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Chongqing, a city on wheels. China's first jeep was produced here. It was once the production base of heavy military vehicles in China, and its automobile output ranked first in the country for three consecutive years ... Chongqing's automobile industry has a unique history and countless glories, and it is advancing silently in the new trend.

What kind of trend curve has this automobile city, which is striving to be "Detroit, China" with Changchun, drawn in the turbulent changes of China automobile market?

-0 1-

Before the "Automobile City", the loudest signboard in Chongqing was the weapons industry. In fact, ordnance is the cornerstone of Chongqing's industrial development.

First look at the unique geographical conditions: Chongqing is located in the hinterland, the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, surrounded by mountains and rivers, and has been the largest land and water transportation hub and inland river foreign trade port in southwest China since modern times. It is precisely because of this superior geographical position that the important position of Chongqing's strategic rear base is determined.

The foundation of Chongqing's weapons industry can be traced back to the late Qing Dynasty.

To give two examples: Chongqing Iron and Steel Company was formerly Hanyang Arsenal established by Zhang Zhidong, and later moved to Chongqing to become the 29th Arsenal of the Kuomintang; The predecessor of Special Steel is Liu Xiangjian's arsenal in 1936, which mainly produces steel pursuit guns and shells. The most famous Changan Automobile was founded by Li Hongzhang in 1862.

Later, during the Anti-Japanese War, the national government moved its capital to Chongqing, and all parts of the country moved to Chongqing, and a number of new arsenals were built. Later, the national government moved the capital several times, and the war continued. By the time of liberation in 1949, there were only seven arsenals left, but they were all seriously damaged.

Of these seven enterprises, six later became the leader of Chongqing's automobile industry (including motorcycles) and became the famous six golden signboards:

Chang 'an (No.265438 +0 Arsenal, producing Erlian 127. Company 4 145 machine gun), Jiangling (10 Arsenal, producing 37 shells), Jialing (25 Arsenal, producing 145 and 65438+. (50th Military Factory, producing 37 guns).

After the founding of New China, Chongqing ordnance enterprises began to "convert from military to civilian", which experienced three stages: the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Great Leap Forward and reform and opening up. 1958 great leap forward, there was a situation of "putting civilian products on the market", and later it was "one size fits all" underground. What really started the tide of "military to civilian" was that the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee put forward that "the national defense industry should support the military and the people, and the military and the people should combine."

(Arsenal in operation)

The ordnance industry and automobiles are similar in technology and technology, and the ordnance industry enterprises in Chongqing are close and have a rapid transformation. 1980, the national automobile production was only 220,000, the mini-car production was only 2 10, and the motorcycle production was only 50,000. By 1990, in Chongqing alone, the automobile industry output value of weapons industry enterprises had reached1900 million yuan, accounting for 73.8% of Chongqing's total output value.

(Weapons produced by an arsenal)

In other words, in the early 1990s, Chongqing's automobile industry was already the economic pillar.

The following data is very important, which directly reflects the "direct" relationship between Chongqing's weapon industry and automobiles: 1992, the automobile output produced by Chongqing's weapon system enterprises accounts for 60% of Chongqing's total output, and the motorcycle output accounts for 100%.

-02-

In the development of Chongqing automobile industry, like other automobile cities, the most important node is joint venture. Introduction-digestion-absorption is a common practice of national strategic automobile enterprises.

The rise of Chongqing's automobile industry also has two major events:

From 65438 to 0985, Chongqing Automobile Factory and Isuzu of Japan jointly established the first Sino-foreign joint venture in Chongqing-Qingling, which is also the first Sino-Japanese joint venture automobile manufacturer in China. The other is 1993, when the ordnance industry corporation and Suzuki of Japan jointly established Changan Suzuki.

Here, we can see an easily overlooked fact. We generally think that the germination of China automobile market started from Santana, but in fact, the growth of Chongqing automobile industry was almost at the same time.

A well-known example: Changan Suzuki Alto.

Alto is the first generation mini-car in China, and it is its appearance that has fulfilled many people's car dreams. You know, Alto was very different from the joke that later mocked it: "Young people never work hard, but now they only drive Alto." Although Alto was a mini-car at that time, few people could afford it, which was a symbol of status and status.

Let's make an interesting comparison: in the 1990s, the price of Alto was around 68,000, while that of Santana was around 65.438+0.8 million. Judging from the target users, Alto used to be a private car for self-employed, while Santana owners may have a big villa and a big career.

From 1995, the first domestic Alto 0.8L model rolled off the assembly line, and in July 2008, Changan Suzuki announced that Alto had officially stopped production. During the period of 13, Alto became a legendary model in the mini-car market, and the total sales volume in China market exceeded 500,000, covering the whole country.

Of course, besides Chang 'an, there are three other domestic military enterprises that produce Suzuki Alto-Qinchuan in ——Xi, Jiangbei in Jilin and Jiangnan in Hunan.

It should also be noted that although the first domestic Alto rolled off the assembly line at 1995, before this "Changan Suzuki Alto", Changan Automobile had already introduced the technology of Japanese Suzuki Alto model at 1984, and imitated its own research and development to produce "Changan Alto", but the joint venture company was not established at that time, so it was at a time point with Santana.

If we want to evaluate the meaning of alto in depth, then time will go back.

First of all, it depends on what achievements Chongqing's automobile industry has made in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

At the beginning of 1957, Chang 'an Machinery Factory (No.21Arsenal, one of the predecessors of Changan Automobile) carried out reverse research and development on the American Willis M38A 1 model according to the instructions of the central authorities and the arrangement of the superior, and in May of 1958, the first prototype car was trial-produced and named as Changjiang 46 Jeep.

Another important event was that 1965, Sichuan Automobile Factory was established in Shuangqiao, Chongqing, and China's first heavy truck brand-"Hongyan" was born in Chuanqi. Hongyan heavy truck is not "local", but the result of technology transfer from France Belle Automobile Company, and this foreign model was chosen in Chongqing because of its strong industrial strength and superior geographical location.

1984 National Day military parade, Hongyan CQ26 1 off-road vehicle carrying "Julang" submarine-launched missile passed through Tiananmen Square for inspection, followed by Hongyan CQ26 1 carrying multi-purpose anti-ship missile. Hongyan automobile, like the liberation of CA30, has been deeply rooted in the glorious history of "military industry".

Only here can we really see the significance of Alto's appearance.

From the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China to the 1980s, Chongqing's automobile industry had a solid foundation, but there were obvious defects in the pattern at that time: "lack of light, small size and no cars", the product structure was very unreasonable, and its technical ability was far behind the world's advanced level.

If Chongqing automobile industry wants to develop further, only by introducing technology from developed countries can it gradually form production capacity. The success of Changan Suzuki Alto has filled the gap of civil mini-cars in Chongqing automobile industry, and in the process of introduction, a strong spare parts supply system has been formed by continuously improving the localization rate.

-03-

The introduction and rise of Alto is not a case.

Chongqing was designated as a municipality directly under the central government in 1997. The automobile industry, which was designated as a pillar industry in Chongqing at that time, coincided with a big background: after the reform and opening up, the country took economic development as the main theme, and the direction of automobile products was inevitably adjusted to private cars. "Family car" was the key word of that era.

Since 1999, Changan has been in contact with internationally renowned automobile companies such as GM and Ford, seeking joint venture and cooperation opportunities. In April of 200 1 year, Changan and Ford "married" and established Changan Ford. In 2006, Mazda Motor Company participated in Changan Ford and established Changan Ford Mazda Company. Later, Chang 'an and Mazda held hands alone, in the following year of 2007. During this period, Changan Ford Mazda also cooperated with Volvo for a period of time to produce and sell Volvo S40.

(In 2003, Ford Carnival, the first model of Changan Ford, was officially launched. Chairman Li Peng personally unveiled the new car that rolled off the assembly line that day and signed it as a souvenir. )

At this point, Changan Automobile, the leading brother in Chongqing's automobile industry map, has almost stabilized the joint venture map.

At the same time, under the wave of "family car", independent brands have also been launched.

Please note that this is a key node.

If Chongqing's automobile industry is roughly divided into two stages, the task of the whole 1990s is to successfully complete the "military to civilian" and lay a good foundation for the first step: 1995, Chongqing's automobile output reached 1 14500 vehicles, making it the fifth largest automobile production base in China, ranking first in Jilin and Erqi (where FAW is located).

Then, in the first decade of the new millennium, that is, during the period of 2000-20 10, Chongqing automobile industry not only fully absorbed the previous nutrients, but also followed the tide of economic development, quickly and quickly seized the huge consumer market in southwest China and began to expand rapidly.

However, success or failure lies in Xiao He.

After 20 18, Chongqing's automobile industry took a turn for the worse. Why?

The cycle of the automobile industry is as long as 10 year, so the loss in 20 18-20 19 year is the result of the expansion period from 2000 to 20 10 year.

Here, you only need to simply list two main models to get a glimpse.

In June 2006, Lifan's first model 520 was launched. Interestingly, the name of the car is neither the platform code nor the engine displacement, but the meaning of the network term "I love you".

In June 2006, 165438+ 10, the first car produced by Changan Yubei Factory rushed to the market and competed with Chery QQ for some time.

From the beginning of running, Chang 'an officially embarked on the development path of "micro-oriented, sedan chair-oriented".

Another car, lifan 520, blew the horn of Mobang's March from "two rounds" to "four rounds". But the tragic fate of this horn itself also represents the common fate of the failure of this round of "Mobang" transformation.

-04-

1995 10 10/3, China Jialing was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. For a time, employees of Jialing Motorcycle became rich people in the mountain city.

An old employee of Jialing Motor revealed, "When it was first listed, the stock price was 23 yuan, with 2,000 shares for workers, 4,000 shares for middle-level workers and 8,000 shares for factory workers."

It is said that leather clothes in Chongqing were almost snapped up by Jialing employees that day, and Jialing motorcycles, leather clothes and montague became the most "rich" labels of Jialing people.

The rise of Chongqing Mobang began in Jialing. This is one of the six arsenals mentioned above. Other families also joined Mobang in the wave of "military to civilian" and made Mobang.

1995, Jialing's sales in China exceeded1000000, becoming a listed company. Moreover, with Jialing as the core, Chongqing has rapidly developed a number of supporting enterprises, including Zongshen and Longxin. Later, capital gradually accumulated and began to transform into the automobile industry.

Compared with Jialing, Lifan is a "younger brother". According to Yin Mingshan's memory, in 1989, when he was ready to give up the publishing industry with little prospect and look for business opportunities everywhere, the motorcycle market in Chongqing was extremely hot at that time, and motorcycle factories mushroomed.

At that time, Jialing was the leader of the industry, and the second was construction (also one of the six major arsenals). Both companies are unwilling to sell engines to small factories, resulting in a shortage of core components engines. Yin Mingshan seized this business opportunity, bought the engine parts of the maintenance department of Construction Engineering Group, and assembled them into engines for sale. The cost was only 1.400 yuan, and the price was as high as 1.998 yuan, which opened up the later glory of Lifan.

In the early 1990s, Chongqing "Mobang" won the "double crown" of motorcycle and engine production and sales for many years, which propped up half of Chongqing's industry and import and export at that time.

However, the wind and rain will always blow the wind away.

On August 7, 2020, Lifan filed for bankruptcy.

At the same time, the securities abbreviation of Chongqing Jialing was changed from "*ST Jialing" to "*ST Power", and it is planned to divest all motorcycle business.

This means that the era of "Mobang" in Chongqing is over.

-05-

Macroscopically, there is a time difference between motorcycle industry and automobile industry.

From the perspective of global industrial changes, when a country's per capita GDP is between $400 and $65,438+$0.200, it is the golden age of motorcycles. After reaching 1200 USD, motorcycle sales began to decline and were replaced by family cars.

Today, the per capita GDP of China has exceeded $65,438+0,000, while the per capita GDP of $65,438 +0.200 is the level before 17 years.

So, is the decline of Chongqing Mobang an inevitable trend of China's economic development?

It is true that Chongqing Mobang has encountered some external reasons.

First, from 65438 to 0999, the nationwide "motorcycle ban" spread to more than 70 cities, and the domestic market was greatly discounted;

Secondly, the main exporter of Chongqing Mobang is Vietnam. In June 2002, 5438+ 10/,the Vietnamese government raised the import tariff on motorcycles from the previous 60% to 1 00%, and Jialing, Zongshen and Chongqing Mobang all withdrew.

However, the final evaluation of Chongqing Mobang should focus on the global scope.

It is an objective fact that Japan, Germany and the United States are all developed countries. They got rich before China, and their industrial upgrading was an era ahead of us. However, these countries are the top representatives of global motorcycle powers.

Just like a four-wheeled car, whether a country is a motorcycle power is not judged by its own market capacity, but by whether it has grown into a global strong brand. There are four motorcycle families in Japan: Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki and Kawasaki, BMW in Germany and Harley in the United States.

Then, there is nothing wrong with using the words "big but not strong" to describe Chongqing Mobang.

In the golden age when cars could be sold in the 1990s, Lifan and Jialing were both used for anti-R&D, low-end manufacturing, patchwork and lying down to make money. In the end, the market has changed, and they can only try their best to keep the price down, resulting in huge losses.

Mobs are not really "gangs". These bosses were torn apart by the price war.

Therefore, don't blame Lifan for its failure in transforming from "two rounds" to "four rounds".

Because, Chongqing Mobang, the two rounds themselves failed.

-06-

Thirdly, there is a time difference between the motorcycle industry and the automobile industry.

In other words, when the mob flourished in Chongqing in the 1990s, the seeds of the future outcome had been planted.

Then, Chongqing's four-wheeled automobile industry is 10 years behind the motorcycle industry, and the critical period of its rise and fall is the first decade of this century mentioned above.

Chongqing Mobang's "big but not strong" is exactly the same as Chongqing's automobile industry's "big but not strong"

At the beginning of this century, Benben was a positioning mini-car, based on the mini-car strategy of Chongqing Changan Automobile. The success of Benben also gave birth to Benben mini and other models.

In addition to Changan Automobile, private automobile enterprises in Chongqing blossomed everywhere at that time, cultivating Yu 'an (now a well-off group), Yinxiang and Xinyuan. Their main products are low-end models such as mini-cars and mini-cars.

There is a two-way phenomenon here:

On the one hand, compared with the eastern region, the personal consumption power in the central and western regions is relatively low, so the middle and low-end models are the biggest demand in this region;

On the other hand, when the consumption upgrade of the automobile market comes, Chongqing's automobile industry seems to be "unresponsive" and is still addicted to shoddy construction like Mobang.

This is why car companies in Chongqing generally have one thing in common, that is, they started in the low-end market, and until now most of them still stay in the low-end market, and there are very few high-quality models.

This is why Chongqing manufacturing always gives people a strong local flavor.

-07-

Path dependence means that the technological evolution or institutional change of human society has inertia similar to that in physics, that is, once it enters a certain path (whether it is "good" or "bad"), it may be dependent on this path.

In other words, once a person makes a certain choice, it is like walking on a road of no return. The power of inertia will make this choice constantly strengthen yourself and make it impossible for you to go out easily.

For example, Changchun, accustomed to the planned economy, can't get out of the "planned" mentality after the reform and opening up. Under the tide of free market, it lags far behind. Today, it is still a "glorious" thing for local fresh graduates if they are "arranged" by their families.

In the same way, taking the low-end path, once you get out of a path, it is difficult to get out. If we take the road of independent research and development and high-end products, we must have the courage to cure drugs.

What's more, behind the path that an enterprise relies on, the interest groups cultivated by this path are often the real leaders of reform or not.

In 20 16, Chongqing's automobile industry reached its peak, with an output of 3160,000 vehicles and an output value of 540 billion yuan, accounting for nearly13 of Chongqing's 21755876 billion GDP.

By 20 18, Chongqing's GDP only increased by 6%, ending the upsurge of nearly 20 years, in which the automobile manufacturing industry declined by 17.3%, which is the only declining sector among the seven pillar industries in Chongqing.

-08-

Changan Automobile is like a golden phoenix flying out of a chicken coop.

Although Changan Automobile has experienced a lot of fluctuations in recent years, Suzuki, a joint venture, has left, Ford has halved, and its own products are in the replacement period. For a time, Changan Automobile seems to have fallen into a "hard landing".

However, the biggest difference between Changan Automobile and other car companies in Chongqing lies in getting rid of "path dependence", turning its eyes from a remote mountain city to "five countries and nine places", insisting on independent research and development, building high-quality models, and making every effort to develop to the high end.

Around 20 17, there were two waves in the auto market: one was the consumption upgrade, the purchasing power of low-end models was blocked, and the other was the first round of private car popularization in low-tier cities ended and entered the stock market. The superposition of the two forces has caused many brands in Chongqing to take the low-end product route to suffer heavy losses one after another.

The only one out of influence is Changan Automobile.

After this year's epidemic, Changan Automobile's sales in April and May increased by 32% and 54.3% respectively, ranking first in China brand sales for two consecutive months, and continued to maintain an upward trend in June; Changan Ford sold 265,438+0,872 vehicles in May, doubling year-on-year, and its sales in the first half of the year increased by 8.7% year-on-year. The two car companies seem to have regained their position.

What Chongqing people are talking about is the two models born this year.

In March of this year, the first Lincoln adventurer in China rolled off the assembly line in Liangjiang New District, Chongqing. This is the first time that Lincoln Motor has been produced outside North America, and it is also the first time that Chongqing Automobile Industry has been put into production as an international luxury brand. Adventurers suggested that the retail price should start at 246,800 yuan, making it the most valuable bicycle model among Chongqing-made cars.

At the same time, since the end of last year, many models such as CS75, CS55 and Yidong have been "overweight", and high-end products such as Changan UNI-T have been released one after another. In addition, after the independence of Auchan brand, a series of high-quality products such as Auchan X5 and Auchan Cosay 5 were released continuously this year, which made the sales of Changan Automobile soar.

This year10-June, Changan Automobile Group sold a total of 830,992 vehicles, achieving positive growth year-on-year. In June, the sales volume reached 65,438+094,406 vehicles, up by 38. 1% year-on-year, among which the automobile series with self-developed products accounted for half of the monthly sales volume of Changan China brand cars.

On the core technology, Changan Automobile independently developed Blue Whale Power, the first modular engine research and development platform in China, which made Chongqing automobile industry embark on the fast track of technology research and development.

On the "new four modernizations", the new model "UNI-T" of Changan Automobile equipped with L3 automatic driving system was officially mass-produced in Chongqing. The aura of this model is that Changan Automobile has mastered more than 200 intelligent core technologies and carried out more than 70 intelligent functions in this mass production mode, of which more than 20 are the first in China.

In terms of new energy, Geely Automobile registered and built a high-end new energy vehicle production base in Liangjiang New District, and Tesla also conducted an inspection and actively sought cooperation.

Low-end manufacturing, this old label is fading.

It should be noted that enterprises and entrepreneurs are the main bodies of innovation and change, but the automobile industry is the great cause of the integration of production and city. Chongqing's auto industry is back on track, thanks to the strong support of Chongqing municipal government.

20 18, 18 In February, the Chongqing Municipal Government issued the Guiding Opinions of the General Office of the Chongqing Municipal People's Government on Accelerating the Transformation and Upgrading of the Automobile Industry, which mentioned that it is necessary to vigorously improve the level of electrification, intelligence, networking, sharing and lightweight of products in the automobile industry and realize the transformation of industrial development kinetic energy.

From June 2065438 to June 2009, the automobile wind tunnel (automobile environment wind tunnel and automobile aerodynamics-acoustics wind tunnel) with an investment of 550 million yuan was officially unveiled and put into trial operation in Chongqing Liangjiang New District, which is the first automobile wind tunnel in central and western China. 2065438+February 2009, the intelligent networked automobile test base of China Automobile Research Institute was officially built, which is the first intelligent networked automobile comprehensive test and evaluation base in the western region, and can meet the test specifications and site requirements of future driverless smart cars.

At present, Chongqing's automobile industry will show a trend of low opening and high going in 2020. The estimated annual output is 6,543,800+0,380 vehicles, which is the same as the same period last year. It is estimated that the output value will reach 339 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5%.

Times have changed.

Can Chongqing, once the first automobile city, reproduce its former glory?

It is worth looking forward to.

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.