Chapter 2202 The era of universalization of automobiles
Li Xuan's words made the emperor's grandson a little surprised. Li Hongchuo thought that although the aircraft looked very advanced, its practicality might be questionable.
The range is only a few hundred kilometers, the load capacity is very small, the speed is not very fast, and the site requirements are extremely high. In his opinion, such an aircraft is not as good as the rigid airship currently equipped by the military.
Although the commercial application of airships in the Tang Empire was not smooth. In the early years, it was questioned by the public due to accidents, and it has not yet been commercialized and put into the market. However, its military uses are still quite extensive.
The Emperor Taisun predicted that if airships continue to develop, they may become an important military equipment.
But as for the airplane, it looks like a toy, and it is really hard to believe its future prospects.
However, Li Xuan didn't say much to the Emperor Taisun. The huge potential of the aircraft did not require him to explain in detail. Time will tell everything.
After watching the flight and returning to the palace, the Holy Emperor resumed his peaceful life.
The emperor's grandson returned to his busy life. After returning from the test field, the emperor's grandson had a special meeting on the automobile industry.
At the meeting, Emperor Taisun Li Hongqiao once again emphasized the importance of the automobile industry, especially the huge potential and role of freight vehicles in the field of short- and medium-distance transportation.
There are no rivers in many places, and the cost of building railways is huge. In the past, people could only rely on two legs to travel, and even riding a horse-drawn carriage was very slow, but the emergence of cars will change this.
In the process of urban development, after cars replace horse-drawn carriages in large areas, it can further promote urban development and further alleviate various problems caused by the excessive area of some large cities.
Many cities in the Tang Empire were very huge!
Shanghai is the most typical example. Shanghai these days is also called Songjiang Prefecture!
This is because the entire urban area of Shanghai is very huge!
To a certain extent, the entire Songjiang Prefecture area is now considered a city, and even the area on the east bank of the Huangpu River that was desolate in the early years is now prosperous.
Since the completion of the Huangpu River Bridge, Songjiang Prefecture has focused on developing this area. Subsequently, the Second Huangpu River Bridge and the Third Huangpu River Bridge were built. Now the east bank of the Huangpu River has become the best planned and most extensive area in Songjiang Prefecture.
The commercial area brings together a large number of enterprises, large shopping malls, etc.
In the continuous development of Shanghai for many years, the urban area has become larger and larger, and even the entire Songjiang Prefecture has become an urban area. In addition to the growing population factor, this is related to contemporary construction technology, people's living concepts, and land costs.
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The cost of high-rise buildings these days is still very high, and the cost of land in the city center is also high, which means that the sales price after construction is high.
But, the rich people in Datang don’t like to live in the city center!
People in the Tang Dynasty who have a little money like to live in suburbs with good environment, and they like to live in small buildings with courtyards. Even if they are not good enough, they prefer to live in rows of small buildings.
During the decades of development of Datang, some concepts have gradually become popular, that is, the poor live in the city center and the rich live in the suburbs. The high-end residential areas in Datang are all suburban communities with beautiful environments.
Often only the middle and lower income classes who cannot afford to buy real estate in the suburbs and cannot afford to commute to work in the suburbs and the city center will choose to buy real estate in the city and settle down.
As for why this concept was formed!
Just look at the gloomy sky in Shanghai all year round and the perennial smell of cinders and horse manure.
Steam engines in countless factories and coal stoves in countless urban homes emit countless amounts of soot every day. Tens of thousands of horses run around the city releasing countless amounts of feces. Dead horses can often be seen on the streets...
What can I say about the cities of the contemporary Tang Dynasty? They may seem bright and prosperous, but the city center is definitely not suitable for human survival.
In addition to environmental issues and living concept issues, they are also related to land. In the Tang Empire, except for the area in the center of Shanghai, which was special and almost all belonged to official land, most other cities, including the current large area of Shanghai,
In the central and peripheral areas, all land is privately owned.
Private landowners are difficult to deal with at any time. The government needs a lot to acquire land for construction. The most important thing is that after the land does not belong to the government, the government has no incentive to centralize resources.
In the process of urban development, it will be more inclined to expand to the periphery, and there will be less trouble.
The combination of many comprehensive factors has resulted in a very special situation in contemporary Datang cities, which is that the area is generally huge!
Not to mention super-large cities like Shanghai, even some small and medium-sized cities with a population of only ten or two hundred thousand people often have very large urban areas.
As urban areas become larger and larger, new problems arise, that is, it is difficult to keep up with traffic problems!
In an urban area that is often more than ten, twenty or even dozens of kilometers wide, it is difficult to travel on foot or by horse-drawn carriage!
This is also the reason why Songjiang Prefecture took the lead in developing intercity railways. Because the urban area was too large, horse-drawn carriages could no longer meet people's daily travel needs.
This is also because after the emergence of automobiles, automobiles have become widely popular among the upper class in cities, especially big cities!
Because the upper class live in the suburbs and work in the city center, the daily commuting distance is very long. Either taking an intercity train or a private carriage is also possible, but it is not too convenient and time-consuming.
But after the advent of cars, this problem was solved.
This is only passenger transportation. Freight transportation becomes more troublesome as the urban area increases, and this also brings about a broad market for cars and trucks.
Currently, most of the cars in the Tang Empire, regardless of whether they are passenger cars or freight cars, are concentrated in cities. Well, pickup trucks are an exception.
Although the pickup trucks in the automobile industry of the Tang Empire had a cargo box at the rear, they were not used to transport goods from the very beginning. Instead, they were used as travel tools for rural gentry and farmers to transport their agricultural products.
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Therefore, the passability is generally very good, and the cockpit will be relatively luxurious.
That thing has better passability and better adaptability in rural areas with bad roads, so it is very popular among rural gentry and farmers.
This special situation of the Tang Empire, especially the particularity of the city, meant a huge demand for cars.
The demand for both passenger cars and trucks is huge!
This point is even more obvious with the launch of the Second Great Industrial Development Plan.
With the rollout of road network construction, major cities have carried out large-scale road construction and hardened road surfaces. At the same time, several major oil companies in the empire have also actively responded to the empire's call and invested heavily in major cities and even small towns.
Build a gas station to make it easier for cars to refuel.
The market demand is obviously huge, road construction is further improved, refueling is more convenient, and the most critical thing is that with the further development of technology, the performance of cars continues to improve, and the price gradually drops. These have laid the foundation for the large-scale popularization of cars!
Taking advantage of this east wind, Qixiang Automobile Company, which has always claimed to bring cars into the homes of ordinary people, launched their latest product at the spring press conference of the 65th year of Xuanping: the fifth generation Soaring Car!
They emphasized many advantages during the press conference, but these are not worth mentioning. What really caused a sensation was the price!
Ninety-nine Tang Yuan!
This is the price of the fifth-generation Aoxiang car!
As for an ordinary worker in their Qixiang Automobile Company's Shanghai factory, his monthly salary is about fifteen Tangyuan!
This means that even an ordinary worker can buy a car with just over half a year’s income!
This price is even more sensational than when they launched the first-generation Aoxiang car many years ago and lowered the price to 400 Tangyuan!
The first-generation Aoxiang car seemed cheap, but in fact it was still only available to middle- and high-income earners. Even ordinary middle-class families were very reluctant to buy a car. They could neither afford it nor afford it...
Gasoline prices were not cheap back then.
In the following years, although the development of automobiles has become more and more rapid, prices have also dropped, and more people can buy cars, but until now, cars are still affordable only for middle-income families or dual-income families.
Previously, the cheapest was the fourth-generation Aoxiang car, and the beggar’s version cost 180 Tangyuan.
However, most people cannot buy this beggar's version...the ones that can be bought are usually ordinary versions worth more than 200 Tang Yuan.
Moreover, the cost of using a car is actually relatively high, the maintenance cost is high, and the fuel cost is not cheap.
But now, Qixiang Automobile Company has once again lowered the price of cars to the bottom line. This time they don't offer 180 Tang Yuan, but directly offer 99 Tang Yuan...
Although according to the consistent behavior of Qixiang Automobile Company, the fifth-generation Soaring Car of the Ninety-nine Tang Yuan Dynasty must be a beggar’s version, and it will still be out of stock from beginning to end. The ones that are really shipped in large quantities should be theirs.
The ordinary version is estimated to sell for more than 100 Tang Yuan.
But even if a car costs more than 100 Tang Yuan, the price is considered cheap.
An ordinary single person can work in a factory for a year, and his income is enough to buy a car. Of course, the premise is that he doesn't eat or drink and saves money!
If you are a young couple and have two jobs, you can buy one within a year while maintaining your livelihood.
The most important thing is that they can afford it!
Unlike before, many middle-income families can actually afford it but cannot afford it.
As for early cars, the trouble-free time is not very long, let alone cheap cars. They seem cheap and there are basically no problems with core components, but there are definitely some small problems, and there are many. After using them for a long time, they will break down.
If there are too many, it will be very fatal to repair.
This is why many men in ordinary families become car mechanics themselves after buying a car... If they can only drive but not repair cars, they will repair cars until they go bankrupt...
And sometimes, if you go to a slightly remote place, you can’t find a place to repair your car even if you have money.
So, don’t be surprised when you see a car suddenly stop on the side of the road, and then a middle-aged man in decent business attire or robes gets out, takes off his coat, takes out a wrench and tinkers with the car, this is normal!
Not only is this car expensive to repair, the gas price is also very expensive!
Therefore, many people impulsively buy a car at first, but then sell it soon because they cannot afford it.
Even if you park it at home and don't use it, you can't afford it, because you have to pay vehicle insurance every year, which is not low. The annual insurance premium can range from a dozen to dozens of dollars more.
There are also eighteen types of fees paid together with the insurance premiums: road and bridge construction fees, air pollution fees, noise control fees, etc.!
In the end, it was summarized that a seemingly cheap car costing 200 to 300 Tangyuan would cost at least 50 Tangyuan per year if used normally. If used more diligently, it would cost 70 to 80 Tangyuan.
How should I put it? For an average family, the cost of using a car for three years is more than the price of the car itself!
But now, the price of gasoline in the empire has dropped significantly!
Before the spring press conference of Qixiang Automobile Company, that is, five days ago, the Energy Department under the Ministry of Mining of the Datang Empire, already one of the eight major oil companies in the United Empire, prepared to comprehensively reduce the price of gasoline, and the price reduction range reached 100%.
More than sixty points.
The reason is that large oil reserves have been discovered in West Asia, and oil fields in the Americas have also begun mass production!
But this is not the real reason. The real reason is that due to the needs of the second great industrial development, the upper class of the empire needs to reduce the price of petroleum products!
However, the oil industry has developed to a very large scale. Although oil companies also want to expand the gasoline market, they are not willing to cut prices too much.
Although their oil industry is highly profitable, taxes are also high!
Except for Royal Petroleum, which belongs to the royal family, the other seven oil companies in the empire are all under the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises. In addition to meeting their own development needs, most of the money these oil companies make is used as
Taxes are paid.
The empire's oil industry is very taxed.
In addition to taxes, they also have to pay a large amount of profit income to the national treasury every year.
Oil companies, which are under great pressure from profits and taxes, are naturally unwilling to cut prices rashly.
However, after coordination by the upper echelons of the empire, comprehensive coordination was carried out on the taxes and selling prices of the oil industry, and finally tax reduction policies were adopted to reduce the burden on enterprises. At the same time, oil companies also removed part of their profits, which ultimately lowered the price of gasoline to that of ordinary consumers.
It is also acceptable.
Only then did we get the news that the price of petroleum-related products has dropped significantly in Xuanping 65, including the price reduction of gasoline by more than 60%, and this oil price also includes road and bridge tolls.
In addition to the reduction in oil prices, some miscellaneous taxes and fees have also been cancelled, such as noise control fees and environmental pollution fees. Road and bridge tolls have also been directly cancelled. As for insurance, it is naturally impossible to cancel it. The requirements remain the same as always.
Insurance is compulsory.
When the selling price of a car exceeded 100 Tangyuan to only 99 Tangyuan, the price of gasoline was also significantly reduced, and many messy taxes and fees were also eliminated. The car warranty period was longer, eliminating certain worries. This means that
Now even ordinary families can use ordinary cars.
Not only affordable, but affordable to use!
Under the guidance of this series of policies, Qixiang Automobile Company once again took the lead among other automobile companies and launched the fifth generation of Aoxiang brand sedan, kicking off the era of universal automobiles!