The market for technology into false proposition automobile joint venture turned to full cooperation

"I never saw the expression of 'market for technology' in official documents." Recently, Li Wanli, director of the Industrial Policy Department of the former Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said at the "21st Century Think Tank Roundtable Forum" that the core technology of the auto industry can only rely on Long-term accumulation of car companies, it can not buy money, with the market can not change.

This is undoubtedly an interpretation of Li Wanli's automobile joint venture policy over the past 30 years. As a retired official of the Industrial Policy Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Li Wanli personally experienced the entire process of the "Auto Industry Industrial Policy" issued in 1994 and 2004, and he has participated in the design and implementation of a series of automotive industry policies.

During this period, "market-for-tech" has been the label of the automobile joint-venture policy in the industry and has been repeatedly discussed. The argument that "the market does not receive much technology" has always dominated public opinion in order to try to make sense for the automobile joint-venture policy. negative.

“In fact, in the process of establishing and approving a joint venture, the legal text did not clearly specify the transfer of core technology, nor did it require that the foreign party must transfer the vehicle development technology and related standard technology patents to China.” Li Wanli The government’s attitude toward related technologies is that China should digest, absorb, and innovate in the process of joint ventures with foreign parties.

Turning over the history of the world’s automobile development, “market-for-technology” has no convention in the world, and it is only a single indicator in the development process of China’s auto industry. In the past 30 years, the joint venture’s multi-faceted impact on the Chinese auto industry is making the market The discussion of technology becomes a false proposition.

Use the market for time

If the clock is dialed back to 1983, the Beijing Automobile Manufacturing Plant and the American car company AMC set up the first Chinese-foreign automobile joint venture in China.

“At this time, the joint venture model is in the groping phase. There is no legal basis for the Chinese and foreign parties. The Chinese know nothing about the CKD concept. The maximum annual production of cars in the country does not exceed 5,000.” As the first automobile joint venture According to An Qingheng, the former person in charge of the Beiqi Group, the role of the joint venture was mainly the introduction of technology before the state released the “Auto Industry Industrial Policy” in 1994.

At that time, the Chinese auto industry had not yet provided enough product capabilities to meet the market's insufficiency in supply and demand. Imported cars were impacting the domestic market with a market share of over 20%. Whether the car can enter the family is still being repeatedly argued.

“At this time, China does not naturally have a market, and foreign parties are really technological.” Although Shen Jun, president of Roland Berger’s China region, agreed with the joint venture leading direction of “market-for-technology”, in actual operation, China’s autos 30 years ago Industry does not have the power to negotiate with foreign parties.
Under such technical conditions, joint ventures are often simplified into joint ventures in the manufacturing sector. In the upstream R&D segment and downstream brand ownership, foreign parties have an absolute advantage.

“Under this kind of unequal cooperation, the greatest contribution of the joint venture to the Chinese auto industry is probably the transfer of soft experience.” Sun Jian, Managing Director of Kearney Management Consulting China, said, “It is because of The joint venture only cultivated our generation of automakers, which in turn influenced the establishment and operation of the entire self-owned brand system, which led to and contributed to the development of the Chinese auto market to a certain extent.”

“The training of talents in the automotive industry is a difficult concept to quantify.” An Qingheng’s recent research on joint ventures and self-owned branded car companies found that one local car R&D institution engaged in the design and development of complete vehicles has 10 cores. The members were all leaders of the joint venture car companies. BYD, in cooperation with Mercedes-Benz in the development of electric vehicles, also admitted that if it did not accumulate previous joint ventures, it could not overcome the technical difficulties.

“In fact, apart from the lack of product development, the experience of the joint venture company is being dispersed among different automakers in the procurement, marketing and management sectors. It is then brought into the auto market of independent brands and promotes China’s auto industry. The industry is ahead of countries such as India and Brazil." Sun Jian believes that in this sense, the essence of the joint venture policy is actually to use the market in exchange for time.

Is learning Japanese a short cut?

It is undeniable that on the 30-year joint venture road, the joint venture relationship between Chinese auto companies and foreign countries is more like teachers and students. However, it is from which country's "teachers" have the greatest impact on the Chinese auto industry. In dispute.

According to the “New China Car Quality Research Report 2012” released by JDPower Asia Pacific, this year, the quality of China's self-owned brand vehicles has significantly improved, and the overall average problem rate has decreased from 232 pp100 in 2011 to 212. Mei Songlin, vice president and managing director of the company in China, believes that the improvement of the quality of self-owned brands is closely related to the influence of Japanese and Korean automobile companies.

"European cars rely on technology to win, and technology is a black box. You don't see no learning. Japanese cars rely on management, and Korean cars rely on the institutionalization of the process system. In these two aspects, independent car companies have more room to learn. Mei Songlin said.

Taking Geely Automobile as an example, in order to improve product quality at the beginning of this year, Geely fully implemented the GGQ353 strategy at each production base, that is, through three years of hard work, the market claim rate was reduced by 50%, and customer satisfaction entered the top three in the Chinese market. According to insiders from Geely, a set of benchmarking management ideas for this strategy is mainly from Toyota.

In addition to the South Korean government’s support intervention, the South Korean auto industry has also been greatly influenced by the management culture of Japanese auto companies. One of the most typical examples is that Zheng Mengjiu, the chairman of Hyundai-Kia Motors Group, is fully targeting Toyota in quality requirements in order to improve product quality. When the Japanese car was deeply affected by the earthquake, the Korean car was able to surpass competitors such as Toyota and Volkswagen in the European and American markets with a price/performance advantage.

“In fact, the rationalization of Japanese car companies in management technology has been a place where many car companies actively study, especially its service concept has a deeper impact on independent car companies.” Shen Jun believes that compared with European cars, Japanese cars The threshold for vehicle learning for car companies is relatively low.

However, this does not mean that the management system of Japanese car companies is a completely open state. Compared with European and American car companies, it even excludes the involvement of foreign management personnel.

"Facts have proven that simply copying the management practices of Japanese car companies does not fundamentally help Chinese car companies to transform." Sun Jian believes that only by understanding the essence of Japanese car companies' management will they be grafted into local car companies. To improve the latter's management level.

From learning to cooperation

Learning continues, but the factors affecting the joint venture between Chinese and foreign parties are undergoing major changes. One of the most obvious indicators is that the scale of China’s automobile production and sales has exceeded 18 million vehicles. After experiencing nearly 30 years of joint ventures, China finally has a real ownership. The renegotiated bargaining chip - the market.

"After 1994 and 2001, a new wave of joint ventures is emerging in the Chinese auto market. Chery and Jaguar Land Rover have set up cooperation projects, and heavy-duty trucks, Dongfeng and other auto companies have also entered into new joint ventures." An Qingheng believes that in this In a joint venture, some projects are for survival and development, and some projects are confusing. Under the circumstances that the joint venture policy has been implemented for 30 years, the next step is how to proceed. It is becoming a new topic in the automotive industry.

How to improve the level and quality of foreign capital utilization? Li Wanli's direction is: Is it possible for Sino-foreign cooperative relations to evolve from former teachers and students into partners? Can technology and products change from one-way output to two-way or multiple communications? Can the cooperation area be transformed from the previous domestic production and sales to internal and external repairs, expand exports based on the Chinese market, and share global service network resources? Is it possible for local car companies to shift from the low end of the industry chain to the high end, from buying products to buying companies, or from buying technology to selling technology?

In fact, the four scenarios envisioned by Li Wanli may become reality. At present, some joint ventures have opened up some product platforms, and Chinese employees will mainly transform the products to meet the consumer demand in the Chinese market. In the field of new energy vehicles, more than one multinational company requires technical cooperation with domestic auto companies.

However, it is undeniable that even if the new round of joint ventures does not bring core technology to Chinese automakers, it will not be possible for the foreign party to introduce its own “housekeeping skills” into China. “From the perspective of the automotive development experience of Europe, the United States, Japan, and South Korea, the formation of core technologies relies on the accumulation and digestion and refinement of local auto companies’ own resources.” Li Wanli believes that this will directly determine whether China's auto industry can become stronger.

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