The Chinese automotive predecessor dictated the history of Auto Business Review and commented on the lively local auto companies one by one. He felt that the future of the Chinese auto industry was bright.
Editor's note:
Chen Zutao is the predecessor of the Chinese automobile industry. In January 1928, he was born in Gaozhishan, Caidian, Hanyang County, Hubei Province. His father was Chen Changhao, the political commissar of the former Red Fourth Army. Like many revolutionary generations at the time, Chen Zutao, aged 11, was sent to the Soviet Union from Yanan in 1939, and he was admitted to the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the highest technical institute of Bowman in Moscow with outstanding achievements.
In February 1951, due to eagerness to return to China to participate in the construction of New China, Chen Zutao, who had lived in the Soviet Union for 12 years, graduated from college four months in advance. After returning to China, Premier Zhou asked him: "What job is ready for graduation after graduation?" He replied: "I studied machinery in the Soviet Union. The main direction was to drive a car. I wanted to get a car when I returned to China." Premier Zhou said: "That's good. Now, when you go back to the Soviet Union, our country is negotiating with the Soviet Union to build the first automobile factory. You will participate in their negotiations as the representative of the first automobile factory, and then go to the Soviet automobile factory to practice."
In September 1951, Chen Zutao returned to the Soviet Union again and became the first employee of FAW, and he began his career in the automobile. In 1965, the state decided to set up the Second Automobile Company. As a member of the five-member preparatory group at that time, under the command of Rabin Bin, he came to the two-engine chief engineer.
In 1981, Chen Zutao served as a preparatory person for China National Automotive Industry Corporation. In 1982, he served as chief engineer of China National Automotive Industry Corporation. In 1985, he became general manager. He changed the situation of the single production of medium-sized trucks in China’s automobile industry and realized the production system based on cars. . In 1988, 60-year-old Chen Zutao retired and dictated his history "My Car Career."
Oral Narration by Chen Zutao, “Automotive Business Review†magazine
I am old, but I am still very concerned about the automotive industry. Now that there is a kind of public opinion in China, it is wrong to say that the joint venture path has gone wrong. Using the market for technology is not the right thing to do. To be more extreme, it means that the joint venture has delayed the development of the national automobile industry. I think this view is too extreme.
From the very first day of my career in the automobile industry, it was impossible for us to rely on ourselves for our auto industry. FAW was moved from the Soviet Union, and FAW (Dongfeng) was built by us. From products to factories, to equipment factories, to production, all of them were self-employed.
After I got it, I saw again. Our car is lagging behind. It is not quite backward and it is very backward. Later, Deng Xiaoping put forward reform and opening up and the use of doctrine. So, we gave a part of the market to multinational corporations and introduced their technology to make joint ventures. The stock ratio was 50 to 50, and the path was wider and wider.
In the first phase of the automobile industry, that is, by 1982, our vehicle production was 200,000 vehicles, mainly commercial vehicles, and there were no cars. To reach this output, we spent almost 20 years, but some people said too much. The national transport capacity is greater than the capacity, that is to say, you produce so many cars, but the country does not have so much transport materials, saying that you want to cut production. I have great opinions on their formulation.
You think about it, if you go by the way they say, close the door and get a car, can you still get 7 million cars now? It cannot be imagined at all. It will be impossible to imagine 40 or 50 years.
Beijing Automobile regrets
In 1962, I had hoped that Beijing would build a large sedan factory. At that time, Zhang Jianmin was the director of the Economic Commission. I chose the site together with the people of the Economic Commission, and in present Huairou, we will prepare a 300,000-seat sedan factory. However, in 1962, China’s auto industry was still in its infancy and it did not have this condition at all.
Until the early 1980s, Beijing’s total automobile output ranked third in the national automobile industry, namely FAW, Second Automobile, and Beiqi. The main feature of Beijing’s auto industry was specialization: Beibei’s production of gears, Beibei’s production. The engine, the North Brigade produces a station wagon, and North Motor produces motorcycles.
There are some things that Beijing’s current leaders will not be happy to hear. In 1985, I was the head of the China National Gas Corporation. I still wanted to build a big auto plant in Beijing and what models could be produced. I called Zhang Jianmin, the then deputy mayor of Beijing Municipality, to find General Motors, the world's largest car company, and to establish a joint venture with Beijing Automotive to build an auto plant that could produce 300,000 vehicles a year.
This 300,000 vehicle was at a time of no use, because there are not many domestic joint ventures. However, if only a Beijing-based automobile company has a joint venture, it cannot afford this task. Therefore, we have united the Ordnance Department, the Department of Aerospace, the China National Automobile Company, and the Beijing Automobile Company. We have established a leading group. I am the team leader and negotiate with General Motors Global Vice President. GM recommends that we start cooperation from the engine and provide us with a highly automated 2.0 engine. We were led by the director of Beibei Huang Zixin and bought the engine production equipment from the United States. I also followed, and so far this production line is still in Beibei.
As a result, I don't know what causes Beijing is not on this project. Later, I found Chen Xitong (the then mayor of Beijing), found Zhang Peng (when he was the deputy mayor of Beijing Municipality at the time), and found Duan Junyi (who was the secretary of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee). The leaders of Beijing City looked for them all. They also All agree with this plan, but the project is still out of line.
It was not until the last two years that Beijing had been on a modern project and recently had a Mercedes-Benz project. How many years do you see this? It took almost 20 years to delay! Beijing's auto industry has also gone from the original third place to a dozen or more after a period of time. I can only say that the Beijing auto industry is very sorry.
To say that the current Beijing auto industry, you can only see the competitive situation. Although the Korean auto industry has been 20 years behind our development, they clenched their teeth and united themselves to make cars and take Japanese technology to themselves. The power of this nation should not be overlooked. They are rising stars.
I think that it is (South Korea Hyundai) to make money in China. He will not give technology to the Chinese. It is not just cars, but also parts and components are under his control. You see that they got a large area in Shunyi and moved all of the parts that South Korea had to Beijing Modern.
A few days ago, Xu Heyi (Beiqi Holding Chairman) delivered a speech. He said that he wanted to do Beijing auto parts first, and I very much agree with this view. Beijing Motors will see Xu Heyi how to do it.
Nanqi should catch up
I have been in contact with the Nanjing Automobile Factory for a long time. In the early 60s of the last century, they had just begun to imitate the Muse 51, but their level did not work at all, even though Nanjing Automobile was more sophisticated in the country's hundreds of car repair facilities. We have chosen four factories in the country, one is Nanjing, the other is Jinan, one is Beijing, and the other is Shanghai, and they are developed as state-level automobile bases in the planned economy era. Since then, Nanqi has been ranked number one in the country, and no other serial number has been ranked.
In the 1980s, they started a joint venture, first introducing Iveco, and at the same time introducing foreign technology to transform their cars. This road went completely correct, but half of them did not go right.
However, I am also very worried that it is not easy for them to do MG now. Nanchang people have the guts. Now they have changed Huang Xiaoping (former chairman of the Nanjing Automobile Group). I think it can be changed, because he has been working in Nanjing for several decades, and he hasn't done so much with it.
I think that the development of Nanjing Automobile in recent years is not satisfactory. It was ranked in the top five in the country at the time, and now it has reached the top twelve, and many later companies have surpassed it. Nanjing Automobile has a glorious history and should catch up.
I heard that they are also working hard, like buying Rover and reorganizing Nanjing Fiat. However, it is easier said than done! This is not like what happened 10 years ago 20 years ago. The current competitors are no exception. I am very supportive of your rectification, but people do not only eat the old, he is also moving forward, so the steam should be under the ambiguous heart, no less than heart can not keep up. Competition in the Chinese market is now extremely intense. The big companies all over the world have come in. Our automobile industry has basically grown. Under this circumstance, Nanjing Automobile is lagging behind so much that you have to catch up. It takes a lot of work to get into the top ten.
However, Wang Haoliang (now the chairman of the Nanjing Automobile Group) is still relatively famous, and I hope he can bring South China Automobile well. The foundation of NAC is good. It is now time to work hard, and we must do our best to compete. In the mid-1960s, when we were engaged in the development of the Second Automobile Company, we had a plan to establish the Yangtze River Company along the Yangtze River to merge the two vehicles with Nanjing. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, when NAC ranked first, Shanghai wanted to merge with SAIC and set up a stock company. Later, after SAIC developed and grew, NAC wanted to merge with SAIC, but in the end, there was no success.
This is also completely understandable. China’s “prince economy†is mine, mine is mine, and yours is mine, as was China’s political system.
Now, one million cars from FAW are counted? Do you have a GM or a general public in Shanghai, plus some other things, that is, 70,000,000 cars? To integrate the Chinese auto industry, it must be able to stand upright in the world. It should have an annual output of 3 million vehicles and 4 million vehicles, and it must integrate into a large automobile group. This integration does not necessarily require FAW to take the lead. We must take the lead with the second steam and SAIC takes the lead. I don't think so. The old factory has the burden of the old factory. Chinese cars should gradually form a few, say three to five big heads. There are no big heads in Chinese cars now, but they are small heads. Now that NAC should have a sense of crisis, it will either join up with the big heads and take part in shares, or integrate itself.
As for Jianghuai Automobile, when I was in office, it was only an associate company of Nanjing Automobile and was a supporting factory. Development is not bad today. However, if he goes further, he will also face many problems. As I said earlier, an annual output of 3 million vehicles and 4 million vehicles can only stand still. How many 10,000 vehicles per year do they produce?
FAW-II, I do not comment
Regarding FAW-FAW, I don’t comment because I’m from the inside. Like FAW, it was said that he was too bold. I think this young man is good. His father is the first generation of FAW to get a car. He called Jiao Peiyao. He was a middle-level cadre. His mother called Ji Lianghong and worked under my hand for 20 years. FAW is a very large company. I only hope that they can do better, but I cannot comment on it.
Everyone said that FAW is the cradle of the Chinese auto industry and I'm very much in favor of it. As far as I know, the largest number of people have been out of FAW in the national automobile industry. Some of the former vice chiefs like Xu Heyi are from FAW. For example, Beiqi Futian Wang Jinyu has many people who are FAW. FAW people are everywhere, why? They are very experienced in car racing and they are all willing to fight for the auto industry.
In addition, at that time, in order to prepare for the Second Automobile Company, we established a leading group of five people. The only ones who are alive today are me and Li Zhizheng. Three other people who manage technology have died. If I join in the comments, they are now the group of people (both second- or third-generation), there will certainly be opinions. I can't say how Miao Wei (general manager of the original Dongfeng Motor) did it. You Xu Ping (currently Dongfeng Motor Party Committee Secretary and General Manager) How to do it, Miao Wei has been upgraded, but Xu Ping is still there. I don't know anyone below him, but I believe that they will go their way and will always go. They are moving forward according to the current concept, so I do not interfere with these things.
No matter how big a company in the Chinese automobile industry is, or whether it is a small company, I can't comment on it. How come back to them? When I say good, I'm not willing to say anything. I'm even more reluctant to say it. I just wrote a lot of opinions in my book. You can see for yourself.
Now many companies are engaged in development, such as FAW, Chery, Changan, etc. However, I believe that self-development can not be 100% self-employed, we must also use the economic globalization, market globalization, we must learn to use other people's resources. Therefore, I advocate that development should use two resources. One is foreign resources and the other is domestic resources.
In addition to Pan-Asian, the public is now starting to do it. Volkswagen is the first one to come to China. It entered China in 1984 and has been selling for a long period of time without development. Later, Universal came and brought Pan Asia to force it to develop.
In China, there are many companies with strong research and development capabilities. For example, FAW, its technical center is very good. When we were in office, we gave it a lot of favorable conditions. We established an automotive product design and research institute and gave it to us. We also gave it to a test factory built on Hainan Island. Now these devices come in handy.
There is also SAIC, which is not buying Rover all blindly, but bought the technology platform, and now it has begun to produce Roewe. I think Hu Maoyuan and Chen Hong have done a good job. Although there was something wrong with Ssangyong. But any factory will encounter nails and there is no easy matter. The reason why the Ssangyong lost so much money, as I said earlier, the Koreans are very powerful. However, this is very natural, it will be smart to touch a few nails.
If it is not, SAIC can learn to choose. Hu Maoyuan is very clever, especially Chen Hong, who is younger under him. They will judge and do not need us old people to judge.
Catalog becomes a hotbed of corruption
I have had many dealings with Li Shufu. A few days ago he went to his Geely University. When he entered the Chinese auto industry, I also gave him a visit. It was 1998. I met in Shanghai. He specifically sent a car to pick me up to see the factory in Zhejiang.
Li Shufu started with air conditioners and motorcycles and accumulated a fortune. He told me that he wanted to build a car, but there was no catalogue because the country did not give it. He went to the planning committee. In the early morning, when people did not go to work, he went, but when he was not familiar with the matter, he talked to the people who had been shunned by the plan committee. But the plan committee still did not give him a list. Others were also more flexible. They bought a labor reform factory in Chongqing. The factory had a catalog. Li Shufu bought the catalog.
With the catalogue, he started production. When I went, I gave him two suggestions. I told him that if you really want to do a good job in the automotive industry, the focus must be on quality and quality. People will not buy you. This is a suggestion.
The second proposal, I met him many times later, I said you want to develop your own, to build the cheapest car, the car that the people can afford, and the foreign country to call the national car. You see his car, fifty thousand dollars and one, at most, one for sixty thousand dollars. He is walking in this direction. Now that Changan and Chery are also building cars, I don't know if Li Shufu can compete with others.
When Chery had no catalog, its secretary Zhan Xialai invited me to go. When I saw it, hey, this factory has done a very good job. Yin Tongyao told me that he worked for FAW-Volkswagen for 8 years and many old comrades who had retired from FAW had gone with him a lot. He is a very thoughtful person, but also has experience, that is, he suffers from no catalogue, and no brand. He asked me what to do? I said that if I were a veteran, with your ability, I can certainly give you a list, but I have long since retired and I cannot give you a list.
I told Yin Tongyao that you had better find a big company with a directory. Later, they found SAIC, and what conditions would give it to SAIC would be 25% of dry shares. SAIC is also very knowledgeable. It has never had money with it and has not taken any of these shares. It is just a name. Afterwards, it was separated from SAIC. Using the Chery brand, it is now doing well.
However, as far as I can see, Chery’s current rolling development still has some way to go from the advanced stage. In recent years, I have never been to, I don't know much about him. I just read his news from the newspaper.
This matter is that in the 1980s, our automobile company reached an agreement with the Ministry of Public Security, and we gave it to the directory, the Ministry of Public Security resigned and got a license, which means that your car can be on the streets. However, in the 1990s, this catalogue became a hotbed of corruption. Some self-employed people use bribery to buy at high prices, buy five or six catalogues as soon as they buy, and then resell and make money.
After China’s accession to the WTO, the catalogue was cancelled and became an announcement. The threshold for entry increased. To be honest, I do not agree that the threshold is too high. It is not very easy for me to leave this position now. When I was young, I could still follow them in theory. Some of the people who manage the car above are macroscopically enough. What is the microscopic aspect of the tube? Your self-employed family wants to enter and enter the market. There is no competition in the market and there is no loss in the country.
However, the National Development and Reform Commission has opinions, saying that there are too many cars and excess capacity, and they have to limit. I would also like to say that before joining the WTO, I wrote a letter to Jiang Zemin. I said a lot of things, including the need for auto investment to allow private enterprises to come in, to allow foreign companies to come in. Among them, I also wrote that a country If there is no car left, there will be no competition.
Jiang Zemin was out of FAW and we are old friends. But I don't look for him in general. I have to talk to him about things in the auto industry. Later, he gave the letter to Zhu Jiji, Hu Jintao, Wu Bangguo, and Li Lanqing.
What do I mean by saying that the auto industry should not be afraid of surplus. Losing the company is its own thing. What do you do about him? It should not be managed at all, and excess is a natural phenomenon. Nowadays, the combined sales of cars in the world are more than 50 million. Its production capacity may be 60 million. Is it also an excess capacity?
Automotive development, the market has the final say
Nowadays, car companies all over the world regard China as a big fat and they all want to come and cut a piece, occupying a certain position. However, the proportion of our own car brands can't be said to be half-half. I think this proportion will slowly increase. I only talk about the proportion, 7 million vehicles, 10 million vehicles worth mentioning, the total amount of cars does not necessarily fall, but the proportion of foreign parties will decline.
The Chinese auto industry should go upwards. Now that we have begun exporting, we can only export to Africa and Southeast Asia. But this is the beginning. My view is that in the future we must aim at the United States, aim at Europe, and learn from Japan. Do you see how many factories Japan opened in the United States? It builds factories in the United States, allowing Americans to work, and its sales can account for one-third of US car sales.
Chery said in the first two years that he wants to go to the United States, but has it gone? Can it meet Euro IV standards? Does it understand American unions? Does it know U.S. law? What do Americans think about it? It does not understand the United States at all and thinks of the United States. It is unlikely. And the largest U.S. home has three cars. It can only be used as the fourth car. It can't enter the second car, and the first car can't be discussed at all. However, there are such signs that it is good to go in this direction. I am very much in favor of it. There must be a process from developing countries to developed countries.
Now the central government is also promoting independent innovation and independent brands. The auto industry has also emerged with many independent brands all of a sudden. Although most companies are doing their work in a down-to-earth manner, others are also making shows. Independent brands are not so simple. In my opinion, independent research and development need to have three conditions: first, a high-level team; second, a world-class organization; and third, there must be rolling investment, with hundreds of billions of billions of investment each year. , And this investment should also be gradually increased.
Before Zhu Keji became prime minister, I once went to the United States with him. He said, Zu Tao, you took me to see the American auto industry. I did not accompany him to see the American automobile factory. What I saw with him was a general R&D institution. It was quite large and the equipment was very advanced. After reading it, he asked GM. What is your annual investment? The other party replied that it was between $2 billion and $3 billion. Zhuji later told me that Zu Tao, we will introduce general technology in the future.
At that time, we did not dare to think about this figure. We are still in the era of planned economy. All the profits of the factory are handed over to the country. Therefore, we are producing for the warehouse. Who is this car for? We do not know that it is unified from the above. I run a lot overseas. I know that our development expenses at that time only accounted for one thousandth of the total sales. At that time, even if we didn't eat enough, how could we develop more funds? Later, when I left the company, the development costs increased by 10 times, accounting for 1% of the total sales. The Western figures were 5% to 8%.
Of course, it is even more different now, for example, Li Shufu. He invested 5% to 8%. He is the owner of a private company and he has the final say. He does not have hundreds of mother-in-law. Like FAW, how many institutions of the State Council are his mother-in-law, and no one can offend. How many institutions in Changchun are his mother-in-law? How many mother-in-law do you say he has? It is very difficult for them to do things.
I also thought about how the Chinese auto industry should develop. First, we must combine production. This is not what you imagine who is with whom, the executive will not be able to, and the market economy has the final say. Whoever joins the group depends on its capabilities. Let's say so, the hundreds of auto factories now do not stand up and they have to eliminate a lot, but the elimination does not mean that they must be bankrupt. They can unite with big companies and have their own division of labor.
You don't always go in and you have to be a car. It's not necessarily. Maybe you're more suitable for engines and other small parts. Right? However, nowadays everyone who enters the automotive industry should do a sedan.
In general, I feel that the future of the Chinese auto industry is very bright. I have been engaged in cars for so many years and can see that the Chinese auto industry has developed to the present day. I am very happy. I am able to see these things alive. I am very pleased. In the past, I did not estimate that the Chinese automobile industry could grow to 7 million vehicles. It turned out that we are ranked the world's dozen or so, now rise to the third place, I estimate that by 2010, our car will reach 10 million.
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