Chapter 284 Automobile Industry
Among the projects nominated for the Science and Technology Award, one project caught Carlo’s attention, which was the automobile project developed by Benz and others.

Speaking of which, Carlo hasn’t visited the car factory in person to see the development of the car for several years.

It’s not that Carlo doesn’t attach importance to the development of automobiles. It’s mainly because of the limitations of technology in this era that automobile engines are currently very unstable.

The last time Carlo visited the car factory, Benz told Carlo clearly that existing cars must be inspected after driving about 200 kilometers, otherwise unpredictable problems are likely to occur. The lightest problem is damage to the car engine, and the most serious problem is that the entire car may be scrapped.

Although the speed of cars has increased to more than 30 kilometers, the disadvantage of only being able to travel continuously for 200 kilometers has greatly restricted the commercialization of cars.

More importantly, the automobile industry at that time was not mature, and with automobile factories producing only a few hundred vehicles per year, it was impossible to achieve full commercialization.

Several years had passed since Carlo’s last visit to the car factory. Carlo finally remembered the car developed by Benz and planned to go to the car factory in person to see to what extent the current car had been developed.

Logically speaking, the symbol of the rapid development of the automobile industry is the birth of the Model T. However, the technology related to the Model T had already appeared in the late 19th century, and various countries also had relatively stable automobile technology and corresponding engineering.

What limits the development of the automobile market is not technology, but the scale of automobile industries in various countries and the speed at which automobiles are built.

Before the birth of Ford’s assembly line production, automobile production in all countries was done manually, which not only relied heavily on the experience of automobile workers, but also greatly reduced the speed of automobile production.

Before the Model T was born, the largest car factory at the time produced only a few hundred cars a year.

The annual output of most automobile factories is less than double digits. Even if some automobile factories are able to produce cars, they may go bankrupt because they cannot sell them.

Because cars were handmade, they were very expensive at the time. Even nobles and capitalists could not necessarily afford expensive cars, which also limited the scale of the car market. The annual production of cars in Europe and the United States was less than 10,000.

The emergence of the Model T greatly increased the production speed of automobiles, which is also the reason for the expansion of the scale of automobiles.

Carlo was full of expectations for Benz’s car factory. He hoped that they could develop relatively stable cars and then rely on assembly line production to quickly expand the car market.

At this time, the automobile industry of various countries was still immature, but Spain had already taken the lead in the automotive field.

As long as Spanish cars can occupy half of the global automobile market before other countries have a mature automobile industry, coupled with good subsequent operations, car sales will bring huge revenue to Spain.

Although the shares of the automobile company belong to Carlo, the annual taxes can also provide a large amount of income to the Spanish government.

The Model T was born in 1908. Before that, there were only tens of thousands of cars in the world. After the Model T was born, it took only 19 years for 1500 million cars to be sold.

This actually means that as long as the price of cars can be controlled within a reasonable level, the car market will be quite large.

If 1500 million cars developed in Spain can be sold, even if the profit from each car is only 100 pesetas, this will be a net income of 15 billion pesetas.

The government will also receive a lot of tax revenue. The development of the automobile industry is a good thing with only benefits for Carlo and the Spanish government.

August 1881, 8, in a large industrial area on the outskirts of Madrid.

On a main road in the industrial area, a large factory seemed somewhat quiet at this time.

The factory gate was open, and the workers were not working in the factory. Instead, they picked up brooms and other tools and swept the road carefully bit by bit.

The area that everyone cleaned was not just the factory, but also the main road outside the factory. When such a strange scene appeared in the industrial area, it actually meant that the factory was about to welcome distinguished guests.

This distinguished guest was naturally Carlo. When Benz learned that Carlo was about to arrive at the car factory for inspection, he summoned all the workers in the car factory and asked them to clean the sanitary environment in the factory to welcome the arrival of His Majesty the King in a more sanitary and tidy environment.

When the workers in the automobile factory learned that the king was about to inspect the factory, they became full of enthusiasm and cleaning became a very pleasant job.

“Everyone, hurry up, His Majesty the King will be here soon. If His Majesty the King sees this mess, he will inevitably lose confidence in our car factory.” As the director of the car factory, Benz was also holding a broom and cleaning with the workers in the factory.

Under the factory director’s personal example, the workers were full of enthusiasm and the factory roads were quickly cleaned.

A straight road branches off from the main road in the industrial zone and leads directly into the factory. It turns a corner near the right and goes straight north, connecting to the large square behind the factory, which is also the car testing area.

In this empty square, there were several cars produced by the car factory parked. These cars were brightly colored and seemed to have been produced not long ago.

After cleaning, everyone in the car factory stood upright at the factory gate, quietly waiting for the arrival of His Majesty the King.

Carlo didn’t keep them waiting for long.

About ten minutes later, a convoy slowly drove over. Leading the way were two modified cars with no roofs, which made it easier for the soldiers sitting in the cars to observe the surrounding situation and protect Carlo’s safety.

There were three identical cars at the end of the convoy, and five cars in front and behind were protecting the safety of the car in the middle.

The car Carlo was riding in was in the middle of the convoy. It was a specially modified car, much larger than the ordinary cars that the soldiers rode.

The convoy slowly approached the factory gate and then stopped.

The guards walked out of the five cars in front and behind. The captain of the guards first ordered the guards to line up, and then respectfully stepped forward to open the car door for Carlo.

Carlo slowly got out of the car and looked at the car factory he had never seen before with curiosity.

The last time Carlo inspected the progress of automobile research and development, he went to the experimental area outside Madrid.

In addition to Gram’s electrical laboratory, there was also an engine laboratory. At that time, automobile manufacturing and experiments were also carried out there. That small experimental area was also praised by Carlo as the industrial brain of Spain.

It is worth mentioning that both the power laboratory and the engine laboratory have achieved good results.

The power companies and automobile companies that were established based on these two laboratories have long since moved to larger industrial areas.

“Your Majesty!” Benz walked quickly forward and spoke to Carlo with a respectful look on his face.

“Mr. Benz, long time no see. Let the workers take a rest. Aren’t they tired of standing here all the time? Bring me a few technical experts to have a look inside the factory. To be honest, I haven’t visited this factory yet.” Carlo said with a smile.

“It’s my honor, Your Majesty.” Benz nodded respectfully and followed Carlo into the car factory with several technical experts.

Since the royal family’s wealth continued to grow, Carlo paid less attention to some of his own properties.

The reason is very simple, that is, there are so many companies controlled by the royal family that Carlo can no longer pay attention to them all.

Carlo only occasionally paid attention to industries with large investments such as automobile factories. There were many other industries with large investments like this. If he paid attention to them one by one, Carlo would not have to worry about government affairs.

Fortunately, Butler Loren is really capable and has been managing the royal family’s industry well. Butler Loren also reports to Carlo every year on the development of the royal industry. Although it is not as good as the growth of the Spanish government’s fiscal revenue, it is also steady and profitable, earning more every year.

Carlo was able to take out 2500 million pesetas at one time to establish the Carlo Award because the royal family already had abundant funds.

Not to mention 2500 million pesetas, even 1 million pesetas at one time would be a piece of cake for Carlo at this time.

This also made Carlo have no concept of money. Various investments started at millions, and sometimes even millions of dollars of funds did not require Carlo’s approval at all, butler Luo Lun could decide on his own.

Of course Benz knew that Carlo had never been to this factory which had only been established for a few years, so he gave a relatively detailed introduction along the way.

“Your Majesty, our automobile factory has been established for six years. We have produced more than 600 vehicles so far, and the annual production capacity can reach about 500 vehicles.

Currently, the workers in the automobile factory are all experienced technical backbones. If the automobile factory needs to expand, they can train a large number of automobile workers for the automobile factory.

Because of your instructions, the car factory has prepared a workshop for assembly line production. We can start the assembly line production mode only after the car passes the test and is confirmed to be qualified.

At present, most of our cars are built by hand. If we can fully adopt the assembly line production model, perhaps our car production can usher in a surge in a short period of time.” Benz explained to Carlo with a smile.

Before coming to Spain, he never thought that his company would grow to where it is today.

Although he only holds 2% of the company’s total shares, this 2% of shares is currently worth a considerable amount of money.

Benz certainly knows the development potential of automobiles as a means of transportation. As the automobile market continues to expand in the future, the value of this automobile company will continue to increase.

This also makes Benz full of expectations for the future development of cars and car companies. With only 2% of the shares of the car company, Benz has the hope of becoming a millionaire in the future.

After hearing Benz’s introduction, Carlo nodded.

Assembly line production is the most important means to increase the production speed of automobiles, and Carlo had long ago told Benz the secret of assembly line production.

In fact, there is no secret. It is just to divide the automobile production process into multiple steps and let each workshop be responsible for only one step.

The benefits of doing so are obvious. Previously, a team had to build an entire car, which helped auto workers become more familiar with the car, but also meant that each car had slight differences.

A worker can make two parts look and feel the same, but it is impossible to make two cars look and feel the same.

Hand-built cars are bound to have certain differences, and these differences also make hand-built cars very costly to repair, or even difficult to repair.

By adopting the assembly line production method, one worker is only responsible for the production of one type of parts. This can reduce the differences between different cars and reduce the maintenance costs of cars. One person is only responsible for the production of one part, which can also effectively improve the efficiency of workers. With the improvement of workers’ efficiency, the time required for car production will naturally be reduced.

Benz was very excited about the assembly line production method proposed by Carlo. If this production method is adopted, the output of the automobile company can be increased several times at any time, and even more than ten times within a year.

Based on the current annual automobile production of 500 vehicles, if it can be increased tenfold, it means that the automobile company can produce 5000 vehicles per year.

Such an annual output can already meet the initial expansion of the automobile market. If the performance of the car can meet Carlo’s requirements, it also means that the car is about to enter commercialization and the automobile company is about to usher in its own heyday.

After the not-so-long introduction to the car factory, Carlo, Benz and others came to the square behind the car factory to visit several newly built cars.

Benz continued to introduce to Carlo: “Your Majesty, please look, this is our latest car. We use the engine code-named EG-3, which was newly developed by the engine laboratory. This engine can provide the car with about 35 horsepower and drive the car forward at a faster speed.

We have also made some changes to the tires. Compared with previous car tires, the current car tires are 6 inches wide and have stronger grip.

We added spring suspension to each tire to effectively reduce the bumpy feeling when the car is running at full speed. According to our preliminary tests, the maximum speed of the car can now reach 40 kilometers per hour, and it can travel stably for at least 500 kilometers. “

Carlo nodded again, and was quite satisfied with the current car data.

The speed can reach 40 kilometers per hour, which is a huge improvement compared to horse-drawn carriages. It can also travel stably for 500 kilometers, which is almost the distance from Madrid to Barcelona.

Based on the maximum speed of a car of 40 kilometers per hour, it takes 500 hours to drive 13 kilometers continuously. Who can drive a car continuously for 13 hours?

Today’s cars don’t have power steering, and the car has to rely on its own arm strength to turn. In other words, no one can drive a car for 13 hours straight, not even Superman.

This also means that cars can be commercialized by building a car repair station every few hundred kilometers in Spain.

Of course, gas stations are also very necessary. After all, a car cannot run without fuel, and a car without fuel is not even as good as a hair of a horse.

“How much would a car like this cost?” Carlo inquired.

Cost is also an extremely critical factor that determines whether a car can be favored by the market.

If the cost of a car is too high, it means that the price of the car cannot be low. Excessively high prices will affect people’s choices. Sometimes people would rather accept a cheaper horse-drawn carriage than enjoy a faster but more expensive car.

“The cost of the cars we are currently building is 1.26 pesetas. If we can increase the speed of car production by using assembly line production, the cost of the cars can at least be reduced to less than 1 pesetas,” Benz replied.

Carlo shook his head, not happy with the current cost of the car. 1.26 pesetas is not a small amount, as much as 484.6 pounds, 2423 US dollars.

Such a figure is simply not something that an ordinary family can afford, which also means that car users will be limited to two major groups: the aristocracy and the capitalists, and even the middle class will not be able to afford it.

“We have to find a way to limit the cost of cars to less than 6000 pesetas so that more people can buy our cars.

Of course, this is not a short-term goal. In a short period of time, we only need to reduce the cost to 1 pesetas to make such a car commercially viable. “Carlo commented.

The cost was reduced to 6000 pesetas, making it possible for the middle class to buy a car.

Before this, cars were always a luxury for the nobility and the rich. However, there were quite a few nobility and capitalists in the world, so the initial expansion of cars was sufficient.

It will not be too late to consider selling cars to the middle class and civilians after assembly line production effectively reduces the cost of cars.

Historically, Ford relied on assembly line production technology and cost reduction brought about by mass production to reduce the cost of a car to $260, or 52 pounds.

Such costs are quite exaggerated, at least Spanish car companies are far from being able to afford them at present.

Based on the production cost of Ford’s Model T of US$260, the equivalent of this is only 1352 pesetas, which is about one-tenth of the current production cost of cars in Spain.

Not to mention 1352 pesetas, even reducing the cost to below 1 pesetas would take some time.

This also means that automobile companies cannot replicate Ford’s success story in a short period of time, and it would be quite good if the automobile market could reach a certain scale.

Benz nodded. He was also quite aware of the cost shortcomings of current cars. No matter how good a car is, the cost and price must be reduced.

Only when cars become a means of transportation that ordinary people can afford can they truly enter thousands of households and become an important means of transportation, rather than a luxury item that only circulates among the rich.

After the introduction, the next step is the actual testing phase.

Carlo is very interested in the new car’s speed of up to 40 kilometers per hour, which is enough to meet daily needs.

You should know that the most popular means of transportation at present, the train, has a speed of less than 60 kilometers per hour.

This can only be achieved in plain areas where there is no limit on the speed of the train.

Because Spain has many mountainous areas, the speed of trains in Spain generally remains between 30 and 40 kilometers per hour, and few trains can exceed 40 kilometers per hour.

This also means that driving a newly produced car from a car company between two cities in Spain may take less time than taking a direct train.

After all, trains need to stop at train stations to let passengers get on and off. Stopping takes a long time, while cars can go directly to their destination without stopping in the middle.

Unless there is insufficient fuel or a problem with the car, a car is more efficient than a train for distances under 500 km.

Of course, this efficiency is only for carrying people. If you use a car to transport goods, the speed will definitely not reach 40 kilometers per hour.

Currently, the speed of freight trains in Spain is generally between 20 and 30 kilometers per hour, and most of the time it is below 25 kilometers per hour.

If a car is used to transport goods, the speed should also be at this level, and may even hover around 20 kilometers per hour.

It’s still the same reason, that is, Spain is mountainous and the roads are not that flat.

Pulling heavy cargo is also a burden on the car’s engine. Whether it can pull heavy cargo for more than 500 kilometers is also a question that Carlo is quite curious about.

Driving 500 kilometers with passengers is not a good result, but if it can still travel more than 500 kilometers stably with a full load of cargo, it is definitely an excellent performance for current automotive technology.

If cars can reach this level, it can be said that cars have the ability to replace horse-drawn carriages.

Only when cars can completely replace horse-drawn carriages can the heyday of automobiles be truly arrived.

Because of this, Carlo is more concerned about the performance of such vehicles in hauling goods.

This new type of car has a total of five seats, two more than the original car, and its passenger capacity has been effectively improved.

Of course, you can also remove all seats except the driver’s seat to turn the car into a cargo truck.

Benz and others tested the car’s passenger and cargo capacity, and found that it could indeed reach a maximum speed of 40 kilometers per hour when fully loaded with five people.

However, this maximum speed is a bit difficult for the engine, and most of the time it travels at a speed of 36 kilometers per hour.

Only when there is only one person on board can the car reach a speed of 40 kilometers for a long time. However, there is no big difference between 36 kilometers per hour and 40 kilometers per hour, which Carlo can accept.

In terms of cargo capacity, this car also performs quite well.

Including the driver, the entire car can bear a weight of 420kg, which is 70kg more than the previous generation car.

This also means that the car’s ability to carry cargo has been effectively improved. Whether buying a car to transport passengers or goods, it is a better choice than a horse-drawn carriage.

In terms of speed, when fully loaded with 420kg of cargo, the new car’s maximum speed can barely reach 30 kilometers per hour.

However, just like when carrying people, this maximum speed cannot be maintained for long. If you want to travel for a long time, you must reduce the speed to about 27 kilometers per hour.

When fully loaded, the stable driving speeds of passenger cars and trucks can reach 36 kilometers per hour and 27 kilometers per hour, which is already a very excellent level.

Due to lack of time, Carlo was unable to see with his own eyes how long the cars ran continuously.

However, the car factory did not dare to hide this at all. Since they said that the car could travel stably for more than 500 kilometers, Carlo still believed the data they said.

According to the results of current actual car tests, apart from the disadvantage of high cost, current cars can be said to have no disadvantages at all.

Compared to horse-drawn carriages, cars are faster, have a greater capacity to carry people or cargo, and do not require as much meticulous care.

If he could be sure that cars wouldn’t have frequent problems, Carlo would definitely choose a car as a more efficient means of transportation over a horse-drawn carriage.

The second update of 6400 words, please support!

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(End of this chapter)