"Horizontally opposed engines and full-time all-wheel drive, how are these two technologies performing on the market?"

"These two technologies of Subaru have been well received by users, especially in the Great Lakes region in the east of North Rice, and Subaru's brand awareness is widely spread."

"How are the global markets performing?"

"Uh" Nakamura Takao is a little stuck, "Subaru's market performance is much worse than that of Toyota and Nissan, but its potential is worth looking forward to." ”

Subaru's global market is of course difficult to describe, and it can only be said that it is the last of the eight neon automakers, a proper niche car.

Whether it is horizontally opposed or full-time four-wheel drive, the design and production process of each part of it have quite strict requirements.

They are much more expensive to manufacture than common in-line or V-engines, as well as two-wheel drive.

At the same time, the high precision manufacturing requirements also bring higher maintenance costs, and their compact layout on the body makes them more difficult to repair.

Therefore, the advantages of these two technologies are obvious, but of course there are also disadvantages, that is, they are not suitable for mass car manufacturers to adopt this technology.

Kaede Shirakawa probably knows the problems Subaru is facing, but that's more about that later.

"Nakamura-san, please continue, the more detailed information about Subaru the better."

Having experienced it in a Subaru four-wheel drive, Shirakawa Kaede felt that the design of the Subaru was actually okay in the current era.

"Hay" got his permission, and Takao Nakamura continued to introduce Subaru's technology.

"In addition to the above two technologies, Subaru is also unique in terms of safety design.

The high-strength ring frame can protect the safety of passengers to the greatest extent in the event of a collision. ”

At the showroom, there was a Subaru model with only the frame, and Nakamura also introduced the advantages of this safety design to Shirakawa Kaede.

This annular structure disperses the shock of the collision to various directions, and avoids the deformation of the carriage caused by the inconsistent force transmission route of the ordinary frame.

After the introduction of this mechanical design concept, Subaru gave Shirakawa Kaede a very special impression.

It is probably the Japanese car that is least like a Japanese car among neon car companies.

Handling, power, and safety are not the characteristics of ordinary thin-skinned Japanese cars.

At the same time, from the perspective of the technology market, these three technologies are also Subaru's three-board axe, which can be regarded as the only commendable thing.

Tsk, kind of interesting.

"In addition to continuing to deepen the existing superior technology, Subaru is also developing the latest generation of ADA (Active Driving Assist) driver assistance system."

"Wait, driver assistance systems?" Shirakawa Kaede thought he had heard it wrong, this thing is available now?

"Hai" Nakamura nodded, "ADA is a crash avoidance system designed based on safety.

This system is combined with ABS technology and body active protection technology to form a VDC control system.

With it, the car can automatically recognize the distance, shape, and speed of the object in front of it, and prompt the driver at the right time to brake the vehicle.

This involves cutting-edge technologies such as millimeter-wave radar, lidar, monocular camera, and binocular camera, which are still in the development stage. ”

Nakamura Takao's explanation is a bit of a new world for Shirakawa Kaede.

It turns out that the driver assistance systems commonly used in automobiles in later generations have been studied since the end of the 80s.

"If you need support on the chip, you can go to TSIC, and if you need support on the software, you can contact SSM."

I dare not say anything else, in terms of professional auxiliary chip design, TSIC is definitely a neon Namba question.

The same is true for SSM, which was spun off from HAL, which focuses on the development of various software tools and has now become a leader in the field of neon professional software.

"Hay!" Takao Nakamura, who was standing beside him, rubbed his hands together excitedly when he heard the news.

With a technical background, he certainly knows the names of TSIC and SSM, which are also the professional technical companies he has always coveted.

However, because of Fuji Heavy Industries' huge losses before, they had no chance to cooperate with the two at all.

Now Shirakawa Kaede has taken the initiative to give Subaru the corresponding technical support and improve the assisted driving system as soon as possible.

Hearing the news, of course Nakamura Takao was happy, someone sent a pillow as soon as he fell asleep.

Tsk, Shirakawa Kaede Holdings' thigh is not wrong.

Takao Nakamura, who was a little excited, began to introduce another cutting-edge research of Subaru.

"In addition to traditional combustion engine vehicles, Subaru also developed pure electric vehicles (EVs) in the 70s.

At that time, Tokyo also held an auto show dedicated to electric vehicles, and Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and Mazda all competed for it.

However, due to technical limitations, pure electric models have been stuck in the concept prototype stage.

Subaru was also involved in the design at the time, and the original technology development progress is still retained. ”

The concept of electric vehicles has been around for a long time, and Neon had a competition to develop it in the sixties and seventies.

Even in China, the concept of electric vehicles has long appeared. In his original letter, a certain bigwig suggested that the country lay out the field of electric vehicles as soon as possible.

It's just that although there are brains, with the current technology, it is still too difficult to really commercialize.

Kaede Shirakawa also took a look at the EV designed by Subaru at the scene, not to mention the bloated shape, they can't be called pure electric vehicles.

It's more of a crude oil-to-electricity switch, but that's not to blame, because the hardware limits the implementation of the technology.

However, although the current EV is not realistic, some necessary technical reserves cannot be left behind.

"Shirakawa Battery's research institute in Tohoku is conducting research on lithium battery technology.

Subaru can collaborate with them on EV research here, and it is not necessary to aim for mass production, but to maintain the continuous accumulation of technology. ”

Shirakawa Kaede didn't expect to change his life against the sky and put electric vehicles into commercial use decades in advance, which was unrealistic.

But the necessary accumulation of technology is needed, even if it costs a little more.

Hearing that there is also lithium battery technology development under Shirakawa Holdings, Nakamura Takao is even more impressed with his boss.

Amazing, these are cutting-edge technologies.

It seems that Shirakawa Holdings is paying more attention to the development of technology than outsiders think, but this is definitely good news for Subaru.

After looking at civilian cars, Nakamura Takao also introduced other types of cars to Shirakawa Kaede and them.

That's right, in addition to civilian cars, Subaru also has other model businesses.

For example, two-wheeled motorcycles, light three-wheelers, buses and other niche vehicles, but there is not much left of this part of the business now.

In addition, on special vehicles, Subaru is also involved.

JR, Private Railways, and Japan Railways use a considerable number of their railroad buses from Subaru.

Diesel locomotives, trams, freight cars, special operation vehicles, and large rail trains were all part of Fuji Heavy Industries' business in the past.

Not to mention that this was quite a surprise to Shirakawa Kaede, it turned out that in addition to cars, Subaru's business scope is so wide.

If the previous model of the car made Shirakawa Kaede a little surprised, then when he saw the products of the aircraft division, it was shocking.

Well, those planes are mostly out of the civilian category. There are many models, from ancient aircraft to modern aircraft.

As for the details, I can't say ~

In fact, Shirakawa Kaede is also quite conflicted about the aircraft division, on the one hand, he only wants Subaru to focus on the field of civilian automobiles, and on the other hand, he doesn't know whether to let go of the aircraft division.

However, when it comes to the Ministry of Defense, I'm afraid that there are some things that he can't decide alone.

Forget it, let it be beforehand. If something happens in the future, it's not too late to make plans then.

Today's headquarters in Subaru is just a general understanding of the situation here, as for the main engine factories, they are all in Gunma Prefecture, Shirakawa Kaede They must not have time to see this time.

According to Takao Nakamura, there is also an OEM factory in North Subaru, which mainly serves the local market.

After a general understanding of the situation, Shirakawa Kaede already had a plan in his heart about Subaru.

"Nakamura-san, ladies and gentlemen, let's discuss Subaru's follow-up plans together."

While everyone in "Hai" agreed in unison, their faces became a lot more serious.

Wasn't it just that they were working so hard to introduce Subaru's various technical advantages just now in order to gain the favor of Shirakawa Kaede, and then have more inclination in resources?

After a large group of people had visited the headquarters, they all began to walk upstairs to the conference room.

There, the next moment is the time to decide the fate of Subaru in the future.

"Nakamura, everyone already knows the situation of Samsubaru, so let's talk about its market now, shall we?"

If there is a crisis in management, the first thing to do is, of course, market analysis.

Only by finding the crux of the problem can we make a corresponding solution.

Speaking of this topic, Nakamura Takao's expression also became serious.

"There are three main types of consumer models currently on sale at Subaru: LEONE, Domingo and ALCYONE.

The LEONE series is positioned in the mid-range, and both full-time all-wheel drive and horizontally opposed systems are used in this series, and they also have a considerable audience in Neon.

Domingo is a K-CAR, a type of light van that is designed to be lightweight, economical, and simple.

THE LAST ALCYONE, DEVELOPED FOR THE HIGH-END MARKET, WAS SUBARU'S FIRST COUPE AND SUBARU'S FIRST MODEL TO BE EXPORTED OVERSEAS.

In addition to the Alcyone, the other two models were updated in the 80s and released overseas.

In addition, there are also extended versions of them, such as off-road versions, touring versions, etc. ”

Strictly speaking, there are actually only these three models on sale in Subaru at this time, and most of the other original old models have been discontinued.

There is no doubt that for a car company, the three models on sale are really a bit too little.

This may also be one of the reasons why Subaru is relatively niche, the market itself is limited, and there are relatively few options, which is equivalent to a two-way constraint.

However, Subaru's real business crisis is not here, but in the previous market positioning.

"Because we stuck to the full-time four-wheel drive and horizontally opposed route, the good handling of the Subaru model was warmly welcomed in the North American market.

Since the 80s, the sales volume and revenue of the North Rice market have begun to far exceed that of Neon Local, and then the club simply focused on the North Rice market and began to do targeted operations.

However, since the yen's appreciation, Subaru's overseas sales have plummeted. Especially after 86 years, the North rice market has lost almost 60% of its share. ”

When it comes to the disaster caused by the appreciation of the yen, Nakamura Takao is also embarrassed.

I think that Subaru was also brilliant at the beginning, but the change came too quickly, and the former Fuji Heavy Industries was completely caught off guard.

The consumer model, which has the largest profits and sales, suffered Waterloo, and Subaru's loss was almost doomed.

After figuring out the situation that Subaru is facing now, Shirakawa Kaede also has a general idea in his heart.

(End of chapter)