The private economy is the ballast stone for the development of Xiaoshan, and private enterprises are the main force for the development of Xiaoshan. "Race endlessly, bravely stand at the head of the tide", in the new era and new journey, Xiaoshan once again played the "charge". Xiaoshan Release, Xiaoshan Daily's "Today's Viewpoint" launched a series of in-depth reports on "Economic Growth", focusing on the practical exploration of new quality productivity of private enterprises in Xiaoshan, analyzing the development samples of private enterprises, and exploring the co-prosperity and symbiosis between enterprises and the city. Today, the fifth article "Asia-Pacific's "Three Uniques" is launched, interpreting China's leading automotive brake enterprise Asia-Pacific Electromechanical, starting from a little-known social team enterprise, it took 48 years to rush to the "century-old factory, world brand" in the tide of the times with a kind of focus on industry, specialization in science and technology, and maximism in products.
In Xiaoshan, there are two roads named after enterprises in the first batch, one is Wanxiang Road and the other is Asia-Pacific Road. In Xiaoshan, there are two companies that make eagles into logos, one is called Wanxiang and the other is called Asia-Pacific. Among the top 100 enterprises in Xiaoshan, the two brothers who started from the auto parts industry and have done well are Wanxiang Group and Zhejiang Asia-Pacific Electromechanical Group.
Wanxiang, one of Xiaoshan's "three golden business cards", is a banner of China's township enterprises. Compared with the reputation of Wanxiang "as the sun is in the sky", the Asia-Pacific region from the "social enterprise" is low-key but not bad, the absolute "ruler" of China's automobile brake industry, and the most "focused" private enterprise in Xiaoshan. Some people say that a 48-year history of the Asia-Pacific region and half of the history of private enterprises in Xiaoshan are not unreasonable.
01
The road to the Asia-Pacific region
Asia-Pacific Road, adjacent to Xianghu Lake in Xiaoshan, from east to west, with a total length of 4 kilometers, two-way 6 lanes, cars and people, is an economic trunk road in Xiaoshan.
In that year, Huang Laixing, who invested 200,000 yuan to buy the naming rights of Asia-Pacific Road for 20 years, is 80 years old this year and has a tough body. Every morning, the driver drove him from Asia-Pacific Road to the headquarters building of Asia-Pacific Group to work.
Huang Laixing, the founder of Asia-Pacific Group, is a "veteran" private entrepreneur in Xiaoshan.
Knocking on the door of Huang Laixing's office, the huge world map comes into view, in Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas, inlaid with small yellow magnets, Huang Laixing introduced to us that this is the area covered by the Asia-Pacific automotive brake products, and the Asia-Pacific layout is the place where the investment and factory are built. The products of the Asia-Pacific region go out of "Shiyan Township", into the "Greater Shanghai", to the whole country, and to the world, just like the Asia-Pacific Road in front of them, reaching all directions.
In 2023, China's automobile production and sales will exceed 30 million units for the first time, with a year-on-year growth of 11.6%-12%. In this wave of "dividends", Asia-Pacific Group, which is mainly engaged in supporting braking systems for OEMs, has become a leader in the auto parts industry by virtue of the strength of "one out of three in the world" in the Chinese market. In 2023, Asia-Pacific Group will achieve revenue of 7.4 billion yuan, with gratifying performance.
The road to the Asia-Pacific region is getting smoother and smoother. Twenty-one years ago, in March 2003, Huang Laixing stood on the banks of the Huangpu River in Shanghai and had a real feeling for the first time. This year is also the highlight of the Asia-Pacific region. In 2002, Xiaoshan's total industrial economy surpassed Jiangyin City in Jiangsu Province for the first time, becoming the "boss" of China's counties, and in 2003, Xiaoshan's "industrial rush of 100 billion yuan, BMW gave heroes", and Asia-Pacific was the tenth hero.
In March of this year, in Shanghai, Huang Laixing, as the chairman of the Asia-Pacific Group, reached an agreement with Mr. Jesler, vice president of the German FTE company, on the technical cooperation of the car brake system, and the market share of the German FTE company in Shanghai was transferred to the Asia-Pacific company.
The German FTE company has mastered the world's most advanced braking system core technology, and supplies brakes for top BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and other OEMs. Most of the cars produced by Volkswagen and General Motors in Shanghai use the brakes produced by FTE.
Asia-Pacific and Germany's FTE have joined hands to announce that Asia-Pacific has entered the Shanghai automobile market, which is the top of China. For this day, Huang Laixing has been waiting for 23 years.
In 1976, Huang Laixing, who took over the socially run agricultural machinery factory, met an engineer surnamed Xu from Shanghai No. 2 Automobile Chassis Factory in Shanghai. This chance encounter fulfilled Huang Laixing and his Asia-Pacific region. Under the guidance of Engineer Xu, in 1979, Huang Laixing and his partners produced the first automobile brake and became the brake supplier of Shanghai "581" three-truck automobile factory.
In 1980, Shanghai "581" three-truck production plant and German Volkswagen joint venture to produce Santana sedan, its brakes were changed to foreign companies to match. In desperation, "Asia-Pacific" withdrew from the Shanghai market.
When Huang Laixing entered "Shanghai Tang" for the second time, Asia-Pacific had become the largest manufacturer of automobile braking systems in China. And Huang Laixing has also become a man of the year in China's automotive brake industry. On this day, the Asia-Pacific region ushered in its first big leap.
In the following two decades, the leading product of the Asia-Pacific region, automotive brakes, has been extended to three series: basic brakes, electronic brakes, and intelligent driving. The basic brakes based on drum brakes, disc brakes and vacuum brakes have a customer ownership rate of 90% and a product share of 25%. Like Hongqi car's brakes are 100% from the Asia-Pacific region. The second-generation electronic brake is the "darling" of the most popular new energy vehicles. What's even more gratifying is that with the completion of the layout of the intelligent driving industry chain, the world's leading in-wheel motor drive system has been introduced into China, and the third-generation intelligent driving has been mass-produced.
Now Huang Laixing has a new identity, Secretary of the Party Committee of the Asia-Pacific Group. The chairman of the Asia-Pacific Group has been succeeded by the youngest son Huang Weichao, and the listed company "Asia-Pacific Shares" is controlled by the eldest son Huang Weizhong.
Huang Laixing, who retreated to the "second line", talked about the life experience of the brake. In the past, Asia-Pacific competed with European brands in the domestic market, but now, Asia-Pacific's product sales network covers major well-known domestic vehicle companies and internationally renowned automobile multinational companies, and exports to the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and other regions, and has entered the international global procurement platform such as GM, Volkswagen, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, Stellantis, etc., and the products have been internationalized.
According to Huang Laixing, the internationalization of the Asia-Pacific region has been fully opened.
02
A sea of flowers in the Asia-Pacific region
In 2007, Asia-Pacific moved from the old factory at the foot of Shiyan Mountain to the new factory. Later, the road in front of the door was opened, named "Asia-Pacific", and in 2015, the Asia-Pacific Science and Technology Innovation Park was built in the new factory.
Huang Laixing said that the Asia-Pacific region has encountered "three good", born in a good place, caught up with a good era, and entered a good industry.
The new factory in Asia-Pacific is across the road and is the largest flower sea area in Xianghu. In spring and autumn, flowers bloom here, tourists are weaving, and it is the check-in place of Xiaoshan.
The exhibition hall of Asia-Pacific Group faces Xianghu Lake and faces this sea of flowers. In the exhibition hall, a piece of automotive braking products with independent technology, from basic braking to electronic braking, to intelligent braking, are neatly placed, just like flowers blooming in the sea of flowers in Xianghu Lake, with infinite vitality and flowers.
Huang Weichao specially introduced to us the second generation of Asia-Pacific brakes - independent research and development of ABS, and the third generation of Asia-Pacific brakes - intelligent driving. In Huang Weichao's eyes, they are two lotus flowers in the Asia-Pacific region, which complement each other with the sea of flowers in Xianghu Lake, each colorful and wonderful.
In order to bloom these two lotus flowers, the R&D strength and R&D funds invested by Asia-Pacific are close to "crazy".
Back in 2000, when the world's best automotive electronic braking system, the well-known ABS anti-lock braking system was basically monopolized by foreign car companies, and the same was true of the domestic automobile market.
We must have our own ABS! Otherwise, he may be "stuck" by others at any time, and Huang Laixing sees the biggest business opportunity from the crisis.
Huang Weichao, who is now the chairman of the Asia-Pacific Electromechanical Group, took over this "hard work". From basic brakes to electronic brake R&D and production, it is the second leap for Asia-Pacific, and it is more like the first business for Huang Weichao.
Huang Weichao joined Asia-Pacific in 1994 and has worked as a front-line worker, in sales, and in management. But he never expected that the next five years would be so bumpy, and the Asia-Pacific region was almost cornered. After hitting a wall again and again, Huang Weichao and his team finally locked in the new "play" of "industry-university-research + market".
At this time, the software programming team led by Professor Song Jian of Tsinghua University joined; Beijing JEEP became a partner, and the two sides agreed that a model that is about to be launched will be equipped with ABS anti-lock braking products developed by Asia-Pacific, coupled with the good hardware foundation of Asia-Pacific in brake production, the new "Triple Alliance" has been formed, and the research and development of ABS anti-lock braking products in Asia-Pacific has seen the dawn of victory.
In 2004, after 5 years, Asia-Pacific successfully realized the industrialization of ABS. Beijing JEEP also launched the first vehicle in China to use domestic ABS anti-lock braking products. This is a major milestone in the development of the Asia-Pacific region, but also a milestone in the history of the development of China's automobile industry, which marks the successful breaking of the pattern of domestic ABS products "dominating the world" by foreign enterprises. In 2005, Asia-Pacific's self-developed ABS won the first prize of China Automobile Industry Science and Technology Progress Award. The Asia-Pacific Technology Center was recognized as the only national enterprise technology center in the domestic brake industry.
Asia-Pacific, which became the "first to eat crabs", did not stop.
In September 2020, Deqing, Asia-Pacific Co., Ltd., the technical exchange promotion meeting with the theme of "Leading the Future of Science and Technology Intelligent Driving" attracted great attention from the industry, and the third-generation products of Asia-Pacific were officially released.
In the "tuyere" of automotive intelligence, the global automotive industry has shifted from the first half of the fuel era to the second half of the electric intelligent era, and the Asia-Pacific region is obviously prepared. Asia-Pacific, completed the industrialization transformation of intelligent driving, took the lead in realizing the mass production of intelligent driving systems, and became the only fully independent ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System) production supplier in China.
On the same day, at the Deqing intelligent networked vehicle test site, the vehicle equipped with the ADAS system of 77GHz millimeter wave radar and front vision independently developed by Asia-Pacific drove at low speed close to the automobile model obstacle, the driver did not press the brake pedal, and the car was firmly parked in front of the obstacle.
The test run passed safely. Shi Jianhua, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, commented that in the intelligent driving industry chain, Asia-Pacific is one of the few enterprises in China that has opened up the "perception-decision-control" system, leading the industry to achieve iterative upgrading of technology.
Huang Weizhong, chairman of Asia-Pacific Co., Ltd., said in an interview with reporters on the spot that Asia-Pacific ADAS products have been equipped with Chery Ant vehicles, and in the future, Asia-Pacific will establish cooperative relations with more vehicle companies.
Asia-Pacific has opened up the intelligent driving industry chain, and a number of products have been mass-produced, and Asia-Pacific has ushered in the third leap. This wave of scientific and technological innovation took six years in the Asia-Pacific region.
In 2015, Google's self-driving car was first approved for testing on public roads, a milestone step for the global automotive industry. It was in this year that the Asia-Pacific region began to deploy unmanned driving, strategic investment, the introduction of talents, and the renewal of equipment, and the R&D expenses alone increased year by year.
From 2015 to 2020, when unmanned driving products have not yet been industrialized, the proportion of R&D investment in Asia Pacific has increased from 3.5% to 5% of operating income, and the annual R&D expenditure has increased from 111 million yuan to 160 million yuan.
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