After the automotive diesel engine companies have launched new engines independently developed at the Shanghai Auto Show, several domestic self-owned brand passenger car companies have demonstrated their own R&D engines. Develop an engine for self-owned brand cars. Will this become a new trend in China's auto manufacturing industry?
At the just-concluded Shanghai International Auto Show, Chery, Changan, Great Wall and other self-owned brand companies have shown their own development engines, causing the attention of the industry. Self-owned brand auto companies have begun to build their own "core positions" in order to make themselves bigger and stronger and not subject themselves to others. In fact, since the end of last year, the engine projects of these companies have begun to start one after another.
The key technology should also have its own "with the vigorous growth of the brand of autonomous passenger cars, the lack of independent brand engine has become a bottleneck restricting the development of independent brand cars." An industry source said so. He believes that there is no independent supporting engine, representing whether a company has a long core competitiveness, and the engine's technical level represents the strength of the company's scientific research and development capabilities.
This point has been endorsed by many companies. Among them, Chery and the Great Wall feel the most obvious.
Jin Yibo, deputy general manager of Chery Automobile Sales, has a very clear view: "If Chery doesn't have his own high-end power, he will be bound by the product."
For example, he told reporters that the engine used by the Cowin was the Chery engine imported from Brazil by Chery. In order to ensure the quality of Cowin's after-sales service, Chery had to purchase a large number of spare parts for storage, taking up valuable funds and increasing costs.
In addition to cost considerations, mastering core technologies is the main purpose of Chery's huge investment in the development of engines. “Now, multinational companies are very concerned about our own branded companies. If we have a direct conflict with them, the lack of engine technology will make us in a very unfavorable position.†Chery, who declined to be named, said so.
For this, the Great Wall Motors, the domestic leader in the pickup industry, feels even more profound.
Great Wall Motor had been purchasing engines from outside the company before 2000. Shang Yugui, the director of the propaganda department, frankly stated that he originally purchased the engine from outside and assumed high logistics costs. Second, if the quality of the product is problematic, the company will have difficulty coordinating with the engine manufacturer. What's more, the company cannot upgrade its own engine and it can't respond quickly to the market.
"The engine is the source of the vehicle's power, and it is also a vane for the auto companies to have long-term development capabilities." Shang Yugui said that in order to grasp the development of his lifeline, Great Wall Motor began to independently research and develop engines in 2000. At present, its engine company Has an annual capacity of 200,000 engines.
At the auto show, Changan Automobile demonstrated its first MPV model, the Landwind Fashion. Its chief designer Xu Lin specifically emphasized to reporters: "The engine of the "Land Breeze" is its own."
It is reported that this 2.0-liter engine is jointly developed by Changan and a well-known foreign design company. The engine adopts all-aluminum alloy cylinder heads, plastic intake manifolds, parallel flow cooling systems, unique oil and gas separation systems and other high-tech, with high power, large torque dynamic performance characteristics, and passed the most demanding tests and verifications in Europe. , A number of technical indicators better than the international similar models, with 36 patented technologies.
The road of "rebels" is covered with thorny Shanghai Auto Show, which reflects the determination of domestic auto companies to develop their own engines. The significant increase in the level of domestic engine technology has also quickly narrowed the gap with the international advanced level.
For example, the Chery 2.0-liter DGI engine uses advanced technologies such as gasoline direct injection and exhaust gas turbocharging, with a power up to 72 kW. This engine is close to the European sports version of the car engine technology.
However, being able to design a good engine is only the first step in national power's “rebellionâ€. Without excellent manufacturing capabilities, even the best engine can only remain in the laboratory.
Chery, the Great Wall and other companies have conducted research on the feasibility of manufacturing while developing the engine.
Chery's new engine production line has 200 CNC machining centers. All machining and assembly lines are linked together by a unified, large industrial network and become a production unit.
The Great Wall's new engine production line is another style: Although it is not a fully automatic production line, expensive advanced equipment such as Germany's NAGEL cylinder bore grinding machine, Japan's Toyota Machine Tool's crankshaft grinding machine, and rolling radius machine tools are effective. Control the entire machine's product quality.
Corresponding to the investment in R&D engines by domestic vehicle manufacturers, it is the move of multinational companies to build new plants and expand production capacity in China. With the increasing emphasis on the Chinese market by multinational corporations, the engine products that had previously been at a backward level in foreign countries, after being repackaged and introduced into China, have been abandoned by many multinational corporations. With more and more new technologies and products coming to China, the new power of self-developed brand enterprises will be subject to more and more powerful competitive pressures.
However, as Yin Tongyao, general manager of Chery, said: "While it is difficult to make progress on the road to globalization, it is more and more interesting."
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