My brother has written many stories about how foreign brands entered the Chinese market before, and I also feel that many card lovers are curious about these things. Fortunately, today I will tell you about Daimler-Benz. Road to China.
Daimler-Benz - As a famous German car manufacturer, it is famous all over the world, and it is almost impossible for anyone not to recognize it. But not many people may know its Chinese story.
In March 1883, Carl Friedrich Benz, the father of automobile invention, founded the Benz Company and the Rhine Gas Engine Factory. During the same period, Gottlieb Daimler successfully invented the world's first high-compression ratio internal combustion engine, which can be said to be the originator of modern automobile engines.
Perhaps due to the situation and competitive pressure at the time, in 1926, the two major automobile companies chose to overcome the difficulties together and merged to form Daimler-Benz.
My brother will also briefly say here that Mercedes-Benz is one of Daimler's brands, not a different company.
The source of Mercedes-Benz was an Austrian tycoon. After visiting the Daimler-Benz factory, he directly placed an order for 36 cars. This was equivalent to Daimler’s Daimler-Benz's annual sales volume, but the tycoon's additional condition is that Daimler-Benz must give him exclusive agency rights in France, the United States and other countries, and these cars must be named after his daughter. Daimler, who could not resist the temptation, Müller finally agreed to the wealthy man's request, and thus, Mercedes-Benz was born.
Daimler-Benz’s Road to China
In the 1880s, in order to speed up development, our country began to learn and introduce advanced foreign technologies. During this period, our country sent many delegations, They went to Europe, the United States, Japan and other advanced automotive countries to visit and inspect heavy truck technology.
In April 1978, a domestic inspection team came to Germany, the birthplace of the automobile industry, and inspected the technical centers and automobile production lines of Daimler-Benz and MAN (MAN). Until June, the inspection team mentioned in its inspection report submitted to the central government that the First Ministry of Machinery proposed to introduce the NG80 series of heavy-duty trucks developed by Daimler-Benz.
In subsequent negotiations, Daimler-Benz proposed that the entire project would require US$1 billion in foreign exchange and 2.5 billion yuan in domestic investment (that is, the purchase of large quantities of Daimler-Benz vehicles). This discouraged China, which was recovering economically at the time, and negotiations with Daimler-Benz also reached a deadlock.
The deadlock in negotiations did not prevent the emergence of "domestic" Mercedes-Benz. Chongqing 256 Factory continued the old path of domestic automobile development - copy and paste, and successfully developed the "domestic" Mercedes-Benz NG732026A truck, which was highly recognized by the military and made this vehicle shine in the military field. This is Chongqing Iron horse.
Perhaps due to being shocked by the domestic "copy and paste" technology, or perhaps because other brands have entered the Chinese market, Daimler-Benz has also begun to adjust its strategy, changing its previous arrogant temperament and seeking to expand. Market share opportunities.
Partner to competitor
At that time, domestic high-end heavy-duty trucks were completely blank. Daimler-Benz, which discovered the new world, immediately took action and invested 1 billion yuan to cooperate with Inner Mongolia No. 1 Machinery Manufacturing Plant. Cooperated to establish Northern Benz Company (now Beiben Heavy Duty Truck). Transferring the manufacturing technology of Mercedes-Benz NG80 series heavy trucks, the cooperation period is 10 years, during which the annual output is planned to be 6,000 vehicles.
In September 1988, China Ordnance Industry Corporation, Inner Mongolia No. 1 Machinery Manufacturing Plant and Germany's Daimler-Benz Automobile Company signed an agreement on the "Introduction of German Benz Heavy-Duty Truck Technology" in Beijing. A year later, the first batch of "Northern Benz" was assembled using SKD parts provided by Dailem and rolled off the production line.
Derham-Benz, which only wanted to make money and did not consider everything carefully, eventually encountered setbacks. Since the domestic economy was still recovering at the time, the demand for high-end heavy trucks was limited; on the other hand, it was fully introduced The price of Mercedes-Benz parts was too high, which led to North Benz setting the price too high after assembling the Mercedes-Benz. After it was launched on the market, no one cared about it.
Ten years passed quickly. Because it was far from the original market expectations, Daimler-Benz no longer cooperated with Northern, and the two parties broke up peacefully.
After Northern Benz broke up with Daimler-Benz, it made a series of adjustments, changing the situation of only producing high-end products in the past. Subsequently, Northern Benz developed rapidly and achieved considerable results. . But such a rapid rise makes Daimler-Benz feel uncomfortable.
Compared to Daim-Benz, Northern Benz is not only better than Daim-Benz in terms of demand, but also crushes Daim-Benz in terms of price, and even leads Daim-Benz. Taking pride in its special-purpose vehicles, Northern Benz is also gradually replacing Daimler-Benz.
In 2006, Daimler-Benz sued Northern Benz, pointing out that Northern Benz continued to use the word "Mercedes-Benz" as its name after the expiration of the technology transfer agreement, infringing its exclusive trademark rights. In the end, the two parties reached an agreement, and Northern Benz no longer used the word "Benz" and changed its name to the current Beiben Heavy Duty Truck.
Daimler-Benz joins hands with Foton
After experiencing setbacks, Daimler-Benz has no intention of giving up the Chinese market and continues to look for cooperation domestically. Until Daimler-Benz remembered its little brother with whom it had cooperated, Foton Motor launched a heavy-duty truck named Auman in 2001. Its first-generation product used the cab of Northern Benz and the Steyr Er's chassis.
In 2012, after eight years of negotiations and efforts, the two parties finally signed an agreement to establish a medium- and heavy-duty truck joint venture, Beijing Foton Daimler Automobile Co., Ltd., based on a 50:50 equity ratio, with a total investment of 6.3 billion. RMB.
Different from the cooperation model of previous Sino-foreign joint venture projects, Foton will invest in physical products related to Auman business, while Daimler will invest in cash. The joint venture will last for 50 years and will produce domestically produced Mercedes-Benz engines. "Auman" brand medium and heavy-duty trucks.
Perhaps because they have experience in cooperating with Chinese manufacturers and understand the idea of ??domestic manufacturers exchanging market for technology, the cooperation between Daimler-Benz and Foton is particularly harmonious this time.
The cooperation between Foton and Daimler-Benz not only created a new Sino-foreign joint venture model, but also became a benchmark for high-end heavy trucks of "European standards, Made in China".
After several years of cooperation, Foton not only retains the ownership of intangible assets such as "Auman" medium and heavy truck product technology, patents, but also obtains technical support from Daimler-Benz, further improving its Fukuda’s influence.
With the support of Daimler-Benz, a strong backing group, the Auman EST super truck debuted in 2016, competing with Daimler's Mercedes-Benz trucks and also showing the performance of Foton Daimler. Muller's strength. In 2018, the Auman ESTA was launched again, equipped with a Mercedes-Benz engine, and brought users the upgraded experience of a new super truck.
In the past few years of this cooperation, Foton Daimler's performance is dazzling among all joint ventures, and this performance continues to grow, further expanding the competitiveness and competitiveness of both parties' products. market share.
Many truck friends who know Auman will definitely have questions. The engine currently used by Auman is not a Mercedes-Benz, but a Foton Cummins. Why is this?
When Foton cooperated with Daimler-Benz in 2012, it had already planned to produce the 490-horsepower Daimler OM457 engine in 2014. The two parties agreed that the Auman trucks produced by Foton Daimler will be equipped with OM457 engines, with technical support provided by Daimler-Benz. The annual engine production capacity is expected to be 45,000 units.
But things went against expectations and the plan could never keep up with the changes. Subsequently, Futian’s Office of the Secretary to the Board revealed to the media that there had been changes in the plan.
Perhaps Foton had already had a premonition that the production of engines with Daimler-Benz would not go so smoothly. On April 8, 2014, when the Auman GTL was released, it also exposed the Foton Cummins ISG engine, which was satisfactory. National IV and National V emission standards. When the news came out, it was unexpected.
Foton Cummins was established on March 26, 2008, before Foton cooperated with Daimler-Benz. Since then, it has been focusing on the development of small-horsepower engines, mainly providing engines for Foton light trucks. The emergence of the ISG engine also means that Foton gets rid of the situation of relying on Weichai's high-horsepower engines.
Since then, Auman has mainly been equipped with Cummins engines, and there has been no new news about the domestic Mercedes-Benz engines planned by Foton and Daimler-Benz.
Editor's Note
My brother believes that in the current truck market, those with high sales are those with high cost performance or good quality, and Auman has occupied these two points. In the future, The development of Foton and Daimler will definitely reach a higher level. Foton focuses on providing customers with logistics and mobility solutions, while Daimler-Benz is the world's leading brand of commercial vehicles. The cooperation between the two parties will bring great benefits to the domestic truck market. Better product.
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.