"Why is that?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

Thatcher said: "The Rolls-Royce brand, I think Eric you also know, a long time ago, not only made cars, but also made high-end aero engines, although it was later split, but these two companies are currently owned by the Ministry of Defense Weeks, but Rolls-Royce is basically only responsible for investment, Rolls-Royce they have a strong internal autonomy, because compared to other brands, Rolls-Royce's losses may not be so serious." ”

"I see, that is, if I want to buy Rolls-Royce, I have to go through their own internal approval?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"Yes, in fact, mini may be the same, even if our government level passes your acquisition request, the company should agree to it, and there is the labor union, you have bought American companies, I think you should be very clear about the logic of this." Thatcher said.

"So, is the government agreeing?" Chen Zhiwen also asked: Although the acquisition of the United States also requires the approval of the government, after all, it is not a state-owned enterprise, and the government only needs to maintain the basic provisions of the foreign acquisition law, but the British side is a state-owned enterprise, so it can be said that it is a transaction with the government.

"I can't say I must agree to it, because this kind of thing still needs to be approved by the council, and I myself need to think again, but I have no reason to stop you at the moment, as long as you can convince others." Thatcher said.

"Thank you, Madam Prime Minister." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile, being able not to stop it is actually a great help, if the government does not agree, then there is no play.

"That's a mini car?" On the way back, at an intersection, Chen Zhiwen pointed to a mini sedan in front of him on the right and said.

British car brands, in today's world, can almost only be sold in the UK, and other markets are not recognized at all, which is also one of the important reasons for the decline of British car brands.

"It's small, but it's good for some trails." Liu Xiaoli said after seeing the real car.

When Chen Zhiwen was chatting with Prime Minister Thatcher before, she didn't speak, first, although she studied hard for more than half a year, she could understand some English, but she was not very fluent, and second, she also knew that she should not speak on this occasion.

"It's small, but it's because it's small, it's very suitable for women, and it's more suitable for those who live in crowded cities, if you drive in Hong Kong, you also have this feeling, it's too big a car, it's too inconvenient to park." Chen Zhiwen smiled and said.

For people who have parking spaces or don't care about paying parking fees, the economic conditions are okay, so naturally buy a bigger car as much as possible, the pursuit of comfort, but most people in this world buy a car are ordinary people, driving in the city, the most uncomfortable is nothing more than a congested road and the problem of difficult parking, and this small car is very convenient, which is why the sales of various small cars in China in later generations are very considerable.

Even the developed countries in the West, the United States and a small number of sparsely populated countries are special, many Western European countries, Japan, South Korea are also fond of small cars, because the traffic roads are also smaller, small cars are more convenient, Southeast Asia will develop in the future, there will be a lot of small cars, but the positioning of the mini may be a little more expensive, not very suitable for the economy is not very good.

The last point is naturally more fuel-efficient, this is always the king, many people who buy Mercedes-Benz BMW, also care about fuel consumption, decades later trams can change lanes to overtake, an important reason for success is fuel saving, for this, most people are very persistent, and even some people who are not bad money are more concerned.

"Are you going to go to these companies' factories next?" Liu Xiaoli asked.

"If you don't go, go to a bank, they will be responsible for pulling the strings, and run over by yourself, so that people will ignore you." Chen Zhiwen said: "You don't have to follow later, I will arrange a few people to be your tour guides, have a good time in the UK, in addition, this big brother should be brought with him, so that he can find someone at any time." ”

Big Brother was invented in the early 70s, and after ten years of development, many big cities in the world have wireless communication services, but the price is relatively expensive, and ordinary people can't afford it, but for Chen Zhiwen, it is really too convenient, and he can find someone or be found anytime and anywhere, which can save a lot of time and cost.

Midea is also researching the field of communications, but at present, it can only be used for ordinary telephone switches, involving wireless communications, there is no such technology, things always have to come step by step, the later generations of Huawei, also started from the switch, and then developed into the later generations of communication and mobile phone giants.

If you have the ability to do a good job, you can also take a role in this field, and if you are average, you can also focus on investing in Huawei in the future, and you can concentrate on doing a good job in civilian products.

"Okay." Liu Xiaoli agreed.

The next day, in the presidential suite of the InterContinental Hotel in London, Chen Zhiwen met Tian Xuecheng, the Chinese vice president of AMC in the United States.

As a subordinate, Tian Xuecheng naturally arrived in London a long time ago, but the boss on the first day was mainly with his family, so he just went to the airport to pick up the plane and left, and waited until he was called to come.

"Chen Sheng, the turbine test in the United States has been successful, in different high and low temperature environments, dust environments, vibration environments, has worked for more than 5,000 hours, all kinds of tests are qualified, next, need to be installed on the actual car, and then sent to hot and cold places for a large number of practical tests, to obtain data, if successful, then this product can start to be put into small batches." Tian Xuecheng reported.

"Oh, how does that compare to the Porsche turbine today?" Chen Zhiwen asked, AMC is not the first to develop turbines, and even when Chen Zhiwen proposed this research and development project, there were several car companies in Europe that installed cars, but they are all first-generation products, and the quality and life of the products still need to be watched again.

"In terms of cost, it is much lower, and in terms of efficiency, it is also a little lower, but if the quality of our products is also no problem, then the cost performance is much higher, which is very suitable for installation on ordinary vehicles." Tian Xuecheng replied.

"It's cost-effective, as long as it's okay to launch the market, then continue to follow the iterative research and development, if this field is controlled by us, or at least we can have a certain market, it is a strategic success for our automotive industry." Chen Zhiwen said very happily.

The automotive industry has existed for decades, most of the traditional machinery can involve technology has basically been controlled by countless giants, the only new product that can have a lot of influence is the turbine, not that it could not be studied before, but before the 70s, the oil price was cheap and various countries did not care about environmental issues, the turbine is not developed and there is no point in research and development, only the aircraft has to improve fuel efficiency because of the weight limit.

The two oil crises in the 70s led to "fuel saving" becoming a problem that fuel-saving car companies must pay attention to, and the technology of turbocharging was naturally concerned, but it is not easy to use the turbine on the aircraft in low-cost cars, and the giants and some large parts giants have to spend a lot of time and money to develop them, and only luxury cars such as Porsche and Opel can try it first, because high-end brands are highly profitable and not so sensitive to the high cost of turbines. But ordinary working-class cars don't work, and General Motors has also introduced turbos, but the effect is very mediocre.

The importance of the turbine is that it will be useful in the era of electric vehicles in 40 years, and hybrid cars, with turbine efficiency, unless pure electric vehicles are completely popularized, the turbine will be eliminated, before that, the turbine will become one of the most important parts of the entire automotive industry, second only to the three major parts. If you can have a certain foundation in this field, then the automotive industry will at least have its own place.

"In the research and development of turbos, we have invested 250 million US dollars, I am afraid that even those auto giants are not comparable, we can get a return, and it should be." Tian Xuecheng said with a smile.

"Yes, such a big investment has finally paid off." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said with emotion.

Since returning to Hong Kong, Chen Zhiwen's investment is basically using various prophetic advantages to make a fortune, such as Hong Kong's real estate, Midea games, Red Bull drinks, investing in Costco, long gold and even the acquisition of Disney, etc., which are actually purely using his own prophetic advantages to develop.

AMC is the only one with the same investment as others, without any advantages, purely "real investment", at most to know the future oil price situation and some future development direction of the automobile, etc., but no matter what the automotive industry says, the foundation is still the technical heritage, therefore, it still needs a lot of real investment in research and development.

Turbocharging this project, is the first large-scale investment in high-tech projects, close to 4 years of moments, 250 million US dollars of investment, finally a bit of a return, as long as the follow-up can be on a large scale, then the market feedback can know what are the shortcomings, and then use the profits of the market to continue iterative research and development, in the long run, will gain a certain first-mover advantage, other giants are not to say that they can't catch up, but need greater investment, or to avoid their own patents, and they will also occupy a certain market.

"Our turbine volume is not large, if we can acquire the mini, and then redesign, can be placed on the mini, then both performance and fuel consumption will be greatly improved, but no matter how smooth, it will take more than three years, which is the bottom line of quality and safety in the automotive industry." Tian Xuecheng said. He naturally knew that the purpose of the boss was to acquire mini and Rolls-Royce, in fact, a long time ago, the boss informed him of this purpose, and even the information of many cars in the UK was sent by him to check, and then handed over to the boss, and finally the boss decided on these two brands according to the information and his own situation.

Rolls-Royce, in fact, he doesn't care, this is a luxury brand, hand-built all kinds of technology, not that it is useless, but at most it will be devolved to the next level of luxury cars after maturity, such as the engines of various sports cars, which can be improved on high-end cars such as Mercedes-Benz BMW Porsche, and AMC, which takes the ordinary route, has little to do with it.

But mini, obviously belongs to the Volkswagen type of car, although the British car technology is average, but a 20-year-old brand, there will always be a lot of accumulation, and AMC will definitely have a lot of complementarity.

"If you can do this, it is indeed the best, small cars, in fact, many people also like high-power ones very much." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, the future generation of Volkswagen small steel cannon, Nissan GTR, etc., in fact, is the demand of this segment, although not a lot, but that is for giants like Volkswagen, for mini, can win 3% of this market segment, you can laugh and blossom, and the turbo can also save fuel, which is very tempting for any customer.

"I've been in contact with the top management of MINI before, and they didn't directly refuse our intention to buy, nor did they put forward conditions, but I feel that they don't seem to be very happy." Tian Xuecheng said.

"It's better to leave this kind of acquisition to the local banks, they have their own relationships." Chen Zhiwen said indifferently: "It's normal to ride a donkey to find a horse, if you are mini, you also want to sell to a big car company, and I am actually the same here, if mini can't buy it, I will naturally change the target." ”

"Which bank are we looking for?" Tian Xuecheng asked.

"Standard Chartered." Chen Zhiwen smiled and said.

(End of chapter)