The success of a car definitely does not simply rely on the superposition of configurations.

Otherwise, you don't have to do anything, just superimpose various configurations.

But it's a high-end luxury car, and if you don't have enough equipment, it's definitely not going to work.

To take an extreme example, if you can't even meet the simple requirements of front and rear independent suspension, what kind of high-end models can you talk about?

When have you ever seen a Mercedes-Benz S series or a BMW 7 Series or 5 Series model with non-independent suspension?

Looking at the history of the development of the car industry, that is, there is only one special case like Tesla, the configuration of each model is very low, but the sales are very good.

That's because times have changed.

The main focus is on intelligent driving.

"Mr. Cao, this large SUV model, we will readjust the explanatory materials of the kick-off meeting in accordance with the direction you said."

"There's a sports car in the back, I'll report to you about it too?"

The two cars will hold a kick-off meeting together, and the sales department and the research institute will need to prepare more information.

The point is that the positioning of the two cars is completely different, and the information has no reference meaning other than the format.

"Let's talk about it first."

Cao Yang was a little curious about what the report materials that Zeng Tingting and Huan Yongxiang finally came up with would look like.

The sports car market is very special.

There are hundreds of thousands of sports cars, there are millions of sports cars, and even tens of millions of sports cars.

Although Xingchen Automobile takes the high-end route, it is definitely very difficult to position the sports car.

"The world's most famous sports cars are basically made by European companies."

"Whether it's Koenigsegg or Bugatti, or Ferrari, Porsche, Pagani, or Lamborghini, it's all from Europe."

"Although the United States and Dongying are also automobile powerhouses and have their own sports cars, there is still a big gap between the sense of luxury and European cars."

"So our sports cars, the first benchmark is European car companies."

"Especially some time ago, Volkswagen announced the situation of its Bugatti Veyron, which brought a very big impact to the sports car circle."

"Equipped with a W16 quad-turbo engine, the Bugatti Veyron has an output of 1,001 horsepower and a speed of 407 km/h, making it the fastest sports car in history, even faster than an airplane."

"Of course, the price is very high, even in Europe, for 1 million euros."

"When you get to China, it will definitely exceed 10 million yuan, or even higher."

"Considering that sports cars are mainly used to enhance our brand positioning, sales are not the main consideration."

"So we boldly proposed to benchmark the Bugatti Veyron and develop a W16 engine that would allow us to compete with the Bugatti Veyron."

"Then the annual limited sales of 99 units will fully enhance the brand influence of our Xingchen Automobile."

When it comes to a sports car, the powertrain is definitely the most important.

As for the appearance, in fact, no matter which sports car it is, the appearance is not bad.

Even the sports cars of decades ago look quite classic today.

Sports cars are also not updated as often as sedans.

It is also normal for a model to be sold for ten or eight years.

At most, some facelifts or limited editions will be launched in the middle.

Therefore, after Zeng Tingting discussed with Huan Yongxiang, she felt that Xingchen Automobile must not be able to rely on sports cars to make money.

However, Cao Yang asked for such a model to enhance the luxury of the brand, so he simply made an "advertising car" with exaggerated data.

Although a model will cost a billion 800 million, it is acceptable if it is spread over a period of ten or eight years.

After all, it's an "advertisement".

However, Cao Yang's idea is obviously not exactly like this.

"Volkswagen's W16 engine used on the Bugatti Veyron is actually based on the V8 engine, and the W16 engine was developed by putting two units together and sharing a camshaft."

"It's pretty much the same logic as the W12 engine was developed with two V6 engines."

"But until now, we haven't been working on the V8 engine, so the difficulty of developing the W16 engine is definitely more than one level higher than that of the W12."

Although Cao Yang also has a way to make the development of the W16 engine smoother, Zeng Tingting and the model positioning they are talking about now do not meet his requirements.

So naturally, we have to find some completely plausible reasons to oppose it.

"We want to enhance the brand power of Xingchen Motors by producing sports cars, but I also hope that this sports car can be really seen in some cities."

"So the production of limited editions is inevitable, but the limited edition of 99 units is definitely not good."

"In the first stage, it has to be limited to 999 units."

"We will continue to launch a variety of other limited editions to fully tap the market potential and make our sports cars profitable."

"In this way, it is a bit out of line with the market demand for a sports car like the Bugatti Veyron."

When Cao Yang said this, Zeng Tingting had no way to refute it.

Even Huan Yongxiang breathed a sigh of relief.

Bugatti Veyron.

This is an ultra-luxury sports car that Volkswagen has been tossing and turning for several years before it is launched for the first time this year.

Xingchen Automobile built such a sports car from the beginning, and his pressure was definitely very huge.

The key is that Cao Yang still thinks that this car will be launched in 2007.

When it was all right, it left them with two years of development.

Although it is more than Ziweixing, the difficulty is completely different.

"Mr. Cao, in addition to the Bugatti Veyron, we actually benchmarked against the Lamborghini Gallardo."

"This sports car, which debuted at the 2003 Geneva Motor Show, is currently one of the most successful models in the sports car market."

"In terms of power, the Gallardo uses all engines from Audi, equipped with a 5.0-liter V10 engine with a maximum power of 493 horsepower, and after different tuning, this engine can reach a maximum power of 523 horsepower."

"Unlike the Bugatti Veyron, the Gallardo is redefining the compact sports car market to which it belongs as a high-performance sports car and a car for everyday use."

"In addition to the power, Lamborghini uses Audi's all-aluminum body technology."

"Audi has always been a leader in the all-aluminium body, and the Audi A8 is already using this technology."

Huan Yongxiang took over the topic of Zeng Tingting and began to report to Cao Yang on the positioning direction of another sports car.

After all, one is to take the ultra-high-end route to enhance the brand, and the other is a model that needs to be considered to a certain extent.

The sales department and the research institute have made two preparations.

"All-aluminum body?"

"What do you think is a good direction?"

Cao Yang asked rhetorically.

Although later generations of Audi A8 and Range Rover used to use all-aluminum bodies.

But in the end, it turned out that an all-aluminum body is not a good thing.

If you want to talk about strength, that's it.

When it comes to weight loss, although it looks good, there are a lot of problems.

Cao Yang definitely didn't plan to touch this mold.

"Mr. Cao, although the all-aluminum body has various problems such as the difficulty of welding machines."

"However, Gallardo finally achieved large-scale mass production through various processes such as aluminum extrusion, aluminum stamping, and aluminum casting, and through various methods such as welding, riveting, and bolting."

"The domestic aluminum-related industry still has a competitive advantage in the world."

"In fact, we can also consider using all-aluminum body technology, which will also be a good promotional selling point at that time."

Huan Yongxiang felt Cao Yang's objections, but he could only finish his words first.

What else?

"The all-aluminum body is not good!"

"Instead of using this technology, it is better to use a fully hot stamped body."

"Through the double door ring, the integrated use of hot stamping technology, so that the entire cockpit is surrounded by hot stamping parts."

"In the end, whether it is the collision effect or the publicity effect, it will not be worse than the all-aluminum body."

Cao Yang expressed his opposition very directly.

"Mr. Cao, the strength of the all-aluminum body is high, the aluminum alloy has excellent strength and toughness, after reasonable design and processing, the all-aluminum body can reach or even exceed the strength level of the steel body, so as to improve the safety and durability of the vehicle."

"Otherwise, Audi and Lamborghini wouldn't have used such technology."

Huan Yongxiang couldn't help but refute his explanation.

However, Cao Yang is obviously not one of those foolish turtles, and said directly: "You have said that the all-aluminum body can reach or even exceed the strength level of the steel body, which shows that people are just very reluctant to be on an equal footing with ordinary steel bodies." ”

"In fact, everyone is not stupid, as long as you think about it seriously, you can figure out, under normal circumstances, how can the aluminum body be stronger than the steel plate?"

"Unless you have to compare the strength of thick aluminum parts with ordinary steel stamping parts."

"Otherwise, from the perspective of material performance, the aluminum body cannot have any advantages."

"It's nothing more than that aluminum has an advantage in terms of lightweight."

Cao Yang spread his hands, obviously completely disapproving of the all-aluminum body.

"The light weight of the all-aluminum body can be reduced by more than 30% compared to the steel body of the same size, which can not only improve the fuel economy of the vehicle, reduce energy consumption and environmental pollution, but also improve the handling and acceleration performance of the vehicle."

Huan Yongxiang made a final struggle.

But it pales in comparison.

"Mr. Rao, you won't have another high-end manufacturing process of an all-aluminum body, right?"

"In the publicity of Audi A8, the processing technology of aluminum alloy is more high-end than the traditional steel processing technology, which requires high-precision processing equipment and complex manufacturing processes, so the manufacturing cost of the all-aluminum body is higher, but this also means that the all-aluminum body has a high technical content and quality assurance."

Hearing Cao Yang say this, Wan Yongxiang felt embarrassed.

Fortunately, Zeng Tingting interjected in time and said: "Mr. Cao, the parts near the cabin of the body have higher requirements for strength, and it should be easier to meet this requirement by using hot stamping technology." ”

"In particular, the integrated hot stamping technology of the door ring you just mentioned is the first in the industry and must be a good publicity point."

"However, on some parts of the front and rear of the car, aluminum parts have better energy absorption performance, so a comprehensive combination may allow our sports car to meet the high strength at the same time, but also have a high energy absorption performance."

"In the event of a collision, the safety of passengers is fully guaranteed."

"In addition, with the increase of the service life of the vehicle, there will be different degrees of corrosion."

"Therefore, the car body will use various coating processes to prevent rust before assembly, but this can only delay the time of rusting of the steel plate, and cannot completely avoid the rusting of the steel plate."

"Especially in the north, the snow melting agent sprinkled on the snowy ground is particularly corroded to the body chassis, so that the steel plate gradually loses its due strength."

"Compared with steel plates, aluminum plates do not have this concern, because they can react with oxygen in the air to form a thin film of alumina, thereby isolating the aluminum alloy from chemical reactions with external substances."

"Therefore, aluminum alloy parts are more corrosion-resistant than steel plates, and it is not without advantages."

I have to say that Zeng Tingting's ability to do this and thin mud is still very powerful.

The point is, logically speaking, there is nothing wrong with this statement at all.

The parts on a car are not as strong as possible, nor are they as soft as possible.

Instead, the hard places that need to be designed are harder, and the soft places that need to be designed are softer.

At the same time, she changed her perspective and considered the advantages and disadvantages of aluminum and steel from the perspective of corrosion protection, so that no one could refute it.

"What Minister Zeng said has some truth, and we can try to try it in this direction in the future."

"However, there are aluminum parts and steel parts in a car, and the welding of aluminum and steel is a world-class problem."

Cao Yang is not the kind of person who doesn't understand technology.

The welding technique seems to be simple, and various welding scenes can be seen everywhere on the construction site outside.

Even self-employed people who install stainless steel anti-theft nets on the side of the road can play with welding.

However, when it comes to the welding of aluminum and steel plates, it is definitely a technology that has not been mastered by any automobile company until now, under the premise of ensuring strength.

At least now the technology in this area is very immature.

The material properties of aluminum and steel are too different.

Welding between aluminum and aluminum alone is not so difficult.

The technology of simple steel and steel welding is even more mature.

But when you mix the two, it's a completely different story.

"Mr. Cao, what direction should our sports car be designed in?"

Huan Yongxiang now feels completely unconfident in his heart.

Originally, sports cars were not what domestic designers were good at, but now they want performance and sales.

This is a requirement that needs both and again, and it is difficult to meet it.

(End of chapter)