Well, the military purchased a small amount of West Lake sedans for the top-level senior generals. Others didn't have any objections. Anyway, that's all the senior generals had and they didn't need much.
However, the military has too many ordinary mid-level and high-level generals. Without a proper reason, it is really difficult for the military to purchase cars as vehicles for mid-level and high-level officers.
This is a bit too ostentatious.
No, Qixiang Automobile Company is considerate and fully understands the mentality of its customers. It doesn’t need to be said by the military. Qixiang Automobile Company itself took the initiative to improve and launch a so-called ‘battlefield command vehicle’.
In this way, the military has a reason to purchase this command vehicle, and the reason is quite sufficient to enhance the combat effectiveness of the troops.
Seeing that Xihu Automobile Company and Qixiang Automobile Company have successively opened up the market for ordinary troops, Zhongyuan Automobile Company is also very envious!
But after trying for a long time, there was no result!
How should I put it, this thing is still too expensive. A 1.5-ton military truck from Zhongyuan Automobile Company, which is the truck used by the mechanized army to purchase equipment, costs 2,000 Tang Yuan even if it is sold to the military.
.
More expensive than most cars on the market today.
In the past two years, Qixiang Automobile has expanded its production capacity, mass-produced, and diluted R&D costs. At the same time, more importantly, in order to kill other potential competitors, it has continuously compressed costs and lowered selling prices. Its core product Qixiang brand
The standard selling price of a car has been reduced to 1,600 Tangyuan, and the high-end version does not exceed 2,000 Tangyuan.
Moreover, Qixiang Automobile Company also simplified the configuration of Qixiang brand cars to reduce costs and launched a cheaper Feixiang brand car. The beggar version only costs 1,000 Tangyuan...
The low price has stopped other car companies from entering the civilian car market, except Hangzhou Power Machinery Company!
They have always positioned themselves as high-end luxury cars. The company's West Lake brand luxury cars have never cut prices, and demand still exceeds supply.
Last year, in order to compete with Qixiang Automobile Company, their company established a brand new sub-brand within the company, preparing to explore the market below 5,000 yuan, and at the same time restrain Qixiang Automobile Company from exploring upwards.
But even so, the price of their sub-brand Donghai brand cars is still more than 3,000 Tang Yuan. It has been well received after its release. Many wealthy customers who look down on Qixiang cars but cannot afford Xihu cars.
Found a car brand that fits their psychological positioning.
No matter what kind of car it is, the price is actually very expensive. Even a Qixiang or Feixiang brand car costing more than one thousand or two thousand Tang Yuan, this kind of price is considered a luxury item for the people of the contemporary Tang Dynasty.
The trucks of Zhongyuan Automobile Company are more expensive than the luxury accessories of Qixiang Automobile Company, and the military cannot be so cruel.
Therefore, the military, especially the Army, believes that we have railways and ships for long-distance marches. What kind of cars do we need for marches after arriving at the front line? We can run faster on two legs, and we are not restricted by terrain.
During the unification war, when we fought against the Tatars, we won the war on two legs!
But to put it bluntly, it’s too expensive!
The current various types of vehicle equipment are still too expensive, and the military wants to wait until prices come down before equipping them on a large scale.
After all, if you want to equip it on a large scale. With the size of the Tang Army and the Guards, it is not a matter of two vehicles, but tens of thousands. If one is purchased at the current price of several thousand Tang Yuan,
, how much does this cost? Hundreds of millions of Tang Yuan every minute!
This time, Zhongyuan Automobile Company hooked up with South China Arms Company, and then used the concepts of unprotected armored vehicles and front-line troop transport vehicles to once again promote their trucks to the military and expand the market.
But they definitely didn't expect...
The military was indeed very interested in some of their company's troop transport vehicles, but as soon as they turned around, the military directly mounted the heavy machine gun on the active Zhongyuan truck. This saved money and increased the firepower of the transport vehicle.
But the stingy attitude of the military has made the South China Arms Company and Zhongyuan Automobile Company very popular.
For this reason, the people at Zhongyuan Automobile Company began to calculate the losses, and planned to get back the losses in later orders. If you pick it up, you will have to spit it out sooner or later.
As long as the military wants to equip truck-type military vehicles, it can't go around Zhongyuan Automobile Company, because they have all the truck-related patents, and they can use these patents to give the military a hard time.
As for the pressure, come on, Zhongyuan Automobile Company is also a purely state-owned enterprise. As long as the higher-ups don't undermine it, they can withstand it.
Not only Zhongyuan Automobile Company is like this, but in fact several other automobile companies have also participated in the military's mechanization project through cooperation with the three major weapons companies.
After all, in the field of vehicles, these automobile companies are the authorities, and they almost control the patents and technologies of the entire industry.
Even if the three major weapons companies can rely on the military and use national defense needs as an interest to force them to license limited patents to the three major weapons companies, this thing cannot be made with a patent.
For example, in engine technology, basic gasoline engine patents have been licensed to more than ten companies after the integration of the Royal Institute of Technology. But how many companies are now able to mass-produce gasoline engines?
Four!
That is, Songjiang Heavy Machinery Company, Zhongyuan Automobile Company, Hangzhou Power Machinery Company, and Qixiang Automobile Company.
Others, at best, remain in the stage of small-scale manual production. Even if they can be mass-produced, they will be at an absolute disadvantage in terms of performance and price.
Over time, the four major automobile companies have become more and more powerful in the automotive field, especially the core gasoline engine field.
The engines of the more than ten armored vehicles tested previously were all products of the four major automobile companies.
The engines and other related technologies issued to the heavy-duty six-wheeled armored vehicles actually come from Songjiang Heavy Machinery Company, and only they can play with these big guys.
The related technology of the compact four-wheel armored vehicle comes from Qixiang Automobile Company. It has to be said that Qixiang Automobile Company has great advantages in technology and has very good cost control.
As for the unprotected armored vehicles and troop transport vehicles, their technical source is naturally the Zhongyuan Automobile Company.
Therefore, the military's armored vehicle project appears to be fought over by the three major arms companies, but in fact it is fought over by the three major arms companies and their allies in the automobile companies.
The three major arms companies alone cannot develop armored vehicles.
According to automobile companies, it is okay to ask them to build the body of an armored vehicle, but it is not possible to ask them to add a machine gun to it. It is not because they are not strong enough, but because they do not have the R&D and production licenses related to guns.
This stuff is only available from the three major weapons companies!
Therefore, their cooperation model is basically that the automobile company provides the site for the car body and related technologies, while the weapons company modifies the site and finally launches the finished product.
After being disgusted by the military, the people at Zhongyuan Automobile Company were a little annoyed.
But some people are annoyed, but at the same time, some people are happy!
Because the Datang military has officially purchased one of these armored vehicles on a small scale.