I want to be emperor

Chapter 1064 The explosion of the automobile industry

The forty-eighth year of Chengshun was definitely a year of great influence for the automobile industry of the Chu Empire.

During this year, the empire officially adopted policies to support gasoline-powered agricultural equipment and engineering equipment, and promoted the introduction of gasoline-powered agricultural equipment and engineering equipment in various places.

At the same time, a large-scale military vehicle procurement equipment plan has been formally finalized. It is scheduled to purchase at least 20,000 military vehicles of various types in the next five years for fire support combat, artillery towing, material transportation, personnel transportation and other fields.

These supportive policies and military procurement have greatly promoted the development of the automobile industry.

Secondly, Liaodong Machinery Company officially broke through the technology monopoly of Tangshan Machinery Company, developed its own patented spark plug electronic ignition technology, and began small-scale production and sales. In addition to supplying engines to a few partners, Liaodong Machinery Company also In January, it also officially launched a gasoline tractor equipped with a gasoline engine and a gasoline bus.

Among them, the passenger bus is more interesting. It is a bus that can carry more than 30 passengers. It is prepared to compete with large public carriages and public trams. This kind of bus has attracted the attention of many urban public carriage companies... But these The reason why the public carriage company values ​​this kind of bus is not that it wants to use it for public transportation in the city, but that it plans to try to use it for medium and long-distance passenger transportation in the suburbs.

Because in contemporary urban public transportation, public carriages are still the main force, but with the advancement of electrification, especially after the Jinling Carriage Company launched the tram, many cities have successively launched plans to promote urban trams, especially Songjiang City, which is plagued by traffic, has opened a number of trams one after another and achieved good results, and is preparing to promote the construction of more trams.

As for buses, it is because they do not have advantages in terms of purchase cost and operating cost... Today's cars are still too expensive, not only the purchase is expensive, but the subsequent maintenance is also expensive.

On the contrary, for long-distance passenger transportation between urban and rural areas, trams cannot be used, horse-drawn carriages are also very limited, and trains are not available, which gives buses a certain living space.

In addition, their engine production capacity has reached 8,000 units. In addition to supplying their own vehicle business, they have also supplied approximately 3,000 gasoline engines to various strategic partner manufacturers, including supply to Songjiang Motor Vehicle Company, a subsidiary of Jiangnan Weapon Company. One hundred and fifty 50-horsepower high-horsepower engines are used for the research and development and small-volume production of military armored vehicles.

Taking into account factors such as cost, in fact, these three gasoline engines have their own corresponding markets.

Compared with last year, this is an increase of seven to eight times.

Even if the technology of Hekou Machinery Company's heat pipe ignition engine is poor, it can still occupy about 10% of the previous gasoline engine market.

Tangshan Machinery Company issued a publicity announcement, Liaodong Machinery Company, Hekou Machinery Company and Li's Power Company were not to be left behind, and soon released their first quarter reports one after another.

Liaodong Machinery Company announced that in the first quarter, the production and sales of its gasoline vehicle business reached more than 2,000 units, among which the sales volume of its main medium-sized gasoline tractor agricultural equipment reached 2,800 units.

The four major automobile companies currently engaged in the research and production of gasoline engines are all able to produce gasoline engines. Although their gasoline engine technical routes are different and their performance is different, they are still better than steam engines.

This is mainly due to the fact that a large comprehensive factory in Tianjin started production in the first quarter, and the output increased significantly.

As the price of gasoline engines falls, the costs of automobiles and mechanical equipment for many of its application platforms will also decrease, which will bring greater market capacity.

As Liaodong Machinery Company and Li's Power Company successively launched gasoline engines on the market, there was also Hekou Machinery Company, which was still playing with heat pipe ignition.

At the same time, the large-scale comprehensive factory invested and constructed by Liaodong Machinery Company is under emergency construction. It is expected to start small-scale production in June this year and carry out full-speed production in the fourth quarter... And this is a factory with an annual output of 50,000 gasoline engines, and at least three complete vehicles. A large factory in Ten Thousand Taiwan.

According to their own estimates, Tangshan Machinery Company's vehicle production capacity is expected to exceed 50,000 units, and its gasoline engine production capacity is expected to reach 70,000 units.

Forty-nine years after Chengshun, the first quarter has not yet ended. First of all, Tangshan Machinery Company publicized that their three major vehicle businesses of cars, trucks, and tractors had increased by 100% compared with the same period last year. 340/340, an increase of 180% compared with the fourth quarter of last year.

The closed ignition system of Lee Power Company also plays the same role. Although the technology of this thing is not very good, it can still promote competition in the market to a certain extent.

In many industries, many people do not want to buy better gasoline engine platform equipment, but they cannot afford it or cannot afford it...

The success of the electronic ignition system developed by Liaodong Machinery Company not only broke the monopoly, but also brought about full competition in the automobile industry. It has become inevitable that the price of subsequent automobiles will continue to decrease.

At the same time, their core parts business such as engines, gearboxes, and steering systems also achieved a year-on-year growth of more than 400%.

Therefore, the reduction in the price of gasoline engines will inevitably lead to a further increase in market capacity.

And this situation actually manifested itself after entering Chengshun forty-nine years.

And next year, 49 years after Chengshun, as the gasoline engine production capacity of various automobile companies continues to increase and the technology further matures, the price of gasoline engines will inevitably drop further.

In addition, a factory they invested in and built in Songjiang will also be put into use and start mass production in the third quarter of this year.

After the technological breakthrough, Liaodong Machinery Company successively received investments or loans of two to three million yuan. Now it is full of energy to compete with Tangshan Machinery Company. To this end, it has spent huge sums of money to invest and build many factories. A large factory to establish its own automotive supply chain.

Guangzhou's Li's Power Company is relatively poor. They have not launched cars, trucks, tractors and other complete vehicle businesses that other automobile manufacturers have launched. They have only launched several models of engineering equipment to the market...

Because they have not yet mastered many core technologies in the entire automobile business.

However, many patent restrictions in the vehicle business are not that big, and many patents are not vacation patents of the other three internal combustion engine companies. Therefore, whether it is research and development by ourselves, external procurement of parts and components, or simply obtaining patents, it is not a big problem. , give them one or two years to basically complete the integration.

As for now, they can only sell some engineering equipment and directly sell engines to external parties... and engines are actually quite easy to sell.

Today, in the entire empire, anyone with a certain level of education and knowledge of outside information already knows that the automobile age has arrived... Even if you don't know what a car is, you must have heard the word car!

Many manufacturers in the industry actually want to get involved... but the most core engine cannot be developed. Apart from the three major internal combustion engine manufacturers, only Lee Power Company has obtained the basic core patents through sneaky and roundabout ways, and has successfully advanced. It is the fourth internal combustion engine manufacturer... But after that, the three major internal combustion engine companies have passed each other, and no one can license the basic core patents to external parties. Otherwise, a large number of domestic industrial giants will open their mouths. If they come here to kill them, then there will be nothing left to do about their family!

Therefore, after Lee's Power Company, other companies' attempts to obtain patent authorization failed...so they had no chance to develop engines.

But if you can't make an engine, it doesn't mean you can enter the automobile industry... The four major automobile companies can't do everything.

For example, it is difficult for them to get involved in military armored vehicles. A strong company such as Tangshan Machinery Company only sells some tractors. Most of the core equipment such as military trucks and armored vehicles, and military three-wheeled fire support vehicles are the products of the five major weapons companies. Tangshan Machinery Company can only act as a supplier of core components...but they sell a lot more components, such as engines, gearboxes, steering systems, braking systems...

The so-called 1.5-ton military truck developed by Hebei Tianjin Motor Vehicle Company is actually an improved chassis from the civilian truck chassis of Tangshan Machinery Company. They changed the shell themselves and put their own label on it, and it became It has become a military truck product of Tianjin Motor Company.

Otherwise, you really asked a group of weapons companies that have never even touched cars to come up with such a mature military truck so quickly!

In fact, at the previous national defense exhibition, all the military truck projects and armored vehicle projects launched by the five major weapons companies used chassis, engines, and gearboxes that were all mature products provided by Tangshan Machinery Company...Then the five major weapons companies would use their own Change the skin, make a simple change, change the brand...

The only ones that are relatively innovative are probably the tricycles and two-wheelers of the Shaanxi-Gansu Weapons Company. Tangshan Machinery Company only provides engines and gearboxes, and they make the rest themselves.

At last year's national defense exhibition, anything related to cars was basically Tangshan Machinery Company... So despite the fact that they only sold some tractors and heavy artillery tractors, in fact they had deep orders for all cars. participate.

This is a relatively special field of military vehicles. Another major area is various engineering equipment, mainly excavators, bulldozers and the like. In fact, the market size of these engineering equipment is not large, and the domestic engineering vehicle market is also a high-end monopoly. Several major manufacturers control most of the engineering equipment market share... Automobile manufacturers do not have corresponding engineering equipment patents, and they cannot enter if they want to. They can only sell engines and gearboxes.

The automobile industry and the engineering equipment industry are a mutually beneficial partnership.

In addition, there are many manufacturers on the market who want to enter the automobile business, including large enterprises such as Northeast Heavy Industries, as well as many private small companies in Songjiang.

After these people purchase the two core components of engines and gearboxes, they design and produce them themselves, purchase other components, and finally assemble and produce them... Jinling Carriage Company is the most popular among them.

Jinling Carriage Company is actually the second company in China to launch cars on the market. After Tangshan Machinery Company developed a gasoline engine, Jinling Carriage Company contacted them and reached a strategic cooperation agreement to purchase Tangshan Machinery every year. The company's engines and gearboxes are then used to produce their own Jinling cars.

The Jinling cars they produce are currently mainly supplied to the royal family, senior officials, generals, nobles and other rich and powerful people.

In this era when the monthly salary of ordinary workers is only seven to eight Chu Yuan, the price of each of their cars ranges from more than a thousand Chu Yuan to as high as three to four thousand Chu Yuan... They are serious luxury accessories, and they are still impractical and require high maintenance costs. Very expensive toys and luxury accessories, exclusive to the rich and powerful!

In addition to Jinling Carriage Company, there are many other various companies and even small workshops that are also producing various assembled cars, and they also need gasoline engines.

This is why the four major automakers all sell gasoline engines... The market demand for this segment is actually quite large.

Don't think that you will lose money if you sell the engine alone... If your Jinling sedan sells for 2,000 Chu yuan, then the engine cost will be 800 to 900 Chu yuan!

That's right, the engines sold by Tangshan Machinery Company are so expensive!

Li's Power Company will not be able to produce complete vehicles for a while, and it is unlikely that it will assemble like those car assembly companies... Even if it wants to assemble, the other three car manufacturers will not sell you gearboxes and the like. Core components.

Therefore, Li's Power Company can only develop its own research and development, or acquire other core components of the vehicle through capital operation, while on the other hand, it can only buy gasoline engines. On the one hand, it can draw back some funds, and on the other hand, it can also use large Large-scale production and sales can further reduce subsequent costs and obtain sufficient feedback during large-scale production and use to solve many potential technical problems.

Their engine sales are also good, with more than 2,000 units sold in the first quarter.

Of course, although they sell a lot of engines, they actually don't make much money... Because closed-type gasoline engines have inherent technical flaws, the compression ratio is not large, and the power is limited, so their gasoline engines are actually the same as Hekou Machinery Company's heat pipe engine is the same. It mainly targets the mid- to low-end market... It cannot handle the high-end market and its performance cannot be achieved.

Hekou Machinery Company, which also belongs to Liaodong Province, is as stable as ever. In the first quarter, it produced and sold more than 2,000 complete vehicles of various types, mainly concentrated on small agricultural tractors. The engine exports are not many, only about 700 or 800 units. .

Overall, whether it is the vehicle or the engine, the sales volume is average, and the profit is not much... However, their gearboxes are selling well and they make a lot of money.

Their two-speed gearbox with reverse gear has a simple structure, stable and reliable performance, and the most important thing is that it is easier to shift when using it. Don’t underestimate the ease of shifting and reverse gears...the gearboxes these days are all the same. They are all two-speed gearboxes, and those with reverse gear are all high-end products, and ease of shifting into gear is very important. Many manufacturers' gearboxes are very difficult to shift into gear, and the technical requirements for posture are very high.

This is also the case for many third-party small workshop manufacturers. They simply do not build any gearboxes, directly connect to the transmission system, and use the throttle to control the speed... It is just that this gearbox is not easy to use, and it is also very expensive.

Moreover, in order to make money, Hekou Machinery Company also helps third-party manufacturers to match and adjust engines and gearboxes... even if they use engines from other companies.

Therefore, it is more popular with other third-party automobile manufacturers... Jinling Carriage Company uses their gearbox.

Each of the four gasoline engine manufacturers in the contemporary Dachu Empire has its own layout, and the competition is also very fierce.

On the contrary, competition in the field of diesel engines is relatively small... Because so far, only Guangzhou Machinery Company, which is engaged in steam engines, has invested a lot of money in research and development in the field of diesel engines, but the development progress is very slow... You have to say that the prototype can run. , it can definitely be done, but there is still a long way to go before a diesel engine can run stably for a long time without failure.

There are also some other companies that are engaged in diesel engines, but they have basically failed to make any key progress... They have not been able to make this thing commercially available, so naturally there is no market competition.

Unlike gasoline engines, which have already begun to be commercialized on a large scale, the market has been formed, and competition has naturally emerged.

And this kind of competition is what the empire's top officials are happy to see.

Without market competition, how can you bring down the price? If the price is not lowered, how can we promote a wider range of applications? Without large-scale application, how could the empire eliminate tens of millions of agricultural and transportation horses?

In order to promote cars, Luo Zhixue not only provides support in policy and military procurement, but is even prepared to be the spokesperson of the car himself and do advertising.

In April of the 49th year of Chengshun, Luo Zhixue got into a car and walked in the small square in the palace in the Jinling Palace, with more than a dozen imperial guards running beside him.

Although a group of imperial guards were very nervous for fear of any accident, Luo Zhixue was in a very good mood.

This is the first time he has sat in a car after fifty years... Although the car he is riding in is still very primitive, not even comfortable, and the noise is relatively loud, Luo Zhixue is still very happy, and in his happiness Even more with emotion.

After fifty years of hard work, I finally got to ride in a car again. This was not easy!

When Luo Zhixue was driving around in the car, the engineers from Tangshan Machinery Company and Jinling Carriage Company next to him were also nervous and excited!

(End of this chapter)