Recently, Chery Quantum Automobile Co., Ltd., a joint venture established in Wuhu, Anhui Province, was formally opened with technological support from Chery Automobile Company and fund support from the US Quantum LLC. It marks that the long-standing joint-venture mode of "technological support from foreign company and fund support from Chinese company" in China's automobile industry is broken; at the same time, it means that Chery truly completes the transformation from creating independent brand through independent innovation to create independent international brand through innovative mode of international cooperation. Presently, 200 million dollars has been fully appropriated by Quantum LLC and the factory construction is done in a fast pace.
It is said in the industry that the establishment of Chery Quantum Automobile Co., Ltd. enjoys a special significance of "creating a history" and the world automobile industry begins to focus on the independent innovation of "Chinese style". In the 500 million dollars of registered capital of the joint venture (with 1.5 billion dollars of overall investment), 275 million dollars is funded by Chery Company in the form of technology and 225 million dollars is invested by Quantum LLC in the form of cash. It is not only the largest joint-venture in the history of Anhui Province, but also an important mark to end the long-standing joint-venture history of "technological support from the foreign company and fund support from Chinese company" in China's automobile industry and the important evidence that the automobile product and technology are recognized by the world.
From "made in China" to "created in China", the rise of Chery enjoys a marking significance in the national automobile industry. Back to the history, Chery's independent innovation started from the independent "core" creation. From the very beginning, Chery knew clearly that motor is the "heart" of an automobile and in order to obtain the independent R&D ability of core automobile technology, it must create a motor with independent property right. Nowadays, Chery has built up a new mode of centering on General Research Institute for Automobile Engineering and integrating all resources to cooperate and develop. At the same time, through integrating foreign resources, establishing R&D institutes in the front area of technological development and promoting the principle of independent innovation in the whole process of automobile development, it has formed a complete system from the whole car to motor, gear-box and key parts and components, and from design to development, trial manufacturing and testing.
According to the chief of the Bureau of Commerce of Wuhu City, it is just that Quantum LLC thinks highly of the high growth of Chery Automobile and demand for Chery economical car in the European and US market, so it agrees to make a huge investment to cooperate with Chery.
Different from the traditional mode in joint-venture, the new one of "technological support from the foreign company and fund support from Chinese company" created by Chery features in 4 outstanding characteristics: mainly aiming at developing the foreign market; taking product and technology output as core; sticking to brand independence; taking enhancement of company's global competitiveness as the ultimate objective. While sticking to brand independence, Chery realizes capital diversification. It is a new globalizing thought that follows the rule and also changes traditional practice. Some one doubted whether the new joint-venture mode of Chery would affect the independent brand of China. Chery replied that actually the joint-venture cooperative mode between Chery and transnational company was beneficial to development of independent brand and national enterprise could develop market and create independent international brand by learning experience from transnational company. In such a joint-venture mode, it is "dominated by ourselves" and the Chinese company enjoys the brand ownership. Therefore, "created in China" can boldly step out of the country and compete in the international market.
2008 is the key year for Chery to create "independent international brand". In the globalizing chess game carefully arranged by it, it is only one of the "three paths" to realize international cooperation to establish joint venture with the international leading enterprises like Quantum. The first path opened by Chery is "to increase export and open the door of international market through international trade". According to such a strategy, the first batch of Chery cars was exported to Syria in October 2001. Up to 2007, the Chery's whole-car export has exceeded 100,000. The increasing export index proved the effectiveness of the globalizing path. However, Chery people, unsatisfied by the status quo, find that the path mode of whole-car export is vulnerable under the local trade protectionism, which is harmful for long-term and mass export. Therefore, it came to the second path of "to set up and develop base in international market through building factories in the foreign countries". Starting from the first foreign CKD cooperation project in Iran, Chery has built 7 factories in 6 countries and its total capability of single shift has exceeded 100,000 cars per year. A lot of locally employed foreign staff also participates in the international operation team of Chery, which makes the enterprise culture more opening and more comprehensive. The North American and EU market enjoys the highest consumption and occupies 60 percent of the world automobile market. Moreover, it is the most demanding market for product technology and performance as well as manufacturer, which makes market competition most fierce. Therefore, Chery adopts the third path of "carrying out capital and technological cooperation with the international leading enterprises". Just like the cooperation with Quantum, on the premise of "self-reliance and independence", Chery fully utilizes foreign capital, brand, technology and management experience and develops market in foreign countries, especially developed countries. Currently, Chery's international cooperation covers the whole industry chain. It maintains international cooperation with the World Top 500 Firms like Siemens in the field of R&D and parts. At the same time, it actually promotes the cooperation with Quantum, Chrysler and Fiat. Therefore, the international influence and core competitiveness of Chery brand is enhanced completely.
Coordination and interaction of the three paths accelerate Chery's pace to develop foreign market. Chery breaks the traditional thought in automobile industry and becomes the initiator of new rule in the global automobile market. As the leading company in the domestic automobile industry, Chery's success in international market attracting more automobile enterprises in China to expand their business in international market, which marks that China's automobile industry begins to transform from the situation of "world car in Chinese market" to "Chinese car in world market".
|
