Chapter 485 Question
"How do the two technologies, horizontally opposed engines and full-time four-wheel drive, perform in the market?"
"These two Subaru technologies have been well received by users, especially in the Great Lakes region in the eastern North America, where Subaru's brand awareness is widespread."
“How are global markets performing?”
"Uh," Nakamura Takao was a little stuck, "Subaru's market performance is much worse than Toyota and Nissan, but its potential is worth looking forward to."
It is of course difficult to describe Subaru's global market. All we can say is that it is the last of Japan's eight major automobile manufacturers and a true niche car.
Whether it is horizontally opposed or full-time four-wheel drive, the design and production process of each part have very stringent requirements.
Their manufacturing costs are much higher than common inline or V-type engines, as well as two-wheel drive vehicles.
At the same time, high-precision manufacturing requirements also bring higher maintenance costs. In addition, their compact layout on the body makes maintenance more difficult.
Therefore, the advantages of these two technologies are obvious, but of course they also have disadvantages, that is, they are not suitable for high-volume car manufacturers to adopt this technology.
Shirakawa Feng roughly knew the problems Subaru was facing now, but he would talk about them later.
"Please continue, Nakamura-san. The more detailed information about Subaru the better."
After personally experiencing it in a Subaru four-wheel drive, Shirakawa Kaede feels that Subaru's design is actually quite good for the current era.
"Hay" got his permission, and Takao Nakamura continued to introduce Subaru's technology .
"In addition to the above two technologies, Subaru's safety design is also unique.
The high-strength ring frame can protect the safety of passengers to the greatest extent in the event of a collision.”
There was a Subaru model with only the frame retained in the exhibition hall. Based on it, Takao Nakamura also introduced the advantages of this safety design to Kaede Shirakawa.
This ring-shaped structure disperses the shock of the collision in various directions, avoiding the deformation of the car body caused by the inconsistent force transmission routes of ordinary frames.
After this introduction to the mechanical design concept, Subaru left a very special impression on Shirakawa Kaede.
It is probably the Japanese car that least resembles a Japanese car among Japanese car companies.
Maneuverability, power, and safety are three characteristics that are not possessed by ordinary thin-skinned Japanese cars.
At the same time, from the perspective of the technology market, these three technologies are also Subaru's three weapons, and they are the only things worthy of praise.
Tsk, that’s interesting.
"In addition to continuing to develop existing advantageous technologies, Subaru is also developing the latest generation of ADA (Active Driving Assist) driver assistance system."
"Wait, assisted driving system?" Baichuan Feng thought he had heard it wrong. This thing already exists now?
"Huh?" Nakamura Takao nodded, "ADA is an anti-collision system designed based on safety.
This system, combined with ABS technology and active body protection technology, forms a VDC control system.
With it, the car can automatically identify the distance, shape, moving speed, etc. of the object in front, and prompt the driver to brake the vehicle at the appropriate time.
This involves cutting-edge technologies such as millimeter-wave radar, lidar, monocular camera, binocular camera, etc., which are still in the development stage. "
Takao Nakamura's explanation felt like he had opened up a new world for Shirakawa Kaede.
It turns out that the assisted driving system that is commonly used in cars in later generations was already being researched in the late 1980s .
"If you need support on the chip, you can contact TSIC. If you need support on the software, you can contact SSM."
I can’t say anything else, but when it comes to professional auxiliary chip design, TSIC is definitely Japan’s best competitor.
The same is true for SSM, which was split from HAL. They focus on the development of various software tools and have gradually become the leader in Japan's professional software field.
"Huh!" Takao Nakamura, who was standing next to him, rubbed his hands excitedly when he heard the news.
With a technical background, he certainly knew the names of TSIC and SSM, which were also the professional technology companies he had always coveted.
However, due to the huge losses suffered by Fuji Heavy Industries, they had no chance to cooperate with either of them.
Now Shirakawa Kaede has taken the initiative to propose to provide Subaru with corresponding technical support to improve the assisted driving system as soon as possible.
Of course Nakamura Takao was happy to hear the news, as someone gave him a pillow just when he was feeling sleepy.
Tsk, Baichuan Feng Holdings made the right choice.
Feeling somewhat excited, Takao Nakamura began to introduce another cutting-edge research of Subaru.
“In addition to traditional fuel vehicles, Subaru also developed pure electric vehicles (EVs) in the 1970s.
At that time, Tokyo also held a car show specifically for electric vehicles, and Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and Mazda all competed for it.
However, due to major technical limitations, pure electric models have remained at the concept prototype stage.
Subaru was also involved in the design at the time, and now it still retains the original technical development progress. "
The concept of electric vehicles actually existed a long time ago, and Japan even had competition to develop them in the 1960s and 1970s.
Even in China, the concept of electric vehicles has long been around. In a personal letter from a certain tycoon, he suggested that the country should start developing the electric vehicle sector as soon as possible.
Although there are some creative ideas, it is still too difficult to use it for commercial purposes with current technology.
Shirakawa Kaede also saw the EV designed by Subaru on the spot. Not only are they bloated in appearance, they cannot be called pure electric vehicles.
This is more like a crude oil-to-electric conversion, but it's not their fault because the hardware limits the implementation of the technology.
However, although EV electric vehicles are not very realistic nowadays, some necessary technical reserves cannot be left behind.
“Shirakawa Battery’s research institute in Tohoku is conducting research on lithium battery technology.
Subaru can cooperate with them in research on EV electric vehicles. We don’t need to aim for mass production, but just need to continue to accumulate technology.”
Baichuan Feng didn't expect that he could change his fate and commercialize electric vehicles decades in advance. That was unrealistic.
However, necessary technical accumulation is necessary, even if it costs a little more money.
When he heard that Shirakawa Holdings was also developing lithium battery technology, Takao Nakamura became even more impressed with his boss.
Awesome! These are cutting-edge technologies.
It seems that Shirakawa Holdings attaches more importance to technological development than outsiders imagine, but this is definitely good news for Subaru.
After looking at civilian cars, Takao Nakamura also introduced cars from other fields to Shirakawa Kaede and others.
That's right, in addition to civilian cars, Subaru also has other car models.
For example, two-wheeled motorcycles, light three-wheeled vehicles, buses and other vehicles for niche purposes, but this part of the business is now almost gone.
In addition, Subaru is also involved in special vehicles.
A considerable number of the railway vehicles used by JR, private railways, and national railways come from Subaru.
Diesel locomotives, trams, freight cars, special operation vehicles, and large rail trains were all part of Fuji Heavy Industries' former businesses.
It's no wonder that this surprised Shirakawa Feng. It turns out that in addition to cars, Subaru's business scope is so wide.
If the previous models surprised Baichuan Feng, then he was shocked when he saw the products of the aircraft division.
Well, most of those planes are out of the scope of civilian use. There are many models, from ancient aircraft to modern aircraft.
As for the details... can't tell~
In fact, Shirakawa Kaede is also quite conflicted about the aircraft division. On the one hand, he just wants Subaru to focus on the civilian automobile field, and on the other hand, he doesn't know whether to let go of the aircraft division.
However, when it comes to the Ministry of Defense, I'm afraid there are some things that he cannot decide on his own.
Forget it, let's just let things take their own course. If something unexpected happens in the future, it won't be too late to make plans then.
Today at Subaru's headquarters they only got a general idea of the situation there. As for the OEMs, they are all in Gunma Prefecture, so Shirakawa Kaede and his team definitely won't have time to visit them this time.
According to Takao Nakamura, Subaru also has an OEM plant in Kitami, which mainly serves the local market.
After getting a general understanding of the situation, Shirakawa Feng already had some ideas about Subaru.
"Mr. Nakamura, everyone, why don't we discuss Subaru's subsequent plans together?"
"Hayi" everyone responded in unison, and their faces became much more serious.
Didn’t they just work so hard to introduce Subaru’s various technical advantages just to win the favor of Shirakawa Kaede and then get more resources?
After a large group of people finished touring the headquarters, they all started walking towards the conference room upstairs.
There, the next moment will determine the future fate of Subaru.
…
"Nakamura, everyone already knows about Subaru's situation, so now let's talk about its market?"
When a business crisis occurs, the first thing to do is of course to analyze the market.
Only by finding the root of the problem can we come up with a corresponding solution.
Speaking of this topic, Nakamura Takao's expression also became serious.
"Subaru currently has three main consumer models on sale, namely LEONE, Domingo and ALCYONE.
The LEONE series is positioned in the mid-range. Both full-time four-wheel drive and horizontally opposed systems are used in this series, and they also have a considerable audience in Japan.
Domingo is a K-CAR, a type of light van, designed to be light, economical and simple.
The last model, ALCYONE, was developed specifically for the high-end market. It is Subaru's first two-door coupe and also Subaru's first model exported overseas.
Except for ALCYONE, the other two of the above three car series were updated in 1980 and their corresponding versions were also released overseas.
In addition, there are extended versions of them, such as off-road version and travel version, which are also on sale. "
Strictly speaking, Subaru actually only has these three models on sale at this time, and most of the other original old models have been discontinued.
There is no doubt that for a car company, three models on sale are a bit too few.
This may also be one of the reasons why Subaru is relatively niche. The market itself is limited and there are relatively few choices, which is equivalent to a two-way constraint.
However, Subaru’s real business crisis does not lie here, but in its previous market positioning.
“Because we insist on the full-time four-wheel drive and horizontally opposed route, the good maneuverability of Subaru models has been warmly welcomed in the North American market.
Since the 1980s, sales and revenue in the North American market have far exceeded those in Japan. Later, the company simply focused on the North American market and began to carry out targeted operations.
However, since the appreciation of the Japanese yen, Subaru's overseas sales have plummeted. Especially after 1986, the North American market has lost almost 60% of its market share. "
When talking about the disaster brought about by the appreciation of the yen, Takao Nakamura also looked sad.
Subaru was once glorious, but the changes came too fast and Fuji Heavy Industries was caught off guard.
With the consumer-grade car model with the highest profits and sales volume suffering a setback, Subaru's losses are almost inevitable.
After understanding the current situation Subaru is facing, Shirakawa Feng also has a general idea in his mind.
