The U.S. government needs to decide urgently how to deal with Japan's post-war problems with oriental cultural background. To this end, the US government mobilized experts from all sides to study Japan and provide information and opinions in order to make the best decision.
From 65438 to 0946, American scholar Ruth Benedict used the method of cultural anthropology to investigate the Japanese living in the United States and Japanese war criminals imprisoned in the United States during the war, interpreted the Japanese way of thinking and habits from the details of daily life, revealed the contradictory character and nationality of the Japanese, and wrote the book Chrysanthemum and Knife.
More than 70 years later, Chrysanthemum and Knife is still regarded as a masterpiece to study Japanese national character. At the same time, the Japanese who have experienced the Showa, Heisei and Linghe eras are increasingly ambivalent and nationalistic, and "rigid and fickle, conservative and fond of the new" is the most distinctive label.
Today, this contradiction between chrysanthemum and knife has even affected the transformation and development of Japanese automobile industry to new energy vehicles.
Japanese car companies that are conservative but like innovation are definitely pioneers in the field of new energy.
The history of new energy vehicles in Japan can be traced back to 1947.
In the 1940s, due to the oil shortage in Japan, at the call of the Japanese government, Nissan began to integrate power resources for automobile research and development.
1947, Nissan released its first pure electric vehicle-Tama. This model has a cruising range of 65 kilometers on a single charge.
1983, Nissan launched March EV again? -The world's first pure electric product with asynchronous motor.
13 years later, 1996, Nissan launched the Prairie Happy EV. It is the first and only pure electric vehicle with cylindrical lithium battery in the world.
In the same period,1April, 1997, Honda's first mass-produced electric vehicle, EVPlus, finally rolled off the production line in Konesawa-CHO, Tochigi Prefecture, becoming the first mass-produced electric vehicle using non-lead-acid batteries in the world.
At this time, it has been nine years since Honda's first electric vehicle basic research team was established.
On the other hand, Japan has always been one of the leaders in the research and application of hydrogen energy technology.
As early as the 1970s, Japan began the research and development of hydrogen energy technology. In 20 14, the Japanese government launched a plan called "Japan's hydrogen energy society strategy", aiming at promoting the application and development of hydrogen energy technology and realizing the vision of a hydrogen energy society.
Toyota is one of the best. As early as 1992, Toyota began to develop fuel cell vehicles. 1996, Toyota's first fuel cell vehicle FCHV- 1 came out with a cruising range of 250km.
However, it was not until 20 15 that Mirai, a Toyota hydrogen energy production model, finally appeared and began to be sold and delivered in California in June of 5438+00.
It is worth mentioning that while betting on the route of hydrogen energy vehicles, in 20 10, Toyota acquired 50 million US dollars of shares of Tesla and cooperated with Tesla to develop pure electric RAV4. The follow-up sales are bleak, and many people must understand the story that the two sides do not change their breakup.
As the three representatives of Japanese car companies, the development of Toyota, Nissan and Honda in the field of new energy vehicles almost represents the choice of Japanese car companies to turn to new energy routes collectively: the first move has not yet arrived, betting on hybrid and hydrogen energy routes; Moreover, in 2 1 century, there are few pure electric product plans.
At present, in the China market, most of the Japanese pure electric vehicles you can buy are ill-fated, and Toyota C-HR EV has stopped production; Honda e:NS 1 almost no volume; Nissan aria has also joined the wave of price cuts.
Moreover, insufficient intelligent configuration has become one of the important reasons why many consumers give up buying Japanese new energy vehicles.
Many people may still have the impression that the lithium battery developed by Akira Kumar, a researcher of Asahi Kasei Chemical Company in Japan and winner of the 20 19 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, has promoted the development of smart phones and pure electric vehicles.
Looking back, I can't help sighing.
In different economic times, the contradictory characteristics of "chrysanthemum and knife" will constantly rebound and enlarge.
Thirty Years of Heisei is called "Thirty Years of Japanese Economic Loss". Behind the economic stagnation, the innovation and development vitality of Japanese enterprises is losing.
This also allowed Japanese car companies to invest heavily in the research and development of new energy vehicles when Japan's economy was most brilliant in the 1980s and 1990s. However, in the "lost thirty years", they completely became spectators of new energy vehicles and stood firm in the new conservative national characteristics.
Specifically, the limitations of this nationality are reflected in many aspects.
Japan ordered the wrong tree of new energy vehicle technology.
20 10 Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry released the next generation automobile strategy. In this strategy, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan plans as follows:
This means that in the top-level planning, Japan has not made pure electric power the first choice, and classified it as plug-in hybrid power, mainly oil-electric hybrid power.
As we all know, Japanese brands have gained a strong advantage in the field of mashup.
By 2020, Japanese car companies have achieved the feat of selling more than150,000 hybrid vehicles. Choosing the pure electricity market will face a new beginning, which is equivalent to starting a second business. Therefore, manufacturers are reluctant to leave the current comfort zone and are more willing to continue to work in the hybrid market.
On the other hand, Japanese car companies have planned to give priority to the development of hydrogen energy from the beginning. After more than 40 years of research and development, Japan has mastered 60% of the technical patents on hydrogen energy.
However, the shackles of immature hydrogen energy technology and Japan's conservatism in preventing technology patents made other countries and car companies give up the large-scale promotion of hydrogen energy technology, which eventually led to a "lose-lose situation".
A series of obscene operations can be said to be the staggered opportunities for the market to force policies and path dependence.
Not only that, Japanese car companies and suppliers signed a long-term exclusive supply agreement. This makes them more like long-term partners or even the same hobbies. The relationship between the two sides deepened and formed a * * * relationship.
Six of the top ten suppliers in the battery field are China enterprises, and the rest are occupied by South Korean Samsung, LG and SK, leaving only one Japanese brand Panasonic.
The backwardness of the industrial chain has also provided "negative energy" for the transformation of Japanese car companies.
This kind of "strong binding" makes it impossible for anyone to eat in a pot, let alone choose to jump ship in advance.
Akio Toyoda, former president of Toyota, even believes that if electrification is fully implemented, Japan will lose 5.5 million jobs and 8 million new car production capacity by 2030.
Fast enough to hit your face.
On the evening of 202 1, 65438+February, 14, Toyota held an electric vehicle strategy conference. Toyota and Lexus released 15 pure electric concept cars in one breath, ranging from cars, SUVs, MPVs, pickup trucks to sports cars.
This is the concentrated expression of Japanese national character: inflexible and fickle, conservative but fond of the new and disgusted with the old.
In the bones of the Japanese, it seems that there is a blood of "improvement rather than revolution".
They can surpass Ford and make the lean production of automobile assembly line to the extreme; They will also squeeze the last drop of profit from technology or products.
In this way, Japanese car companies missed the opportunity to develop new energy vehicles in repeated swings.
The wave of "aging" in Japanese society has spread to major Japanese car companies.
Akio Toyoda, who will step down in April, is 66 years old, and Koji Sato, who took over, is 53 years old. On the other hand, Honda President Mihiro Sanbu is over 60 years old, and the relatively young Nissan President Uchida is also 56 years old. Even Suzuki, chairman of Suzuki, stepped down at the age of 9 1.
The tenure of Japanese corporate executives, the tenure of employees and the "aging" of corporate executives will further lead to the decline of internal innovation vitality.
There is not much time left for Japanese car companies.
This article comes from the author's school of Yiche number, and the copyright belongs to the author. Please contact the author for any form of reprint. The content only represents the author's point of view and has nothing to do with the car reform.