Volvo is a well-known luxury brand automobile manufacturer in Sweden, which is owned by Gustaf larson? Larson) and Asa gabriel Sen (Asa? Gabrielson)? Founded in Gothenburg 1927, Sweden.
○? The founders of Tu Tu, Gustav Larsen and Asa Gabriel.
1925, gustaf larson, as an engineer, and Asa Ge Boursin, as a department manager, sent a letter to their company. The board of directors of bearing manufacturer SKF proposed to borrow the factory.
Considering their passion and unique views on cars,1In September, 925, the board of directors agreed to lend the company's factory in Translanda to the two people as a factory for assembly and debugging.
1926 August 10, authorized by the company, officially started mass production of new cars. 1927 April 14, named Volvo? After the V4 convertible became Volvo's first product, the truck named LV40 was produced the following year.
○? The first Volvo truck LV40
Therefore, let Volvo become a well-known truck brand in Europe from 1928.
Volvo Road to China? Break up with heavy trucks
1994 This period is a veritable "year of reform" for China. Reform and opening up have given China more room for development in all walks of life. Also in this year, China Heavy Duty Truck decided to cooperate with foreign brand Volvo to upgrade its technology, and then began negotiations with Volvo.
The State Council 1997 approved the project proposal, and the former State Planning Commission officially approved the feasibility study report of the project No.2001. Both parties have revised and adjusted this contract according to the requirements of national policies.
In 2002, the total output value of China's logistics industry has reached 2.5 trillion yuan, and trucks, as a key link in the logistics industry, are as inseparable as the relationship between blood and meat. Therefore, the joint venture between Volvo and China Heavy Duty Truck is regarded as an important cooperation to change the domestic truck market.
With the unremitting efforts of China National Heavy Duty Truck and Volvo, Jinan Huawo Truck Co., Ltd. was established as a joint venture on June 9, 2003. The term of the joint venture is 30 years, with a total investment of 6,543.86 billion yuan, with each party holding 50%.
○? Photo of signing ceremony of Volvo-heavy truck joint venture
Located in Jinan National Heavy Duty Truck Industrial Park, it will make full use of the remaining assets of the former National Heavy Duty Truck Group to produce Volvo FL6, FM9, FM 12 heavy trucks.
Most of the past cooperation projects were introduced from abroad in the 1980s and 1990s. This time, Volvo FM series is the main model newly launched by Volvo in 2002, and it has sold tens of thousands of vehicles in the global market, which can be described as a hot-selling model at that time.
Subsequently, on March 29th, 2004, Volvo, China Heavy Duty Truck and FAW reached an engine project cooperation in Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.
○? Photo: Volvo FL6
This cooperation puzzled everyone at that time. Why can FAW, which is not a joint venture partner of Volvo, participate in this cooperation? How can a heavy truck give up the core technology of the engine?
According to the person in charge of Volvo Truck Marketing Department at that time, Volvo was willing to let FAW participate in engine technology because it valued FAW's capital and influence in China.
However, my brother guessed that the reason should not be so simple. At that time, Weichai Power, a subsidiary of Sinotruk, developed rapidly, and Volvo was worried that engine technology would be cloned by Weichai Power, which may also be the reason.
○? China's first Volvo rolled off the assembly line.
In terms of engine technology, Volvo has shown different ideas, such as eating what is in the bowl and thinking about what is in the pot, and making a joint venture with China Heavy Duty Truck, but paying attention to the influence of FAW in China, which also laid the foundation for the breakdown of cooperation between Volvo and China Heavy Duty Truck.
However, what happened afterwards hit Volvo. FAW didn't give up the idea of establishing its own business on the projects of Xichaiaowei engine and Dalian Deutz engine, but continued to develop its own engines. In 2005, Volvo immediately decided to suspend the tripartite engine cooperation project agreement.
The suspension of the engine cooperation project cannot be separated from FAW, but it does not mean that the cooperation between Volvo and China Heavy Duty Truck will not be a problem.
○? Photo: Heavy truck employees are assembling Volvo trucks.
For a long time, Sinotruk relied on Wei Chai to provide engines, but from June 5, 2005+February, 2005, Wei Chai stopped supplying Sinotruk, and Hangqi Engine Factory could not meet the demand of Sinotruk. In the most difficult time of heavy truck, Volvo did not change its original intention and built an engine factory to help.
In fact, an engine factory can only make money by selling more than 50 thousand units, but at that time, the monthly sales of Volvo products of Huawo were less than 100 units. So from Volvo's point of view, it is correct not to build an engine factory.
Warburg's monthly sales volume is less than 65,438+000 vehicles, which is far from the target of 2,500 vehicles per year when the contract was signed in 2005. This may be attributed to Volvo's misjudgment of the policy situation in China.
○? Figure 1 Volvo first generation FH
Most parts of Huawo truck are imported from abroad, but the supplementary provisions of the Regulations on the Administration of Foreign-invested Road Transportation and the Measures for the Administration of Parts Import, which were implemented in 2004, constitute the characteristics of the whole vehicle, which makes the price of imported cars stay high, which is far from the price of domestic cars.
While Huawo is struggling, China Heavy Duty Truck's own brand is showing its talents.
In 2005, when the national heavy truck market declined by 30%, heavy truck products did not appear unsalable, while the sales of our own brand Haowo reached more than 1 10,000 vehicles that year.
At that time, when Volvo truck was upgraded abroad, it gave the cab to China Heavy Duty Truck to show its trust in China Heavy Duty Truck.
○? Tuchhovo truck
However, at the beginning of the joint venture, China Heavy Duty Truck launched its own HOWO similar to Warwick, and claimed that the safety of the HOWO cab met the most stringent Swedish regulations in the world.
As a result, the concept of the new product Huawo, which was launched after the cooperation between the two parties, was confused, which led to 80% market users at that time thinking that HOWO was a product of Huawo joint venture company.
○? Howo truck owned by TUTuan Heavy Duty Truck.
After this series of events happened, in 2009, Volvo announced the termination of its cooperation with China National Heavy Duty Truck, and the original 30-year cooperation ended ahead of schedule. We don't comment on right and wrong, but there is no doubt that each of them has ulterior motives. China Heavy Duty Truck deliberately confuses the brand name;
Volvo claims to be domestic, but most parts of trucks are imported from abroad. In fact, Huawo Company is just an assembly line, and the sales right of Volvo belongs to Volvo (China).
Both sides did something unacceptable to the other side, so that the cooperation that had been communicated for 9 years ended ahead of schedule, and all previous efforts of both sides went up in smoke.
Volvo Road to China? Join hands with Dongfeng to break through the encirclement
201365438+1October 26th, Dongfeng and Volvo will set up a commercial vehicle joint venture company to produce and sell medium and heavy trucks. For Dongfeng and Volvo, this is not their first cooperation.
As early as 1996, Dongfeng Nissan Chai Co., Ltd. was established as a joint venture with Japan Nissan Chai Co., Ltd. to produce chassis for heavy trucks and large luxury buses. Dongfeng trucks have always used chassis technology produced by Nissan Chai.
Until March 2, 20061,Volvo acquired 96% of the assets of Nissan diesel, which meant that Volvo upgraded its strategy in the Asian market and indirectly cooperated with Dongfeng.
○? Tu Tuan you di Shi truck
In 2007, Dongfeng Nissan Diesel launched the Udinese series of heavy trucks, which can be regarded as Volvo's first big move with Dongfeng after taking over Nissan Diesel.
200 1 Renault acquired by Volvo signed a contract with Dongfeng to transfer engine technology on October 24th, 2002, allowing Dongfeng to produce Renault dci? 1 1 engine, and installed on the truck produced by Dongfeng company.
This is the second indirect cooperation between Volvo and Dongfeng.
The cooperation between Dongfeng and Volvo can be regarded as taking what they need and warming each other. Volvo's two main competitors, the Germans and Daimler Group, have established joint ventures in China.
Coupled with the European debt crisis in 20 12, Volvo's operating profit decreased by 50% year-on-year. Therefore, it is particularly important for Volvo Group to buffer the downward pressure of other markets in the world through the China market.
At that time, Dongfeng, the first commercial vehicle market in China, was not much better, and the gap with the second commercial vehicle market was getting closer and closer. In terms of heavy trucks, they have also been caught up by heavy trucks and Shaanxi Automobile.
So the two companies complement each other and learn from each other. Dongfeng Volvo joint venture company is located in Shiyan, Hubei. In addition to the traditional four technical departments of assembly, welding, painting and stamping, an engine factory will be established in the manufacturing base. The stock ratio between Dongfeng and Volvo is 55:45, and Dongfeng is the major shareholder. According to the agreement, Volvo is responsible for providing technology and Dongfeng is responsible for providing manufacturing and production.
Unlike the cooperation between Volvo and Sinotruk, and the cooperation between Mann and Sinotruk, Dongfeng is not eager to produce a series of Volvo-branded vehicles such as Volvo cabs and Volvo engines to make a profit.
But through the introduction of Volvo's technology to upgrade their own technology, in order to enhance the competitiveness of Dongfeng.
Subsequently, the DDi75 engine, the first product of technical cooperation between Dongfeng and Volvo, went on the market. In the model, the first D stands for Dongfeng, the second D stands for diesel engine, the last letter "I" stands for intelligent English intelligence, and the number 75 stands for engine displacement. In other words, the engines of DDi series are all produced by Volvo technology.
In 18, Dongfeng released DDi 1 1 engine, which was developed on the basis of D 1 1 on Volvo FM truck, and the data was basically similar to D 1 1.
Volvo D 1 1 displacement 10.8 liter, in-line 6 cylinders and 4 valves, with a maximum power of 338kw(460 HP) and a maximum torque of 2200Nm.
Dongfeng DDi 1 1 displacement 10. 1, in-line 6 cylinders and 4 valves, with maximum power of 343kw(465 HP) and maximum torque of 2240Nm.
Almost the same data, Dongfeng's engine is 5 horsepower bigger than Volvo D 1 1, and the torque is 40 Nm more, which proves that the cooperation between Dongfeng and Volvo is successful.
○? Tiguan Dongfeng Tianlong KL
Jia Ge believes that Dongfeng has continuously improved its competitiveness in the market through Volvo's technology. It is the most successful cooperation between China and foreign companies.
Only by upgrading one's skills can one improve one's status. Among connotation and money, only connotation is the thing that accompanies life.
Volvo's China Road was really bumpy in the early days, but after meeting the right person, both sides got what they wanted. The entry of Volvo indirectly promoted the development of the domestic truck market, and made the truck market reach a period of letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend.
○? Photo: Volvo's new truck
Volvo is also paying more and more attention to the China market. Since June 65438+1 October1day, 2020, China has become the fifth independent sales area of Volvo.
It depends on the huge domestic market. According to the data, Asia accounts for 80% of Volvo's global truck sales, and China accounts for 50%. This forces Volvo to attach importance to China.
In the past, imported cars were introduced to China only two or three years after they were released abroad, but this will not happen again after Volvo set China as an independent sales area. It is reported that the new trucks released by Volvo in February this year will be introduced to China at the end of this year.
Jia Ge believes that from then on, imported car dealers will gradually take the route of Volvo trucks, squeeze into the domestic truck market and share this super truck market with major manufacturers.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.