The Military-industrial Scientific Research System of the Academic Master Chapter 426

Chapter 426 Jinling-Ferrari R&D Center

“Is there such a thing?”

Chang Haonan was just about to turn on the computer, but the movement of his hand stopped in mid-air.

Fiat, the name itself is probably not famous in China.

If you are not interested in cars, you may have never heard of it.

But Fiat Group has many well-known car brands.

For example, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari.

Of course there are also later Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, etc.

They all have one common characteristic.

That is, regardless of whether they are high or low, the sales in China are very poor.

At least in the past timeline.

If it can be said that the Korean and French systems are no longer at their peak after their glory days.

So it means…

It's funny, China's passenger car market has never had any serious problems.

There are only two short-lived models, which can barely make a splash.

But tool carts like Iveco have always been selling well.

Of course these are all things for later.

At this point in time in the late 1990s, when Italians look at Iveco, which is almost popular all over the country, they definitely have reason to have illusions about the future of their own passenger cars in China.

In this case, it is logical to find our old friend Jinling Automobile Company.

Compared to the previous life, it is only two years earlier, so it is not a big deal.

What really surprised Chang Haonan was the jointly established automotive research institute.

This is 1997, not 2023.

Let alone Italian cars, even industrial waste like Lada can be sold to China in large quantities.

Haven't you bought one without seeing Wu Yifan?

Which foreign brand will come over to cooperate with China in car research?

To put it bluntly, if you take the technology from the previous generation or even the previous generations and replace it with a new shell, it will be a big hit, how can you cooperate with others?

Chang Haonan is not yet confident enough to feel that the impact of the technologies he has developed can be as great as this.

Technology in the aviation industry will indeed spread downward to other industries, but this process takes time.

Especially these days, cars have almost no serious electrification equipment, and they hardly consider aerodynamic issues such as wind resistance and wind noise. The two areas that Chang Haonan is best at cannot enter the field of automobile research and development at all.

At least it cannot enter the research and development field of household passenger cars.

If I have to say it, it may be useful in the structural design of the entire vehicle.

But this is still a segment that is more focused on commercial vehicles.

After all, in the 1990s, no one was using hot-formed steel and die-cast bodies on family cars.

Therefore, after a while, Chang Haonan finally nodded and replied:

“As long as the research institute is opened in China, it doesn't matter if you use the software, not to mention that Fiat is also a trial user who has passed the application.”

In fact, there is generally no need to be so careful about this kind of problem.

After all, the TORCH Multiphysics obtained by Jinling Automobile is only a publicly released large cup rather than a super large cup only for some users.

It's just that the situation of Torch Company is quite special, and it is obviously an enterprise that is under the special attention above.

The other party may be afraid that he will be hit by an iron fist if he messes around, so he wants to be foolproof.

“Then I will reply to you when I get back...”

Yang Huimei, who received a positive answer, was about to stand up, but was stopped by Chang Haonan who was a little curious:

“Did they say what research areas this automotive research institute is specifically responsible for?”

In the previous list of applicants for software trial, Fiat Group was one of the only foreign commercial users.

It's just that because this involves some more complex legal issues, the trial version software applied for in non-mainland areas has not yet been shipped.

But it seems that the other party is already a little impatient.

Logically speaking, we shouldn't be in such a hurry. If Fiat really had such enthusiasm for the research and development of new cars, it would have left the Chinese market twice, so that the alliance formed later was called the "Alliance of the Losers."

“That's not true. The other party just sent us a letter explaining the situation, but if you want to know more specifically, they also left their contact information at the end of the letter.”

Later that day, Jinling.

General Manager Li Liangyi's office was knocked open, and his secretary strode in from the outside.

“Mr. Li, I just received a call from Manager Yang from Torch Company, saying that as long as the jointly established R&D center is set up in China, there will be no problem. A formal reply letter and authorization document will be sent later.”

"That's good. You can arrange a time and let the person responsible for external cooperation start discussing other cooperation details with the people at Fiat."

Li Liangyi raised his head, took off his glasses and put them on the table.

In fact, before sending the letter, he expected that there was a high probability that it would be approved. However, although the other party was not large in scale, its background was too strong, so he added such a procedure just to be safe.

It was also delayed by nearly a week.

Thinking of this, he warned his secretary again:

“Tell Xiao Yu to improve some efficiency there. The domestic passenger car market is changing day by day. If we can sell the car a day earlier, we can make tens or even millions more profits!”

Upon hearing this, the secretary took out another document from his briefcase and placed it on Li Liangyi's desk:

“In fact, Manager Yu has been communicating informally with Fiat representatives during this period. A preliminary agreement of intent has been formed. Please take a look.”

"oh?"

Although contacting each other privately falls into a gray area to some extent, these days everyone basically emphasizes letting themselves go, and many express regulations are not strictly enforced, let alone such marginalia.

So the latter was not angry, he just put on his glasses again and started to read them one by one.

As almost the last mainstream car series to enter the Chinese market, the sincerity shown by the Italians this time is quite sufficient.

As far as Jinling Fiat is a joint venture between the two parties, in addition to the Fiat brand, Maserati, a high-end luxury brand, and Alfa Romeo, a sports brand, are also included in the contract.

Although the latter two are only assembled domestically, this is enough for Li Liangyi to pay attention to.

After all, although several car companies such as Volkswagen, Jeep, and Peugeot have already entered the country in the form of joint ventures, when it comes to luxury brands in joint ventures, there is only one Audi.

It is also assembled in one piece.

As for the automobile research institute, at first glance, it seems to be incidental.

Because it is different from joint venture production and technology introduction, the partner of this research institute is Ferrari, which is also owned by Fiat.

It's not that Li Liangyi is belittling himself and building a supercar. Jinling Motors currently has neither the ability nor the will.

Fiat specifically requested that the research institute be operated independently from the joint venture company and its name must be called Jinling Ferrari R&D Center.

This is just a play on words, because according to the current joint venture regulations, Jinling Automobile must be in the front.

But if it were called Jinling Automobile-Ferrari R&D Center, the latter probably felt that he could not afford to disgrace that person.

So omitting the word "car" can make Jinling sound like just a place name.

Li Liangyi has no objection to this. He is happy to let the Italians take advantage of this in exchange for some more practical benefits.

For example, the three major parts production lines have a higher proportion of local production.

As for the other one, it's more interesting.

The Ferrari F1 team is willing to set aside a sponsor advertising space on the front wing, rear wing or side of the sidepods of their cars starting from 1998.

As long as it does not violate the regulations, Jinling Automobile can paint anything on it.

Li Liangyi frowned when he saw this.

He is not interested in racing, but after all, he is the boss of an automobile group, so F1 still knows about it.

But he knew it would not work. There was no F1 broadcast in China, and it was impossible for Jinling Motors to export it to Europe in a short time.

So this advertising space that was supposed to be worth some money was meaningless to him.

“Xiao Liu, please contact Torch Company again.”

He put down the documents in his hand and said to his secretary:

“Ask them if they are interested in advertising in Europe?”

(End of this chapter)

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