After a group of current AMC executives visited the workshop site, they returned to the office building, and in the conference room, a secretary of the board of directors gave a detailed introduction to the entire AMC company, including various technical reserves, model status and some upcoming models.

After listening to the introduction for more than an hour, Jim Hughes smiled and asked, "Eric, what else do you want from AMC now?" ”

"I will not provide a lot of professional advice, but in the future AMC car research and development direction, we should focus on the word fuel saving, this is my prediction, the future development of the global automotive industry, not only because of high oil prices, environmental pressure will become the core of the entire automotive industry in the future." Chen Zhiwen paused and said.

Oil prices, after the second oil crisis, will fall rapidly, although not as much as before 73, but much cheaper than in recent years, in the mid-80s, oil prices were generally below $20, around 86, the Middle East in order to cooperate with the United States and even take the initiative to reduce prices on a large scale, detonating the global oil market.

Now the acquisition of AMC, even if you don't do anything, in a few years, can live for more than ten years, only in the year of the outbreak of the third oil crisis, oil prices may rise a lot, but at that time, many countries also have strategic oil reserves, plus the third oil crisis is very short, the end of the Gulf War is basically over, the impact is far less than the previous two.

And this chic more than ten years is actually the last chance for the American auto industry, because after that, car brands with high fuel consumption basically have no chance.

In particular, the United States market has been seriously saturated, AMC needs to develop overseas markets, the current overseas market, except for the Middle East, most of the other regions are very concerned about fuel consumption, because oil, is more important than gold, in which country is, even less important than food.

As for the issue of environmental protection, it is mainly to take into account that Western countries will become more and more strict in this regard in the future, although the main purpose of these people is to take this moral righteousness to oppress the development of developing countries, but this is indeed the trend of future development, although the number of automobile emission pollution is far less than that of the power generation industry, heavy industry or chemical industry, but the car lives in the center of the city, and human beings are in contact every day, any country, will hope that their city can be a little less exhaust, after all, there is a special supply of water, food, But there will be no special supply of air.

Of course, the most important thing is the mainland market, in the future of the serious shortage of oil in the mainland, fuel saving can be said to be the most important, Japanese cars are inferior to the German and American in many aspects, but it is good to sell, the core reason is "fuel saving", after 2020, electric vehicles are also selling very well, although there are some intelligent influences, but for ordinary people, the most fundamental reason is because of fuel saving.

Fuel efficiency is king, at least one of them.

"Saving fuel is now the goal pursued by all car companies in Detroit, and AMC has been pursuing the whole goal for decades, but now the biggest headache is Japanese cars, the gap between us is too big, and many patents have been registered by Japanese car companies, it is difficult to bypass." Jim Hughes said with a frown.

"The engine and gearbox are too difficult, and with our company's capabilities, we can optimize it properly, but it will take a long time to achieve the same as Japanese companies, and Japanese brands are constantly optimizing their own technology." Another technical director said.

"I know this, so we have to change the direction of research and development, and I hope that in the future, AMC will mainly develop turbocharging technology." Chen Zhiwen said.

In fact, AMC is the main fuel saving route in the United States, and it has been developed for decades.

A long time ago, the three giants of the United States firmly controlled the eighty or ninety percent of the automobile market in the United States, and the other brands were surviving in the cracks, and the direction of choice was also a small category, so as to avoid direct competition with the Big Three.

The direction chosen by AMC is the type of household fuel economy, the space is not large, the car is the main, the positioning is to buy vegetable cars, many people who live in the city center and are not very convenient to park will buy this type of car, or some families already have a large car, and buy another as a backup, especially some female members are not tall, it is not convenient to drive a large SUV, at this time, there is a small car is very fragrant.

Relying on this positioning, AMC has been living well, mixing in the fourth position in the country, but the jeep is another matter, it was acquired by AMC in the late 60s.

Originally, this kind of market positioning, once the oil price rises sharply, AMC's small and medium-sized cars should be very popular, but Japanese cars have entered the United States on a large scale, AMC's cars may be more fuel-efficient than the Big Three, but compared with the more developed technology, more experienced, and lower manufacturing costs of Japanese cars, the same has been beaten down, in addition, the original acquisition of Jeep, in fact, is also AMC's intention to enter the field of the Big Three, but also want to take a share of the large car market, and then encountered the oil crisis, Jeep also suffered losses for several years, Losing money and almost going bankrupt.

Japanese automobiles, the car brand of the whole country, have studied fuel-saving technology for decades, patent barriers and technical barriers are already very high, and it is almost impossible to catch up with others on this road, and if you can't do this, you can only bypass it, turbocharging is one of the ways.

Before the rise of electric vehicles, the layout of later generations of automobiles was basically a Japanese mild hybrid and a German and American turbocharging.

Turbocharging technology appeared in 1905, but the application in automobiles is only more than ten years old, and only a few cars are used, and many technologies are not yet mature.

"Turbocharged? You're talking about turbocharging technology on Porsche and Saab? Jim Hughes thought for a moment and asked.

"Yes, that's it, find a way to get the most basic underlying technology patents from Europe, and then the company sets up a special technical team to overcome this direction, although I don't know much about technology, but I know the principle of it, theoretically speaking, the turbine is installed, then the power will become stronger, fuel consumption will be reduced, this is the effect I want." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

"I also know that this kind of technology is not very mature at present, and if it is to be developed, it will require a lot of funds." Jim Hughes said.

"Don't worry about funding, I will inject an additional $300 million in funds specifically for research and development, in addition to the replacement of existing models, the rest, mainly research and development of turbine technology." Chen Zhiwen said.

The automotive industry is very different from other industries, for example, its market value is not high, AMC has a total market value of about 160 million US dollars in today's bad automobile market, and Chen Zhiwen spent an additional 56 million to acquire, and a total of 216 million US dollars.

But the research and development of a model has to invest hundreds of millions of dollars, or even more, and the research and development of some important parts and components are also starting with tens of millions of dollars.

Therefore, it is not difficult to acquire an automobile company, but the follow-up investment is the majority, if the automobile industry itself can not enter a normal virtuous circle, the speed of burning money is absolutely jaw-dropping.

But fortunately, AMC currently has no new models to develop, of course, the previous AMC can not afford to develop, there is no financial resources, just the existing models, every 5 years to optimize, the money is not very much.

As for the three major parts, the gearbox is completely outsourced, the engine is assembled by itself, but many core components are also outsourced, the chassis is good, independent production research and development and patents have some, there are also some experience in tuning the chassis, after all, among the three major parts, the difficulty of the chassis is the lowest.

For a medium-sized automobile company, such a state is common, because the ability to do its own three major pieces, are giant companies, which also saves Chen Zhiwen a lot of money, at present, he only needs to spend money to conquer turbocharging technology, in this field to become bigger, not to mention being able to become the world's top level, but at least have some right to speak, after all, at present, among the global car companies, there are not many research and development of this technology.

"$300 million?" When everyone heard this number, their eyes were almost green, this money is for the auto giant. Maybe only half a new car can be developed, but for AMC, there is too much research and development that can be done.

"If I have this funding, then I will definitely cooperate with the strongest team to develop this technology." Jim Hughes nodded and said, he was not very surprised, because he already knew the financial resources of the new boss, and he had communicated with the new boss's assistant Gu Dehua many times before, knowing that the other party would make a large capital injection after becoming the owner.

"There are several car companies in Europe that are already developing this technology, but they don't necessarily attach great importance to it, try to poach teams from there, buy technology patents if they can, or recruit talents in the United States." Chen Zhiwen continued.

"It's not a problem, it's just that the entire U.S. car market is sluggish, whether it's the Middle East market or this new technology, it's a relatively distant thing, so I hope to get a lot of money to carry out a big promotion of AMC's cars, and reduce the price appropriately to increase sales." Jim Hughes said.

"Yes, but we have to wait." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said: "One more thing, you may not know, I have an agreement with Chrysler's CEO Li Iacocca, I will buy 330 car retail stores in Chrysler's hands, these car retail stores are in good locations, and they will also become AMC's main retail points in the future. ”

"330 retail outlets? Boss Do you want to make these stores our specialty stores? Jim Hughes's eyes lit up.

Although there are more than 10,000 auto retail stores in the United States, most of them are for the three major auto giants, and now that Japanese cars are selling well, these stores will also take the initiative to sell Japanese cars, while other brands, it is too difficult, many stores simply ignore them, or even if they are introduced, they will not be placed in a good position, and they will not be used as the main force to sell.

It's like all the snacks are sold in a large supermarket chain, although they go in, but they are not in a good location, how many people will buy them?

In order to make the terminal channel more snacks, these companies have to offer more favorable conditions, such as higher rebates, etc., but their cost itself is not as good as that of the big brand cars with higher sales, and they still need to pay for these, so the competitiveness is lower.

Of course, the best is the specialty store, the specialty store only has the products of this car brand, customers come, if they like it, then they are all their own, but there are not many such stores in the United States, most of them are luxury brands or giant enterprises.

"That's not good, AMC's current car classification is not enough, but I will let these dealers vigorously promote AMC's cars, so that they can increase sales more or less, and if you want to advertise, it's not a problem, I can increase the marketing budget." Chen Zhiwen said.

"That's also very good, so that at least the whole company won't have frequent holidays." Jim Hughes said with a smile.

"One more thing, Costco you should know, right?" Chen Zhiwen said again.

"I know, it's also the boss's industry, and there is one in Detroit, and we go there often, and it's very discounted." Jim Hughes looked at a few people around him and said with a smile, and several of them nodded.

"Costco has a lot of foot traffic, I will let all Costco in the whole United States leave a place at the door to store AMC models, and then you will arrange talking sales here, the purpose is not for me to say more, whether you can sell it depends on your ability." Chen Zhiwen continued.

Costco's traffic, although not as good as Wal-Mart, is more concentrated, and they are all middle-class, with a certain amount of spending power.

"That's a very good idea." Everyone in the conference room was shocked, the supermarket, but one of the places with the largest flow of people, Costco is now one of the largest supermarkets in the United States, and the potential for development is still great, put your own car at the door of Costco, the effect is estimated to be stronger than 330 specialty stores.

In fact, this kind of method is not nothing, many brands will also send cars into the supermarket for advertising, but the time is not long, after all, the main business of the supermarket is not this, and it needs to charge a lot of fees, and it is impossible for car companies to lease the location of the supermarket for a long time.

But now, AMC and Costco are the same, then there is naturally an advantage, in the final analysis, in fact, for Costco, it is just a few cars in the open space at the door, but for AMC, millions or even tens of millions of members in the future are likely to become its customers.

"First to ensure the basic operation, at the capital level, I will find a way to increase the control capacity of the terminal, because of the anti-monopoly law in the United States, I can't invest too much, but overseas, I will layout, if the export has a certain sales, then AMC can also come back to life." Chen Zhiwen said.

In the Middle East and Southeast Asia, his influence is not too big at present, but as long as he continues to develop, he will always have the ability to enter here, especially the existence of Taishan Club, if he attracts wealthy people in Southeast Asia, it is of great significance to his layout in Southeast Asia.

"Okay, as long as there is a market, our quality will definitely not be worse than GM." Jim Hughes said with a laugh.

(End of chapter)