King of Industry

  Chapter 538 Suggestion to kill two birds with one stone

  In the conference room, when Zhao Guoyang mentioned the possible shortcomings of the EA108 series all-aluminum engines, the three senior executives of Volkswagen Latin America were stunned.

   Zhao Guoyang didn't pay attention to their reaction.

  He said calmly: "First of all, everyone should be very clear about what I want to say. Compared with the cast iron engine, the biggest advantage of the all-aluminum engine is in the total volume."

   "The specific gravity of aluminum is lighter than that of cast iron. Under the premise of meeting the strength requirements, the aluminum cylinder is much lighter."

  “A lighter engine can have a positive impact on the weight distribution of the vehicle, and the quality of the vehicle will also decrease. Therefore, the aluminum cylinder block is definitely dominant in this regard.”

   Speaking of this, Zhao Guoyang paused for a while, and then continued: "However, this feature of the all-aluminum engine has also brought new problems."

  After Zhao Guoyang finished speaking, Ayton forced a smile and said, "I don't know what Mr. Zhao is talking about, so please be blunt."

   "Well, this is natural!"

  Zhao Guoyang nodded and said, "Because aluminum has a lighter specific gravity, the strength of the aluminum structure per unit volume is naturally inferior to that of cast iron. In order to ensure strength, the cylinder block of an all-aluminum engine is usually larger in volume..."

   "For example, the two cast iron engines produced by your company in China, the EA105/EA106 have a cylinder block center distance of 88mm, while the versions on the European and American markets can even reach 82.5mm."

  “That is to say, for this cast iron engine, the cylinder wall is actually quite thin except for the cooling water channel. In this way, the entire engine is very compact and small in size, which is difficult to achieve with the aluminum cylinder.”

   Zhao Guoyang's analysis left Ayton a little speechless.

  Although he is only in charge of the product development of the complete vehicle, as a high-level executive in charge of technology in Volkswagen Latin America, he has a very comprehensive understanding of the engine of his own company.

  Obviously, what Zhao Guoyang said is absolutely correct. The all-aluminum engine is indeed inferior to the cast iron engine in terms of compactness.

  Ayton's slightly embarrassed appearance was noticed by Derek, who was in charge of sales.

  This Derek and Ayton have always had a good relationship. When he saw his friend being embarrassed, he naturally wanted to help out.

  So Derek pretended to be reserved and said: "Mr. Zhao, what you said does have some truth."

   "But the all-aluminum engine is a trend in the entire international market. Things are always moving forward. We can't completely deny it because of this little flaw, right?"

  In the conference room, the middle-level cadres of Volkswagen Latin America all nodded their heads in agreement after hearing what Derek said.

   Seeing this scene, Zhao Guoyang laughed.

  He nodded slightly and said: "I agree with what Mr. Derek said. New technology, where there are small problems in the application, are understandable."

   "However, this engine of your company has more than just this small defect..."

  After Zhao Guoyang said this, Derek's face turned ugly.

  He gestured solemnly and said, "Then Mr. Zhao, please continue with the story, let us all listen carefully!"

Zhao Guoyang gave a "hmm" and continued to speak: "I just mentioned to you the comparison between the traditional cast iron engine and the all-aluminum engine in terms of compactness. Next, I will talk to you about the corrosion resistance and strength of the two. Let's compare it!"

"About the characteristics of aluminum, I don't think I need to say more. Everyone is very clear. This substance is easy to chemically react with the water produced during combustion, and its corrosion resistance is far inferior to that of cast iron cylinders. Especially for higher temperature and pressure even more so with supercharged engines.”

   "In addition, as mentioned before, when we have relatively small volume requirements for the engine, it is usually difficult to use aluminum cylinders to achieve the strength of cast iron cylinders."

  Zhao Guoyang raised his hands and gestured: "It is also because of this reason that many of the high-pressure engines use cast iron cylinder blocks instead of more advanced all-aluminum cylinder blocks."

   “For example, the 286hp 2.0L engine of EVO, which just came out this year, still uses a cast iron cylinder block.”

   "EVO?" Hearing this name, the people of Songqi Group were puzzled for a while.

  Volkswagen Latin America has obviously heard this name before. For a while, Fidelis, Ayton, and Derek looked at me and I looked at you, with inexplicable surprises on their faces.

Seeing that Songqi Group, including the chairman Mao Zhichun, were all in a daze, Zhao Guoyang explained: "Chairman Mao, this EVO is the one launched by the island country Mitsubishi Motors at the end of last year. The flagship work—Lancer Evolution..."

   "After entering the 1990s, Mitsubishi Motors in the island country made a wise and brave decision in order to participate in the WRC World Rally Championship and the SCCA Professional Rally Championship."

   "They designed a high-performance four-wheel drive sports sedan Lancer Evolution based on their small four-door front-wheel drive family sedan Lancer."

Speaking of this, Zhao Guoyang seemed to have thought of something, raised his eyebrows and said: "Because Lancer Evolution is a super street car that pursues high performance, it is not well-known in China. It is normal that everyone has not heard of it. .”

   "Of course, we are mainly discussing the cast iron engine of EVO at this moment. We will not discuss the performance of this car..."

   Turning his head to look at the people from Volkswagen Latin America, Zhao Guoyang continued to talk about the engine.

   "In addition to the above two points, the all-aluminum engine is also lagging behind the cast iron engine in terms of friction coefficient."

  "In today's engines, in order to reduce the inertia of reciprocating parts and increase the speed and response speed, the pistons are mostly made of aluminum alloy."

   "In this case, if the cylinder wall is also aluminum. The friction coefficient between aluminum and aluminum is relatively large, so the performance of the engine will be greatly affected."

  Zhao Guoyang spread his hands and said calmly: "Obviously, at this point, the cast iron engine block will not have such troubles."

  Looking across the faces of Fidelis, Ayton, Derek and others one by one, Zhao Guoyang finally concluded: "Basically, these are the defects of your company's EA108 series all-aluminum engine."

   "Three, if you feel that what I said is wrong, please criticize and correct me..."

  After Zhao Guoyang finished speaking, the three of Fidelis rolled their eyes at the same time.

  The three foreigners muttered to themselves: You guys have already peeled off the skin of our engine, how can we criticize and correct?

   There was a moment of silence in the office, and finally Ayton managed to speak up: "Unexpectedly, Mr. Zhao has such a deep understanding of our Volkswagen's engines, I really admire it!"

   "Actually, regarding our EA108 all-aluminum engine from Volkswagen, some improvements are still in progress."

   "After your company's 'New Santana' completes the endurance test, maybe the stability of our engine has already made a leap, so, so..."

   This Ayton couldn't continue after saying "so".

  Obviously, everyone is not an idiot. The purpose of Volkswagen trying to use the "New Santana" of Songqi Group to test its own brand-new engine is already obvious.

   Zhao Guoyang didn't say anything righteous about this, he just said with a relaxed expression: "Of course I believe Mr. Ayton's words."

   "To be honest, with the technical level of Volkswagen, this engine is still very competitive as long as it is improved..."

   Mao Zhichun on the side was bewildered when he heard the words.

   Originally, in his opinion, after Zhao Guoyang said so much just now, he obviously did not accept the EA108 all-aluminum engine of the other party.

  But now he suddenly changed the subject and started talking for the other foreigners.

   Among them, what is so strange?

  Chairman Mao did not wait too long for his doubts, and soon Zhao Guoyang solved the mystery.

  I saw Zhao Guoyang put on a magnanimous look, and said to Ayton: "Mr. Ayton, I personally fully agree with the use of the EA108 all-aluminum engine in this 'New Santana' of our Songqi Group."

   "However, it is a new product after all, so there may be more problems. Therefore, in terms of technical maintenance, I hope the Volkswagen Group can keep up!"

   "Technical maintenance?" Hearing this, Ayton was startled.

  Zhao Guoyang gave a "huh" and nodded again and again: "Yes! Since the all-aluminum engine is already the development trend of the industry, it is not a big deal for us to use EA108 on the new Santana."

   "This technological improvement is more or less a selling point of the new model."

   "It's just that, as a new engine and a new technology, your company needs to provide us with more help in terms of technical maintenance."

   Speaking of this, Zhao Guoyang deliberately turned his eyes to Mao Zhichun and said, "Chairman Mao, apart from complete vehicles, Songqi Group doesn't have an engine branch yet, right?"

   Mao Zhichun knew the elegant meaning when he heard the string song, and immediately nodded and said: "Yes, yes, there is really no such thing!"

   "Then this time Volkswagen is going to test the new engine technology on our 'New Santana' model. Let's build the engine research institute first."

  Zhao Guoyang touched his chin and said to himself: "Well, with the engine research institute, we, Songqi Group, can help Volkswagen's engine department to slowly debug, find problems, and solve problems."

   "In the future, when conditions permit, it will not be difficult to build another engine branch factory!"

   Speaking of this, Zhao Guoyang did not forget to ask Ayton: "Mr. Ayton, do you think my suggestion is okay?"

"We Songqi Group has established an engine research institute, so that we can clearly and intuitively report back the durability test data of EA108 to you; secondly, the researchers sent by your company can also come and study with us at any time, It can be said to kill two birds with one stone!"

   Looking at Zhao Guoyang's harmless smile, the muscles on Ayton's face trembled.

   Fidelis and Derek next to him looked at each other, and they were both a little downcast.

  (end of this chapter)