China's auto industry has a hundred years of history: from imitation to overtaking in curves

In 1928, with the support of the northeastern warlord Zhang Xueliang, a truck imitating the American International Brand slowly drove out of the Beidaying Military Factory in Shenyang, becoming the first car made in China.

The vicissitudes of the sea and the mulberry fields are long. China's automobile industry has also begun, starting a long journey of nearly a hundred years.

Recently, the China Automobile Association released a set of data, last year China's automobile exports of 2.015 million vehicles, an increase of 1 times year-on-year, China has become a veritable automobile power.

Hard work

Since the birth of the first imitation car in 1928, China's automobile industry has not ushered in rapid development. On the contrary, due to the long-term civil war and repeated invasions by foreign enemies, the Chinese mainland did not have a stable foundation for industrial development at all, and China's automobile industry was almost in place for a long time.

In December 1949, just two months after the founding of New China, Chairman Mao Zedong left for the Soviet Union. Nominally to wish Stalin a happy birthday, it was actually to seek support, especially in the hope that the Soviet Union would be able to give China assistance in industrial development. When visiting stalin's automobile factory and seeing the cars constantly being produced on the assembly line, the chairman said to the entourage, "We must also have such automobile factories." ”

After negotiations, China and the Soviet Union signed an agreement on mutual assistance. Under this mutual aid agreement, the Soviet Union would aid in the construction of a series of projects in China, including automobile plants. At the suggestion of Soviet experts, China selected changchun in the northeast to build the first automobile manufacturing plant.

However, at that time, we lacked both local professionals and the materials and equipment needed to build the factory. Building a modern automobile factory on the basis of the almost blank space of New China is extremely arduous. However, the construction of automobile factories is particularly urgent, because it can not only directly drive the development of China's economy, but also have a huge encouraging effect on the country's economic construction.

Under such conditions, the whole country is united in one heart and one after another. Construction workers, engineers and technicians from all over the country flock to Changchun, Northeast China. Before coming to Changchun, they basically had no contact with the automotive industry, and they knew nothing about the construction and management of a modern automobile factory, but this did not prevent them from learning by doing.

In order to quickly improve the quality, the whole FAW plant set off a learning climax. Workers must learn amateur cultural knowledge and technical study, while leading cadres must learn the basic knowledge of automobile manufacturing, and after completing the study, they must also accept examinations. In addition, FAW also organized a team of more than 500 people to go to the Soviet Union for internships in order to better master the technology.

The construction of the First Automobile Plant has reserved and cultivated a large number of talents for the new Chinese automobile industry. Among them, they have stepped out of Rao Bin, Guo Li, and other ministers who were the bulk of the development of the automobile industry in New China, as well as from Jiang Zemin, Li Lanqing, and other party and state leaders.

In addition, the state has also allocated special funds from the tight financial funds for the procurement of equipment needed abroad, which has also greatly alleviated the dilemma of shortage of materials during the construction period.

After a period of arduous entrepreneurship, good news came one after another from the automobile workshop in Changchun:

On July 13, 1956, the first Jiefang truck in New China rolled off the production line.

On May 10, 1958, the first Dongfeng brand sedan in New China was born.

On August 1, 1958, the first Hongqi high-end sedan in New China was born.

……

In addition to Changchun FAW, Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Tianjin, Shiyan, Hubei and other places have also begun to build automobile bases, and automobile factories have blossomed and risen all over the country.

In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, although China's automobile industry has made certain achievements, it is still full of problems:

First, the product is single. Taking FAW Jiefang Automobile as an example, FAW has been producing this model from 1956 to 1983, although there have been minor modifications, but no major changes.

The second is the quality problem. Even high-end cars such as Hongqi, because there is no special technical research team, can only rely on the cost of manual workshop production, the quality problems of anchoring in the middle are not uncommon.

The third is the issue of management. The automobile industry in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China was deeply affected by the Soviet model, whether it was factory construction or automobile production, it had a strong planned economic color, and it could no longer adapt to the development trend of the times.

In general, at this stage, New China basically ended the history of not being able to build cars independently. However, whether it is from factory management to automobile manufacturing, China's automobile industry is far behind the world's advanced level, and a profound change in the automotive field is imminent.

"Market for Technology"

In June 1978, the State Planning Commission and other departments submitted the "Report on Foreign Processing and Assembly Business" to the State Council, proposing to carry out foreign processing and assembly business and prepare to introduce a number of mechanical and electrical product assembly lines, including an automobile assembly line.

After learning of the report of the State Planning Commission, Shanghai took the lead in applying to the state, proposing to put this automobile assembly line in Shanghai, and intended to take this as an opportunity to transform Shanghai's automobile industry. In the application of Shanghai Municipality, the concept of introducing automobile technology and large-scale production was put forward for the first time, and the cooperation principle of "complementary advantages, mutual benefit and mutual benefit, and the realization of both Chinese and foreign benefits" was determined.

In October of the same year, Murphy, chairman of general motors in the United States, led a delegation of 17 people to China and proposed the concept of "joint venture", which was approved by the national leaders. However, it is a little regrettable that the board of directors of General Motors in the United States rejected the proposal of chairman Murphy to cede the soon-to-be world's largest automobile market to others. At the same time, Shanghai is also actively docking with other foreign manufacturers, and finally identified the German Volkswagen as the object of cooperation.

In March 1985, the Sino-German joint venture Shanghai Volkswagen AG was formally established, with the Chinese side and the German side each accounting for 50% of the shares. This ratio was also solidified by the later national industrial policy and has been used to this day.

After the establishment of the joint venture, the changes brought about by the joint venture are obvious:

Volkswagen of Germany brought advanced production methods to the company, mass production of automobiles through electronic industrialization, in order to replace the previous backward workshop-style manufacturing methods;

Volkswagen introduced a new salary system for the company, breaking the "iron rice bowl", and greatly enhancing the enthusiasm and creativity of employees.

More importantly, the joint venture company between Shanghai and Volkswagen of Germany also provides an important reference for patent protection and investment protection of the Chinese market economy in the future.

With The first trial of Shanghai Volkswagen, international automobile manufacturers such as Citroen of France, General Motors of the United States, and Toyota Motor of Japan have entered the Chinese market and established joint ventures with Chinese companies.

In the early days of the joint venture model, it had a significant effect on transforming the backward Chinese automobile industry, but with the passage of time, various drawbacks that were hidden at the beginning were gradually exposed.

One of the original intentions of the joint venture model is to exchange market for technology, that is, to introduce foreign brands into the Chinese market, through absorption and learning in order to master foreign advanced technologies, and finally establish China's own automotive industry research and development system. However, after several years of development, the market has been handed over, but the core technology of the car has not been exchanged.

After FAW and Volkswagen of Germany established a joint venture company, Volkswagen adopted a strict control strategy for the technology research and development of the joint venture company on the grounds of ensuring the quality of the car, and the joint venture company did not have the right to modify the car, and all problems in the localization process needed to be approved by the German side. Strict technical control has led to the long-term stagnation of localization of China's automobile industry. By 1990, the localization rate of several major Chinese joint venture brands such as Shanghai Volkswagen, FAW Audi and Guangzhou Peugeot was 60%, 13% and 31% respectively, far lower than expected.

Moreover, due to the technical iteration between China's automobile market and the automobile market of foreign developed countries, the most enthusiastic thing for multinational car companies is to put the obsolete models into the Chinese market for dumping and making a lot of money.

It now seems that the so-called "market for technology" advocated by some economists has not succeeded in the automotive field. On the contrary, under such slogans, technology is controlled, the market is divided, profits are divided, where is The road for China's automobile industry?

Independent innovation

Surrounded by joint venture car brands, China's local car brands are struggling to rise.

In March 1997, Chery Automobile Company was established in Wuhu, Anhui Province. In that era when joint venture cars were running all over the place, no one would have expected that this local car company would grow into a new force for China's own auto brands in the future.

Traditional fuel vehicles have three major components, namely engine, transmission and chassis, who master these three core components, who can stand firm in the fierce competition. However, at that time, the "building is better than buying, buying is not as good as renting" atmosphere prevailed, and few domestic automobile manufacturers were involved in it.

Founded a few years ago, Chery has always adhered to independent innovation and set its sights on the research and development and manufacture of automobile engines. After investing a lot of manpower, material resources and funds, the first generation of Chery's independent research and development was finally officially launched in 2003. Chery's self-developed engine marks China's breakthrough of "zero" in the field of new generation of high-performance automobile engines, and also creates a precedent for the development and manufacture of independent brand engines.

Thanks to independent research and development, the cost of Chery's car manufacturing has dropped significantly. At a time when the joint venture brand cars were 200,000 or 300,000, Chery Automobile launched only one-third or even less of the same category of cars, successfully seizing the domestic automobile market.

In March 2007, Chery swept the market with sales of 44,500 units, becoming the champion of the car market for the month. At present, Chery Automobile is not only selling well in China, but also exported overseas, repeatedly refreshing the record of Chinese cars sailing to sea, and ranking first in China's automobile export volume for several consecutive years, becoming the backbone of domestic independent brands.

Another Chinese independent car brand is Geely Automobile.

Coincidentally, the predecessor of Geely Automobile also began in 1997. In that year, Li Shufu found a discontinued automobile factory and established a joint venture with it. The following year, the first Geely Haoqing car rolled off the production line, but at that time, Geely did not get a car production license. In order to seek support, Li Shufu once suggested to his superiors, "Please allow private enterprises to try, allow private entrepreneurs to dream, please give me a chance to fail." ”

Geely is waiting for a transfer. In 2001, on the eve of China's accession to the World Trade Organization, the State Economic and Trade Commission issued an announcement that Geely was selected into the list of vehicle manufacturers and products, and also became the first private enterprise in China to obtain a car production qualification.

With the support of policies, Geely Automobile began to accelerate its development. In 2010, Geely Hao bought Volvo cars from Ford for $1.8 billion. Taking this as an opportunity, Geely and Volvo began a deep technical cooperation. First, it set up a research and development center in Gothenburg, volvo's headquarters, to jointly develop a new car architecture platform, and then set up a technology joint venture to realize technology sharing in the fields of new car architecture modules and clean power through technology licensing and other means.

In addition to the large-scale acquisition of mature automobile brands, Geely Automobile has also made efforts in the automotive industry chain, and has crossed the line between upstream and downstream enterprises in vehicle manufacturing.

In 2009, Geely Automobile acquired DSI, the world's second largest automatic transmission company, for A$70 million to make up for the shortcomings in auto parts research and development. In 2018, Geely once again signed an agreement with Aisin Co., Ltd., the world's largest automatic transmission manufacturer, to jointly invest in the establishment of a joint venture company to develop and manufacture automatic transmissions and related spare parts.

Overall, China's automobile industry has made relatively obvious progress during this period. Among them, in addition to the catch-up of independent car brands such as Chery, Geely, and BYD, there is also policy support from the government level.

In 2006, at the National Science and Technology Conference held in Beijing, it was proposed for the first time to strengthen independent innovation and build an innovative country. The "Eleventh Five-Year Plan for Science and Technology Development" formulated subsequently mentioned that "mastering the core technology of automobile design and manufacturing and realizing the industrialization of independent brand products". At this point, the independent innovation of the automobile industry has officially risen to a national strategy, and the shortcomings we have fallen behind in the era of joint ventures are also being made up one by one.

Overtaking in corners

In 1990, GM launched the Electric Vehicle Impact with lead-acid batteries at the Los Angeles Auto Show, the world's first electric vehicle in the modern sense. At that time, China on the other side of the ocean also began to research and develop electric vehicle technology. In 1991, the research and development of electric vehicles was included in the national "Eighth Five-Year Plan" key scientific and technological research projects; in 1996, electric vehicles were once again listed in the national "Ninth Five-Year Plan" and cross-century national major science and technology industry projects.

In the era of fuel vehicles, due to the late start and less accumulation, China's automobile industry has lagged behind foreign countries for a long time. But in the era of electric vehicles, China and foreign countries started almost synchronously, which also gave the Chinese auto industry the opportunity to overtake the curve.

In 2007, Wan Gang, who has a background in studying abroad and has rich experience in the automotive industry, was transferred from Tongji University to the central government and served as the minister of science and technology. Under his strong leadership, China began a vigorous new energy vehicle promotion plan.

At the central level, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Finance and other national ministries and commissions have repeatedly introduced subsidy policies for new energy vehicles, from the consumption subsidy for the purchase of cars to the exemption from vehicle purchase tax, with a wide range of subsidies and a high amount. In 2012, the State Council separately compiled the new energy vehicle part and issued the "Energy Saving and New Energy Vehicle Industry Planning (2012-2020)", which raised the development of new energy vehicles to a new height.

At the local level, it is even more frequent. Guangzhou, Tianjin, Beijing and other places have opened up "green channels" for new energy vehicle license applications, while Hefei, Shanghai and other places have increased investment in new energy vehicle projects, from financial subsidies to land and tax incentives, in various forms.

Encouraged by various policies, China's new energy vehicles have been singing all the way.

Internet companies represented by Baidu and Ali have laid out new energy vehicles, while traditional car companies such as BYD and Geely have also entered the field of new energy vehicles. It is worth mentioning that China also gave birth to a new energy "car-making new force" - Weilai, Ideal, Xiaopeng, and successfully landed in the US capital market, at its peak, the market value of Weilai Automobile once exceeded BMW, Ferrari and General Motors.

The prosperity of vehicle manufacturing has led to the development of the upstream and downstream industrial chains of new energy vehicles. A number of outstanding enterprises such as CATL, Hive Energy, and Sunwoda have then stood out, not only providing products and services for Chinese automakers, but also successfully breaking into the core supply chain of international brands such as Tesla and BMW.

In 2012 and 2013, China's new energy vehicle sales were 13,000 units and 17,000 units, respectively, and by 2014, they increased to 75,000 units, while in 2015, the annual sales of new energy vehicles soared to 330,000 units. ——That is, in this year, China's new energy vehicle sales surpassed the United States in one fell swoop, becoming the world's largest new energy vehicle sales market.

The development of new energy vehicles in China has not been smooth. With the help of overheated industrial policies and various capitals, dark spots began to grow.

Along with news reports, the shady curtain of various new energy vehicles has been slowly unveiled, and a number of new energy vehicle investment projects of local governments, including Huzhou Ranger Automobile Project, Borgward Automobile Yangtze River Delta Industrial Base Project, and LeTV Super Automobile Ecological Experience Park Project have also been suspended.

Fortunately, the problem was exposed in time, and the correction of the new energy vehicle industry policy was also carried out in an orderly manner: after completing the main task of cultivating the market, the complete decline of new energy vehicle subsidies was put on the agenda; in order to limit the repeated construction of new energy vehicle projects, the state re-standardized the conditions for new energy vehicle investment projects, and there were also many measures to strengthen production capacity monitoring and early warning and improve industrial supervision and management.

After a series of effective measures, China's new energy vehicle development has returned to the normal development track.

epilogue

In 2021, China will sell more than 26 million cars, once again winning the global auto sales championship. But we still need to soberly realize that although China has become the world's automobile power, there is still a gap between it and the world's automobile power.

Looking back at the development process of China's automobile industry in the past century, there have been brilliant achievements, and there are many experiences and even lessons worth thinking about repeatedly. The success of an industry is not to rely on quick success and short-term profits, let alone opportunism, but to gather consensus in the whole society, which is inseparable from the country's industrial planning, financial support, and the courage to innovate and consciously practice of enterprises.

For China's automobile industry, a hundred years is far from the end, but requires generations or even longer of hard work. China's road to a strong automobile industry is still unfinished.

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