The birth of Royal No. 1 is not just a luxury, and it is not built by the people below with a lot of money in order to pat the emperor's ass.

After all, it is his own industry, and it is Franz himself who pays in the end. Without the permission of the emperor himself, he was to be held accountable.

There is no doubt that the Austrian automotive group went to great lengths to build this ultra-luxury car, certainly not to show off its wealth.

It is impossible for Franz to go out for a ride in this car, and even information about this car will not be disclosed to the outside world.

In addition to promoting the development of automotive technology, this requirement is more of a test of domestic industrial strength.

As an emperor who has been bombarded with all kinds of information, Franz knows very well that data and reports can be fabricated out of thin air, but the physical objects in front of him cannot be faked.

In the world, only Austria has a complete automobile industry, and other countries are still following behind.

Even if the people below want to fake, there is no room to play.

For the sake of the face of the Royal One, Franz also personally inspected the Prague Automobile Plant, the largest automobile production base of the Austrian automobile group, which can produce 20,000 cars a year at full speed.

This figure is not surprising in later generations, and any car factory can easily achieve it.

However, this factory, which can only produce less than 55 cars per day on average, is already the largest car factory in the world.

In fact, it's even more exaggerated than that. The humble annual production capacity of 20,000 cars already accounts for one-third of the total production capacity of the Austrian automotive industry.

The production capacity of the Prague car plant directly exceeds the car production capacity of Britain and France combined, and is comparable to the car production capacity of all countries except Austria.

Well, this is the result of Franz's hanging. At present, the Austrian Automotive Group is the only company in the world that can produce cars industrially.

There is no way, it is already an advantage to start. At a time when everyone didn't pay attention to the auto industry, Franz began to throw money at it.

From the very beginning, the Austrian automotive group has been engaged in research and development in the laboratory, and has never announced the news to the public, and its peers have not reacted.

No, to be exact, before the product came out, there was no such thing as a peer.

Before that, everyone was rushing to the development of steam cars. and the internal combustion engine cars of the Austrian Automotive Group, which are completely two species.

The earliest internal combustion engine car in the original time and space was listed in 1888, and the founder of Mercedes-Benz Motors, who set a precedent in history and coaxed in later generations, did not know what he was doing.

Oldsmobile, the first automobile company in the United States, was only established in 1897; Cadillac, Japan's first automobile company, was only registered in 1902.

……

After the first product of the Austrian automobile group, the "Beetle", was put on sale, everyone suddenly discovered that the original car could still be made like this.

The Austrian automotive group, which has no competitors, naturally leaps into the top of the ranks and becomes the hegemon in the automotive field.

Undoubtedly, in the context of patent protection not covering the whole world, followers soon appeared.

I can't do it myself for a while, but I can't copy it with a template?

Then, most of the first products of the Austrian automotive group became parts, contributing to the development of the world automotive industry.

Essentially, this is just a conceptual breakthrough. As long as the brain hole is opened, the industrial power can build a car.

It's just that the car is not simply assembled, and getting the production technology does not mean that you can build a car with qualified quality.

It also needs the cooperation of relevant industries, and if there is a problem in any link, the final result is a tragedy.

Followers quickly discovered this, but it was too difficult for them to develop technologies in multiple fields at the same time and overcome a series of difficulties.

The huge capital cost invested in the early stage alone is not something that ordinary enterprises and individuals can bear.

After all, the auto market is very limited in these years, and the financial consortiums still don't look down on this little profit.

Capital's favorite thing to do is to wait for the fruit to ripen and go up directly to pick the fruit, instead of running to plant the fruit tree himself.

Entity giants, most of whom are limited by business concepts, generally focus on their own fields, even if they expand, they also enter related industries.

This is the lesson summed up by countless classic cases, and the probability of failure is much higher than success when you rashly cross the border into an unfamiliar field.

Before the risk can be predicted, most people will choose to wait and see. Of course, the more important thing is that there is no money in the pocket.

Now that the family car market is just getting started, the future is still unclear, and no one can guarantee that today's internal combustion engine cars will be yesterday's steam cars.

The automobile industry is in the stage of burning money, which is equivalent to just planting a small sapling, and it is still far from flowering and fruiting.

Then, naturally, it's handmade. The technical difficulty of large-scale industrial production is too high, and if you want to copy, you must also have industrial support, which cannot be completed overnight.

In contrast, hand-crafting is much simpler. The accuracy of the spare parts is not enough, so let the manual go to polish it. If the engine horsepower is not enough, the number of cylinders will be increased.

The main competitor of the Austrian automotive group in the market today is a bunch of handicraft workshops.

Because the car has just been introduced, it is still a high-end luxury product, and because of the high price, even if the production cost of the handicraft workshop is higher, they can still make a lot of profits.

After all this was done, Franz's brow furrowed.

It is clear that many people in the Austrian automotive group are fascinated by the current results and ignore the existence of competitors.

Since the launch of the product in 1882, the market share of the Austrian automotive group has been declining year by year.

It is inevitable that the market share will fall, unless the market is completely monopolized, or the market share will definitely fall as competitors continue to join.

It's just that the market share of Austrian automotive groups has fallen too fast, and in just three years, it has fallen by nearly a quarter.

This is his own industry, and if he stops, he will lose his own interests, which Franz cannot tolerate.

"Oprea, aren't you going to build a cheap car to keep your market share?"

Franz no longer has the luxury of expanding its market share.

You know, the Austrian automotive group accounts for 76.4% of the car sales market, how can it be increased?

However, it is possible to maintain market share as much as possible, or to reduce the rate of decline in market share.

Oprea hurriedly explained: "Your Majesty, going public with a cheap car will not only reduce our corporate profits, but also damage the value of our car brand.

At present, the Beetle, Walker, Brady and other models promoted by the group are all high-end cars.

Although the price reduction sales can gain a larger market share in a short period of time, the car is destined to be a luxury product from the beginning.

No matter how much we reduce the price, it is impossible for the average person to afford it. Now that we are trying to make the car a status symbol, it is very important to maintain the brand value of the car. ”

Being able to realize the "brand value", Oprea is clearly not an idle person.

However, due to the limitations of the times, he still did not expect that cars could enter thousands of households, from luxury goods to means of transportation.

Judging from the current automobile consumer market in the world, which is only tens of thousands of cars per year, Opreya abandons the development of low-end models and focuses on the operation of high-end brands, which is still in line with reality.

Franz shook his head: "No, there is still a lot of room for the production cost of cars to fall. It is not impossible for the price to fall to a range acceptable to ordinary people in the future.

In the short term, with the existing technology system, we can reduce costs to the middle class and acceptable range.

If we continue to expand our production capacity, we will continue to reduce production costs.

Maybe the sales of individual cars have fallen, but the middle class is much more numerous than the rich, and our total profit will only be higher.

Moreover, lowering the selling price of cars can also discourage our competitors. Unlike us, the production cost of their small workshop cannot be reduced at all.

As for the issue of brand value, it's even simpler. Re-register a company and use the name of the new company to change the brand to focus on low-cost cars. ”

Now the production cost of the car is generally between 400 ~ 700 Aegis, the sales price on the market is basically above 1000 Aegis, and the price of the luxury version of the car is easy to sell more than 10,000.

Such a high gross profit still can't hide the fact that the Austrian automotive group is losing money.

The main reason is that the R&D investment is too high, and the maintenance cost in the later stage remains high, which has led to the company being in a state of loss for many years.

Oprea is obsessed with corporate profits, but in fact he is forced to do so. The financial situation of the enterprise is not good, so you can't ask the boss for money every day, right?

If it weren't for Franz's mandatory requirements, it is estimated that Opreya would have cut R&D funds and devote himself to car sales.

After all, in the short term, sales-based companies are more profitable than R&D companies. Only when the company makes money can we get more generous returns.

Now in this state of loss, just get a little bonus. Stock options are not yet popular, but profit dividends are already on the horizon.

It's just that the R&D enterprise of the Austrian automotive group has been losing money for more than ten years, and there is no dividend at all.

However, Oprea is still disciplined, and there is no way to learn from some unscrupulous executives of listed companies, who only care about making money for themselves, without thinking about the long-term development of the company.

Otherwise, it would be very simple for the Austrian automotive group to turn a profit if it were to change the concept. Whether it is to reduce R&D investment or slow down the construction of maintenance points, it can achieve profitability.

If it weren't for the drag of these two gold-swallowing beasts, the Austrian automotive group would definitely be the most profitable company in this era, or the kind that rivals the riches.

Even if it only earns 100 Aegis per car, the Austrian Automotive Group has a net income of five or six million Aegis every year.

In fact, there will only be more, and the cars sold cannot all be ordinary models with the lowest profits. That kind of local luxury car with a price of tens of thousands of dollars, you can easily get a few thousand dollars by selling one.

Of course, the core competency of the Austrian automotive group is actually technology and after-sales service.

Lose money in the short term, but these are the most profitable in the future. Once the channel is laid, there will be no competitors at all for a long time.

This point is known in Austria, where the area covered by the group's service outlets, the only thing that can be sold on the market is the "Austrian Automobile" car.

Other production enterprises, limited by their own strength, simply cannot afford to lay so many maintenance outlets.

Once the car breaks, you can only find a way to repair it yourself, or wait for the manufacturer's skilled workers to come over.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Oprea replied

After a pause, Oprea added: "Your Majesty, in order to improve the company's profits, reverse the current state of loss, and increase the competitiveness of the company.

The management plans to cover the petrol stations when the logistics channels are laid, so that our customers can refuel on the road. ”

If this had been done in the future, the anti-monopoly law would have come to the door long before it had time to start.

The meaning of "convenient for our users" is already very obvious, and it is full of exclusivity. Even when other cars arrive at the gas station, they can only look at them from the side.

But in the 19th century, in the era of the Great Monopoly, this was completely commonplace. Just like now, the service points of the Austrian Automotive Group do not provide services for other brands of cars.

After pondering for a moment, Franz shook his head: "Gas stations can be done, but they can't be so extreme. This is not the same as the maintenance point, which is very easy to arouse the disgust of the public.

The call for anti-monopoly in society is getting louder and louder, and it is a matter of time before countries introduce anti-monopoly laws. Leaving such a glaring flaw now, it is easy to be targeted in the future.

In this regard, you must pay attention. Even if you want to increase your competitiveness, you can take more subtle measures.

For example: membership card service.

Anyone who buys a vehicle under the group can enjoy membership services and can get a certain discount at the gas station.

Other customers, who want to enjoy a discount on fueling, can let them pay for a membership card out of their own pocket.

You can issue more membership cards, preferably different in each city, and a membership card can only enjoy discounts in one region.

Excuses are readily available, as long as they are reasonable on the surface, everyone can reluctantly accept them. ”

The fact that the service points of the Austrian automotive group do not provide services for other cars is justified enough.

For example, there is no supporting spare parts, and maintenance cannot be carried out; Or that the mechanic has not touched this car and does not know how to get it.

The gas station is not good, anyway, everyone uses those oils, and there is no way to use it.

If the service is refused, the car owners will definitely cause trouble. Franz naturally wouldn't do this kind of hateful thing.

In contrast, membership services are much more acceptable to everyone. As long as it is not publicized with much fanfare, ordinary people simply cannot understand the complex relationship between enterprises.

Change the vest and let the gas station and the car group out of direct contact. Auto groups can also pay a membership fee to the gas station every year, leaving everyone with nothing to say.

Anyway, there is no information networking technology in these years, and the membership card cannot be passed nationwide, and it can be denied that it is unrecognizable, or that the gas stations in various places are operated independently.

The card is not recognized, but the car is. If all car manufacturers could pay for their dues, Franz wouldn't mind everyone enjoying the discount.

……