The author has previously chatted with Toyota insiders about a topic.
"Why do you feel that your Toyota renewal is always half a beat slower than the market? Technology, configuration, and models are all slow. ”
The answer was surprising, because they directly admitted the slowness and did not make any other excuses.
"There's no way, just like the parts you just said, when the test is completed according to our standards and requirements, they (referring to a friend at that time) have been sold for more than 1 year, and they really can't compare."
The implication is that Toyota, both in terms of standards and tests, is more comprehensive and rigorous. But this is indeed the fundamental reason why Toyota has been recognized for its high quality by the world for so many years.
Therefore, compared with some of the so-called "cost-effective" and "price war conscience car companies", we will find that these brands are not really profitable, but only worth low prices, and their R&D and testing of parts and vehicles are not perfect, and there are quite problems in quality and durability.
Of course, this does not mean that there are no high-quality options at affordable prices. For example, Geely Automobile, when it comes to price wars, they are just passive followers, but when it comes to volume quality, it can even benchmark Toyota, while friends can't keep up with this.
The fundamental reason is that Geely Automobile also has the ability to benchmark Toyota's global quality control system, and also has the infrastructure to conduct global product verification. For example, the "Geely Global Test Base No.4 Turpan High Temperature Test Base" unveiled on July 14 is an important part of its high-quality quality control system, which not only continues to improve Geely's global product verification map, but also is the first global high temperature test base for Chinese auto brands, and its importance is self-evident.
A small new base, but it is a big step for Chinese cars to go overseas
From Chinese cars to global cars, it is not just as simple as selling Chinese cars to more countries.
In addition to the difference between the left and right rudders, Chinese, English or other languages, there are also various differences in temperature, humidity, road surface, different speed requirements, salinity, etc., and if Chinese cars want to go to sea to become a real global car, they must be able to withstand the test of various scenarios around the world, including the domestic market, which is also the basic requirement for the high quality of global cars.
The "Geely Global Test Base No.4 Turpan High Temperature Test Base" can meet this concept; With an area of 1.3 million square meters, 5km of automobile dynamic test road and 6km of automobile test special road, 13 kinds of high-temperature test verification conditions including city square road, serpentine square road, highway road, NVH special road surface, etc., can be carried out to comprehensively assess the comprehensive performance of the vehicle under extreme high temperature conditions, such as steering performance, braking performance, air conditioning thermal management, body stability, thermal aging and sealing performance under low/medium/high speed road conditions. At the same time, the base is also built in line with the national standard, European standard, American standard super charging pile equipment, which can quickly complete the preliminary basic test of new energy vehicles, and also supports the test of different energy forms including fuel and pure electric, and covers hybrid, methanol and other forms of energy.
For example, although there are deserts in China and the Middle East, the impact of wind and sand erosion on the car is completely different, so Geely Automobile has added a test simulating the wind and sand erosion conditions of the desert in the Middle East to verify the door tightness and tire grip in the high temperature limit test of this base. In addition, Geely has also added a unique dust test to test and verify the tightness of the whole vehicle. It can be said that Toyota cars have been subjected to extreme quality verification before they were sold to the Middle East, and the same is true for today's domestically produced Geely automobiles, which are even more and more rigorous.
In addition, unlike the industry, which only conducts high-temperature limit tests for hardware, Geely Automobile has also carried out full-dimensional verification tests at the two levels of hardware + software, and completed more than 1,600 functional test cases, with longer test cycles, more test mileage, greater test intensity, more complete test scenarios, and more meticulous consideration of test items.
In addition to the newly unveiled high-temperature test base, Geely Automobile also has Hangzhou Bay Headquarters Test Base, Shangrao Lingchuang Test Base, and Heihe Alpine Test Base, each model has to go through various test and verification scenarios such as high temperature, high cold, and plateau before being launched, covering all fields of intelligent driving, cockpit, chassis, new energy, electronic appliances, interior and exterior decoration, etc. In addition to the simulated more than 800,000 simulated test mileage, the 1.5 million real road test mileage that can be compared to Toyota is also much higher than the industry average.
Of course, Geely models created by global standards are also produced and sold in China at the same time, with global high quality and consistency.
At the unveiling ceremony of the new base, Li Chuanhai, Vice President of Geely Automobile Group and President of Academia Sinica, said: "Under the guidance of the 'Smart Geely 2025' strategy, Geely R&D has been continuously accelerating the global deployment and upgrading of testing capabilities and resources, and will build 16 global test bases at home and abroad to realize Geely's global deployment." As one of the cores of Geely's global test base, the Turpan test base will help Geely's global model development, and more Geely brand models will be tested and verified at this base in the future, providing inexhaustible power for the realization of China's automobile goal from a major automobile country to an automobile power. ”
When I go abroad, I know the importance of maintaining the reputation of the national brand
There can be such a speech, such a system, and such a layout of infrastructure construction; The fundamental reason is that Geely Automobile's global layout has indeed gone global.
But before Geely Automobile went out, in fact, the overseas reputation of our national car brand was not very good. For example, in the Russia market and the South American market, in fact, there are already independent brands involved, but the frequent occurrence of rust and various problems affects the process of globalization of the entire Chinese auto industry, rather than its sales.
In addition to establishing systematic global high-standard R&D and testing requirements, Geely Automobile has also vigorously built global service outlets and strengthened cooperation with global suppliers to ensure that consumers in any country can get timely and stable spare parts supply services.
As of 2023, Geely Automobile has successfully deployed 533 sales and service outlets in 70 countries around the world, covering five regions: Europe, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific. At the same time, the construction of these service outlets not only has standardized service processes and contents, but also customized and professional services for the needs of different countries and regions.
High-quality products + high-standard services, in exchange, are naturally high sales.
In 2023, Geely Automobile's cumulative export sales will reach 274,100 units, a year-on-year increase of more than 38%; Previously, in 2022 and 2021, this data was 198,000 and 115,000 respectively. It is maintaining high growth every year.
With the continuous spread of good reputation and the continuous improvement of the high-standard system, Geely Automobile in the future will one day have the strength to call Toyota with quality.
At last:
The inauguration of the new base may seem like a small step, but it is a big step for Geely Automobile and China's auto industry, which aims to go overseas. And when the domestic cars represented by Geely Automobile can have the reliable quality of Toyota, the "volume" of China's automobile industry will be more meaningful.
This is like the current Chinese auto market, everyone is rolling up the price and reducing the price, but in the end, when everyone's car is sold at the same cheap price, consumers finally compare the quality of the whole vehicle.