The National for March 21, 2017
Automakers are cutting China Special report success.
BEIJING ever-better cars One reason it starts to get better crop Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co, one of the largest car manufacturers in China, conducted 20 to 25 crash tests when it developed its Panda popular model, engineers involved in the development of the car told Reuters.
Global automakers generally conduct 125 to 150 crash tests for each new model By relying more on computer simulations, Geely saved at least 200 million yuan 31 and 57 million two years in development time on the Panda, the engineers said.
Paring back on crash tests, skimping on frills, simplifying designs, using cheaper materials and, in a departure for the industry, outsourcing most of their design and engineering have a profound effect on cost bases dozens of Chinese automakers Some are now able to sell small cars cheap and cheerful for about 40,000 yuan 6350 - less than half the price of a Toyota vanilla.
It was ten years ago, no Chinese informed consumer would have bought cars in China designed not only these vehicles have been accused of being illegal counterfeits of foreign models, but their quality and safety were also mistrusted.
Now, despite their friendly looks, some indigenous models are balancing without frills affordable and of acceptable quality in China, it is the age of the car pretty good - and that has potentially important implications for the global automotive industry .
Models such as the Panda and the Great Wall Haval H3 are becoming popular not only in China but increasingly in emerging markets, from Indonesia to Egypt and Ukraine They drive auto exports to China to record levels, as the growth of China's auto market slows.
Exports of Chinese goods vehicles are expected by the China Automobile Association to reach a million vehicles this year to 849.500 vehicles last year, some auto analysts predict a 50 percent increase to 1 25 million vehicles .
Some leaders of major foreign manufacturers say enough good new model cars to create China poses a serious challenge to the way international industry operates.
This is a warning shot to the established engineers who have told their management time and time and time again that this is the minimum cost they can achieve with their methodology of design and production, says Shiro Nakamura, a top executive of Nissan Motor Co and the company's chief designer now the Chinese say they can cut another 30, 40 percent of the cost.
It normally takes four to five years for established players like General Motors Co and Toyota Motor Corp to come up with a new car from the ground of Chinese manufacturers can now do so in just two and a half years by deploying an abbreviated design process.
Perhaps the Chinese achieve their low cost by sacrificing quality standards, said Nakamura But in many ways their way also advanced on the quality or the waste we have built into our conventional design process over the years.
The Chinese approach is a product of the extraordinarily rapid growth of its automotive industry that the country is open to the West, automakers have faced relatively poor customers at home and sophisticated products made abroad global manufacturers could sell their expensive cars Chinese rich, but local Chinese automakers had to find cheap cars for the masses.
The rapid growth of the creative economy prompted more than 100 automakers recorded across China by the early 2000s - but they lacked expertise their solution to come up with affordable cars was simple copy the designs of the manufacturers foreigners.
Around 2000, China began to embrace an approach he describes as reverse engineering It was basically a word for copying, said Dai Ming, a senior engineer at CH-Auto Corp technology, a design company and independent engineering Beijing-based the problem with the copied cars was that the Chinese were able to mimic the shape of a foreign car, but not his soul.
Chinese automakers have tended to sift through a foreign vehicle to identify expensive, features non-critical and functions to skimp or eliminate, such as a door that closes with a thud itself, and power windows and passenger airbags the result was often dubious quality and durability After a few years of use, bumpers and door handles would start falling.
Dai said the knock-off model cheap typical He didn t drive the car as well abroad, either, and in some cases it was a safety hazard on the road.
A clutch of design firms led the progress of accessibility and quality in the industry, including CH-Auto, where Dai works; IAT Automobile Technology Co. of Beijing; and TJ Innova Engineering edited by Bill Tarrant and Richard Woods.
Automakers are cutting Reuters Special Report China success, special report, China.
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