In recent years, China's self-owned brand auto companies have formulated engine development strategies and achieved certain achievements in engine R&D and production. The gap between the recently put engines and foreign advanced levels is continuously narrowing. Domestic independent car company's engine strategic plan The engine is the core technology of the car. The engine's advanced or not directly relates to a car's core indicators such as power, fuel consumption and emissions, and determines the performance and quality of a car. In recent years, many independent brands in China have put the engine's R&D, production, and selection at the core of product development, and have independently developed and launched a number of self-owned brand engines. Chery and Geely have made achievements in the field of engine R&D. Chery's ACTECO series engines have been recognized by the international market, and Geely's VVT technology has also been applied to 1.8L-class engines. At the 2009 Shanghai Auto Show, Geely showcased nine engines featuring new technologies such as exhaust gas turbocharging, direct injection in the cylinder, and common rail. As an important part of the powertrain, Geely also exhibited three transmissions, of which the biggest highlight is 7DCT, which will be the first public appearance of the first self-developed dual-clutch automatic transmission in China. Four Ways to Obtain Engines for Self-owned Brand Enterprises Compared with joint-venture brands, there is still a certain gap in the technology of self-owned brand models, especially key technologies such as engines, and the disadvantages are even more prominent. In the early days when these independent brands were founded, there was almost no technology accumulation in the engine area, but today they are launching new cars at an alarming rate. What kind of methods are they using to match the new car? First, the whole machine outsourcing The number of China's auto manufacturers is the largest in the world, but there are very few that actually reach the scale. Most companies have relatively scarce capital and technical strength. Even some of the cars produced by companies are even outsourced with body panels. These companies do not have the production and R&D capabilities of engines. The engines they use are all purchased. Some companies have their own engine products, but they can't meet the needs of new models. They also use outsourcing to solve them. At present, there are a number of domestic manufacturers that specialize in producing engines. For example, Mitsubishi has established two large-scale engine factories in Shenyang and Harbin. Apart from supplying domestic Mitsubishi branded models, its products are more suited to domestic auto companies. Currently, Mitsubishi's own-brand models occupy a large proportion of the market. Purchasing mature engine products from professional suppliers can significantly shorten the development time of new vehicles and introduce new models at a faster rate. These engines for export are mature regardless of technology or adjustment, and their reliability is guaranteed. However, these engines rarely use more advanced technologies and their performance is relatively modest, and often there are many different models of the same model with different models. In the case of an engine, the product lacks characteristics and reduces competitiveness. Second, cooperation and development In the face of the outstanding performance of the advanced engine of the joint venture model, many self-owned brand enterprises are aware of their own deficiencies, and some enterprises with certain strength have started to independently develop new engine products. However, the development of a new engine with outstanding performance and advanced technology is not easy for those international auto giants. However, there is almost no technology accumulation and development experience for the independent brand enterprises in the engine. Under such circumstances, they generally cooperated with some foreign engine technology companies to jointly develop new engine products. For example, Chery and JAC are cooperating with Austrian AVL Liszt internal combustion engine and test equipment company. Changan and Brilliance cooperate with German FEV company. Lifan cooperates with RICARDO company in UK. Huatai cooperates with Italy VM company and Changfeng Cheetah cooperates with Fiat Power Technology Co., Ltd. and many more. This kind of development model can improve the competitiveness of the models with more advanced technologies and performance, and can also accumulate more development experience during the cooperation process, laying a foundation for the future development of new products independently. However, the relatively long development cycle of this model will affect the speed of launch of new products. [next] Third, imitate development There are many companies that have developed in cooperation with well-known foreign technology companies. However, the technical strength of these technology companies is hard to avoid giving rise to suspicion. Although it is cooperation and people want to get the technology, they also have to pay a large amount of money. However, if the developed product can achieve the expected performance, there is also a certain risk. Therefore, this kind of development mode is not recognized by all independent brands, and some of them adopt the method of imitating development. Imitation development may also be referred to as reverse development. It is to plan the performance range of the new engine to be used as a criterion to select an engine with excellent performance and a relatively simple structure among existing mature models, and then to disassemble the engine. A comprehensive analysis of the structure, principle, and materials of each component is performed, and the acquired data and data are then used as a basis to develop a new engine. For example, Geely's 1.3L, 1.5L, and 1.6L engines, Lifan's 1.3L and 1.6L engines refer to the Toyota A series. BYD's 1.8L and 2.0L engines refer to Mazda's FP and FS, and its own brand's first VVT. The variable valve timing engine, the Geely 4G18, was also developed on the Toyota 1ZZ-FE. The development cost of this model is relatively low, the research and development cycle is short, and the reference is a mature product, which can also be guaranteed in terms of reliability. In this way, many relevant technologies and experiences can be accumulated, and many current well-known automobile brands develop new products in the early days of their business. The engine developed by this model is basically a reference prototype replica. Although some details may be changed during the development process, the overall structure will not change much, and its performance is basically the same as the reference object. Level. However, such development methods can easily cause disputes over some intellectual property rights, and they can only refer to mature engines and make it impossible to grasp the latest and most advanced technologies. Fourth, take the doctrine Some of the self-owned brands previously had a background in joint ventures. They used a large number of technology and supporting systems for joint venture vehicles when developing their own models. The engines were either sourced locally or used directly as joint venture vehicles, or they were based on the engines of the joint venture vehicles. , it becomes a self-contained model. Some autonomous models have evolved from joint venture models, or have been developed on the basis of joint venture models, and the original models have been used for power. FAW Pentium, for example, was developed on the basis of the Mazda 6, and the chassis and engine are directly from the Mazda 6, as is Changhe Edil, which is based on the Suzuki Big Dipper. Another situation is the self-owned brands that have evolved from the acquisition of foreign automobile companies. All of these vehicle models have been developed overseas. They have only taken the production line to the domestic market, or have only made minor changes to the product, but the body and chassis of the vehicle have also changed. There is not much change in motivation. For example, SAIC Roewe and MG are acquired through the acquisition of bankrupted Rover. The current models are all developed by Rover MG in the past, but the brand belongs to SAIC and is produced in China. There is also the HQ3 with the red flag. Actually, the Crown Makesta is OEM-made in China, and the engine is naturally entirely Toyota's product. Generally, these kinds of situations are categorized as "receiving" because the engines are ready-made and do not need to invest much financial resources in research and development. This method can also shorten the development cycle of new cars. Currently, the engines used in these models all have mature technologies and matching. They are equivalent to joint venture vehicles in terms of reliability and actual power performance, and are easier than those developed in cooperation or imitated and developed. Get consumer recognition. These directly used engines are often more mainstream technologies, but they are not advanced. The production experience using these engines' own brands is far greater than that of R&D, and if you want to use more advanced technology and better performance engines, you will either continue to search for the corresponding models from joint ventures, or you will have to use cooperative development or imitative development. The model is far from real independent research and development. Independent R&D prospects Broad cooperation and development are the most feasible Experts in the industry commented on the above several models, saying that collaborative development is the most time consuming and laborious, and that the initial product competitiveness is not strong, but it can apply the most advanced technology to products, and when technology and experience have accumulated to a certain extent, this This model can also be earliest step into the independent track of independent development. The prospects are very broad, so this mode of development is most worth praising. Recently, Hu Maoyuan, chairman of SAIC, also pointed out that domestic auto companies should jointly develop. He said that the international automobile companies have a strong R&D technology base, large capital investment, and a high degree of cooperation. Domestic auto companies not only have less accumulated R&D experience, have little capital investment, but also lack cooperation and resources. It is understood that the proportion of research and development expenses of the world’s auto giants generally exceeds 4%, while the proportion of domestic R&D expenses is generally below 2%. Hu Maoyuan believes that although there are product competitions among companies in the world, they all cooperate on a common platform. He believes that China's auto industry is less capital and should not engage in homogenized research and development, or even low-level repeated research and development. For example, research and development of battery technology, similar to this common technology, domestic auto companies can fully develop jointly to reduce investment, focus on research, and share results. SAIC Group is willing to carry out joint development with its counterparts in China, including related companies in the world. In fact, as early as last year, under the coordination of the National Development and Reform Commission, more than 10 domestic companies including FAW, SAIC, Dongfeng, Chang'an, Brilliance, Geely, and Chery jointly formed a technology development institution and jointly developed an automatic transmission, especially a dual clutch transmission (DCT). ), with a view to changing the status of automatic transmissions completely dependent on imports. An important aspect of the joint development of core technologies by major Chinese self-owned brand car companies is that, if successful, technological breakthroughs can eliminate the complicated process of technology application and promotion, and more importantly, this cooperation mechanism will be the core technology area in the future. The cooperative development provides a system that can be emulated.