Chapter 875: National Treasure, Cooperation with AVIC

"Austin, last year the company's global sales were 9.61 million, lagging behind Toyota and Volkswagen. What do you think?"

In America, Christmas and New Year's Day holidays are usually consecutive.

So when everyone starts to go back to work, the global car sales are basically out.

General Motors, which has always wanted to regain its position as the world's number one, is obviously disappointed this time.

Toyota, the first, sold 9.81 million vehicles worldwide, Volkswagen, the second, sold 9.73 million, but General Motors only sold 9.61 million.

The gap between the three is not very large, but the first is the first and the third is the third.

Because of the difference of 200,000, General Motors lost its position as the world's number one. As the president, Exxon must be in a bad mood.

As the general manager of Shanghai GM, Austin must be under the greatest pressure.

Because Shanghai GM was the sales champion in the Chinese auto market in the past few years, but in 2013, the sales in the last quarter were almost zero, and the overall sales plummeted by 35%.

Although this sales volume can still enter the TOP10, it has nothing to do with the TOP3 position.

Even though GM has seized some market share from Japanese and Korean car companies in the United States, the situation has not become so ugly.

But in the end, it still lost its first place in the world.

"Toyota has been under some pressure from us in the American market, and Nanshan Automobile Group will definitely increase its efforts to suppress Japanese car companies in China."

"I think Toyota's first place in the world is definitely not stable."

Austin must now answer Exxon's question from some perspectives that are good for GM's future.

Otherwise, he will be greeted with a storm of criticism.

After all, the main reason why GM lost its first place in the world this year is that the market in China has fallen by hundreds of thousands of vehicles.

Otherwise, GM can not only surpass Volkswagen, but also surpass Toyota to become the world's top car sales in 2013.

Although it is only a difference of hundreds of thousands of cars, it can be said to be insignificant in the face of nearly 10 million sales.

But this first place is very important to Exxon.

"What Austin said makes sense. Toyota has a sales volume of about one million in China. If this part of the sales volume is cut in half, it will be difficult for them to maintain their position as the world's number one."

"In the United States, we have reached a consensus with Ford, Chrysler and other automakers to continue to suppress Japanese and Korean automakers."

"Both markets are under pressure. Toyota will definitely not have such an easy time this year."

Edward helped Austin from the side. The two of them are old acquaintances and are considered to be people from the same faction within General Motors.

Don't think that there are no factions within European and American companies and that they are all harmonious.

How is that possible?

No matter which large company it is, there must be different factions.

This is a situation that exists all over the world.

"You only see the unfavorable situation of Toyota this year, but don't consider ourselves?"

"Among last year's sales, more than 700,000 were contributed by Shanghai GM. How much sales this year will be is totally unworthy of expectation."

"By then, our sales will not increase, and it will be a problem whether we can maintain a scale of more than 9 million vehicles."

After Exxon said this, everyone was silent.

Just because everyone ignored this problem intentionally or unintentionally does not mean that this problem does not exist.

As the world's largest automobile market, the Chinese market is too important.

The loss of the Chinese market has obviously had a much greater impact on General Motors than everyone imagined.

It can be said that many people in General Motors regretted their involvement in suppressing Nanshan Automobile Group.

Obviously, their interests in China are much greater than those of Nanshan Automobile Group in the United States.

Why didn't they expect that Nanshan Automobile Group's counterattack would be so fierce?

"Last year, Renault-Nissan sold 8.2 million vehicles, ranking fourth in the world."

"Hyundai-Kia sold 7.4 million vehicles, becoming the fifth largest automaker in the world."

"Ford only sold 6.15 million, and Fiat Chrysler only sold 4.35 million, ranking sixth and seventh respectively."

"Then Honda also sold 4.1 million vehicles."

"From this ranking, we can see that Japanese and Korean automakers account for half of the top eight."

"And the sales of our old rivals Ford and Chrysler are declining."

"It can be said that this situation is not caused by Nanshan Automobile Group, but by Japanese and Korean automakers."

"As long as the sales of Japanese and Korean automakers in the American market are cut in half, there will be a market space of two to three million vehicles."

"Even if several of us go to divide this market, our global sales will eventually rise instead of falling."

Austin must do his best to transfer the contradictions at this time, otherwise he will become a sinner within GM.

Even if the sales plunge in Shanghai has nothing to do with his personal efforts, it is useless.

Sometimes, people only look at the results and don't care about the process.

Of course, the plan he proposed is not completely unreasonable.

At least from the data, it looks very logical.

So after listening to Exxon and others, they really thought about it seriously.

They are already suppressing Japanese and Korean car companies.

Although it has achieved certain results, there are still many consumers in the United States who support various products of Japanese and Korean car companies.

The fuel consumption is lower than that of similar products of General Motors Ford, and the price is also lower.

The key is that the failure rate is also lower.

For the American market with high labor costs and high maintenance costs, this impact is still relatively large.

Therefore, it is not so easy for GM and other local automakers to make the sales of Japanese and Korean automakers drop significantly.

"I will communicate with Ford and Chrysler later to see if some of the policies promoted some time ago can be further strengthened."

"We can continue to do what we did before, or we can think of other plans."

"The automobile industry is very important to America. We can't let Japanese and Korean automakers smash our rice bowl."

Exxon has no better way, so it is necessary to agree with Austin's suggestion to find a soft persimmon to squeeze at this time.

As for whether this approach is fair to automakers such as Toyota and Hyundai, no one cares at all.

When the American auto industry was struggling with last year's market performance, Samsung was also holding a meeting for the market performance in 2013.

However, the atmosphere was a bit depressing.

"Last year, our global mobile phone sales totaled only 390 million units, a significant decline compared to the year before."

"Among them, the sales of smartphones are about to be surpassed by Honor phones."

"If compared with the overall turnover, it is not much more than Honor phones."

"Among them, the performance of the Huaxia branch is the worst, almost a state of total collapse."

When Li Zairong said this, he looked at Li Zairin specifically.

Although he knew that the market performance of the Huaxia branch was very poor, he could not simply blame Li Zairin alone.

Last year, Samsung's flagship smartphone exploded and caught fire, and was caught by others, so it collapsed rapidly in the Huaxia market.

However, Samsung's sales in other parts of the world last year generally increased.

In China, it fell off a cliff, which was simply terrible.

Now Samsung mobile phones can't even make it into the top three in China.

This situation was unimaginable a few years ago.

Samsung mobile phones, the leading company in the global mobile phone industry, actually fell out of the top three in China.

It's really unbelievable.

No wonder Li Zairong is very angry now.

"President, China is not very friendly to all Korean companies now."

"The entertainment industry is completely banning our stars, and there are many unfavorable news about us on the Internet."

"Not only is Samsung facing this dilemma, but Hyundai Kia Motors is also in a similar situation."

"Globally, Hyundai Kia Motors has performed very well, reaching the fifth place in global sales last year."

"But in the Chinese market, the sales of Imperial Capital Hyundai have fallen to more than 300,000 vehicles, and it has completely lost its original momentum."

"The situation on the Kia side is even worse, and it can't even maintain 300,000."

"Based on this situation, it may still be the best year in the next few years."

"So I think if this situation is to change, it needs to be solved from a higher level, otherwise it will be difficult for a single company to handle it."

Li Zairin must not take the responsibility on himself.

This pot is so big that he can't bear it.

Besides, he thinks the reasons for his analysis are also reasonable.

What he said was the truth, not just an excuse.

Going a step further, he felt that the rapid development of all industries in China was impacting Korean enterprises.

Consumer electronics, automobiles, steel, shipbuilding...

These were originally Korea's advantageous industries, but now China is also developing these industries with all its strength.

The most troublesome thing is that China is developing very fast, and the same type of products are no worse than Korea.

Such a situation is naturally more troublesome.

"The Qing/Wa/Tai side should visit the imperial capital this year. At that time, we can invite the heads of several major companies to go with them to see if we can improve this situation."

There is support for Lee Jae-rim's view within Samsung Electronics.

The vice president in charge of Chinese business wanted to say a few words for Lee Jae-rim.

However, Lee Jae-young's mood did not improve at all, and said: "What kind of virtues are Chinese consumers, don't you know?"

"As long as the publicity is good and the products are good, there is no need to worry about no one buying them."

"Now our mobile phones and other products are not selling well in China, and a large part of the reason is that the competitiveness is not up to par."

"If the situation in this regard does not change, Honor Technology and Huawei will surpass us in the future."

It must be said that as the future heir of Samsung, Lee Jae-young has some vision.

He is still relatively clear about the impact that the rise of Chinese competitors such as Honor Technology will have on Samsung.

The rise of Apple in the United States has already put Samsung under tremendous pressure, and in China, companies such as Honor Technology and Huawei are developing rapidly.

These will suppress Samsung's global survival space, which is obviously a situation that Li Zairong does not want to see.

"What the president said makes sense. We really need to improve our competitiveness."

"For example, in the semiconductor field, Nanshan Semiconductor's 14nm process chip factory has already been put into production, and ours is still debugging equipment."

"When Nanshan Semiconductor starts to exert its strength in chips, memory and other aspects, not only will the Chinese market be lost, but the global market will also be greatly affected."

After Li Zairin said this, the atmosphere on the scene became more depressing.

Compared with Samsung's consumer electronics business, the importance of the semiconductor business is actually higher.

It can be said that Samsung Group gambled on the future development prospects to promote the development of the semiconductor industry.

Now it has finally started to have results, but it is facing competition from a newly emerging company like Nanshan Semiconductor.

It can be said that the emergence of Nanshan Semiconductor and Nanshan Equipment has completely changed the pattern of the global semiconductor industry.

And with the investment of more and more chip factories in China, the impact on the global semiconductor industry will become greater and greater in the future.

However, it is not so easy to break this situation.

Samsung held a day-long meeting, but there was no good result.

…

Just when all parties were summarizing 2013, the 2013 National Science and Technology Awards Conference was also held in the imperial capital.

Unsurprisingly, Nanshan companies won many awards at this conference.

Kunpeng heavy transport helicopter, NS8155 chip, new generation lithography machine...

Although the results were not as impressive as last year, it was very rare to be able to maintain the same level.

After the meeting, Cao Yang met with Zhao Tianling of AVIC in the imperial capital.

"Mr. Cao, congratulations on becoming the company with the most awards again."

Zhao Tianling is now a little accustomed to the awesomeness of Nanshan companies.

In this regard, AVIC really can't compare.

But for AVIC, it's not a bad thing.

At least many of their subordinate factories want to buy high-end equipment, which they may not be able to buy through various tortuous means and high prices in the past.

Now Nanshan equipment can be produced.

Many equipment that were once restricted to China can now be bought at a fair price as long as you are willing to pay.

After Nanshan Equipment made a breakthrough in related technologies, the attitudes of those international equipment giants changed 180 degrees.

Now there are very few equipment that are not sold to Chinese companies.

These changes are naturally the side effects of the rise of Nanshan Equipment.

"I heard that there are many key projects in progress at AVIC, and they will definitely be big winners in the future."

Cao Yang and Zhao Tianling are not particularly familiar with each other, so it is inevitable that they will first flatter each other commercially.

Fortunately, everyone is busy, and after a brief greeting, they got on the right track.

"I heard that your stealth drone will be tested in a few days, and it is also planned to be displayed at the Lion City Air Show in February."

As the person in charge of AVIC, Zhao Tianling must have talked to Cao Yang about content related to aviation business.

If he thought that Venusstar Technology was better in the aerospace industry, then after the Kunpeng heavy transport helicopter went into production and several new aviation projects were launched, Zhao Tianling's opinion began to change dramatically.

Especially during this period, he learned that Venusstar Technology had developed a truly large-scale stealth unmanned bomber.

This was a project that AVIC had just prepared to launch and had not yet officially started research.

As a result, Venusstar started test flights directly.

According to his understanding of Venusstar Technology, after this test flight, this product can enter mass production within this year and be equipped to relevant departments.

Zhao Tianling must have some ideas about this situation.

"Yes, if Mr. Zhao has time, you can come and watch the test flight together."

Before knowing Zhao Tianling's true thoughts, Cao Yang didn't say much.

Sometimes, the more you say, the more mistakes you make.

It's not wrong to be cautious.

"Large stealth unmanned bombers are very useful, but for China, large bombers similar to B-2 are actually in great demand."

"I heard that your unmanned bomber adopts a layout similar to B-2, and the stealth material is similar to the previous double-tailed scorpion drone."

"Is Venusstar Technology interested in working with AVIC to develop our own B-2 bomber?"

Zhao Tianling didn't beat around the bush and directly stated his purpose.

Large bombers may not be very useful for ordinary countries.

But for America, the polar bear and China, the meaning is different.

Up to now, China really lacks such an aircraft.

Venusstar Technology can produce a stealth unmanned bomber similar to the B-2, which means that they have a relatively deep research on this type of layout.

Coupled with the rapid development of Venusstar Technology in flight control, stealth materials and aviation engine technology, it is normal for AVIC to invite them to join this project.

"Develop a bomber similar to B-2?"

Cao Yang asked back in surprise.

He really didn't expect that AVIC would invite Venusstar Technology to participate in such an important project.

Don't look at the B-2 as a product developed by the United States in the 1970s, and it has been several decades.

But this is a stealth bomber that can perform conventional strike missions and strategic nuclear strike missions.

In order to develop this product, Boeing and Northrop Grumman joined forces with MIT. With the joint efforts of everyone, it took more than ten years to finally develop it.

The B-2 stealth bomber is 21 meters long, 52.4 meters wide, 5.18 meters high, and has a maximum take-off weight of about 170 tons.

It uses four GE F118-110 non-afterburning turbofan engines with a maximum flight speed of 0.95 Mach.

The most unique feature of the B-2 stealth bomber is its stealth appearance design, which is also its core combat power.

The so-called stealth performance is the low radar detectability.

In order to minimize the radar reflection area, the B-2 uses the only flying wing mechanism in the world's bombers.

The so-called flying wing structure means that the vertical tail and rudder are cancelled. The whole is similar to a W-shaped dart, which can greatly reduce the probability of radar detection and enhance maneuverability.

Therefore, the appearance of the B-2 looks extremely sci-fi, like an alien spacecraft.

In order to minimize the radar reflection area, the B-2 integrates the engine into the fuselage, leaving only two small air intakes on the back of the wing. The tail of the engine is also treated with stealth, and the engine outlet is wrapped in the fuselage, which greatly reduces the infrared reflection.

Due to the adoption of various measures to reduce radar reflection, the radar reflection area of ​​the B-2 stealth bomber is only 0.33 square meters.

You should know that the lower the radar reflection area, the stronger the penetration capability of the fighter. The radar reflection area of ​​0.33 square meters is about the same size as a sparrow, which allows the B-2 to effectively break through the domestic air defense firepower network of most countries.

In order to match such excellent stealth and penetration capabilities, the B-2 stealth bomber has a maximum range of 11,000 kilometers. After taking off, it can be refueled in the air, and the range can be extended to 18,000 kilometers, which can strike any target in the world.

Cao Yang was attracted by the appearance of the B-2 because he wanted to improve the stealth performance to an unprecedented level.

The stealth coating used by Venus Technology on the twin-tailed scorpion drone is itself more advanced than the same type of stealth materials in the United States.

It’s just that because of the shape of the twin-tailed scorpion, the stealth effect is not particularly good in front of the millimeter-wave radar.

But after changing to the shape of the B-2, combined with the special stealth coating, the situation is completely different.

To be frank, when the stealth unmanned bomber of Venusstar Technology is deployed, it will be extremely difficult for the radars of the United States around China to detect it.

"Yes, if it depends only on AVIC's own efforts, since we don't have much technical accumulation in this area in the early stage, it is estimated that it will take five or six years, or even seven or eight years to complete the research and development of this aircraft."

"But if both of us can develop it together, then it is entirely possible to complete the first flight in the next three to five years."

This is definitely not the time to put on airs.

If you can't do it, just admit it. Otherwise, Venusstar Technology will definitely not be willing to cooperate with AVIC on such a difficult project.

The production of basic bombers like B-2 will definitely not be large.

The United States has only produced more than 20 aircraft and no more, and China can only produce 20 to 30 aircraft at most.

After all, China has to produce a wide variety of aircraft, and it is impossible to invest all resources in strategic bombers.

This kind of thing is more of a deterrent, and a certain number is enough.

The small number of production means that the production cost of this aircraft will be very high.

However, the purchase price of the relevant departments cannot be unlimitedly high. The highest price is within 1 billion yuan.

In this way, this project may not be a very good project from a commercial perspective.

Especially Venusstar Technology already has a drone with a similar shape to B-2.

It can be said that Zhao Tianling is asking Venusstar Technology for help this time.

"This kind of project has a very high confidentiality level, right? Is it appropriate for us, Venusstar Technology, to participate in it as a private enterprise?"

Cao Yang did not completely refuse.

He certainly supports improving China's national defense strength.

Otherwise, Venusstar Technology would not have come up with so many military projects.

But it doesn't matter how hard it is to develop it by yourself, but it's different to cooperate with AVIC.

Cao Yang is also worried that he will do something bad with good intentions, which will make him feel uncomfortable, and it will not be worth it.

"Venusstar Technology has a very special position in China, and you, Mr. Cao, must know this."

"I will only propose this to you after discussing it within the company, so you don't need to worry about confidentiality issues."

Since Zhao Tianling said so, Cao Yang naturally didn't want to worry about it anymore.

Anyway, with AVIC participating, Venusstar Technology should not lose money in the end.

As for whether it can make a lot of money, it is secondary.

So what's there to worry about?

Of course I agreed.

This thing is a national treasure!