Japanese people also need to celebrate the New Year.

But after the magic reform, their year has become the Gregorian calendar year.

The Chinese Spring Festival is no longer a festival in Japan.

So while China is celebrating the Spring Festival, people at Aisin Seiki are still working.

"The extensive application of planetary gear sets is the only way forward for the development of 8at."

"The 8at Nanshan gearbox used in Xingchen cars uses 4 sets of planetary gears."

"These planetary gear sets achieve intervention and separation respectively through five shifting mechanisms."

"The 8at we are developing also uses a structure of 4 sets of planetary gears, but there are 7 shifting mechanisms."

As the R&D director of Aisin Seiki, Hiroyuki Nakazawa personally led a group of designers to dismantle and compare the 8AT Nanshan gearbox.

Previously, the Huaxia branch had disassembled an 8at in advance and provided some data.

But some things are always incredible until you see them with your own eyes.

"The 8at is more fuel-efficient than the 6at, and its efficiency is comparable to that of a dual-clutch transmission. According to our survey, the manufacturing cost of the 8at is 20% lower than that of a 6-speed dual-clutch, and its smoothness is better."

"It seems that Nanshan Transmission is preparing to make full efforts in AT in the future."

"Now that they have built a technological advantage, we have to follow up as soon as possible."

Okumura is also very anxious now.

As the head of the sales department, changes in Aisin's turnover are what he is most concerned about.

In recent years, although Toyota's global sales have increased, Aisin's turnover has declined.

Because the turnover of other customers has dropped too sharply.

Especially on the Ford side, Aisin is almost disappearing.

"Nowadays, various companies' investment in R&D of 8at has indeed suddenly increased a lot."

"According to the information we don't fully understand, ZF, Ford, and Hyundai Mobis are all already developing 8at."

"But except for the Nanshan gearbox, the speed of others will definitely not be able to keep up with ours."

"Aisin's strength is not so easy to catch up with."

Hiroyuki Nakazawa still has certain confidence in the R&D team he leads.

According to the original plan, Aisin 8at will be the world’s first 8at.

However, Cheng Yaojin appeared halfway.

“Does the performance of Nanshan Transmission’s 8AT match the published news?”

The purpose of dismantling research is for benchmarking and learning.

But in order to learn from each other, the first thing to do is to understand the parameters of the other party.

How else to learn?

"Judging from the current testing situation, they are basically consistent."

"Compared with theirs, our 8at is still a little behind in various parameters."

"This is also an incredible place."

"How can a local gearbox company in China make such a good gearbox?"

Having said this, Nakazawa Hiroyuki's face turned a little ugly.

This is totally against common sense.

"Do you think it's possible for us to dig some people from Nanshan Gearbox?"

"Being able to work in Japan is something that many Chinese people are looking forward to, right?"

When Okumura suggested this, Nakazawa's eyes immediately lit up.

However, he soon became disappointed again.

"We have dismantled the 8at of Nanshan transmission. There is not necessarily much secret in its design."

"Some of the patents in it have been registered in major countries. If we were to copy them directly, it would definitely be an infringement."

"It's nothing more than the accuracy and tolerance data of some parts, which we can't quite accurately grasp yet."

"But this aspect has always been our strength at Aisin, so there is no need to learn from Nanshan."

Nakazawa Hiroyuki is quite familiar with the current situation.

Being able to recruit people from Nanshan Transmission will certainly allow Aisin to better understand the other party's situation.

But for Aisin’s 8at, it really doesn’t mean that much.

"Then are we just going to chase passively like this?"

"I heard that Nanshan Transmission is already in contact with car companies such as Ford, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz and BMW. If these auto giants are using Nanshan Transmission's 8at by then, it will be very bad news for us.

"

Okumura is an ambitious man.

Naturally, he was not willing to accept that Aisin was only supplying parts for Toyota vehicles.

In that case, the development space will be relatively limited, and the social influence will be greatly reduced by one level.

"We can only consider some process optimization to see if we can further improve the performance of our 8at."

"For gearboxes of this level, the performance is a little bit worse, but the impact is actually not that big."

"The most critical thing is the matching and tuning of the engine. We are definitely better at this than Nanshan Gearbox."

"In the end, it is entirely possible that the powertrain equipped with Aisin 8at will have better performance than Nanshan."

"Of course, finding ways to reduce costs is something that must be considered."

"Otherwise, Nanshan Transmission's technology is better than ours and its cost is lower than ours, and it would be difficult to win orders from them."

When Hiroyuki Nakazawa said this, Okumura's head almost got bigger.

Compared to cost?

When will Japanese companies start to compare costs with Chinese companies?

"It seems that we have to consider producing 8at in the factory in China as soon as possible."

"Or it can be produced in Southeast Asia, otherwise the cost will not be completely reduced to a level similar to Nanshan gearbox."

Okumura has a clear understanding of labor costs in Japan.

No matter whether it is workers' wages or the value of water, electricity, gas and land, there is no way to compare with China.

In this case, the production cost of Aisin gearbox is destined to be higher than that of Nanshan gearbox.

Putting the main production location overseas is no other choice.

Invisibly, Cao Yang has made an alternative contribution to the development of China's gearbox industry.

After all, if Aisin puts 8at into production in China, it will inevitably recruit some relevant personnel to engage in this work.

Even if many technical parameters are not announced, local technicians can eventually learn something.

…

While the people at Aisin Seiki were dismantling the 8at on the Purple Star, Porsche engineers were driving the Purple Star to conduct various tests.

"Lai Ping, Xingchen Motors' Ziweixing will be officially launched in Germany next month."

"The dealers they are looking for still have some overlap with us."

"Do you think we should use dealers to create obstacles for them?"

Weidejin originally did not take Xingchen Automobile seriously.

But the tests during this period subverted many of his perceptions.

Unexpectedly, what Cao Yang said at the Yangcheng Auto Show was all true.

"We have no idea how many Ziwei Xings can be sold in Germany."

"But Porsche's sales in China are constantly rising."

"If we take the lead and use some tricks, and Xingchen Automobile follows suit, Porsche will definitely suffer the biggest losses."

When Lai Ping said this, Wei Dejin immediately knew what he meant.

Fortunately, he just mentioned it like that and didn't particularly care.

"I always feel that this Purple Star has a bit of a Porsche 911 style."

"Especially the shape of the front part of the car is slightly similar to many of our models."

"The Chinese people say they have created a new model, but in fact I think they have not escaped the path of copying in the east and copying in the west."

Weidejin tried his best to find out more problems on Ziwei Star.
To be continued...