12 March 2006.

When the domestic Internet market was in an uproar because of the rise of Weibo, and several portals began to launch their own Weibo, Cao Yang flew to the United States with Ji Hua, Zeng Tingting, Mi Ying and others.

This business trip is not just for a few days.

MSI will also be listed in the United States, Europe and the Middle East.

Cao Yang, the general manager and design director, must have a look.

After a big circle, the business trip plan was directly scheduled for a month later.

"Chris, long time no see."

Cao Yang first came to Ford Motor to find Chris, the purchasing director.

Although Ford's situation is better than that of General Motors, it has also lost hundreds of millions of dollars.

It stands to reason that Changan Ford is still quite profitable, and its financial business is also very good.

In this case, the whole company is losing money, and it can only be said that the American market is not strong.

"Cao, every time I see you, I can bring me good luck, is there any good news this time?"

Chris was slightly haggard.

At this time, Ford was slightly better than in history, which was an additional influence of Nanshan Group.

But it's just a little bit better, and the loss is still a loss.

As the Director of Purchasing, Chris is obviously still under a lot of pressure.

"I heard that Toyota, Honda and Nissan have performed exceptionally well in the American market, achieving positive sales growth for several consecutive years."

"One of the big reasons why they can have such a growth rate is that the engine is more fuel-efficient."

"However, the performance of the 1.5T turbocharged engine produced by our Nanshan Engine is more fuel-efficient than their products of the same level."

"Chris, if Ford considers the combination of Nanshan's 1.5T engine + 6AT directly used in some models, it may be able to achieve a surprise."

"For example, the Mondeo, with this combination, will definitely not be worse than the Accord and Camry in terms of fuel consumption."

Ford has its own engine factory, so naturally it will not easily use Nanshan engine products.

Cao Yang also has a very clear understanding of this.

However, after falling into a desperate situation, who knows if people will make a different choice?

If Nanshan engines can really supply Ford cars, that will be of extraordinary significance.

This is also of great benefit to promote Nanshan Engine to further expand the market in China.

"The 2.0L engine and 2.5L V6 engine used by the Mondeo are also very classic, but many consumers don't know the goods."

Hitting people doesn't slap their faces, Cao Yang directly said that Ford's engine is not good, and Chris's face must be ugly.

"Ford's advantages in large-displacement engines are certainly not comparable to Dongying car companies."

"However, in terms of mid-level cars and economy cars, which are currently the largest in terms of sales, Dongying's 1.5L, 2.0L, 2.4L and even 3.0L and 3.5L engines have better fuel consumption performance than local American companies."

"That's a big reason why American consumers choose them."

"Chris, why don't you consider choosing the Mondeo as a pilot model and see what the market reaction will be after the 1.5T and 2.0T engines equipped with Nanshan engines?"

"It's not that I'm bragging, our 1.5T engine has performance parameters that exceed your 2.0L, and it's not even much different from the 2.5L."

"And the performance of the 2.0T engine is far from being comparable to your 2.5L naturally aspirated engine."

"American consumers love powerful cars, but they care a lot about fuel consumption."

"The combination provided by our Nanshan Group can perfectly meet the market demand."

"And this platform is in mass production, and it only needs to make some simple adjustments to the corresponding mounting bracket lamp parts on the Mondeo, and it can be directly mass-produced."

"Your company could launch a new power version of the facelifted Mondeo in the second half of this year."

The more Cao Yang spoke, the more excited he became, as if the Mondeo would be able to sell well immediately after using Nanshan's engine.

This made Chris's heart start to move.

Of course, replacing the engine is definitely not up to one of his purchasing directors.

But as a cost-cutting plan that breaks the convention, it is obviously possible to throw it out in the company.

"Cao, can your 1.5T and 2.0T engines be 20% cheaper than our 2.0L and 2.5L corresponding engines?"

"If I can, I'll formally propose this plan within the company tomorrow."

Chris looked at Cao Yang with flickering eyes, eager to know the answer immediately.

"It depends on how much your engine costs."

"I can't guarantee 20 percent, but the 10 percent advantage is definitely there."

"In fact, if your company can purchase more engine parts from Nanshan Auto Parts, then even if the engine is not replaced, the cost can be reduced by at least 5%."

For Ford, the biggest pressure now is the high cost and poor sales.

As the purchasing director, it makes the most sense to talk to him about the cost.

Traditionally, the main products exported by the Nanshan Group to Ford Motor have been gearboxes and parts such as bearings, gears, and bolts used in transmissions.

In addition to the nut plate and bearing, the other parts can be said to be very few.

It's not that Nanshan Group's other parts are not competitive, but that Ford doesn't want Nanshan Group's procurement share to be so high.

However, now Ford has fallen into the red.

Some things can be flexible.

What's wrong with purchasing more parts from Nanshan Group?

As long as there is an advantage in price, no one can say anything.

Parts from local suppliers in the United States are simply too expensive.

Chris is also very clear about this.

"Our 2.0L engine, if it doesn't include engine accessories such as starters, generators, air conditioning compressors, etc., is just a pure bare metal, it will cost about $3,000."

"If you include the other engine accessories, the cost of the entire engine system is about $4,000."

"Cao, this is a secret of our Ford Motor, you can't leak it to the public."

"If the bare metal of the 1.5T engine provided by your group can make it to 2,400 US dollars, then I am 70% sure that I will convince the company to launch a 1.5T version on the Mondeo model."

"If you can do it for $2,100, I'm going to do it 90 percent."

Chris really hadn't learned about the Nanshan engine before.

Ford's engines have always been relatively good, especially in terms of various large-displacement engines.

So it was never considered to source engines from outside.

It's just that the situation has changed now.

"Chris, frankly speaking, for Nanshan Engine, the most important thing is the opportunity to supply Ford cars, and whether to make money or not is not the most important."

"So as long as the annual supply of 1.5-liter engines reaches 100,000 units, I can now agree to a price of $2,400."

"If Ford buys more than 200,000 1.5T engines, then I will simply adjust the price to $2,100."

Cao Yang quickly weighed the pros and cons in his heart.

The price Chris said is higher than that of Nanshan Engine sold to domestic OEMs.

Even if it's $2,100, it's actually higher than in China.

Although it is necessary to take into account various effects such as import and export duties, freight costs, insurance, etc., it is also profitable to calculate.

Even this profit is not low.

So without any hesitation, he agreed.

Of course, in order to show his attitude of working hard and cooperating, and also to express his pressure, he proposed a sales threshold.

Chris didn't dwell on this.

The dead camel is bigger than the horse.

Ford also sold almost 7 million cars in the whole of last year.

There is no pressure at all to free up a share of 200,000 vehicles.

Anyway, inside Ford, models with the same platform as the Mondeo can easily replace the engine.

"Cao, I heard that Nanshan Group has set up an automobile company and launched a coupe, which has attracted some attention."

"I've heard that you're going to want to sell this car through some of Ford's dealer channels."

"If I can help you succeed in this project, then can your 1.5T engine be the same as the 6AT, and have in-depth cooperation with our Ford Motor?"

Chris's appetite is not small.

At once, the cooperation was pushed forward to the transfer of engine technology.

This Cao Yang hadn't considered it before.

So he didn't answer immediately, but quickly weighed the pros and cons in his mind.

After Ford has 1.5T engine technology, it will definitely not be sold to the outside world, which he is still confident in.

That is, the 1.5T or even 2.0T technology that authorizes Ford to use Nanshan engines will not have much impact on Nanshan's engine sales in China.

In the international market, except for Ford, which has a very close cooperation and a relationship of trust between the two sides, other manufacturers will most likely not have such close cooperation with Nanshan Engine.

Even General Motors is enough to choke.

In this case, if it can be the same as the 6AT, it can sell a certain number of engine parts every year at the same time, it seems that it is not impossible?

Anyway, as long as you can make money and enhance the prestige of Nanshan Group, you can do this.

"Chris, I actually have another plan for this cooperation that I want to communicate with you."

Cao Yang did not directly answer Chris's question.

Hang him first, maybe there will be better conditions at that time.

Besides, I still have cards that haven't been played.

How can the negotiations end like this?

"What's the plan?"

Chris looked at Cao Yang curiously.

"A large part of Ford's current predicament is due to the impact of the rapid development of Dongying car companies in the United States."

"The market is relatively fixed, and the cake is cut away by others, and there is less left for Ford."

"Including the plight of General Motors, to a certain extent, this is also the reason."

"So if we can find some ways to suppress the brand image of Dongying car companies in the United States, then we can affect the sales of the other party to a certain extent."

As soon as Cao Yang said this, Chris immediately became interested.

At the beginning, behind Toyota's "brake gate" and "anti-monopoly investigation", Cao Yang took the initiative to provide some news and suggestions to Ford.

Now this scene feels a little familiar to him.

"Cao, have you caught the handle of Dongying car companies again?"

"Tell me, which car company is the problem?"

Chris couldn't wait.

"Chris, the information I get may not be 100% accurate, but it is certainly not groundless."

"How to use it depends on Ford's methods."

Before officially throwing out the killer idea, Cao Yang first cleared up his responsibility.

Anyway, this kind of thing, he is hiding behind his back to come up with ideas.

The charge will be left to Ford Motors.

"You talk about it first, and then I'll judge how to do it."

"We've already worked with General Motors and DaimlerChrysler before, so if a similar approach is appropriate this time, it shouldn't be a big problem."

Although Chris is only the person in charge of the purchasing center, he is also very familiar with the sales director.

In dealing with Dongying car companies, everyone's goal is the same.

"According to the information I heard, many parts companies in Dongying have data fraud or parts defects."

"For example, some of Kobe Steel's aluminum and copper parts were tampered with in order to pass the relevant verification."

"The dawn of brake discs is also the problem of some data fraud."

"Mitsubishi Motors sold on the market, you can buy a few and go back to test the fuel consumption, maybe there are also cases of counterfeiting."

"In addition, I have heard that there have been cases in the American market where Toyota or Honda have used Takata airbags, and there have been cases of driver deaths in car accidents, and I think the reason for this can be traced."

"Takata is the largest airbag parts company in Dongying, and many car companies around the world are using it."

"If we can grasp their problems, it should still have a certain impact on the reputation of Dongying car companies."

"In addition, I heard that some models of Toyota have specific situations where the fuel tank cannot supply oil and the engine stalls, so I think you can also arrange professional technicians to investigate."

"At that time, we can coordinate some media or judicial organs to participate in it, which is enough for Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and other Dongying companies to drink a pot."

With Cao Yang's words, Chris also felt a little chill in his heart.

In the future, don't easily offend the Nanshan Group, no one knows if the other party has their own or Ford's whip in their hands.

If you are dealt with by the same means at that time, you will probably become a scapegoat.

"Cao, don't worry!"

"I will immediately coordinate resources within the company to promote these clues."

"However, these estimates cannot fundamentally change the market share of Dongying enterprises, and Ford Motor itself needs to improve its competitiveness, which is fundamental."

"Do you think we can talk about the transfer of engine technology I just said?"

Chris is quite sober, too.

All kinds of intrigues and tricks can be used, but in the end, you have to force yourself.

(End of chapter)