pdf-ebookys #416 - Being targeted
#416 - Being targeted
Although it didn't receive rave reviews and trigger gasps of amazement upon its debut,
the adorable panda mascot attracted a constant stream of visitors to Dongda University's exhibition booth. As a result, the four groundbreaking car models brought by Dongda, even if hidden in a corner, couldn't be concealed.
Not only were ordinary visitors streaming in, leaving a new benchmark in their minds,
but even car dealers from other companies couldn't resist taking a look, and then found themselves unable to leave.
"Damn, these cars' competitiveness shouldn't be underestimated," a chief engineer from VW's design department exclaimed after seeing the Golf, Jetta, and Passat. He felt a surge of indescribable emotion.
It felt as if three very familiar cars with a distinct VW style had miraculously appeared at Dongda.
"Hans, don't you think it would be wonderful if VW had created these models?" one VW engineer said to another. "And I can sense that these cars have VW blood in them."
"You're right, Frazier. Compared to our current rounded, old-fashioned design style, Dongda's three cars have such wonderful wind resistance and lines. The overall structural coordination of the car body is simply incomparable to our current models," Hans from VW said with a solemn expression.
"In terms of practical design, they are also ahead of us. A compact car like the Golf even has a 450L trunk, compared to our Beetle's 350L."
"This liftback design concept is so impressive. I think we must learn from it and incorporate this brilliant idea into the development of our next-generation cars."
"Yes, Hans, you're right. If it's a family car, converting the trunk to a liftback would indeed increase the trunk volume significantly. But now there's a problem – perhaps doing so would infringe on the Golf's appearance patent," Frazier said hesitantly.
As a proper designer, one can draw inspiration from others' designs and expand upon them, but directly using someone else's design would be inappropriate.
In the automotive industry, appearance patents are also among the core patents.
VW Karmann Ghia
"Oh, Frazier, you're right. Perhaps I was careless and forgot such an important thing." Hans was startled. He wouldn't even dare to think about it if the other party was a well-known manufacturer, but seeing that this Golf was a product of a Bora company he had never heard of, he naturally assumed it could be copied.
However, even the smallest companies attending the exhibition would have some awareness of intellectual property rights. VW's cars were marketed globally, and if they really came up with a best-selling car with a trunk height similar to the Golf's, they would be in big trouble if the original manufacturer discovered it and sued them.
"Perhaps after we see the impact of this car, we can encourage senior management to contact Bora and see if we can obtain their patent license. I think even if we pay a licensing fee, incorporating this liftback design concept into our next-generation compact family car would be very helpful for the sales of this car. We can't further expand in the family car industry relying on the Beetle alone. The number of users who like the Beetle is always limited, and we must develop a new best-selling family car model to complement the Beetle."
"You're right, Hans. For example, in terms of sedans, we also urgently need to update our Karmann Ghia to keep up with the demands of the times. In this regard, the Jetta has made a strong impression on me. I believe a wealthy family user would prefer the Jetta."
Frazier shifted the topic from the Golf to the Jetta.
"Its shape is rigid and simple, a breath of fresh air compared to our current mainstream turtle-shell-like sedans. I believe it will definitely attract a lot of attention on the streets," Frazier said, sparing no praise.
"Look at its power. The maximum has exceeded 100 horsepower. My God, that's the power of a sports car and a high-end business sedan. Why do all of Dongda's high-end car models exceed 100 horsepower? I suspect they have made some new technological breakthroughs in engines. After all, the power of our main household cars is still in the 50-60 horsepower range. Although we have engines with over 100 horsepower, fuel consumption and cost force us to compromise."
Hans and Frazier were both key members of VW's design department, and their vision obviously surpassed that of many of the attendees. Therefore, after seeing Dongda's four cars, they were almost on their knees.
These were four brand-new cars, and their appearance, power, and design concepts were all ahead of their peers.
The car designers who came to observe on site were obviously not limited to VW. In fact, major manufacturers all had key designers present to observe other companies' new models at the first opportunity in order to grasp the trends of next-generation car design.
Dongda was no exception. Bora, Jetta, Passat, and SUV each had a design engineer who began to observe the entire venue, each carrying a camera to take photos of all the cars.
But when the four people divided the areas and walked through the entire venue on the first day, they returned to their residences and were all very excited.
"At home, I was always very worried that our Golf would be weaker than world-class peers. Although the inspiration for this design came from Mr. Ren, Dongda lacks accumulation in this field after all. I once worried that Mr. Ren would make a mistake one day," Ma Youde of Bora said with a face full of excitement.
"But after seeing the compact cars of several major manufacturers today, I can only say that none of them can compete in terms of product strength!"
"Our Golf is completely unique in the entry-level compact car segment. Leaving aside brand influence, we completely crush them in other aspects."
The Dongda delegation was all gathered together. According to regulations, everyone participated in group activities. There were no individual absences for personal matters, so they attended the exhibition during the day and returned to exchange ideas together in the evening.
“That's indeed the case. Not only Golf, but every model we have is far ahead of the competition. In this regard, I deeply admire Mr. Ren's extraordinary insight and genius-like inspiration in the automotive field. An average person designing just one car like ours would be enough to be recorded in the history of automotive development. Yet, Mr. Ren seems to casually come up with four!” Zhang Qihua chimed in. Zhang Qihua, the designer sent by JETTA, was older. In his forties, Zhang Qihua was known as Old Zhang in the team. He was a seasoned veteran who had truly worked on production lines in major North American factories after studying mechanical engineering abroad. Among the four factories represented, he had the most seniority and was the main local designer for Passat's global debut.
“This isn't a reason for us to be arrogant and complacent. I've noticed that in terms of luxury car design, the products from BBA (BMW, Benz, Audi) and Rolls-Royce still have very strong competitiveness. The sense of luxury they design into their luxury cars is still lacking in our first-generation Passat compared to them. Of course, our Passat isn't meant to compete with their top-end luxury cars anyway, so there's still a big gap in terms of the noble appearance of the car.”
“If we want to break into the high-end market, we need to seriously study the high-end products of BBA and Rolls-Royce. Mr. Ren has already provided us with such excellent products for family cars and business cars. We need to establish a firm foothold on this foundation and strive to enter the high-end field as soon as possible. If we can't design a luxury car that sells globally for over $100,000, then we can't say that our automotive industry has truly risen.”
Old Zhang's words indeed poured a bucket of cold water on everyone, bringing the excited crowd back to reality. In the following discussions, they began to treat the strengths and weaknesses of competitor models more seriously.
These discussions formed individual notes on their experiences at the auto show. Upon returning to Dongda, these notes, along with photos of relevant models, would serve as an important channel for Dongda automotive designers to understand the development of the automotive industry externally. Therefore, after composing themselves, everyone faced each model very seriously, discussing their strengths and weaknesses and what could be learned from them from the perspectives of consumer purchasing scenarios, engineer design, and dealer viewpoints.
Although they weren't omnipotent, and some views might not necessarily be correct, sparks of inspiration flashed in the process of mutual exchange and collision. In the future, these sparks would bring more inspiration to Dongda automotive designers.
At this auto show, no manufacturer was idle. They were either vigorously promoting their own products or quietly studying the products of their competitors, without exception.
However, compared to the past when everyone focused on studying the products of the top ten major manufacturers, this time, the four car products from the unknown Dongda almost unanimously became the focus of research for all manufacturers!
Despite the lack of significant buzz in newspapers and media, Dongda had already shaken the entire venue with these four products!
At the Little Sun booth.
Crown's chief designer, Nakamura Ken, had a heavy face.
“Ishida-kun, the opponents our Crown faces are not only the major manufacturers in Europe and North America, but now we also have to add Dongda's Passat.” As the benchmark of the Little Sun automotive industry, Nakamura Ken had immersed himself in automotive design for more than twenty years, helping Toyoda firmly occupy the leading position in the Little Sun automotive market.
However, after seeing the several models from Dongda, Nakamura Ken felt terrible.
First generation Crown automobile
“Nakamura-kun, you're right.” As the person in charge of Toyoda, Ishida Taijiro was naturally not an ordinary person. After Dongda unexpectedly attracted attention, he naturally went to see the exhibited models from Dongda.
To be honest, before seeing the Dongda models today, Ishida Taijiro's understanding of the Dongda automotive industry was completely chaotic, with basically no awareness.
Because Dongda's previous overseas ventures were mainly focused on agricultural vehicles, which were all rural markets that Toyoda fundamentally looked down upon.
But after seeing their new models today, and comparing them with their own highly anticipated Crown, Ishida Taijiro's mentality was somewhat broken.
“We lack a comprehensive understanding of our competitors. I didn't expect that Dongda's automotive industry has completed such a huge transformation in such a short period of time, from model design to power systems, it has completely surpassed us.” Ishida Taijiro did not conceal his true views in front of his own people.
As a professional, he saw things more deeply than ordinary people.
The power subsystems of these Dongda cars, with engines outputting far more power than their own engines under the same displacement, and the transmissions actually fully realizing 5-speed transmissions. Although this wasn't something completely impossible to do.
However, in terms of implementation costs, there was obviously a greater difference between 4-speed and 5-speed transmissions. At Toyoda, they were still using a mix of 4-speed and 5-speed transmissions, with only the highest-end models using 5-speed transmissions.
But Dongda directly standardized the entire series with 5-speed transmissions.
This meant that in terms of implementation costs, they had completed a low-cost replacement from 4-speed to 5-speed.
Behind them was the breakthrough of technology.
“Ishida-kun, you're right. We originally never thought of Dongda. Judging from this exhibition, it's bound to become a strong opponent on the road to car exports in the future. Frankly speaking, compared to them, our products have almost no chance of winning.” Nakamura Ken's face was gloomy, “This is truly an amazing place. In the past, we only thought they were exerting efforts in the military industry, like Great Bear, devoted to military development, which is why they had J-6 A fighters, Jianghai-class destroyers, and nuclear submarines, military achievements that even Rogue Eagle feared. But I didn't expect that in terms of civilian large-scale industry, they haven't relaxed at all.”
“Technological breakthroughs in core high-end industrial products like engines cannot be achieved without more than ten years of painstaking research and huge investment. Look at the excellent power output of the engines they provide, and the fuel consumption is controlled at 10L / 100km, which is the engine we dream of.”
In the eyes of true experts like Nakamura Ken, they had their own ability to discern whether there were any problems with the parameters marked by the competitors. Especially since these Dongda cars were real cars. Although they didn't support test drives, they supported starting the engine on site, which meant that even if these models hadn't reached the level of direct mass production, they were close to mass production.
Moreover, Dongda promised to deliver the cars by the end of the year, which further indicated that these models were not concept cars, but mass-produced cars ready for mass production!
Therefore, it was absolutely impossible to mark those parameters falsely, because these were data that could be tested immediately after delivery. Once false marking was tested, Dongda's entire automotive industry would die directly in the global market! It would be directly cooled before it was launched.
Normal people wouldn't do such a self-digging grave thing, because it couldn't be concealed at all.
“So how should we respond now?” Ishida Taijiro stared at his old partner, his eyes flickering, obviously already having some ideas.
Nakamura Ken looked at Ishida Taijiro's face and seemed to feel his intentions, smiling slightly, a little cold, a little cunning.