In fact, before rough statistics, Baoding's automobile enterprises were not only the Great Wall, but also Tianma Automobile, Dida Automobile and ZTE Automobile. However, the Great Wall is the best-developed and most famous local automobile manufacturer in Baoding. Let's talk about Great Wall Motor today.
Great Wall Motor is a China automobile brand founded in 1984. Headquartered in Baoding, Hebei Province, it mainly produces pickup trucks, SUVs, cars and new energy vehicles. Great Wall Motor is the first private automobile enterprise listed in H shares in China, the largest professional pickup SUV factory in China, and a multinational company.
The company has more than 40 holding subsidiaries, more than 70,000 employees and four vehicle production bases (pickup truck, SUV, CUV and MPV). Have the independent production and supporting capacity of core components such as engine, front and rear axles and gearbox? . 20 19 12 18, people's daily's "China brand development index" 100 list ranked 60th. June 9, 2020 19 Hurun ranked 84th among the top 500 private enterprises in China.
In fact, through Baidu Encyclopedia and the development history of the Great Wall in official website, we can see that it is the development history of the Great Wall. Today we will talk about the Great Wall from 1976 to 1999, that is, the first 20 years of Great Wall Motor. At present, automobile consumers' cognition of the Great Wall brand usually begins after 2000. In fact, the Great Wall is an automobile manufacturer with a history of more than 40 years!
1976, Great Wall Motor Modification Company was founded by Wei Deliang, uncle of Wei Jianjun, the current chairman of Great Wall. Although it was established earlier, China's automobile industry was extremely underdeveloped. The earliest Great Wall was not an automobile factory, but a repair and refit factory. Therefore, Great Wall Motor did not officially start producing cars until 1984, and the number was very small.
By the end of 1987, the Great Wall had built a total of 355 vehicles during the period of 1 1 year, including CC 130 (Great Wall 130), the national model BJ 130 in the 1980s, and so did the Great Wall.
Something unexpected happened to everyone. Just when the factory was just getting better, Mr. Wei Deliang died in a car accident, which directly pushed Great Wall Motor to a leaderless position.
In desperation, Dayuan Township Government in Baoding, Hebei Province, where Great Wall Motor was located at that time, had to send someone to take over Great Wall Motor Company. However, due to the poor management of the new leader, the company soon encountered an economic crisis, was on the verge of bankruptcy, and was in debt of 2 million.
1990 Wei Jianjun, who was only 26 years old at that time, contracted Great Wall Motor, and Wei Jianjun himself loved cars very much! As a "rich second generation", Wei Jianjun owns the best car in China-LADA, and his dream is to become a racing driver! Wei Jianjun's playing drift has long been famous in Baoding, and he is called Baoding Car God by local people.
Initially, Great Wall Industrial Company was a car modification enterprise. During the period from 1990 to 1995, Wei Jianjun mixed with technicians and various automobile experts almost every day, disassembled various models of automobiles, studied the internal technical structure of automobiles, and knew the technical characteristics of various brands of automobiles like the back of his hand. At 7: 20 every Thursday morning, the company's top management, the bosses of subsidiaries and engineers and technicians will rush to the Great Wall Motor proving ground to attend the quality review meeting, and Wei Jianjun will be present every time. In the eyes of employees of Great Wall Motor, their boss is a technical madman. But unlike the technical elite. "His skills are learned in practice. He can dismantle the engine himself. " Shang Yugui, who has followed Wei Jianjun for many years, said that Wei Jianjun is a person with strong learning ability. He often goes to Detroit alone and Japan to study the automobile industry. When he came back, the only gift he brought to everyone was books related to cars.
Many things happen. After the unremitting attempts and experience accumulation of "Great Wall People", the car was finally built! The first car made in Wei Jianjun in those days was also a copy of the existing products. Wei Jianjun dismantled a Nissan Duke Y30 and named it CC 1020.
But what is embarrassing is that Great Wall Motor only "conquered" the appearance of the Duke of Nissan, but did not conquer the Duke's chassis, so CC 1020 was built on the chassis of BJ 2 12 in the early years ...
In addition, the Great Wall also built CC 1020S model imitating Toyota Crown S 130 with BJ 2 12 chassis. At the same time, in order to expand the product line, Great Wall even built a travel version of Toyota Crown S 130 CC6470.
At the end of 1990s, Great Wall Motor finally found its own model-pickup truck. 1997, the brand-new pickup truck model Deere, directly took the first place in the pickup truck market in China with its relatively excellent quality and price, and also exported to Latin America and Africa!
After entering the Millennium, Great Wall Motor launched two epoch-making models, the Great Wall Sailing Bell and the Saifo, which quickly occupied the top three positions in the domestic SUV market at a price of about 65,438+10,000 yuan, leading the Great Wall brand to gain a firm foothold in the passenger car market.
Today, it seems that the steady development of Great Wall Motor comes from strategic focus. In fact, Great Wall Motor was not very clear about its focus strategy from the beginning, but was established in various failures and great fear of future crises.
Wei Jianjun said, "We have made many mistakes in recent years, such as being a bus. Although the quality is ok, it is too out of line with the culture of our company. Fortunately, we are changing rapidly. " Wei Jianjun always considers the essence of enterprise development. In his own words, "I always tell myself that the Great Wall has no way out, no choice, and I have no choice. When a company has no more choices, the chances of doing well are even greater. "
Wei Jianjun's corporate values and way of thinking are really related to his family background. Wei's family enjoys a long-standing reputation in Baoding, and his father Wei Deyi is the founder of Baoding Private Entrepreneurs Association. Wei Jianjun said that he is not the kind of person who wants to win a strong reputation. His idea is: I am the boss, and I don't need personal fame and fortune. At present, the development of Great Wall Motor focuses on R&D and manufacturing. My task lies in internal management and strategy formulation, and at the same time, I will promote R&D and technology.
Therefore, Wei Jianjun, who calls himself an "iron rooster", did not spend too much money on enterprise R&D, which is determined by the current strategic thinking of Great Wall Motor. Wei Jianjun believes that an enterprise has limited resources and energy, and should concentrate on the most important thing at the moment. 20 1 1 year, Great Wall Motor invested 5 billion yuan in R&D software and hardware, and built 5,300 mu of automobile proving ground.
The above is the history of the Great Wall that has not been recorded in history. In fact, the Great Wall brand is like a microcosm of China's automobile development. It was founded by an enterprising car enthusiast, earned the first pot of gold through imitation, and then gradually invested in research and development to gain a foothold, and even acquired a former international car manufacturer to help move forward.
Fortunately, in the face of many difficulties, China brand persisted. Although they still have many shortcomings, the speed of their progress is obvious to all, so please give them more time. After all, in the whole process of human history, the 100 years since the automobile was born may be just a small beginning. ...
Let's talk about the development of Great Wall Motor next time.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.