March 12, 2006.

When the domestic Internet market was in a commotion due to the rise of Weibo, and several portals began to launch their own Weibo, Cao Yang flew to the United States with Ji Hua, Zeng Tingting, Mi Ying and others.

This business trip is not just for a few days.

Ziweixing will also be launched in the United States, Europe and the Middle East.

Cao Yang, the general manager who also serves as the design director, will definitely want to take a look.

So after a long round, the business trip plan was directly scheduled to a month later.

"Chris, long time no see."

Cao Yang first came to Ford Motor to find Chris, the purchasing director.

Although Ford's situation is better than that of General Motors, it also lost hundreds of millions of dollars.

It stands to reason that Changan Ford is quite profitable, and its financial business is also very good.

In this case, the entire company suffered a loss. It can only be said that the American market is not strong.

"Cao, you bring me good luck every time I see you. Is there any good news this time?"

Chris looked a little haggard.

Ford at this time is slightly better than in history, and this is all the additional influence brought by Nanshan Group.

But it’s only a little better, and those who should lose money still lose money.

As the purchasing director, Chris is obviously under a lot of pressure.

"I heard that Toyota, Honda and Nissan are performing extremely well in the American market and have achieved positive sales growth for several consecutive years."

"They can have such a growth rate, and one of the big reasons is that their engines are more fuel-efficient."

"However, the various performances of the 1.5t turbocharged engine produced by our Nanshan Engine are more fuel-efficient than their products of the same level."

"Chris, if Ford considers directly using Nanshan's 1.5t engine and 6at combination in some models, it may be able to achieve unexpected results."

"For example, Mondeo, with this combination, its fuel consumption will definitely not be worse than Accord and Camry."

Ford has its own engine factory, so it will naturally not use Nanshan Engine products easily.

Cao Yang also had a very clear understanding of this.

However, after falling into a desperate situation, who knows whether people will make any different choices?

If Nanshan Engine can really supply Ford Motor, it would be of extraordinary significance.

This will also be of great benefit to promote Nanshan Engine's further market expansion in China.

"The 2.0L engine and 2.5L V6 engine used by Mondeo are also very classic, but many consumers don't know the difference."

It's not a slap in the face. Cao Yang directly said that Ford's engine was not good. Chris's face must have been ugly.

"Ford's advantage in large-displacement engines is definitely not comparable to that of Japanese car companies."

"But in terms of mid-size cars and economy cars with the largest sales volume at present, Japan's 1.5l, 2.0l, 2.4l and even 3.0l and 3.5l engines have better fuel consumption performance than American domestic companies."

"This is also an important reason why American consumers choose them."

"Chris, why don't you consider choosing Mondeo as a pilot model to see what the market response will be after it is equipped with Nanshan 1.5t and 2.0t engines?"

"I'm not bragging. The performance parameters of our 1.5t engine exceed that of your 2.0l engine, and are not even much different from your 2.5l engine."

"The performance of the 2.0t engine is far beyond what your 2.5L naturally aspirated engine can compare to."

"American consumers like powerful vehicles, but they also care about fuel consumption."

"The combination provided by our Nanshan Group can perfectly meet the market demand."

"And this platform is in mass production. We only need to make some simple adjustments to the corresponding mounting bracket light parts on the Mondeo, and it can be directly mass-produced."

"Your company can definitely launch a new power version of the facelifted Mondeo in the second half of this year."

The more Cao Yang talked about it, the more excited he became, as if Mondeo would immediately sell well after using Nanshan's engine.

This made Chris start to feel excited.

Of course, replacing the engine is definitely not something he, the purchasing director, has the final say on.

But as a cost reduction plan that breaks the rules, it can obviously be thrown out in the company.

"Cao, can your 1.5t and 2.0t engines be 20% cheaper than our 2.0l and 2.5l engines?"

"If possible, I will formally propose this plan within the company tomorrow."

Chris looked at Cao Yang with twinkling eyes, wanting to know the answer right away.

"It depends on how much your engine costs."

"I can't guarantee 20%, but the 10% advantage is definitely there."

"In fact, if your company can purchase more engine parts from Nanshan Auto Parts, the cost can be reduced by at least 5% even without replacing the engine."

For Ford, the biggest pressure now is high costs and poor sales.

As the purchasing director, Chris is the most meaningful person to discuss costs with.

Nanshan Group's key products exported to Ford Motor Company have always been gearboxes and bearings, gears, bolts and other parts used in gearboxes.

Apart from the nut plate and bearings, there are very few other parts.

It’s not that Nanshan Group’s other parts are not competitive, it’s that Ford doesn’t want Nanshan Group’s purchasing share to be as high.

But now Ford has fallen into losses.

Some things can naturally be changed.

What’s wrong with purchasing more parts from Nanshan Group?

As long as the price is advantageous, no one can say anything.

The parts provided by local suppliers in the United States are simply too expensive.

Chris is also very aware of this.

"Our 2.0l engine, if it does not include engine accessories such as starter, generator, air conditioning compressor, etc., and is just a bare engine, it will cost about US$3,000."

"If other engine accessories are included, the cost of the entire engine system will be approximately more than 4,000 US dollars."

"Cao, this is the secret of our Ford Motor Company. You cannot leak it to the outside world."

"If the bare 1.5t engine provided by your group can cost US$2,400, then I am 70% sure to convince the company to launch a 1.5t version on the Mondeo model."

"If you can do it at a cost of US$2,100, then I have a 90% chance of doing this."

Chris really didn't understand the situation of Nanshan engine before.

Ford's engines have always been relatively good, especially in various large-displacement engines.

Therefore, I have never considered purchasing engines from outside before.

It's just that the situation has changed now.

"Chris, frankly speaking, for Nanshan Engine, the most important thing is the opportunity to supply Ford Motor Company. Making money or not is not the most important thing."

"So as long as the annual supply of 1.5t engines reaches 100,000 units, I can now agree to sell it at US$2,400."

"If Ford buys more than 200,000 1.5t engines, then I will directly adjust the selling price to US$2,100."

Cao Yang quickly weighed the pros and cons in his mind.

The price Chris mentioned is higher than what Nanshan engines sell to domestic OEMs.

Even if it is US$2,100, it is actually higher than in China.

Although you have to take into account various impacts such as import and export tariffs, freight, and insurance, it is still profitable.

Even this profit is not low.

So without any hesitation, he agreed.

Of course, in order to show his attitude of working hard and cooperating, and also to show his pressure, he put forward a sales threshold.

Chris didn't have any trouble with this.

A dead camel is bigger than a horse.

Ford sold almost 7 million vehicles last year.

There is no pressure at all to free up 200,000 vehicles.

Anyway, within Ford cars, engines on the same platform as Mondeo can be easily replaced.

"Cao, I heard that Nanshan Group established an automobile company and launched a coupe, which attracted some attention."

"I heard before that you wanted to use some of Ford's dealer channels to sell this model."

"If I can help you succeed in this project, can your 1.5t engine be like the 6at and have in-depth cooperation with our Ford Motor Company?"

Chris has quite an appetite.

The cooperation was immediately advanced to the transfer of engine technology.
To be continued...