the level of digging deep into the inner needs of consumers. There is only "form", not "God". However, Huaxia is still the largest place for European automakers to localize, because it is a market that is more important to them than the United States. So later, the long-wheelbase version of the Passat and Audi A6L were only "lucky" to be seen by Chinese consumers. Later, the new BMW Brilliance 5 Series and the new E-Class of Beijing Mercedes-Benz also gave up the original reserve and greatly lengthened the wheelbase.

The order in which the three major U.S. automakers entered China was basically GM, Ford, and Chrysler. Through the Pan Asia Center, GM has a very strong localization capability in China. Opel Corsa changed out of individual Kesaio, and it is not a prototype small hatchback, but a sedan and station wagon, which can be said to be the early genius of Dongfang GM. From the old Buick's "take-it-or-leave-it" doctrine to the Regal, and then to LaCrosse's almost entirely development of a new car for Huaxia, GM has deeply integrated its understanding of the target consumer group into its product design.

As a car designed for "rear-seat distinguished passengers", LaCrosse does not have a reversing radar, no front electrically heated seats, but has the only rear-seat massage seats in the same class, the best Harman-Kardon audio system in the same class, and a variety of rear-seat entertainment facilities. It can be said that good steel is used on the blade. GM's multi-brand strategy in Huaxia has also been very successful, putting low-end models into the Chevrolet brand to play cost-effective. Mid-to-high-end brands continue to use Buick to build brand value. In particular, the use of the Buick brand on the Kaiyue is an important reason for the success of the Kaiyue over the years. is also a South Korean identity, just because of the Buick logo, the overall sales of the Kaiyue far surpassed the Elantra and Cerato. GM is still very able to mō the minds of the Chinese people.

However, GM's disadvantages are also obvious, and there are not many resources available for its use. There are very few models that can be changed by GM in the United States, because the local models in the United States are too far from the appreciation and use habits of the Chinese people (the Chinese people are more accepting of European and Japanese styles), and the technology is relatively backward, and it is very difficult to change. GM Europe? It can only take Opel, which seems to be a good choice, but Opel is only a holding subsidiary of General Motors after all, and it is obviously inferior to Ford and Japanese automobile companies in terms of product line control, product localization ability and experience, which are obviously inferior to Ford and Japanese automobile companies that can directly use the resources of this brand on other continents. GM needs to realize that the entire Opel vehicle can be transplanted and localized as soon as possible, otherwise, in the mid-to-high-end market, GM will face the dilemma of having no successor cars.

Ford is the doctrine of borrowing, basically directly taking Ford's European models to China to sell (except for the earliest carnival). This strategy is actually correct, because Huaxia Hyundai's automobile industry began with a partnership with Volkswagen of Germany, and for a long time, the Jetta and Santana dominated the Huaxia mid-class car market. After many years of exposure to European design, Chinese consumers have recognized European design, and it can even be said that Huaxia is the most accepting market for European design styles outside of Europe.

However, Ford Huaxia, which has no localization capabilities at all, will eventually be at a disadvantage in long-term competition with GM and Japanese rivals, and even other European automakers. Whether it is Skoda Octavia or Toyota Corolla, there are improvements for the Chinese market. However, Ford did not have the local resources to make any localized improvements to the Focus. Ford had tried to solve the problem with a joint venture in Taiwan, but it turned out that it was unsuccessful. Ford still has to come up with a way to achieve real success as soon as possible.

Xiao Chen's headache now is that among the three major in the United States, Chrysler is the weakest one, and its performance in the domestic market is also lackluster, unlike GM, which has strong localization capabilities, and unlike Ford, which has a European company that can directly take models. Chrysler has some localization except for the Cherokee, which is too old to be old, and can only directly bring in its American models without any localization. The Chrysler before the crossing was a failure: the 300c was silent after the initial popularity, and the chances of success in China were slim for Dodge Kailing, Fengzhe and Chrysler Platinum. One only has to look at the European and Japanese rivals they faced, as well as the models launched by Ford and GM in Huaxia, to see how failed Chrysler's strategy in Huaxia was. From Europe to Asia, Chrysler's overseas development has been bleak.

As a latecomer to the Chinese market, Japanese cars have also had a dormant period in the Chinese market. Vitz and Vios are not successful, Nissan's Blue Bird has also been tepid for a long time, Honda has very few models except for the hot-selling Accord, and the last Odyssey has not been able to sell well. Because the Chinese auto industry is weak and there are no strong enough local designs for Japanese manufacturers to imitate (as they have done in the United States and Europe), their entry into the Chinese market has not been smooth. However, it was during these unsuccessful years that Japanese automakers gradually learned about the market and gradually gained experience and mastered the appreciative tastes of consumers.

According to Xiao Chen's "experience", from 2005 to 2007, Japanese cars in China entered a stage of concentrated force. The Honda Fit, the New Odyssey, the second- and third-generation CR-V, the Accord 7, the Civic, the Toyota Crown and Camry, the Nissan Teana, the Tiida, the Tiida, the Liwei, and the Mazda 6 are all mainstream cars with large sales. The share of the entire Nikche Group in the Chinese market has increased rapidly, and it has exceeded the market share of American brands, and it can sit down to compete with European brands.

The reasons for the popularity of these cars vary, some of the new models brought are new enough technology and attractive appearance; Some are cheap and high-quality, and the space utilization rate is very high; Some fill a gap in a certain market range. However, one common reason is that they are popular with a certain type of consumer. Japanese manufacturers generally have a strong localization advantage, are good at developing products that meet local needs, and they generally have a large global model family resources that can be used for localization. The American version is suitable for the Chinese market, take the American version to change, the European version is suitable for the European version, and there is a Japanese version, and in the end, if it is really not possible, you can simply tailor it directly for the Chinese market. Honda has changed more from the American version, Nissan has mainly taken the European version, Toyota's Camry is from the Australian version and the American version, but has made considerable localization improvements, the crown is from the Japanese version, and the Corolla is changed from the American version of Corolla. They have a strong ability to integrate global resources, and each branch is designed to be relatively independent and can share resources with each other relatively well.

Xiao Chen wrote and drew on a piece of paper and jotted down his main points, while predicting the trend of the Huaxia automobile market in the next few years, without considering luxury cars (Germany has too much advantage in this regard), the current dominance of European cars in Huaxia will be greatly challenged. Because if you sell the European version of the car directly, it may be successful, such as Suteng. However, there are more examples of failure of this kind of direct introduction without proper localization, such as Picasso, Senna, Caede, Touran, Magotan and so on. European automakers don't want to localize, but this kind of capability is not something that can be built up in a short period of time, and it requires long-term capital investment. Dongfeng PSA's awkward localization will continue to play out in the future.

European cars with an American brand, Ford, also have this problem, and if it is not solved as soon as possible, it will definitely affect the long-term development. It is an indisputable fact that the overall decline of American brands is that what they can do is to integrate global resources better and faster, improve localization capabilities, and come up with products welcomed by the Chinese market. It is an indisputable fact that Nisce's market share is increasing year by year, and this trend is likely to continue. Thanks to China's rapid economic growth, it took them 20 years or more to accumulate experience in the United States and Europe, and in China, it took less than 10 years. As for the biggest obstacle to their development in the Chinese market, in fact, it is not what Toyota brake door, Honda broken axle door, or "national complex", this is a practical problem that cannot be ignored. Xiao Chen even felt that the new automobile company to be established in the future had a great advantage that it could not only satisfy the idea of "friendship and friendship" between a large number of Chinese people and the United States, but also satisfy the "bloody" boycott of Japanese cars by another large number of Chinese people, so that all parties could "curry favor" and be human, which is a major key to doing business.

After thinking so much, Xiao Chen wrote down a few thoughts on the paper about Huaxia's own national automobile industry:

1. Don't be afraid of people saying we imitate. The beginnings of the automotive industry in both Japan and South Korea began with the imitation of advanced competitors, and for many years. Japan has not completely detached, and South Korea is still mostly imitating. Haier, Lenovo and Huawei, the leaders of our three major industries in China, all started with imitation shows, and at present, only Haier has some things that can be talked about as independent innovation, and the other two companies have almost none. In a word, there is no shame in imitation, as long as you remember that the ultimate goal of imitation is innovation.

2. Don't be in a hurry to start independent innovation. The premise of independent innovation is industry accumulation, understanding of the market, and a lot of capital investment. It takes a long time for the "imitation show" to accumulate before you can start decent independent innovation. If a business wants to survive, profit is the first purpose. A company that holds a lot of patents, but goes bankrupt, no one will pity you.

3. Try to influence national policies, so that the state can introduce some special preferential policies for these local enterprises, and give them protection and support in terms of taxation, R&D investment, attracting talents, etc., just as the Japanese and South Korean governments have done. This is also an important part of the rise of Haier, Lenovo and Huawei.

After writing so much, Xiao Chen finally picked up the phone and dialed a number.