#104 - Car Launches (4)

Meanwhile, the foreign automotive giants were also closely monitoring this press conference.

After all, Audi's press conference was such a grand affair, and the engine of the Audi A4 had even been featured on the national news, so they couldn't possibly remain indifferent.

Admittedly, they still looked down on Audi deep down, but they would definitely maintain a certain level of vigilance, otherwise they wouldn't have reached where they were today.

Before, when the Audi A4 was first unveiled at the press conference, they didn't think much of it. In their view, companies from Great Xia Country liked to play up gimmicks, always pursuing a good-looking exterior. But what's the use of a good-looking exterior? Only practicality matters.

However, when Lu Haifeng introduced the turbocharged engine, it immediately caused a stir among the giants. How could a groundbreaking engine be so easily developed?

If that were the case, their position in the automotive industry would be shaken, and even the global automotive landscape would undergo a huge change. Their so-called advantages would no longer exist.

At Benma Group, the person in charge of monitoring the Audi A4 press conference was filled with disbelief after seeing this scene. He quickly reported to the boss, rushing to the office of Benma Chairman Dujie - Qiaopu.

"Boss, bad news! Bad news! A major event has occurred!"

"What is it? Weren't you supposed to be monitoring the Audi A4 press conference?"

"Boss, Huaxing Technology has developed a new type of engine called a turbocharged engine, which has already been installed in the Audi A4. Its performance is 40% higher than our naturally aspirated engine."

"What? A turbocharged engine?"

"What kind of engine is that?"

"Why haven't I heard of it before? Is there an engine type in this world that we don't know about? How could there be an engine with 40% higher performance than ours?"

Dujie - Qiaopu asked in shock: "Are you sure this isn't a smokescreen they've created, deliberately trying to confuse us?"

His first thought was that it was false information deliberately released to confuse them. After all, Benma was a car company with over a hundred years of history. Could there really be any engine product on the market that they didn't know about? Was that even possible?

Hearing this, the person in charge said with a wry smile: "Boss, it's true. Huaxing Technology's Chairman Lu Haifeng personally announced it at the press conference."

"Moreover, the turbocharged engine he mentioned has already been installed in the Audi A4, the star of today's launch. Since he dares to promote it like this, their technology must have reached that level."

……

After listening to his subordinate's words, Dujie - Qiaopu fell silent. Although he appeared calm on the surface, his mind was already in turmoil.

How could this be? How could a small Huaxing Technology develop such a powerful engine?

If it were other car companies like Baolai or Aotu, it would be one thing. After all, the two sides had been competing for many years, each with its own wins and losses, always maintaining a delicate balance.

But Huaxing Technology was in the backward Great Xia Country. Being defeated by a company from a country with backward automotive technology made Dujie - Qiaopu extremely unwilling.

The arrival of Huaxing Technology's Audi A4 immediately broke the tacit understanding between them giants. If this continued, could they still maintain their position as giants?

Would they still have a foothold in the huge B-class car market of Great Xia Country?

You should know that the Great Xia Country's automotive market is the largest in the world, without equal. Benma Group's annual car sales of 30% and profits of 60% come from the Great Xia Country market.

Taking last year as an example, Benma's global sales were 2.3 million units, with the Great Xia Country market accounting for 800,000 units and 60% of the profits. Once they lost the Great Xia Country market, the losses they would incur would be unimaginable.

These things aside for the moment, the turbocharged engine that Audi had developed and installed in its Audi A4, they had seen it on the news before and thought it was an ordinary engine.

However, they had received no news at all about Audi's turbocharged engine that had been developed and installed in its Audi A4. Once their turbocharged engine had 40% higher performance than a naturally aspirated engine, what situation would they face?

If Audi were given a few more years, they might not even be able to hold onto their domestic market, let alone the Great Xia Country market. A 40% performance gap was terrifying.

Benma's annual breakthroughs in engine technology were only optimizations of 3% to 5% over the previous models, while this 40% was undoubtedly a chasm.

Not to mention that the turbocharged engine was a new field. They had no technical accumulation at all. They hadn't even heard of the turbocharged engine until today. How could they compete with the Audi A4 like this?

Therefore, Dujie - Qiaopu was now completely panicked. In the morning, he had been dismissive of Audi, thinking that even if a small company developed an engine, so what?

It was even possible that the entire Great Xia Country had poured its resources into developing this one engine, and it would be impossible to break through again. So he didn't take the Audi A4 seriously before.

But now, the various strengths that Audi was showing had made him change his previous thinking. Audi was not as simple as he had imagined.

If he was still dismissive now, then he would be the biggest fool in the world. As the head of an automotive giant, how could his IQ be offline?

What made Dujie - Qiaopu even more alarmed was that, in order to suppress Audi before, they had deliberately postponed the launch of their B-class car, the Benma B260.

They were waiting to launch it at the same time as the Audi A4, in order to highlight the superior performance of their Benma products, and to push the Audi brand to the bottom, letting it know that the prestige of their giants could not be challenged.

But now, with the Audi A4 equipped with a turbocharged engine, could their new model really suppress it? This made Dujie - Qiaopu doubt his own product for the first time. Could it win?

If they failed this time, could they maintain their current position and market share in the B-class car market?

Although Audi had only just launched a new car, Benma had more than a dozen models on sale at the same time.

But if Audi could launch the B-class luxury car Audi A4, couldn't they also launch the C-class luxury car? As long as they had the turbocharged engine in hand, they would be invincible.

He had never even thought about the D-class luxury car, because D-class luxury cars required historical accumulation, not just technology.