China's commercial vehicle brands should not be allowed to do "bananas"

Core tips:

Bananas refer to the second- and third-generation children of overseas Chinese immigrants. Although they are also black and yellow, they do not know Chinese and speak authentic foreign languages. So, is there a "banana man" phenomenon in the Chinese auto industry?

The reporter interviewed a large number of automotive auto parts and components companies and found a common law: Even if only domestic independent brand manufacturers are considered, most of their production line equipment, especially key equipment, are almost all of Japan, Germany, the United States, and South Korea. Manufactured by manufacturers in countries and regions such as Italy. Although our many independent products in many fields have been able to match foreign products, our self-host users are not sympathetic. The reporter learned that, including some well-known auto and engine manufacturers, they still insist on the concept of foreign products as the only choice for key equipment and parts, and even some OEMs have established strategic alliances with famous foreign suppliers. Only foreign products are selected for key components. Even more frightening is that on several famous engines with completely independent intellectual property rights, the shadows of domestic key components are barely visible. Their reason is also very simple: Quality is the life of a company and it must not be sloppy.

Since 2011, the Chinese economy has entered the “12th Five-Year” development stage. For the automotive industry, the most important task in this period is to achieve a major breakthrough in the technology and quality of self-owned brands. It has been pointed out by industry insiders that this major breakthrough also includes a qualitative leap in the selection of domestic equipment and manufacturing production technologies.

A few years ago, Japan’s international economics parent Kyota Taro said in his article “The future of China depends on Japan”: Chinese automakers and auto parts manufacturers, if they do not use steel plates for automobiles from Japan, production If a machine tool for auto parts is purchased, high-performance, high-precision parts and body parts are not required for production; if there is no support from Japanese products, Chinese-made cars should not be allowed to enter foreign markets, even connected to them. Competition in the domestic market is also very difficult. From this he believes that without Japan's machine tools, the Chinese automobile industry will not be able to move in a row; the fate of a big producer without technical power is that the development of the Chinese automobile industry must rely on the introduction of technology from Japan.

Of course, Kyutaro Hasegawa's judgment does not have a long-term strategic vision. At present, the comparison between the Chinese and Japanese national strengths and the automotive industry is no longer the case. At that time, China's GDP was still only half that of Japan, and the Chinese auto industry has just entered the "explosion period." Now that China’s GDP has surpassed Japan, China’s automobile production and sales have long been above Japan. So, does China's auto equipment manufacturing technology and car core technology surpass Japan? The answer is obviously negative.

For domestic automakers and suppliers, foreign advanced equipment and technology are not only the guarantee of product quality, but also one of the indicators of the approval of the main engine plant and sales terminal. How many imported equipment and even related to the reputation of a company? status. Statistics show that about 70% of the investment in China's auto industry is used to purchase equipment, and the overall external technology dependence of the auto industry is more than 60%. Chen Changnian, former Minister of the Chinese Society of Automotive Engineers, said when talking about autonomous equipment manufacturing, improving the equipment and technology that is the core manufacturing technology of the automobile will help China's transformation from a world-leading automobile manufacturing country to a manufacturing powerhouse, which will greatly improve our country. The core manufacturing power of the automotive industry. What is worrying is that although China has become a major automobile manufacturer and China’s independent equipment manufacturing industry has risen, the auto industry’s dependence on foreign equipment and technology has not changed as a result.

In recent years, domestic efforts in auto key technologies and equipment have achieved results: The automotive steel plates of many domestic companies have been used in automotive manufacturing in large quantities, and large domestic stamping equipment and some CNC machining equipment have become available. The advanced foreign products are comparable to those of domestically-developed heavy-duty commercial vehicles, which have reached international standards. Fuel injection, automatic transmission and other key components of domestic independent manufacturers have begun mass production.

Putting aside some factors other than technology, only from the technical point of view, the host factory's favor for foreign products is indeed nothing wrong. But just as every company emphasizes its responsibility to its customers, in China, the company should also undertake a social responsibility to support the common progress of related independent brand companies. In fact, what we can see is that even if a product launched by several domestic self-owned brand vehicle manufacturers repeatedly emphasizes that their several major assemblies and several key technologies are from well-known foreign manufacturers, it will reach the end consumers. If your technology is not too hard, the quality is not enough, and the price/performance ratio is not high, even if there are so many foreign goods in the car, how many processes are processed by foreign equipment, and what are the reasons for buying a car with me?