Multinational car companies lift the storm of localization Chinese technology is controlled by people

The multinational auto giants have entered the stage of intensive cultivation in the Chinese market. At the same time when the interests of foreign capital are maximised, how the joint-venture carmakers are eager to obtain the technology they need and make up for the shortcomings in research and development is a matter for Chinese shareholders to ponder over.

As a leader in domestic joint ventures, foreign-owned company Volkswagen continues to plunge into the Chinese market. FAW-Volkswagen seems to have found a balance in its struggle with foreign players.

At the time of its 20th anniversary, FAW-Volkswas announced in a high-profile that it will have its own R&D capabilities in the next year and will have its own R&D capability in 2015. As one of the earliest joint venture car companies in China, FAW-Volkswagen, the most profitable automobile joint venture in China, is now at the historical node of seeking transformation.

From quantitative change to qualitative change At present, various disputes in the industry regarding the “market-for-technology” of the Chinese automobile industry are constantly fermenting. The general view is that foreign-funded enterprises have entered the Chinese market in large numbers, but Chinese companies have not exchanged core technologies.

Taking Volkswagen as an example, it has been firmly grasping the core technology since entering China for 20 years, and the joint venture company was once considered a “generation factory”. The independent research and development strength of North and South China Volkswagen has been quite mysterious.

When Shanghai Volkswagen launched the new Passat, it also revealed its own R&D skills. FAW-Volkswagen obviously wanted to get rid of the shadow of the “factory”. Last week, when FAW-Volkswagen first opened an R&D center to reporters, it officially announced that FAW-Volkswagen will implement its own R&D target for the next year, and vehicle development will be realized in 2015.

FAW-Volkswagen Technology Development Minister Wang Dongchen told this reporter that from concept design, virtual modeling to actual vehicle model development, assembly verification to vehicle verification, FAW-Volkswagen has established a product R&D system that is suitable for the company's own development.

Not only that, in the next five years, FAW-Volkswagen's annual R&D investment will exceed 1.5 billion yuan. The collision center is under construction and the auto testing ground is being selected.

This means that FAW-Volkswagen has made substantial progress in supplementing its own research and development shortboard. Its independent development process is basically the same as that of other joint ventures, that is, the first step of product localization and modification, as well as local development and optimization; the next step is to modify the appearance and internal and external ornaments; the third stage is the body and the entire Car development and matching.

FAW-Volkswagen's R&D team is through the new Bora, which was launched in 2008, and has completed a complete process of getting the German public standard approval from the model to the vehicle. "Because from the vehicle modelling to the power match is FAW-Volkswagen completely led the development, so the localization rate of the new Bora new car parts reached the highest joint venture company's history of 98%." Wang Dongchen said.

When localization storms were asked how to view the disputes in the Chinese market of “market-for-technology”, An Tiecheng, general manager of FAW-Volkswagen AG, used an image metaphor in an interview with this newspaper. “It's like eating steamed stuffed buns and eating When the tenth time was full, it was said that the first nine should not be eaten and should only eat the last one."

He believes that the automotive joint venture cooperation is not only the introduction of technology, more importantly, to provide a learning and development process, which provides a good foundation for future independent development.

However, there is not much time for Chinese car companies to “learn to grow”. In order to dig deeper into the Chinese market, Honda, PSA, Citroen, Ford, General Motors, Volkswagen and other multinational car companies have changed their relatively conservative tactics and started real localization. Strategies, products that are closer to consumer demand and more competitive prices are bound to bring a new round of impact on domestic auto brand models.

On Saturday, Volkswagen FAW Engine (Dalian) Co., Ltd., which was jointly invested by Volkswagen and FAW Group, formally launched the engine remanufacturing project. In the future, FAW-Volkswagen Magotan, Sagitar, GTI Golf GTI, Audi Q5, Audi A4L, and Shanghai Volkswagen Tiguan, Hao Rui, and Octavia can all use cheaper remanufactured components in the form of aftermarket replacement parts. .

At this point, except for the vast majority of foreign automobile manufacturers that have already completed the upstream components industry and sales channels that have been completed, the key component remanufacturing sector is becoming the focus of attention of multinational car companies.

Zhang Zhiyong, an automotive marketing expert, believes that for the Chinese side, one of the purposes of establishing a joint venture company is to introduce foreign product technologies and platforms. On the other hand, it is hoped that through joint venture companies, foreign advanced technology and experience can be learned and the Chinese companies themselves can be improved. The strength of the product and the competitiveness of the company, "these two purposes, the foreign party is the most clear, but the foreign side has an absolute balance of technical improvements to the Chinese."

If the Chinese car companies cannot find a market-based survival model before the next localized storm hits the multinational car companies, it is feared that the future of the Chinese auto industry will be lost.