The story of "Ford and horse"
More than 100 years ago, Henry Ford was a small employee of Edison Electric Light Company. Before deciding to start a business, he did research and asked customers, "what kind of transportation do you need to go somewhere?" Almost everyone's answer is: "I need a faster horse". Many people heard this answer, so they ran immediately to choose horse breeding to meet the needs of customers. But Mr. Ford didn't run to the racecourse immediately, but continued to ask.
Ford: "why do you need a faster horse?"
Customer: "because you can run faster!"
Ford: "why do you need to run faster?"
Customer: "because I can arrive at my destination earlier."
Ford: "so what's your real intention to have a faster horse?"
Customer: "reach the destination in a shorter time and faster!"
So later, Ford often said, "if I asked consumers what they wanted, they should tell me, a faster horse!"
This story tells us that instead of listening to what users say, we need to tap what users really want, instead of staying on the surface of what existing customers say and looking for a fast "horse".
Why is Mercedes Benz called "Mercedes Benz"?
In Germany at the end of the 19th century, cars were very expensive and fresh, and their reliability was not very good. Most of the rich class still tended to buy gorgeous carriages. At this time, the operation of the newly established Durham company was not optimistic.
Emil yerinek, the Consul General of the Austro Hungarian Empire at that time and a businessman, took a fancy to the emerging field of automobile and was very interested in the engines produced by dairam company, so he ordered "36 dairam cars" and paid half of the funds in advance, (before the launch of Ford's "Model T", the car was a purely manual product) at that time, it was equivalent to the total car production of dairam Motor Company in a year, so it's needless to say what it meant to the company.
However, things are far from simple. As a condition for buying 36 cars at one stroke, businessman Emil yerinek put forward two requirements:
First: the sole agency sales right of dairam automobile company in Austria Hungary, France and the United States belongs to him;
Second: in the future, all the cars produced by dairam automobile company will be named after "Mercedes", the youngest daughter of Emil jerinek;
Since then, all the cars produced by Durham automobile company have been changed to "Mercedes".
In 1916, Daimler automobile merged with Benz automobile to form "Daimler Benz" automobile company. At that time, Mercedes already had a certain popularity because of the recommendation of the Consul General of Austria Hungary. Therefore, the cars produced by Durham Benz will become "Mercedes Benz".
So, what does Mercedes mean? Why did Durham and Benz agree? Mercedes means elegance in Spanish. There is no way to verify the specific details. Perhaps the retention of this word was that the two wanted to instill elegance into the brand at that time.
From the perspective of power system, the history of automobile development can be roughly divided into six stages:
The first stage: before the 18th century, it was driven by human and animal power and represented by carriage;
The second stage: from the 18th century to the 19th century, Watt improved the "steam engine" in the first industrial revolution, and the automobile powered by steam engine began to appear, but it was inefficient and difficult to operate;
The third stage: from the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century, lead-acid batteries appeared, but driven by the massive exploitation of petroleum energy, the development of the first generation electric vehicles was slow;
The fourth stage: from the end of the 19th century to the 21st century, in 1866, Carl Benz invented the first internal combustion engine car, and then Ford brought the car into thousands of households, and the internal combustion engine car ushered in a golden century of development;
The fifth stage: from the end of the 20th century to the beginning of the 21st century, with the increasing shortage of oil resources and environmental factors, electric vehicles based on power lithium batteries are developing at a high speed;
Phase I: manpower / animal power vehicle
Before the 18th century, human and animal power were almost the only power source of vehicle tools. People who have some historical knowledge reserves clearly know that sedan chairs, carriages, ox carts, donkey carts and mule carts are the mainstream means of transportation in ancient China, and have developed into a complete industrial chain, such as the place where horses refuel - stables, the place where horses rest - stables, the way horses change tires - horseshoes, post stations on highways
Phase II: steam engine vehicle
As we all know, the first industrial revolution, which rose around 1760 and lasted until around 1840, appeared a scientific and technological revolution in which machines replaced human and animal power. Historians call it the "machine age". In 1769, the Englishman James Watt improved the "early industrial steam engine", and a new power mode "steam power" was born in the automotive industry.
In 1769, the Frenchman n n. J. guinew built the world's first steam driven three wheeled car. It was not until 1804 that twidick designed and manufactured the first real steam car. With the application of steam power in vehicles, the curtain of mechanization in the automotive industry has opened. However, the efficiency of steam engine is low, the fuel storage capacity of vehicle is limited, and the operation is inconvenient. Steam vehicle has not been widely promoted and applied.
Phase III: electric vehicle
In fact, electric vehicles have a history of 182 years, which is earlier than the common internal combustion engine vehicles. According to the development stage, the development of electric vehicles can be roughly divided into four stages:
1. Initial exploration stage (1830-1870)
Arnush yedrik, the inventor of Hungary, the father of DC motor, first experimented with the power device of electromagnetic rotation in the laboratory in 1828. Thomas Davenport, an American, manufactured the first electric vehicle driven by DC motor in 1834, which won the first patent in the American motor industry. From 1832 to 1838, Scotsman Robert Anderson invented the electrically driven carriage, which is an uncharged primary battery driven vehicle. In 1838, Scotsman Robert Davidson invented the electric train (the tram still running on the road today was a patent in Britain at that time). Until 1839, the Englishman Robert Anderson made the first electric car in human history.
2. Rapid development period (1860-1920)
With the development of battery technology, electric vehicles were widely used in the second half of the 19th century and in Europe, America and other countries. In 1859, Gaston Platt, a French physicist and inventor, invented the rechargeable lead-acid battery.
In 1896, Hartford electric light company launched an electric truck to replace the battery. The buyer only bought the vehicle, but did not include the battery. When it is reused, it will pay the charging and maintenance fee per kilometer. (is it a little consistent with the current model of Weilai automobile?)
The late 19th century to 1920 was a peak period of the development of pure electric vehicles. In the early vehicle consumption market, electric vehicles had more advantages than internal combustion engine driven vehicles: no smell, no vibration, no noise, no shift and low price, which formed a three-thirds world vehicle market powered by steam, electric and internal combustion engine.
3. Development stagnation stage (1920-1990)
With the development of Texas Petroleum and the improvement of internal combustion engine technology, electric vehicles gradually lost their advantages after 1920. The vehicle market is gradually replaced by vehicles powered by internal combustion engines. Only a few cities keep very few trams and limited battery cars. The development of electric vehicles has stagnated for more than half a century. With the continuous flow of oil resources to the market, people almost forget the existence of electric vehicles. (at this stage, two world-renowned tycoons were born, oil king "Rockefeller" and automobile king "Henry Ford"). Relatively, the technologies used in electric vehicles: electric drive, battery materials, power battery pack, battery management and other technologies cannot be developed or applied.
4. Recovery period (since 1990)
With the decreasing oil resources, air pollution and the attention of various countries to carbon emissions in recent years, people begin to pay attention to electric vehicles again.
Since the 1990s, with the development of battery energy storage units and concerns about ore and petroleum energy reserves, major automobile manufacturers began to try in the field of new energy (such as hybrid electric vehicles, pure electric vehicles, fuel cell vehicles, hydrogen powered vehicles, gas vehicles, methanol vehicles, air powered vehicles and flywheel energy storage vehicles).
At the Los Angeles Auto Show in January 1990, the president of General Motors introduced the impact pure electric concept car to the world. Ford launched ecostar with sodium sulfur battery in 1992, rav4lev with nickel hydrogen battery in Toyota in 1996, Clio of Renault in France in 1996, and Toyota Prius hybrid car went offline in 1997. Nissan also launched the world's first lithium-ion battery electric vehicle prairie joy EV in the same year. In 1999, Honda Motor released the "Honda Insight" for the sale of hybrid vehicles.
In addition to the attempts of traditional automobile manufacturing enterprises, there are also attempts of newly established automobile manufacturing enterprises. For example, Tesla company established in the United States in 2003 and BYD automobile company established in China, both of which have been dominated by pure electric vehicles. Among them, the roadster sports car launched by Tesla in 2006 can accelerate from 0 to 60 miles in only 3.9 seconds and travel 400 kilometers each time. BYD launched the world's first mass-produced plug-in hybrid vehicle "BYD F3DM" based on lithium iron phosphate battery on December 5, 2008. Until May 2010, the real pure electric vehicle "BYD E6" was launched.
Since 2022, some countries and regions have preliminarily planned to ban the sale of fuel vehicles in the next ten years (most of the scheduled prohibition dates are around 2030-2040) and expand to new energy vehicles.
Phase IV: Golden Century of internal combustion engine vehicles
Invention of practical internal combustion engine
In 1859, Frenchman lenuva replaced the steam of reciprocating steam engine with gas and air mixture, and burned through electric spark ignition to make a two-stroke gas internal combustion engine. In 1861, the Frenchman de Rocher proposed the working cycle mode of four stroke internal combustion engine with equal volume combustion of intake, compression, work and exhaust, which was patented by the French authorities in 1862. Until 1866, the German engineer Nicholas Otto successfully manufactured the epoch-making vertical four-way internal combustion engine in the history of power. In 1876, the first practical piston four stroke gas internal combustion engine was trial manufactured (Otto was also recorded in history as the founder of internal combustion engine, and his invention laid the foundation for the development of automobile).
The birth of the first internal combustion engine car
Born in a German handicraft family, Carl Benz invented the first single cylinder gas engine in 1879. In the process of improving the scheme again and again, he successfully assembled the engine and obtained the support of Royal photographer Bueller to improve Otto's four-stroke engine. Finally, on January 12, 1886, Carl Benz successfully trial produced the world's first three wheeled vehicle with single cylinder engine.
The birth of four wheeled vehicles
In 1884, Durham launched the vertical engine and obtained the German patent in 1885. In the same year, he installed the engine on the wooden two wheeled vehicle and let his son Paul drive it. The two wheeled vehicle named "riding two wheeled vehicle" obtained the German patent, and the world's first motorcycle was born. In June of the following year, Daimler installed the engine on the carriage he bought for his wife's birthday, creating the first Daimler car. Then Gottlieb Daimler made the first gasoline engine and the first four-wheel car driven by gasoline engine.
In 1926, Benz and Daimler merged to become Daimler Benz automobile company. Benz and Daimler are recognized as the inventors of modern automobile powered by internal combustion engine. Their creation has become the ultimate milestone in the history of automobile development, because they are also known as the "father of automobile".
The birth of the first diesel engine
Daimler invented the gasoline engine. While people are using gasoline as fuel, research on other ways of using gasoline as fuel is also under way. In 1893, German engineer Rudolf Diesel made a four stroke engine from diesel. The world's first diesel engine was born. By means of large and high compression ratio, the efficiency was close to 27%. However, the diesel engine has experienced a full 20 years from conception to application.
Mass production of cars for the first time in automobile history
Some people say that the Germans invented the car and the Americans developed the car. This statement is not unreasonable, but it can't bypass a person "Henry Ford".
Henry Ford was born in 1863 in an ordinary family of Irish immigrants to the United States. He was born with a passion for machinery. In his early years, he worked as a technician in Edison lighting company. Later, the birth of the car made him have a strong interest in cars. In 1896, Ford designed his first car, which was also the first car in Detroit, so he started his pioneering road.
After two failures, the Ford Motor Company was established in 1903. In 1908, Ford launched the "t-car". In the same year, Ford introduced the assembly line (the first in the industry) into his factory. Before that, cars were made by hand. The application of "assembly line mode" fixed each worker in one position to be responsible for one job, which greatly improved the production efficiency. In 1914, the optimized assembly line could produce a car in 93 minutes.
"Model T" launched by Ford in 1908
At that time, the price of the same model competing with it in the United States was $5000-6000, and the starting price of Ford's "Model T" was $3500 (the data came from Wikipedia, and it was said on the Internet that $850 was illogical), which was later reduced to $2900 and even paid in installments. Cars began to enter ordinary people's homes and completely eliminated carriages. Half of the cars driving in the United States in 1918 were even "t-cars" produced by Ford.
Not only that, Ford also paid attention to employee welfare and created the "eight hour working system" which is still in use today. Until 1927, a total of 15 million "t-cars" were produced. The engine production of the car continued until 1941. After the shutdown, 17000 engines were still manufactured. It was not until 45 years later that the world record was broken by the Volkswagen Beetle (Note: the beetle lasted for nearly 100 years, and by 2003, a total of nearly 21.53 million engines were produced).
With the continuous development of Ford, Henry Ford was also called "the father of American automobile industry" by later generations. His appearance not only changed people's production and life style, but also greatly promoted the process of automobile development. (here's an interesting knowledge point. Henry Ford launched epoch-making and mass-produced cars, namely: "mode T" and "mode a". Looking at Tesla's "mode Y", "mode X" and "mode s", and Tesla's logo shape "t", can you associate a lot of things with the shape of the child and mother?)
Earl Era
Others say that the Germans invented the car, while the United States brought the industry into the temple of art and design. American automobile designer Harry Earl deserves to be the greatest automobile designer in history.
Harry Earl was born in Hollywood, California. His father began to work in body manufacturing in 1889. He founded Earl automobile factory in 1908 and was later acquired by Cadillac. Earl then joined General Motors (General Motors acquired Cadillac in 1909, formerly known as "Henry Ford").
Earl designed LaSalle for Cadillac in 1927. Since the era of Harry earl, it has round lines, conical tail and slender and low outline, which successfully made LaSalle a great success. LaSalle's success led GM's president to create GM's "art and color department" (renamed "modeling Department" in 1939), and Earl was appointed the first director. Between the establishment of this department, American automobile manufacturers did not pay too much attention to the appearance of the body, but engineers designed it. The sense of conceptual leadership also makes GM stronger and stronger.
Harry Earl - "Buick y-job"
In 1939, the modeling Department designed and manufactured the world's first concept car "Buick y-job" under the guidance of earl. The ship body and the streamlined body constructed by complex curved surface became a classic of the times. In the following decades, it was imitated by manufacturers. In addition, "y-job" introduces clay model technology for the first time, which makes the car shape design more flexible (this technology has been used until now). Harry Earl is also known as the father of concept car.
Cadillac 1959
In 1948, Cadillac conquered the market with aircraft style appearance, glittering chrome decoration and beautiful tail fin (the fin was inspired by the Lockheed P-38 lightning fighter). Harry Earl turned the car from a simple vehicle into a fashion of art.
Chevrolet Corvette C1
After World War II, influenced by the road racing of European sports cars, Harry Earl designed the first generation super sports car "C1" of Chevrolet Corvette. Its unique "shark mouth" radiator grille is also the object of reference for manufacturers today. Corvette is also known as the American national treasure supercar representing American feelings.
Harry Earl died in 1969. He is remembered as the first modeling director in the American automobile industry and the ancestor of automobile design clay modeling, surround windshield, hardtop car, factory two-color paint and tail wing. During his tenure at general motors, he was responsible for designing about 35 million cars. "My main goal for 28 years is to lengthen and lower American cars, sometimes in reality and sometimes in appearance," he said in 1954 Polar and extremely long American cars in the 1960s and 1970s showed the extent of Earl's influence on the entire automotive industry and culture.
Automobile Globalization
The 1950s and 1970s are the prime time for the development of automobile in the world. Since the 1950s, American automobile has formed the situation of the tripartite confrontation of "General Motors", "Ford" and "Chrysler", and dominated the world automobile market with an overwhelming advantage. At the same time, European manufacturers also began to "mass produce". European manufacturers produced all kinds of sports cars with higher product performance and sold them to the United States, resulting in the coexistence of two overlords. At the same time, with the rapid development of Japanese automobile industry in the 1970s, it gradually occupied a certain market share. Then, Korean cars were gradually moving forward. To the late 1990s, Korean cars accounted for 1.3% of the world's total automobile output.
With their technological and capital advantages, automobile industry groups compete in all aspects in the fields of products, technology, commerce, sales, services and capital operation. On the one hand, we want developing countries to export surplus capital and technology; On the other hand, mutual merger, reorganization, absorption of global resources, expansion of market share and maximization of interests have further promoted the process of automobile globalization.
The fifth stage: the rise of the wave of electric vehicles
By June 2017, China's car ownership had reached 304 million, double that of 2007. The consumption of oil resources is also increasing sharply, among which the consumption of automobile gasoline and diesel has reached more than 50%.
Electric vehicles are divided into the following categories according to the degree of electrification:
- Hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is a mixture of fuel and electric energy, and the electric motor is used as the auxiliary power of the engine to drive the vehicle;
- Plug in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is a new energy vehicle between pure electric vehicle and fuel vehicle. It has both the characteristics of traditional vehicle and electric vehicle, and has large battery capacity and charging interface. It can increase the vehicle's mileage through hybrid mode;
- The power of fuel cell vehicle (FCEV) comes from the electric vehicle of fuel cell. The battery is hydrogen oxygen mixed fuel, which can quickly fill the battery with fuel (hydrogenation) instead of waiting for several hours to charge;
- Pure electric vehicle (Bev) is a vehicle whose power source is completely provided by rechargeable battery;
Rise background
Since the 1990s, electric vehicles have set sail again under the escort of policies and become an important option to solve the environmental pollution of motor vehicles. Among them:
The Kyoto protocol was adopted by representatives of 149 countries and regions of the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change held in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997. It aims to limit greenhouse gas emissions and curb global warming. Governments of various countries have taken countermeasures to redefine the development direction of the automobile industry. The introduction of government policies has also injected strong impetus into the development of electric vehicles.
In the 21st century, electric vehicles have received unprecedented attention in China. They have been included in the 863 plan and entered a period of rapid development. Development achievements of electric vehicles in China in the first decade of the 21st century:
1996 - electric vehicle was listed as a major national science and technology industry engineering project during the Ninth Five Year Plan period;
From 2000 to the end of 2000, Wan Gang, who had studied and worked in Germany for many years, returned to China and was appointed by the Ministry of science and technology of China as the chief scientist and overall team leader of the major electric vehicle projects of the National 863 plan. It has established the "three vertical and three horizontal" (three vehicle technologies of fuel cell vehicle, hybrid electric vehicle and pure electric vehicle are "three vertical", and three key technologies of multi-energy powertrain system, drive motor and power battery are "three horizontal"). After several years of efforts, the research and development of fuel cell vehicles in China has achieved rapid development.
2003 - under the leadership of Professor Wan Gang, the fuel cell R & D team of Tongji University successfully developed China's first fuel cell car "surpass No. 1" and began demonstration operation. This is a milestone in China's automobile history. The vehicle is equipped with 30 kW proton exchange membrane independently developed in China, and the fuel cell uses high-pressure hydrogen as fuel;
From 2004 to the end of the year, Professor Wan Gang's team successively launched "surpass No. 2" and "surpass No. 3" on the basis of the first generation models;
2008 - the follow-up models of surpass series were unveiled as Olympic vehicles in Beijing, and the Chinese people realized their dream of cleaning cars;
At the Beijing Olympic Games in the same year, there were 55 electric buses, 25 hybrid buses, 75 hybrid cars, 20 fuel cell cars, 3 fuel cell city buses and more than 320 all kinds of pure electric field vehicles, with a total of 500 new energy vehicles serving the "Green Olympics";
During the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, more than 1000 new energy vehicles will be served, including about 300 super capacitor vehicles, pure electric vehicles and 200 fuel cell vehicles;
Battery technology
From the 1990s to the first decade of the 21st century, battery technology has made remarkable progress. Lead acid batteries, nickel chromium batteries and lithium batteries have successively become power batteries of electric vehicles. Among them, the fuel cell electric vehicle scheme once became a new direction, but compared with pure electric vehicles, the additional costs of electrolysis and pressurization make the fuel cell vehicles without any price technology. With the progress of battery technology, fuel cell vehicles gradually fade out of the stage.
At present, the commonly used automotive batteries in the market are roughly divided into two types: lithium iron phosphate battery and ternary lithium battery. Among them, there are two representative enterprises in China: BYD (the only vehicle enterprise in the world that provides high-quality batteries by itself, not only that, but also lithium mine and the only company invested by Buffett in China) and Ningde times (the absolute leading enterprise of global power battery), The price of ternary lithium is higher than that of lithium iron phosphate, but it is more cold resistant. The second is battery pack technology, such as Ningde era CTP technology, Tesla battery pack technology, BYD blade battery pack, etc.
Present and future of electric vehicles
With the continuous technological accumulation of electric vehicles, global environmental pollution and energy security problems caused by geopolitical games, major countries around the world now take the direction of electric driven transportation as the key direction of development, with a large amount of capital investment and many entrepreneurs and practitioners entering the electric vehicle industry, Traditional automobile manufacturers have also accelerated the landing of their electric vehicle technology reserves.
market trends
In the first half of 2021, the global sales volume of electric vehicles reached 2.55 million, and pure electric vehicles accounted for about 70%.
The proportion of electric vehicles in vehicle sales continued to soar rapidly, and the proportion of global electric vehicle sales reached 6.22% in the first half of 2021.
In the first half of 2021, the sales volume of electric vehicles in China exceeded 1.2 million, ranking first in all countries, leading 900000 in Germany, ranking second, accounting for nearly half of the global electric vehicle market.
Among them, Tesla led the electric vehicle market (386000 vehicles were sold globally in the first half of 2021) and SAIC GM Wuling emerged and ranked second (191500 vehicles were sold globally in the first half of 2021).
In the first half of 2021, two Tesla models were shortlisted as the top 3 best-selling model of electric vehicles, and the sales of four domestic cars entered the top 10 (Hongguang miniev, BYD Han EV, Euler black cat and GAC aion s)
In the context of the overall environment, capital bets on the electric vehicle industry, and start-ups are rising rapidly. More than a dozen electric vehicle enterprises have IPO in the world (Chinese car enterprises have Weilai, ideal, Xiaopeng and Weima). Traditional car enterprises have accelerated their pace in the field of electric vehicles, and the new forces of domestic car manufacturing have great competitive pressure.
The trend of changing oil to electricity in the automotive industry is inevitable. After combing the development history of the automotive industry, I hope this article can help you.
References
1. Wikipedia
2.https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1710137693902970504&wfr=spider&for=pc
3.https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1650505869001376627&wfr=spider&for=pc
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