A few days ago, on the Kwong Chi Technology Day in Shanghai, I asked the design director of Qoros, who was the Goth of the BMW MINI designer, the upcoming Kiosk 3, and whether the technical level can surpass the VW, Ford, and Opel. European mainstream popular models? He pointed to several foreign colleagues who are communicating with the media and asked in a repetitive manner: We, these people, have also become famous in the big companies in Europe and the United States. With our age, if we develop a car that is inferior to the public, What are the reasons for gathering in China?

Three years ago, Chairman of the Board of Directors Guo Qian used the metaphor of clothes to introduce me to the model innovation of developing Chinese cars in accordance with the internationalization process: China's old tailors can strike customers with a fit, and they can make fit clothes; and Italy Clothing brands, thousands of individuals involved, tens of thousands of data accumulation, in order to industrial production of a brand-name clothing.

Today, the soon-to-be mass-produced "View 3" medium-sized sedan, as well as a cross-border car and a hybrid concept car appeared before us. I asked Guo Qian to introduce me to the development model of Qoros. In my opinion, the success of the model is far greater than the success of the technology. It has greater penetrating power to explore the path of China's automobile innovation.

Li Anding: Can you briefly introduce the development process of global mainstream automotive companies?

Guo Qian: First of all, concept design is like a product's life plan. Next, through computer simulation, the performance, fuel consumption, and air resistance coefficient of the car are calculated. The more accurate the calculated result, the later work will be relatively reduced; Reproduce and produce a certain number of prototypes, send them to various environments for experimentation, and finally production preparation and product verification.

To get a car ready, the basic steps of the development process of most manufacturers around the world are probably the same. Each manufacturer will have some of its own characteristics.

From the 1970s to the 1990s, Korean companies have seriously learned from the West and have basically mastered the basic methods and experiences of doing cars in accordance with international standards. But for the overall Chinese auto industry, there must be a learning process to form a successful development process. There was once an American scholar who told me that the progress made by Chinese enterprises in the past two decades is still far from the South Korea.

One of the characteristics of the concept process is to speed up this learning process.

Li Anding: In recent years, China's own brands have changed from the original imitation and patchwork to the positive development. What are the implications of the new model?

Guo Qian: In general, forward development is divided into the following levels:

The first level is the accumulation of product development technologies. The design and manufacture of a car may require a thousand technologies, such as 10 noise aspects and 20 fuel economy aspects. When this thousand technologies were basically completed, it was possible to complete the development of a car in accordance with international general standards.

The second level, vehicle integration. The integration of the vehicle is to achieve the goal of the entire vehicle by dealing with the contradiction between indicators and indicators. Like the safety collision structure shown by the Watching Technology Day, the front vehicle energy-absorbing zone is relatively soft, but it is too soft to be strong; the middle section of the car requires a large rigidity, but the rigidity is too heavy; in order to prevent the pedestrian's head The impact requires a certain structure to absorb the energy, the occupied space will affect the layout of other parts, and the space occupied by each part structure will affect the modeling. Therefore, through continuous accumulation of experience and verification, the structure can be made safe and reasonable, achieving a perfect balance of space, vehicle weight, and fuel consumption.

The third level, at the level of vehicle development, is to achieve modular development from one step to the next, and to evolve into a modular platform, which allows Class A, Class B, Class A0 and other levels of vehicles to share a modular platform. Car companies have entered the stage of platform development. Qoros will further extend multiple models through platformization to reduce costs and stabilize quality.

At the fourth level, we not only use the car as a means of transportation, but also hope to make the product a representative of a lifestyle, thus creating a brand with distinctive personality. Creating a successful car brand requires three basic characteristics: first, the basic characteristics of product quality, and second, the use of technology to construct product features. (In the popular brand, there is usually no special investment for the formation of technical characteristics, so there will not be much technical differences.) The third is cultural characteristics. The automobile culture in the world is divided into several schools in Europe, Japan, South Korea and North America. In Europe, Germany, France, and Italy are different. Each school has its own specific user group, which is a manifestation of a regional lifestyle. As a concept car that incorporates German design elements, the car not only combines the essence of the German car that is simple, refined and dynamic, but also inherits the elegant, atmospheric, and harmonious elements of Chinese culture and redefines a new style of design.

Of these four levels, the first is the discrete technology stage; the second is the automotive integration stage; the third is the modularization stage; the fourth is the grasp of the brand. For Qoros, we have today Its own brand characteristics, brand technical characteristics and its own car platform platform. Observing the established design direction is equivalent to the backbone of our style. With this backbone, there is a guiding principle for the consistency of style in the future.

Li Anding: One of my foreign counterparts said that in terms of the core of the product, Qoros is also a German car than a German car?

Guo Qian: I would like to introduce our team. Indeed, Guanzhi has brought together long-term experts in world-class companies to work with us. Most of them have three generations of vehicle development experience, specializing in surgery. Someone asked me if the executives of Guanzhi Auto come from different companies. How do you form a team? It happens that they are all from major automotive companies in Europe. The working language and process thinking are the same. The communication is smooth and we can start our development work on a higher basis.

The Qoros car is developed in accordance with the style and driving characteristics of the German car. Most of the performances have reached the average level of German popular models, and some of the indicators are also relatively high in German cars. For example, the air resistance coefficient of 0.287; for example, the operating performance of the Qoros 3 is very good, forming its own driving experience; therefore, “returning a German car to a German car” is indeed a more vivid view and should be the direction of our efforts.

In order to reach international standards for independent development, I think there are three ways.

The first one is to engage in self-development and invite some returnees to come back. Individuals also ask some foreigners to do their own work. Theoretically speaking, they will take a lot of detours and the time will be very long.

The second is to fully commission foreign design and follow the study. Using this path to achieve international standards, South Koreans spent 20 years. In the moment, perhaps shorter. GAC is commissioned to develop, follow the learning model, and progress will be rapid.

The third type is to employ experienced experts and experienced business experts to form teams in accordance with international standards, just as Guanzhi and SAIC and other independent brands have already done. SAIC Motor bought a European company and won the European design team; Geely and Volvo collaborated on the development of a platform, which is also a model in terms of the technical route; it took six years to create an international-level team and developed products. All indicators have basically reached or exceeded the international average. Although the success in the market should be verified.

Of the three paths, I'm not absolutely sure which one is more promising and which one is hopeless. If you take a short time course, one-time investment is large, if you fail, you have to bear; if you choose to take the path slowly, take a step forward, when starting, it seems very easy, did not spend much money to dry up, but then Under the development, each step must overcome the inertia of the previous step, and the market does not have much time for the new company to gradually progress. Of course, it does not mean that this road does not exist. Audi is the road. It takes 30 years to step up the level of products. Therefore, I feel that I cannot simply say that it is an adventure or that it is an adventure. It depends on what our goals and circumstances are.

Qoros car investment is big, but the time to catch up with the international level will be shortened. There are also many comments in the international community that Guanzhi is the best opportunity for Chinese companies. I once met a former German public colleague at the airport. He said that in their eyes, Guanzhi is the most dangerous competitor among Chinese brands.