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Guide
I am not drumming and shouting for Chery, but for all enterprises that have independent innovation and self-improvement.
Let me ask you a question: Which is the enterprise with the largest export of passenger cars in China?
Most people probably won't think, it's Chery! In fact, Chery's export performance is very hard, ranking first in the export of Chinese brand passenger cars for 19 consecutive years, and being selected as "Top 20 Best Overseas Image Enterprises" for 5 consecutive years. In 2021, it set a new record for Chinese brands to "sail to sea", exporting nearly 270,000 vehicles.
So far, Chery Group's global auto users have exceeded 10 million, of which nearly 2 million are overseas users, becoming a "Chinese business card" in more than 80 countries and regions around the world. Export sales account for 1/5, although it is still far inferior to the international giants, but it is second to none among China's own brands, which can be called the light of Chinese automobiles.
Group photo of overseas users of Chery Group
Some people may guess that Chery's main export market is in Africa, focusing on low prices. In fact, the main markets are Eastern Europe and South America. And Chery's price in foreign countries is not low at all, and it is the same level as international giants. Although there are reasons for tariffs, it can also reflect that users in these countries really regard Chery as a high-end brand. If Chery's impression in China is mainly cost-effective, then the impression given in foreign countries is mainly hard technology!
The China-Europe Express Chery Special Train
Yes, Chery relies on hard technology to open up overseas markets. This may be a great surprise to the layman, but it is a matter of course for car enthusiasts. Because they have long known that Chery is the most enthusiastic about research and development technology in its own brand, and it is also the first to start exporting.
How did I know so much about Chery? In fact, my family once bought two Chery cars. One is the mini-car QQ, which is the national-level god car that fulfills many people's car dreams, which my wife bought before getting married. The other is the mid-level Car Ruiqi G5, which most people may not have heard of, but one thing is enough to show the weight of this car: it appeared on the "New Chinese Characteristics New Industrialization Road" float at the 60th anniversary of the National Day military parade in 2009, and was reviewed by the party and the people as a "representative of independent innovation achievements". It was the only car to appear in the mass parade-themed exhibition.
Chery Ruiqi G5 appeared on the float of the 60th anniversary of the National Day parade in 2009
I was originally a complete layman for cars. In 2011, after my wife and I got married, we planned to buy a bigger car. After running several 4S stores, I found a problem: I can't understand a lot of terms, how to choose? Every salesperson has a big set of words, how to know which of them are dry goods and which are flickering?
Viewers who often watch my "Science and Technology Yuan Ren" program probably know that I have two major skills: one is "out of nothing", calling expert friends in various fields; the other is self-study. At that time, I had not yet started doing popular science, let alone doing video, but these two skills have always been there. So I started to teach myself skills and went to the library to borrow a bunch of books on automotive technology.
Along the way, the suspension of the independent and non-independent, the engine's natural suction and turbocharging, characteristic curve, power rise, DVVT, the transmission of manual, automatic, stepless shift, dual clutch, the control system ESP (body electronic stability system) and so on, roughly have a concept. When I look at the car again, I don't just stupidly say "this car looks good" or "This car is ugly" as before, but I can see many doorways. For example, non-independent suspension is often ridiculed as scooter suspension, which is inherently inferior to independent suspension.
At that time, I also asked the auto technicians I met who was the most skilled among the own brands. The answer is actually Chery! I was surprised and went to investigate. A survey was not good, and found that according to these technical indicators I just learned, the Ruiqi G5 is outstanding.
For example, the front suspension of the vast majority of cars is cookie-cutter MacPherson. This is the simplest independent suspension, and the manufacturer's standard description of it is "cheap and practical". However, the front suspension of the Ruiqi G5 is actually a double wishbones! This is generally used for racing! As for its rear suspension being multi-link independent suspension, which is also the most advanced, it is expected.
In addition, the engine of the Ruiqi G5 is a 2.0 T turbocharged engine developed by Chery itself, with a maximum power of 125 kilowatts and a maximum torque of 250 Nm. Although it has not yet used the direct injection in the cylinder, that is, TGDI technology, which just appeared at that time, it is already quite good, especially in its own brands, which is unique, and many other companies are still buying Mitsubishi engines.
With these basic knowledge, we can understand why the Ruiqi G5 will be the National Day parade float, and can understand another big news at the time: the Ruiqi G5 runs the Nürburgring Nordschleife. It is one of the most difficult and famous tracks in the world, nicknamed the "Ring of Truth" and "Green Hell", and is used by automakers around the world as the ultimate test track for testing high-performance models.
The Chery Reiqi G5 challenged the Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit to create a time of 8:56.81
On October 13, 2009, the Swiss G5 was driven by the famous Belgian racer Dirk Schoysman, with a time of 8:56.81. This result is outstanding among the production cars, and it is a supercar in less than 8 minutes. Dirk Schoysman commented: "Although I ran close to 14,000 laps on the Nürburgring Nordschleife, this was the first time I saw a Chinese-made car come to the hardest track in the world, and the first time I achieved such amazing results!" ”
Many people may still wonder why China's most technologically powerful automobile company is not a state-level large enterprise, but a local state-owned enterprise. Wuhu is not even the provincial capital! This can only be understood by looking at Chery's history.
In fact, Chery's first name was "Anhui Auto Parts Industry Company (Preparatory Office)". In 1995, Zhan Xia, deputy mayor of Wuhu City, came to Europe to investigate the automobile industry, and heard that Ford in the United Kingdom had an engine production line to sell, so he bought it in Wuhu. But during the installation process, it was found that these British people drank all day to grind foreign workers,—— which is the real meaning of grinding "foreign" workers. Chery had no choice but to dismiss these people and do it himself. But what if you can't do it? "Can't do it, jump the Yangtze River!" This was the famous quote of Yin Tongyue, the general manager of Chery at that time.
Under such a broken effort, a breakthrough was finally made. On May 18, 1999, Chery's first engine was successfully ignited. On December 18 of the same year, Chery's first car rolled off the production line, which was called "Fengyun", and began chery Automobile's journey.
In 2001, Chery invested all the profits it had made from the storm into research and development, and began to develop engines in conjunction with the world-famous engine design company AVL in Austria. For more than 20 years, more than 20 gasoline and diesel engines have been developed in three generations, and the technical level is getting higher and higher, nine of which have been selected as the "top ten engines" of the year.
Kunpeng Power 2.0 TGDI won the 2021 "China Heart" Top Ten Engines
When I investigated in 2011, I found that Chery's 1.6-liter naturally aspirated DVVT engine has particularly high technical indicators and is among the best among international giants. In contrast, some companies take the state's large subsidies but have no intention of research and development, and they should really feel ashamed! Chery's engines are not only used by themselves, but also exported to many other automobile companies at home and abroad, including Germany, the United States, Japan and other automobile powers. The engine became a trump card for Chery.
For a while I was very concerned about the automotive forum, and I saw that there was an eternal theme in it, which was that many netizens were very concerned about Chery's engine and gearbox. They hope that Chery's TGDI engine will be listed as soon as possible, and they hope that Chery's automatic transmission will catch up with the international advanced level as soon as possible. Now, Chery can finally meet everyone's wishes, the engines of 2.0 TGDI and 1.6 TGDI have won many awards, and the automatic transmission of stepless variable speed CVT and wet dual-clutch 7DCT has also been applied on a large scale, so that the power of independent brands can be on a par with foreign brands, and there is no longer a need for left and right.
After understanding how Chery strives to develop technology, everyone will ask: Why do many companies with much better conditions not do this? This can be seen in the book "Toward Independent Innovation: Seeking the Source of China's Power" written by lu Feng, an economist I admire and professor of political economy at Peking University's School of Government and Management, which does a lot of research on several industries, including automobiles. He pointed out that for a period of time, the mainland only paid attention to the introduction of technology, did not pay attention to independent research and development, and even forgot that there was such a thing as independent research and development.
For example, in 1994, there was a document "National Automobile Industry Policy", which stipulated: "The state encourages and supports automobile industry enterprises to establish their own product development and scientific research structure, and forms independent product development capabilities through digestion and absorption of foreign technologies." "You see, I didn't expect that there was a way other than "digestion and absorption of foreign technology"!
Such policies create a deep-seated illusion that foreign technology must be advanced. When China is already ahead of some technologies, most people don't know or believe it.
One consequence of such a policy is the protection of the incumbent and the restriction of new entrants. For example, for a long time, the principle of the development of the automobile industry in the mainland was called "high starting point, large quantity, specialization". This sounds good, but the actual effect is that joint ventures rely on foreign technology to obtain risk-free high profits, lose the motivation for independent research and development, and start-ups that really want to engage in technology are suppressed. For example, I have read the biography of Li Shufu, the founder of Geely Automobile, who applied for a car every time in his early years, and the people in the government still felt that they were protecting him and avoiding his failure. Li Shufu had to shout: Please, please give me a chance to fail!
At that time, there were even many policies that excluded independent innovation in principle, such as foreign-funded enterprises enjoying more preferential tax treatment than Chinese enterprises, and selling Chinese enterprises cheaply in order to attract investment.
At that time, the mainland also particularly liked to designate certain enterprises as the key support targets of the three major and three small, and to what extent they should be scaled. In fact, industrial concentration should be the result of market competition, not pre-specified goals, and such a policy is completely different.
Another major shortcoming of the policy at that time was that there was no export-oriented goal. An important reason for the development of the Korean auto industry is that the government has forced companies to export cars from the beginning. In fact, south Korea's auto industry started later than China, and don't forget that South Korea was reduced to rubble during the Korean War. But shouldn't we be ashamed that South Korean cars have come to the fore and even become the target of Chinese imports?
Understanding these backgrounds, you will understand how valuable Chery's courage to develop and export is. Professor Lu Feng pointed out that technical capabilities are endogenous to the organization, and the introduction of technology can never replace independent innovation. The technological capabilities developed through independent innovation are the main source of competitiveness of enterprises, industries and countries, and the main body of independent innovation can only be Chinese enterprises and not branches of multinational companies in China. The level of ambition determines the intensity of technical learning, and moving towards independent innovation requires vision, courage and a firm political will. Yes, political will!
Not long ago, we visited Chery's headquarters and filmed a video program to celebrate Chery's 20th anniversary of "sailing to sea", introducing Chery's Yongsan multi-functional test site, crash safety test room, optical engine test room, NVH test room and other technical facilities (see the video below). In addition, we also met with Yin Tongyue, chairman of Chery Group, and Jin Yibo, assistant general manager.
Dr. Yuan Lanfeng visited Chery Headquarters
At the beginning, Mr. Yin was still busy, and Mr. Jin received us. I talked a lot with Mr. Jin, and one of them was that I talked about the many detours chery had taken. Mr. Jin acknowledged all of this, but he also said that Chery's original funds were too limited, only 800 million yuan. The 800 million yuan not only to set up the production line, but also to develop the engine, but also to introduce talents everywhere, it is not easy. With that said, I also feel that Chery's efficiency is really too high, and this little money has done so many things! If it is a joint venture that sits on the ground to collect money, I am afraid that this little money will not even splash.
I have always been very confident about the power, handling and safety of Chery cars, and the only thing I want to ask is quality. I asked Mr. Jin, how is the quality of Chery cars now?
The answer is: In a recent survey by the authoritative data, J.D. Power, Chery is better than the old luxury car in many ways. In the past, Chery Cars sold to their own employees were worried, and now employees say that Chery Cars are more reliable than BBA.
Later I checked this report, "2021 China Vehicle Reliability Study" (https://chejiahao.autohome.com.cn/info/9812819/), the main indicator is the number of problems per hundred vehicles, called PP100. The AVERAGE OF PP100 for all luxury cars is 139, while Chery's PP100 is 140, which is only 1% worse than the average for luxury cars. It can be seen that Chery is indeed quite reliable.
J.D. Power2021 China Vehicle Reliability Study
Jin Yibo also told us a story: when he recently bought his own car, he only had the last one left. He was not worried at all, and just picked it up and left. Because, "our cars are now very reliable"!
Mr. Jin told us that when Mr. Yin comes, 80% of them will talk to you about technology. He especially likes to talk about technology, and when others talk about it, he may jump out and say, "You're not good at talking", and then talk about it himself. I couldn't help but laugh, I had seen in the media before that Yin Tongyue often popped out a lot of technical terms to reporters, and it seemed that he had always been so hardcore.
Then Mr. Yin came, and the biggest surprise also came. We had just talked a few words, and before we could say hello, he stood up and went to the whiteboard and picked up a fountain pen to write. He is not talking about any one specific model, not any specific technology, but a grand picture: the technological pyramid of the automotive industry.
The basic technology is traditionally hardware, but now it has to become software, from selling products to selling services. This includes chips, operating systems, over-the-air (OTA) and so on.
On top of this, the traditional fuel vehicle is referred to as ICE (internal combustion engine). The average person pays attention only to this layer.
On the next level is the electric vehicle, or electric vehicle for short. There are many degrees of mixing from fuel vehicles to pure electric vehicles, including BSG (belt-driven starter generator), ISG (integrated starter generator), HEV (hybrid electric vehicle), PHEV (plug-in hybrid electric vehicle) and so on. Another technical route for electric vehicles is fuel cells, known as FC (fuel cells).
On the next level is the smart car, or AV (autonomous vehicle) for short.
The top floor is car-sharing, mobility.
In order to support this whole system, many common technologies need to be developed. The core technologies include chips and cells, double C. Now that the world's automobiles are seriously lacking in cores, Chery is cooperating with chip companies and will develop its own chips in the future.
And so, within minutes, he filled a blank board with the car's technical system. This makes me have a deep respect for Yin Zonghe and Chery, who is not thinking about a few specific models, but the basic principles of the overall situation.
In the automotive forum, car fans often jokingly called Yin Tongyue the "workshop director", because he was originally dug back to Wuhu by Zhan Xialai in the position of the director of a car room. However, this title is also very affectionate, reflecting his characteristics of a technical maniac. Technologists sometimes fail, but in the long run, I and many people believe that only technologists will achieve great success.
Knowing Chery's background, we will not be surprised by what kind of technological breakthrough it has achieved. For example, Jin Yibo recently told me that Chery's high-end brand "Xingtu" has made an important breakthrough in hybrid technology, achieving optimal coverage of all working conditions by intelligently controlling one engine and two motors, which means that it has surpassed existing models in terms of acceleration, fuel saving, and smoothness. This technology comes from chery's 13th Five-Year Plan National Key Research and Development Plan "New Energy Vehicles" key special project - "Plug-in/Extended Range Hybrid System Configuration and Dynamic Control Method Research", we also made a program on this, and will meet with you soon.
Yin Tongyue told us that Chery's sales in 2021 are close to 1 million vehicles, and the goal in 2022 is to guarantee 1.5 million and strive for 2 million. Yes, it doubled that year! One of the reasons is that the sales of Chery new energy vehicles are expected to explode.
I don't know if such a grand goal can be fully achieved, but I do know: independent innovation can create miracles, and thick accumulation can make thin hair. The car is the most vivid business card of a country, and when the world, including Europe and the United States, are all over Chery cars, China's image will change dramatically.
I am not drumming and shouting for Chery, but for all enterprises that have independent innovation and self-improvement. As my program often says: science and technology is the right way for human development, and we must take the right path!