My Italy

From the end of 1898 to the beginning of 1899, a Fiat Model A car was born. This car was ridiculed by major automobile manufacturers as soon as it came out. They all said that this Model A car was simply a disgrace to the automobile manufacturing industry.

Some people laughed at its lack of horsepower, some people laughed at it for being so simple, and some people laughed at it for being a beggar's car.

However, no matter how other manufacturers ridicule it, its price of only 3,400 liras is a huge advantage that no one can look directly at. And such a low price also makes many middle class people who covet luxury goods such as cars generously spend their money. Suddenly there were more cars on the street, mostly middle-class people driving A-type cars, which attracted a lot of attention.

The Fiat Model A also sold out all 1,500 units of the pre-produced Model A within one week. Then the dealer sent a telegram urging the goods, which piled up on Agnelli's desk.

Seeing the telegrams piled up on the table, Agnelli didn't expect it, and neither did Fiat's management.

"Now the new equipment is being debugged in our newly built factory. The 3,000 newly recruited people are being trained, and we can start work just after the equipment is debugged. In this way, we can produce 3,000 Type A cars in one month, which should alleviate the current situation. ”

After hearing the words of the production supervisor, Agnelli preached with one hand on his hip.

"It's still too few. Now our orders have to be produced for half a year according to the production capacity you mentioned. This is absolutely not possible. I have asked people to continue purchasing equipment and continue to expand personnel. I estimate that we will need to recruit 5,000 more people to meet our needs. ”

Hearing Agnelli's heroic words, the production supervisor said a little embarrassed. "We have almost exhausted the number of qualified people around Turin, so we have to go to other places to recruit people."

"Then go and recruit people from other places. We can't keep customers waiting."

Agnelli felt excited and guilty at the same time. Yes, it was these two feelings. He was excited because no one had expected the booming sales of the Model A car. Guilt is that someone reminded him, but he ignored it.

Of course, this emotion could not stay with him for long, because he was very busy now. In order to cope with the increasing number of orders, Fiat's factory also needed to consider expanding.

Just as Fiat continued to expand production with great ambition, in the newly opened Renault headquarters in France, the three Renault brothers were also discussing the impact of the Model A on them in the office.

In 1877, Louis Renoir was born into a wealthy businessman family in Paris. Louis Reno was fascinated by steamboats when he was a teenager. For this reason, he designed an efficient steam engine at home and applied for a patent. 21-year-old Louis Renault converted his De Dion drag motorcycle into a car that was still rare at the time, and drove it to a friend's Christmas Eve party on rue Aird in Paris. From then on, Renault became famous. Full of Paris society.

Louis Reno was the first to speak. "Now the whole of Europe is talking about the Model A. Although I have never met Giovanni Agnelli, I still admire this man. He rewrote car production."

"Now is not the time for us to admire, we must also develop a new car that can compete with the Type A car, otherwise we will be hit to death by Fiat. Look at their sales, 1,500 cars were sold in one week, this It’s crazy. And it only sells for 3,400 francs, so we can only lose money,” said his brother Fernand Renault about the company’s current urgent needs.

At present, Renault has only produced 10 cars. When others start selling vehicles in units of thousands, the three Renault brothers are all in trouble. How will they compete with each other next?

While Renault was thinking about its own future, Karl Benz was also talking about the Model A with his wife in Germany. "I really didn't expect that this young man named Giovanni Agnelli has such business acumen that he can make a car with good performance at such a low price."

asked wife Beretta Ringer. "You have handed over the management of the company to the people below, do you still want to interfere?"

"You don't know that the situation is different this time. It only took one week for Fiat to produce 1,500 Model A cars and they were sold out. Have you seen such a high sales car before?" Karl Benz explained to his wife. Worry.

Beretta Ringer knew that this was a company that Karl Benz was worried about. Karl Benz already has too much reputation as the inventor of the automobile. Now the Mercedes-Benz Car Company founded by himself is focusing on high-end cars and sports cars. Faced with this menacing Type A car, I don’t know if the company can deal with this disruptor.

At Mercedes-Benz, General Manager Benz Jr. is also discussing this Model A car with his assistant, "This is a revolutionary car that will enlarge the entire automobile market. It is an amazing car."

The assistant asked after hearing that his boss praised this civilian car. "Should we also develop one? I heard that many car factories are thinking about this type A car."

After hearing what his assistant said, little Benz said contemptuously. "Cost is the key to competing with this car. The most important thing for civilian car audiences is price. If you want to gain an advantage in price, you need large-scale industrialization to reduce costs. Fiat now has a factory with 5,000 people. How many people do they have?" To produce cars, I heard that Volkswagen plans to recruit 5,000 people, which is really a big deal.”

As a German entrepreneur, it is not difficult to get information about Italy, which currently has very friendly relations with Germany. Knowing that Fiat is building a factory with 3,000 people and the support of the Savoy family behind it, how should I compete in this situation? Could it be that they wanted to win over the Kaiser? But it was a pity that the great Kaiser looked down on their business.

According to Benz's own calculations, 80% of the cars in the European market are now Fiat products. This is such a big market. Benz himself is also a car maker and he knows that there is no car company that can compete with Fiat in a short time.

Now European car manufacturers look at Fiat with envy, and they have too many complicated feelings about the Model A car.

In fact, not only in Europe, but also in the Americas, no one was surprised when they heard that Fiat dared to sell a car for more than 600 US dollars.

"It's incredible how the Italians managed to make such a cheap car. Ford, do you think we should build this kind of car?"

Being questioned, Henry Ford wiped the grease on his hands and glanced disdainfully at the Fiat Model A driveway in the newspaper. "Who would build such a garbage truck with no performance? We need a racing car that can compete with other designers. Only high-performance cars are our future."

"Ford, you are right. We at Detroit Motor Company should prove our ability. Only a car that wins the championship on the track is a good car."