If you cheat, money will follow

Yu Chengdong asked Zhao Ning about the realization of power and transmission rate.

Zhao Ning replied carefully: "Mr. Yu, the issue of increasing engine power can be achieved through calibration. However, materials with good stability need to be used before high calibration, and using good materials will increase costs. This is another balance issue."

Any small factory can increase engine power, but how long the engine can run is unknown.

If there is no material foundation, it is likely to explode after running for a few hours. For example, an F1 racing car has abnormal performance and durability of 4 hours.

"In fact, the engine industry is already a very mature, very concentrated industry without too many technical barriers. The mainstream technologies we can see on the market are all common, and they can all be taken and combined with actual adjustments and some technical processing can be done. You can easily avoid infringement issues..." Zhao Ning continued:

"In addition to Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Ford and other OEMs developing and producing engines themselves, there are also companies on the market that specialize in teaching people to develop engines, such as AVL, FEV, Ricardo and other companies. As long as these companies pay, they can participate in the whole process , we will teach you step-by-step research and development, and you will eventually be able to make the engine reach a score of 80 to 90 points. The next step is the accumulation of experience, which money cannot buy."

"There is an OEM in China that started like this. So far, their engines are very well balanced and no worse than foreign engines."

Yu Chengdong was curious: "Oh? What about AVL, FEV, and Ricardo Company, are they so kind?"

"They don't need to hide their secrets. They don't sell engines, they sell engine R&D equipment, such as bench equipment. As long as an OEM wants to develop engines, they will definitely buy equipment from them and provide technical services as their supporting means. Our company We have already purchased equipment from them, so we don’t need their hands-on teaching. With hundreds of power research and development experts, plus personnel sent by Porsche, Schaeffler, and Continental, the research and development strength is sufficient,” Zhao Ning said.

"Oh, what about transmission efficiency?" Yu Chengdong nodded and continued to ask.

"Objectively speaking, achieving this indicator is more difficult than increasing power, and it consumes more time, energy and money. The main reason is the gearbox." Zhao Ning said.

"The gearbox industry is different from the engine industry, which is highly open. The gearbox is a highly closed industry with very poor openness. There are only a few technical routes in total, including AT, CVT, MT and DCT. AMT has great flaws and is not mainstream. "

"AT gearboxes have been locked up by the patent walls of Bosch and Aisin. Whether you develop AT gearboxes or purchase gearboxes, you must bear their high patent fees. The reason why Volkswagen turned to DCT is that it does not want to pay these patent fees. , not that they can’t develop it.”

"CVT gearboxes, like AT gearboxes, the core component steel belt is basically monopolized by Bosch and Aisin, and it is not an easy direction to break through."

"MT transmission, that is, manual transmission, is too niche. Except for some taxis and people who like the driving experience, no one else will like it."

"DCT gearbox, also known as dual-clutch gearbox, is more open than AT gearbox and CVT gearbox. The core patent has expired and the patent wall is not thick. However, BorgWarner is in a monopoly position in the dual-clutch module. We are currently focusing on this direction. Continental and Schaeffler are very motivated to break BorgWarner’s domestic monopoly and have sent many elite troops to jointly develop it.”

Yu Chengdong continued to ask: "How long will it take to develop this gearbox?"

Zhao Ning replied: "The time to develop a new gearbox is basically the same as the time to develop a new engine, and the time to develop a new engine is basically the same as the time to develop a new car. They can be done simultaneously. Generally speaking, it requires 3-5 years.”

Yu Chengdong said in surprise: "Does it take so long?"

Zhao Ning said: "It is no longer necessary. Taking engines as an example, no main engine manufacturer will spend such a long time on research and development. The modern engine industry is highly mature, and many technologies and components are common and do not need to be redesigned. , research and development, OEMs will not do this, and this can save a lot of time."

"In addition, modern information technology is constantly iteratively updated, and the verification of many technical links can be replaced by computer simulation, which can shorten a lot of time. Therefore, it will not take more than three years to develop a new engine."

Yu Chengdong shook his head and said: "It's still too long. The market is changing rapidly."

Zhao Ning said: "The boss also has this view, so we can only start by increasing R&D intensity, increasing R&D funds and R&D personnel, and optimizing some processes, such as directly merging some aspects of the pre-research stage and design stage, so as to strive to achieve 2 Within a year or so, we came up with a relatively mature engine, and the same goes for the gearbox.”

Yu Chengdong said: "My point of view is that we need to further speed up and try to move forward as much as possible. The market will not wait for us. If we don't have enough people, we can continue to recruit, even if we recruit them to do odd jobs."

Zhao Ning: "..."

Each OEM has a different R&D system and each has its own routine.

However, a century-old industry has similar ideas, technologies, and processes. The development of an engine can be roughly divided into five stages.

They are the pre-research stage, design stage, development stage, verification stage and mass production stage.

The first stage is the pre-research stage.

This stage is the basic stage, which mainly includes preliminary research, determination of technical solutions and performance indicators, determination of engine size and overall layout plan, verification of engine combustion system, vehicle adaptation, etc.

This stage inevitably consumes a lot of time and energy.

Generally, a quick prototype will be made for verification.

The second stage is the design stage.

The work to be done at this stage is to verify the performance and functionality, and then perform basic calibration.

Performance verification, including external characteristics, maximum torque, maximum power, universal characteristics, idle speed, emissions, etc.

Functional verification, including verification of crankshaft ventilation system, cooling system, lubrication system, exhaust system, etc.

After this stage is completed, the engine performance and functions are basically locked, and the suppliers are synchronously locked, that is, which suppliers enter the procurement scope.

Generally speaking, it will not be changed or replaced because the cost is too high.

The third stage is the development stage.

Because the engine performance, functions and basic indicators were calibrated during the design stage, the engine was basically formed.

The development stage is to build a soft prototype and conduct comprehensive system verification, which includes verification of durability, cold storage, NVH and other aspects.

The fourth stage is the verification stage.

Because engine development costs are very high, there are huge sunk costs.

To this end, smart OEMs have designed a set of effective methods to avoid sunk costs, which is to verify again and again.

From rapid prototype verification in the pre-research and design stages, to software module verification in the development stage, to hard module verification in the verification stage.

Hard module verification is the last step of verification. Once passed, it means that the engine development is completed and the engine is ready for production.

The last stage, the trial production stage, is to debug the production line and increase production capacity.

Yu Chengdong and Zhao Ning were chatting and walking until they came to the spacious, bright and atmospheric R&D center.

Entering the power R&D workshop of the R&D center, Yu Chengdong saw a dozen people with black, gray, and yellow hair discussing nervously and pointing around a matte machine.

Yu Chengdong asked: "This is the engine? Did you just build it?"

Zhao Ning said: "It's not that fast. This is a quick prototype and some performance indicators need to be modified. This thing is quite expensive, 100 million per unit."