Stepping into 65438+20201October 30th, the World Centennial Automobile Club has added a new member, that is Mazda. As the 20th car company with a century-old history in the world, Mazda is also the second car company in Japan after Mitsubishi, which is 13 years earlier than Nissan, 17 years earlier than Toyota and 26 years earlier than Honda.
0 1? Founder of blacksmith
1875, the founder of Mazda, Jujiro Matsuda, was born in a small fishing village in Hiroshima Prefecture, which is now the headquarters of Mazda Company-Fuzhong Town, Anyi County, Hiroshima Prefecture.
When he was a child, Jujiro's family was very poor, because he had 12 children, so his life was under great pressure, and his father died early, so Jujiro began to help at the age of 10. 13 years old, like watching the blacksmith strike while the iron is hot since childhood, Jujiro resolutely decided to go out and strike while the iron is hot and support himself with his own hands.
1888, Jujiro came to Osaka, Kyoto, and studied mechanical manufacturing technology in a blacksmith shop. )。 Four years later, the fledgling giant Jiro went to the naval factories in Wushi and sasebo to engage in shipbuilding.
Speaking of Wu Shi and sasebo, people who like the history of the Pacific War will probably immediately think of two auspicious ships in Old imperial japanese navy: the destroyer Xuefeng in Wugang and Shiyu in sasebo, which can be regarded as authentic examples of immortality. Of course, this has nothing to do with Jiro, because it will be decades later.
Anyway, with the work in the military factory, Jujiro gradually sprouted the idea of opening his own factory, but it is difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice and lack the start-up funds. At this time, the nobles in Jujiro's life appeared.
Hello, Tsukiji, everyone must remember this person, because without him, there would be no later success of Jiro, and there would be no Mazda today.
As the head of the military factory, Tomiya Tsukiji, who has been engaged in casting for generations, thinks that the future belongs to machinery, so he appreciates giant Jiro who works under him and is extremely fascinated by machinery, and recruits him as a son-in-law (similar to a son-in-law).
1895, Jiro entered his twilight years, and Wu Donghengji contributed to help him open his first factory, "Wu Dong Iron Works". Of course, all success cannot be smooth sailing. Although Jujiro has a bright future, due to lack of management experience, the factory closed in a hurry in less than a year.
However, instead of blaming Jiro, the East Palace encouraged the young man, so Jiro regained his confidence and began his second study tour in Nagasaki. Here, he entered Mitsubishi Shipyard and was exposed to the most advanced technology in the world at that time, which laid the foundation for future success.
During his working days at Mitsubishi Shipyard, Higashiya often wrote letters to greet him and urged him to go home and inherit his family business. But Jujiro didn't want to inherit the candy house in the East Palace, so he proposed to the East Palace Henderson to dissolve the relationship between the son-in-law and the adopted son. The latter, after careful consideration, not only did not embarrass Ju Jiro, but also encouraged him to successfully realize his ideal.
Soon, Jujiro regained his confidence and decided to run a company again. This time, he opened the "Song Tian Manufacturing Factory" in Osaka to manufacture and sell the "Song Tian Pump" invented by himself.
Because of the previous experience, Jujiro's entrepreneurship seems to be smooth sailing. He not only developed Song Tian Manufacturing Company into a joint venture Song Tian pump, but also "Song Tian pump" became a hot-selling product in the reconstruction process after Osaka fire, which brought huge profits to the company, but also brought danger to Jujiro.
In order to buy Ju Erlang's company, some people instigated insiders to betray him, which not only almost put Ju Erlang in prison, but also made him see the company clearly, so he left and re-established "Song Tian Manufacturing Institute".
After many tests, Jujiro also learned many experiences and lessons from the past. At the same time, with the outbreak of World War I, the new "Song Tian Factory" also ushered in a once-in-a-century opportunity-producing artillery fuses for the Russian government. This opportunity not only enabled Jujiro to gain a successful foothold in Osaka business circles, but also created a beautiful talk of "one-night factory", and transformed the new "Made in Song Tian" into a joint-stock company, and the business was booming.
However, Jujiro, who is too obsessed with technology rather than management, has a disagreement with the top management on the relocation of the factory for the expansion and development of the company. To this end, Jujiro resigned again and returned to his hometown of Xiangyang, once again losing the company he founded.
As the saying goes, Jiro, who has never been confused for many years, has established a strong psychological quality. After leaving Osaka and returning to his hometown, Jujiro also set up "Hiroshima Studio", but later sold his shares to his partner at 19 19 and quit the company.
At this time, the curtain of Mazda, a century-old automobile company, is slowly opening.
02? Rebirth in a nuclear explosion
1920, Jujiro, who was already famous in Japanese business circles, ushered in a turning point in his life-he entered the predecessor of Mazda, Toyo Cork Industry Co., Ltd. At this time, Toyo Cork Industrial Company mainly produced and sold some wood-related products, such as red wine corks and hot water corks, which were far from the machinery manufacturing industry that Jujiro was familiar with.
If this continues, Jiro while the iron is hot will probably become Jiro with a wooden planer. However, God gave another chance. A world-class "Great Kanto Earthquake" and a fire made Jujiro decide to transform his business, so Toyo Industrial Co., Ltd., which removed the word "cork", began to produce tricycles that were urgently needed by Japanese society at that time. The name of the first tricycle was "Mazda? Go ahead.
It is called "Mazda" because Jujiro worships god of light Ahura of Zoroastrianism? Mazdā, pronounced as "Ma-Tsu-Da" with his surname Song Tian, is very similar, so I'm here.
"Mazda? GO "not only started Toyo Industrial Co., Ltd.' s car-making history, but also let the whole of Japan see" Mazda "through an experiential marketing that spans 2,700 kilometers from Kagoshima to Tokyo. GO "reliability, at the same time, the first symbolic trademark in Mazda history began to be activated, and the three-layer" M "stands for" Mazda? Motor? "Manufacturer", the shape extending from left to right also symbolizes the wings of seagulls, representing speed and flexibility.
The good times didn't last long. When World War II broke out, we all knew what would happen next. Hiroshima, Japan welcomed a horrible guest-"Little Boy". Fortunately, Jujiro miraculously escaped the nuclear explosion, including his eldest son Matsuda (the third president of Mazda), but unfortunately, his second son, Song Tian Zongmi, died of the nuclear explosion.
The pain caused by the war made Toyo Industrial Company, led by Jujiro, withdraw from military production and turn to produce all kinds of wagons needed for post-war reconstruction. June 1950, "Mazda? CA "was born, which is also the first four-wheeled vehicle in Mazda history.
In the following year, Jujiro handed over the burden of the company to his eldest son Tsukiji Matsuda Falcon, and then died in the following year at the age of 76. Today, there is a bronze statue of Jujiro Matsuda carved by Japanese sculptor Yuan Aishengsan. He is also a plumber and was inscribed by Japanese Prime Minister Ikeda Hayato, which shows his position in the hearts of Hiroshima people.
Although the era of Jujiro is over, Mazda, which was reborn in the nuclear explosion, has just risen.
03? Technology is always innovation.
In the president's office of Mazda headquarters, there is a saying that "whoever looks at a corner is the land". This old saying from Spring and Autumn Annals is the motto of Matsuda Tsukiji, the third president of Mazda, and it is also one of Mazda's corporate ideas.
It is said that like a tiger, like a son, he followed his father to Tsukiji, Matsuda, Toyo Industrial Co., Ltd. from 1927, and he was also interested in machinery. After Toyo Industrial took over the post of president, it not only made the original tricycle business bigger and stronger, but also began to fully enter the automobile industry. First, the Romper four-wheel truck that was popular in Japan at that time was made, and then the first car in Mazda's history, R360, was launched at 1960. Coupe.
R360？ The coupe is in line with Japan's post-war national demand. Equipped with a 356cc twin-cylinder engine, it weighs only 380 kilograms and can take two adults. The price is 320,000 yen. As soon as it went public, it received rave reviews and once occupied 60% of the market at the same level.
Use R360? With the success of Coupe, Toyo Industrial made persistent efforts to launch the first four-door car Carol, global strategic cars Familia and Capella, luxury models Luce and Bongo, which not only became the third largest automobile manufacturer in Japan after Toyota and Nissan at that time, but also laid a good foundation for Mazda in the future. Among them, Familia and Capella later evolved into Mazda 3 and mazda 6 that we are familiar with.
In 1960s, Japanese automobile market was impacted by foreign brands for the first time. Numerous small factories were either annexed or disappeared, and Toyo Industrial Company could not stay out of it. Seeing the existence of the crisis, Tsunami decided to take a gamble and turned its attention to the newly released Wankel engine, which is also the famous rotary engine.
196 1 In February, Toyo Industrial Co., Ltd. signed a contract with NSU Automobile Factory in West Germany (predecessor of Audi) and obtained the patent right of Wankel engine. Then, at the behest of Matsuda Tsukiji, 360? Coupe's chief designer, and later the sixth Mazda President, graduated from the First Engineering Department of Imperial University in Tokyo, Japan, and was later called "the father of rotor" by Kenichi Yamamoto, leading 46 carefully selected engineers to form the R&D team of "Rotor 47 Brave" in the famous industry.
At the same time, Tsukiji Matsuda also put forward the slogan of "technology is always innovative" for the first time in the company, which not only became one of Mazda's brand concepts throughout today, but also inspired the determination of the rotor R&D team, and finally successfully manufactured the world's first one in May 1967. Exercise? 1 10S. The following year, Familia, the second model with rotary engine? Rotary? Coupe will be out soon.
With the successful mass production of rotary engines, Toyo Industry not only mastered its own things, but also gained a good reputation. It can be said that the foundation of Mazda today was established by Tsukiji Matsuda Falcon, and with the rotor engine, Toyo Industrial Co., Ltd. ushered in its heyday.
1970, Geng Ping Matsuda took over the leadership of the company from his father Tsukiji Matsuda. He was full of confidence in the rotary engine and applied this legendary engine to all the main models at that time, including Familia and Capella.
However, the first oil crisis broke out in 1973, and the disadvantages of high fuel consumption of rotary engines were exposed, and the company's performance also fell into an unprecedented trough.
1977, Toyo Industrial, which was in crisis, was reorganized under the leadership of Sumitomo Bank, the main bank, and Matsuda Gengping withdrew from the management of the company. His successor is Yoshiki Hayashi Yamazaki, the automobile manufacturing minister and special director of the company.
At this point, the Song-Tian era of Toyo Industrial Co., Ltd. has ended, Toyo Industrial Co., Ltd. is about to become a thing of the past, and the real Mazda era is coming.
04? Haoche age
Yoshiki Hayashi Yamazaki, who was dying, did not disappoint. During his tenure, Toyo Industrial Company readjusted its vehicle strategy and only put the rotary engine on the performance vehicle, which also promoted the birth of the world-class car RX-7.
RX-7 is a two-door rear-drive sports car. The original internal code is X605. Based on the development of SA platform, it is equipped with improved 12A twin-rotor engine. 1983 was slightly modified for the first time. The Japanese version added 12A turbocharged rotor engine, while the export version was equipped with the famous 13B-RESI rotor engine. The third generation model RX-7 was officially discontinued in 2002, with a total production of 865,438+065,438+0,634 vehicles worldwide.
In addition to RX-7, another achievement of Yoshiki Hayashi Yamazaki is the success FF of Familia and Capella (front-wheel drive). The fifth generation Familia received a strong response as soon as it was launched, which not only won the first Japanese Car of the Year Award, but also helped the company get rid of the business crisis temporarily.
In addition, Yamazaki of Yoshiki Hayashi contributed to Ford's shareholding in 1979, which laid the foundation for Ford to enter Mazda and save it from the quagmire. In the last year of his resignation, Toyo Industrial Co., Ltd. was officially renamed Mazda Co., Ltd.
The Toyo industrial era officially ended, and the Mazda era officially arrived. Three years after Kenichi Yamamoto, the "father of rotor", served as the transition president, Gutian Dechang, the first airborne president in the company's history, came to Mazda.
Facing the wave of global trade liberalization at that time, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry of Japan asked domestic automobile manufacturers to review and integrate. In order to climb the top three Japanese car factories, Gutian Dechang decided to implement multi-brand strategy and multi-dealer access, so Mazda had "Mazda" and? Mazda? Up to five brands, including εfini, Eunos, Autozam and Autorama. Among them, Mazda's second world-class sports car, MX-5, was born under the brand Eunos.
MX-5 is Mazda's first car developed with the concept of "integration of man and horse". It is also a two-door and two-seat convertible FR sports car and the first car developed by fans in the world.
Mazda first chose the United States as the launch site of MX-5. Although the country is full of high-powered muscle cars of V6, V8, V 12, the MX-5 with engine displacement of only 1.6L and front-to-rear weight ratio of 50:50 is a blockbuster, and the driving pleasure is superb. The already lonely English trot has been brought back to the mainstream.
Although a large number of automobile companies including Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Porsche and Lotus have followed suit, none of them can overshadow the MX-5. As Clarkson, a world-famous car critic, said, "Anything that can run on the road can't bring you endless fun like MX-5. The only reason I give MX-5 five stars is that I can't give it fourteen stars! "
05? Ford is in charge.
Although the MX-5 is well-known, although the 787B racing car helped Mazda become the only Asian automobile manufacturer to win the Le Mans 24 Hours in history, with the collapse of Japan's bubble economy in the 1990s, Japan entered a flat depression, which also led to the failure of Mazda's multi-brand strategy due to excessive extravagance. Even though the president of N8 and Tian Shuhong made a series of efforts, including implementing low-price promotion, returning to Mazda, resuming production of Capella and integrating domestic dealer channels, they still failed.
During the period of 1996, due to financial difficulties, Mazda had to rely on Ford to inject capital, and the latter's shares exceeded the lower limit of 33.4%, and Mazda entered the Ford era.
At that time, Ford gave Mazda a great help, not only in terms of funds, but also in terms of technology. During that time, many twin products were born between the two brands, including Mazda 3 and Focus, which we are familiar with, and mazda 2 and Carnival, which also laid the foundation for the main motion control of Mazda models in the future.
Among them, mazda 2 Demio is the masterpiece of Henry Wallace, the first foreign president and the tenth president of Mazda. In just ten months, the sales volume of this mini-car exceeded 65,438+10,000 units, which has also become a lifeline for Mazda.
Starting from 1996, headed by Henry Wallace, four consecutive presidents of Mazda, James Miller, mark fields and Louis Booth, were all from Ford. During the term of four foreign presidents, Mazda made a series of changes, mainly including stopping the production of the flagship car sentia, that is, Mazda 929, and starting to withdraw from the high-end car market, mainly developing the small and medium-sized car market; Self-developed SUV models pay tribute, which is the predecessor of CX-7 and CX-5; Launched Atenza, the successor of Capella, namely mazda 6; Put forward a new brand slogan "Zoom-Zoom".
In 2003, Yu Yi became the thirteenth president, and Mazda ended Ford's history of personnel leadership. In the same year, Mazda completely withdrew from the high-end car market and launched Familia's successor car, which is widely known as Mazda 3.
In 2007, Mazda ushered in the highest profit since its establishment-158.5 million yen, which marked the beginning of Mazda's recovery. The better news is that the next year, because of the financial turmoil, Ford came to the brink of life and death. Alan mulally, the new CEO of the dying Ford Company, chose "One Ford" as his medicine, and the big sale began. Jaguar Land Rover, Aston Martin and Volvo have been sold one after another, and Ford's shareholding in Mazda has also dropped from 33.4% in the past to 13% and 20 165438.
06? Skyactiv technology
Although Mazda fell into a great recession in the late 1990s and life under the roof of Ford was not satisfactory, Tsuda's slogan "Technology is always innovation" has never been erased.
20 10, on the occasion of the company's 90th anniversary, Mazda released the famous SKYACTIV? Technology, that is, the technology to create the blue sky, and this year was also called "the first year of SKYACVTIV" by Mazda.
Chuangchi Blue Sky Technology is a complete technical assembly covering engine, gearbox, construction site and body structure. This technology is based on Mazda's long-term goal "Zoom-Zoom Declaration on Sustainable Development" and strives to achieve "driving pleasure" and "excellent environmental protection and safety performance". Among them, SKYACVTIV-G engines with various displacements received rave reviews as soon as they appeared, with a capacity of 2.0L? Skycvtiv-G engine won the title of Top Ten Engine of Ward in that year.
With the full popularization of Chuangchi Blue Sky technology in Mazda's active models, Mazda has ushered in its own good day, which not only increases its global market share, but also greatly increases its sales and profits. At the same time, with the sales of Angkor Sela, Artz and CX-5, Mazda's small life in China is also booming.
However, with the arrival of the cold winter in China automobile market, Mazda seems to be in trouble again. In the last fiscal year (March 20 18-March 2065438+09), not only did the global sales drop to 156 100, but the operating profit and net profit also fell to 83 billion yen and 63.5 billion yen respectively.
Last year, Mazda released a new generation Mazda 3 around the world, hoping to improve its performance. However, at present, the effect is not obvious. The delay in mass production of the new generation SKYACVTIV-X engine, which has high hopes, is also one of the reasons that drag down Mazda's revitalization.
However, Mazda is not worried about this, and still maintains more than130 billion yen in technology research and development funds. At the same time, it plans to re-enter the high-end market and develop a brand-new in-line six-cylinder SKYACVTIV? -X engine, light hybrid, plug-in hybrid and pure electric system are introduced in electrification to comply with the changes of market policy. Mazda predicts that in FY 2024, global sales will increase to 6.5438+0.8 million vehicles, and the company's operating profit margin will increase to 5%.
At the same time, Marubeni, the 6th president of/kloc-0, also revealed last year that Mazda is undergoing a subtle transformation from a mass-oriented automobile manufacturer to a more high-end manufacturer. Now, it seems that the quality, workmanship and materials of the new generation of Artz and the next generation of Mazda 3 Angkeira sold in China have been significantly improved, which also shows that this Japanese automobile company, which once paid too much attention to technology, is welcoming a quiet transformation at the turn of the century.
Write to the end
When we get old, when we are ordinary after all, when we become a pile of loess like others, what makes us once mediocre become so extraordinary, so dazzling is the love we desperately embraced and pursued, and even won't regret it in the end. This is Mazda, and the spirit it has been following in its hundred-year history, and a whoosh.
Mazda, happy? 100th？ Birthday!
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.