Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

The British who set off the first industrial revolution of mankind once had enough glory and pride in automobile manufacturing. However, sticking to the "gentleman culture" and indulging in "handmade", coupled with failed policies, eventually led to the decline of the British automobile industry.

On September 19, local time, the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, escorted by the army, passed through central London for the last time, passed Buckingham Palace and was taken to Windsor Castle.

Britain pays its last respects to the Queen through a well-arranged grand state funeral.

Thousands of British people waited on both sides of the road to bid farewell to Britain's longest-reigning monarch. In the minds of many British people, she is more like an amiable old grandmother.

But the queen also has a maverick side, the most typical of which is that the old lady takes the opportunity to go for a drive alone.

In 2021, the 95-year-old Queen wore sunglasses and drove a Jaguar down the road near Windsor Castle, despite being stopped by her doctor.

The queen's history of driving dates back to her youth.

During World War II, instead of following the arrangement of members of the royal family to escape the war in Canada, she volunteered to join the army and completed professional training in driving and car repair.

Interestingly, the queen has been driving without a license all her life.

Because all driver's licenses (including passports) in the UK were issued in her name, she thought it was silly to give herself a driver's license and insisted on not getting a driver's license.

Of course, the Queen will not choose to drive in downtown, but almost all open country roads, and all the cars are British brands.

For more than 70 years on the throne, the Queen has driven not only Rolls-Royce but also Bentley and Rover. Privately, she prefers Land Rover and Jaguar.

With the favor of the Queen, these brands are naturally veritable "exclusive to the royal family" and are worth a lot of money.

It is a pity that the Queen works so hard to endorse, but now the British auto industry is inexplicable. The British who set off the first industrial revolution of mankind once had enough glory and pride in automobile manufacturing.

In 1776, the British inventor Watt improved the steam engine. Since then, European scientists have developed steam-powered equipment, and mankind has entered the era of industrial revolution.

On the means of transport, it is also an endless stream of British ideas that have changed the way human beings travel.

In 1827, the British Kanet Company produced a steam car with 18 passengers and an average speed of 19km per hour, making it the first steam bus in the world to be officially operated.

In 1838, the British inventor Hennart invented the world's first internal combustion engine ignition device, which was called "a revolution in the history of world automobile development".

In the same year, Robert Davidson, a Scot, invented electric cars powered by batteries, with an average speed of 6.2km per hour, which became the earliest prototype of fuel cell cars.

In 1840, Britain officially applied for a streetcar patent, which is still running leisurely all over the world.

In 1857, Alexander Wilson, a Scottish engineer, set up a factory in the Vauxhall area to produce steam engines and shipyard-related parts (the predecessor of Vauxhall cars).

……

It was an era full of creativity, and there was no invention that could not be tried. Fog shrouded the city of London, and the "iron guy with black smoke" out of nowhere often dumbfounded passers-by.

When cars loaded with steam engines were already running through the streets of Britain, Karl Benz of Germany was still at school, and Henry Ford of the United States was not yet born.

It is just a pity that the British auto industry got up early in the morning, but caught up with an evening collection.

During the 30 years from the establishment of Rover in 1878 to Rolls-Royce in 1906, the British automobile industry suddenly came to a standstill.

The reason is really hard to laugh or cry.

As the British public and coachmen were dissatisfied with the rampant steam cars on the road, they felt "noisy and dangerous" and protested to the British government.

In 1865, under pressure, the British Parliament passed a Motor vehicle Act, which was later ridiculed as the Red Flag Act.

The bill stipulates that any motor vehicle driving on the road must be driven by three people, someone must wave a red flag at 50 meters in front of the car, and the speed of the vehicle must not exceed 4 miles per hour (6.4 km per hour).

To put it more bluntly, the British want to equate the speed of a car with a speed limit of 4 km per hour, so as not to scare carriages and pedestrians on the road.

After the implementation of the bill, a man named Volta Arnold became the first person in history to be punished for speeding for driving a steam locomotive for 13 km an hour.

The British people were happy, but because of their short-sightedness, the British government lost the opportunity to become a world auto power at that time.

In 1895, the absurd Red Flag Act was repealed, but the British auto industry has wasted 30 years.

Fortunately, even after so many years of delay, the British car industry has not lagged behind the world for too long.

In 1904, Rover launched the Rover 8 sedan with a single-cylinder 1.3-liter engine. Although it is 18 years later than the German Mercedes-Benz, the pioneering central skeleton chassis of Rover inspired the idea of modern automobile design.

Since the launch of Rover 8, a total of 2200 vehicles have been sold. With its excellent performance, the car was driven to complete the journey from Coventry, England to Istanbul, Turkey, making Rover 8 the first car across Europe.

At the end of the same year, Royce, the founder of Rolls-Royce, unveiled the first Rolls-Royce 10HP at the Paris Motor Show in France.

Soon after, the Englishman Herbert Austin founded the Austin Motor Company at long Bridge in Worcestershire and launched the Austin car with a chain drive and a 5-liter four-cylinder engine in 1906.

It should be said that after awakening, the development speed of the British automobile industry is not slow, and even it still has a leading advantage in the world automobile industry.

Unfortunately, British automakers have been very resistant to large-scale assembly line production, excessively obsessed with the brand dignity brought by manual technology, and missed the mass production opportunities brought by assembly lines.

There is a saying in automobile history: "the Germans invented the car, the Americans developed the car, the French used technology to promote the car, and the British used elaborate cars."

In 1913, in the United States on the other side of the ocean, Ford launched the Ford Model T, which was affordable to everyone, and extended the concept of assembly line to the entire automobile industry system.

When Ford has achieved annual production of more than 200000 vehicles, British workers are still beating the body with rubber hammers. Cars are still untouchable aristocratic playthings.

Although there are some car-like four-wheelers driving on the streets of London, many of them are cheap and worrisome Cyclecar (four-wheeled motorcycles) assembled by small factories with bicycle and motorcycle parts.

Had it not been for the outbreak of World War I, the British auto industry might have moved slowly at this tepid pace.

After the outbreak of the war, Britain urgently needed a lot of military equipment, and most British car brands were slow to respond. Austin seized the opportunity to become a military supplier to the government, with the number of workers surging from more than 2000 to 20, 000, producing artillery, trucks and other military supplies at full capacity.

Also seizing the opportunity was Rover, which made a lot of money by transporting a large amount of British logistical supplies to the front lines through cars and motorcycles produced by Rover.

In the context of scale expansion, Austin made continuous efforts to develop and launch a variety of cars, trucks and even tractors, leaping into the early leader of the British auto industry.

Unfortunately, Austin spent a lot of manpower and money because of its attachment to a model called WW1, but its sales were always in the doldrums, which led to a serious financial crisis and finally declared bankruptcy in 1921.

In the same year, Rolls-Royce launched an "entry-level" model: the Rolls-Royce Twenty, the ancestor of today's Rolls-Royce Guest.

Even if the price is already the cheapest model, the Rolls-Royce Twenty is still a luxury car beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Subsequently, brands such as Mingjue, Jaguar and upgraded Aston Martin sports cars appeared in the British car market, each like a fine work of art.

It's just that the problem is the same, because the output is limited and the price is high, so the public is prohibitive.

Objectively speaking, British cars and their own designers, whether luxury cars, sports cars, or economic cars, have a unique temperament.

The popular gentleman culture in British society originated from the former chivalry class. Take elegance as the principle, not impatient, implicit and decent.

But this gentlemanly culture can easily evolve into stubbornness that is self-righteous and difficult to accept new things.

With the rapid development of the automobile industry, the social culture of Britain has imperceptibly infiltrated into the automobile industry of our country.

British automakers generally feel that the car is the product of the industrial age, only through manual forging, careful polishing, can give a car soul, but also in line with the identity of the owner.

Because of this, the gold thread on the Rolls-Royce body can be completed in a few minutes, but it still takes a whole day to hire a professional technician to draw it carefully. If there is a slight deviation, the whole vehicle will be repainted and repainted.

The British textile machinery industry has always been well developed, but the leather seat covers of vehicles are stitched by craftsmen because they feel that this is a sign of respect for car owners.

As for the assembly line from the United States, the British scoff that this cold machine product is not only a blasphemy to customers, but also a submission to money.

In the disdain of the British, the United States has continuously narrowed the gap between the rich and the poor by relying on numerous inventions and scientific and technological advances, and has also transferred a large amount of European wealth to the United States.

Throughout the 1920s, the economically prosperous United States was called the "roaring era" by the West.

In 1928, President Hoover came to power to give a speech: "We are on the eve of a decisive victory in the war against poverty, and the slums will disappear from the United States."

His strength came from the Chrysler Building, the tallest building in the world, from the first American pilot to fly across the Atlantic, and from Ford's production of 15 million cars.

At this time, the total car output of the whole European country is less than 1% of that of a Ford car company in the United States, so shabby that it is almost incomparable.

Although Britain took the lead in completing the Industrial Revolution and grabbed huge wealth through the colonies, a large number of social assets were actually in the hands of a very small number of upper classes, which limited the popularity of cars.

The number of cars per capita in Britain increased from 0.01 in 1920 to 0.04 in 1930, with almost everyone getting a tire.

Fortunately, after the bankruptcy and restructuring, Austin learned a lesson from the bitter experience and launched the 10.5 horsepower Austin 7 sedan in line with market demand. This car is much smaller than the Ford Model T. it is only 3 meters long and 1.4 meters wide.

The first cars of BMW and Nissan were all licensed by Austin 7.

In terms of price, the Austin 7 costs 112 pounds (52000 yuan), roughly the annual salary of the average British worker, and is the most successful economic car in Europe before the birth of the Beetle.

In the years that followed, the Austin 7 continued to introduce improved models, and by the time production was stopped in 1939, it had produced a total of 290000 cars, bringing the number of cars per capita in the UK to a gratifying breakthrough.

At this time, with the Nazi invasion of Poland and the outbreak of World War II, the British auto industry was pressed the pause button and staggered into the flames of war.

During the war, although the British auto industry emerged the skinny Austin Champion Jeep and the Wolsley 18 sedan in line with the taste of senior officers, it did not get rid of the characteristics of the Industrial Revolution as a whole, which was old and bulky.

After World War II, the world ushered in a golden period of development, the private demand for cars has become the biggest driving force for the rapid growth of the automobile industry.

In 1948, the Land Rover, based on the Rover P3 sedan, arrived late.

This is a multi-purpose vehicle with a convertible design, so simple that it does not even have a door, but it was exported to more than 70 countries in the 1950s with its excellent off-road performance.

However, Land Rover should be most grateful to the Queen for her "carrying goods" effect.

Since 1954, Series I, the predecessor of Land Rover, has served as a ceremonial car at British royal ceremonies.

The queen also has a soft spot for Land Rover and often steals out of the castle to become addicted to car racing.

Land Rover is good, but fuel consumption is too high, ordinary people only want to choose an affordable car.

The first to meet the needs of middle-class Britons was actually a German car.

At the end of World War II, British troops took over German Volkswagen and immediately handed over the first order of 20,000 Beetles.

The British people are flocking to the Beatles, but the upper class, out of the confidence and dignity of the established industrial powers, are not interested in the Beetles and are even prepared to give away Volkswagen factories to Ford free of charge.

Ernest Bledge, then chairman of the Ford board, also scoffed at the Beatles and said to boss Henry Ford, "I don't think what we get here is worth a penny!"

In 1949, when the much-disliked Volkswagen finally returned to the Germans, annual production had risen to nearly a million vehicles.

The British do not like the "Beatles". Naturally, they think that "wild flowers are not as fragrant as home flowers".

As the British mainland has not been attacked by much war, and Britain's influence in the sovereign state and colonies is still alive, cars have become the main products of its foreign dumping.

In 1955, Britain produced more than 1.2 million cars, becoming the first country in Europe to produce more than one million cars, second only to the United States in the world.

And the British automobile industry finally knows how to put down its posture and absorb the car-building experience of other countries everywhere.

Among them, Rover was influenced by the wide body of American cars at that time and designed a brand-new P4 model. Its overall shape is elegant, only a nondescript fog lamp is designed in the middle of the grille, so it has won the joke name of "Cyclops".

In 1958, the Rover P5 was launched, equipped with a classic 3-liter in-line six-cylinder engine with a performance comparable to that of Rolls-Royce and became the first choice for cars, including the Queen and many British dignitaries.

But the biggest problem with the Rover P5 is the same as Rolls-Royce, Bentley and other models: expensive and not suitable for ordinary people to use.

After the outbreak of the second Middle East War in 1956, the oil crisis began to appear in countries all over the world. Britain implemented a strict fuel rationing system, and there was always a long queue of vehicles waiting for refueling at gas stations.

In 1959, the British Automobile Company (BMC) made reference to the shape of economical cars in various European countries and launched the compact and economical mini-car MINI.

The MINI is equipped with a four-cylinder water-cooled engine, which makes the maximum output power reach 25kW, and the maneuverability is very strong. Surprised Britons repeatedly use the words "miracle" and "witchcraft" to describe them.

Since then, MINI has begun a journey that has swept the world for more than 60 years, lighting up the highlight of the British auto industry.

Unexpectedly, the British government, which was supposed to promote and support the further development of the automobile industry, was "very hurt" by its wavering industrial policy.

After the war, the British government imposed tariff protection on its own automobile industry. While local carmakers are having fun, it is difficult for Britain to join the European Community.

Since 1952, the policy of installment credit has been implemented in Britain. The policy is well-intentioned to stimulate consumption in the domestic market by lowering the consumption threshold, and other European countries have done the same.

However, the United Kingdom is an importer, and in order to improve the balance of payments, the government often adopts the policy of reducing domestic economic growth and restricting domestic demand to encourage exports.

However, due to the different views of the parties in the British Parliament, the installment bill was amended 18 times in nearly 20 years, completely stunning consumers and automakers.

Consumers want to buy a car, but even the executor is not clear about what is the standard of installment payment.

In the face of the market, British automakers are like blind people touching an elephant. In the midst of changes, they simply cannot understand domestic demand and dare not invest and increase production on a large scale. Over time, profit margins plummeted.

Slowly, both consumers and manufacturers are confused.

Unprofitable, British carmakers chose to "lie flat" when they were supposed to increase production and expand overseas.

In 1961, for example, British car factories had a production capacity of 3 million vehicles, while only 1 million were actually produced. It is because exports and domestic demand remain weak, businessmen just want to raise the price of cars and sell them at a good price at home.

Production and sales can not keep up, the market for domestic and external demand is not dynamic, and the technology and research and development of the British automobile industry continue to be low, and car brands can only rely on the story that "I was once rich."

In response to the severe market situation, Rover and Triump merged, and then merged with BMH to form the British Leland Motor Company, which began a period of warm days with each other.

In the mid-1960s, there were only two major groups in the British automobile industry: Leland Motor Company and British Automobile holding Company.

In 1968, the British government merged the two groups into Leland Automobile Group, which owns all British car brands except Rolls-Royce and Bentley, and is the most powerful automobile group in British history.

But the complicated brands make the internal management of the group chaotic, and no one is convinced by each other because of each other's historical background.

In the late 1960s, the British government issued a policy to protect the pound. The motivation is naturally to safeguard the interests of domestic enterprises. But without the devaluation of the pound, domestic car exports will be uncompetitive.

In contrast, Japan and Germany in the same period, relying on assembly line operations and new technologies, quickly grabbed the global market at a lower cost and made a lot of money.

In 1973, Britain was finally accepted by the European Community, and the Leland Automobile Group, which relied on its old capital, lost the protection of tariff barriers. In the face of covetous overseas automakers, defenseless, soon on the verge of bankruptcy.

The British government had no choice but to buy and nationalize the Leland Automobile Group and continue to receive blood transfusions, hoping to make the "giant baby" stand up as soon as possible.

Helplessly, this huge and weak Leland Automobile Group is an unbearable "Ah Dou". In the face of rising stars such as Germany and Japan, there is neither organization nor fighting spirit in the competition.

Since the 1970s, the British government has implemented a policy of cutting taxes to boost consumption, which was intended to take care of the local auto industry. As a result, with the benefit of hindsight, British automakers have made it cheaper for foreign Japanese and American automakers.

The impatient British government privatized Leland Motor Group and sold its brands one after another.

Leland Group, which brings together 35 car brands, is like a child abandoned by its family, and has been adopted by foreign capital one after another.

In 1984, Leland sold Jaguar to Ford, closed brands such as Austin and Triumph, and changed its name back to the former Rover Group.

But this is a stupid move, due to the unified use of the Rover trademark within the brand, making the queen's exclusive car in line with the economy car, the influence of the brand has plummeted.

Rover was also ill-fated, first acquired by BMW and then resold to the UK by BMW (except MINI); Jaguar Land Rover was sold first to Ford and then to India; the intellectual property rights of Rover's full range of engines were sold to SAIC; Lutes (Lotus) was controlled by Geely.

The ups and downs of the Rover brand are like a mirror, reflecting the sunset of the British auto industry.

After Rolls-Royce and Bentley were also acquired by BMW and Volkswagen respectively, MINI and Rolls-Royce were reunited in Germany.

It is worth mentioning that the British government also intends to take the initiative to abandon the auto industry.

In the 1990s, the British government, instigated by environmentalism, joined the wave of dematerialization and made efforts to develop the financial industry, abandoning the once proud industrial system, including the automobile industry.

Up to now, only a few brands such as McLaren belong to the UK, but they are also in jeopardy.

For example, due to a series of problems brought about by Brexit, the financially strained McLaren can only get working capital by mortgaging its headquarters.

The haze caused by the epidemic has made matters worse, with the few local car brands in the UK consistently selling poorly.

Now, with the rise of new energy vehicles, time seems to once again pull the British auto industry back to a new starting line, but the British auto industry's lacklustre technological research and development is no longer the environment that was eager to try a hundred years ago.

What is even more embarrassing for the British automobile industry is that the car brands that were originally sold because of poor management have regained their glory in a foreign country.

MINI and Rolls-Royce have regained their glory under BMW, feeding BMW's coverage in the market.

Instead of being overshadowed by the halo of its old rival Rolls-Royce, the Bentley in the hands of Volkswagen has been built with a purer British royal pedigree and handmade, and even bucked the trend when global luxury car sales fell.

The drifting Jaguar Land Rover has been sold three times, with a transaction value of $6 billion, which is getting higher and higher each time.

This makes people feel that after more than 70 years on the throne of the Queen of England, no car brand in Britain has become bigger and stronger. On the contrary, it is only after being "adopted" that it glows with vigor and vitality.

When the queen silently watched the once familiar car brands sell and close, I wonder if she would think of the history of the "sun never set" empire from glory to decline.

It is respectable to insist on the dignity of being unyielding, but it may also lose the foundation of decency.

The decline of British car brands for a century is the price of losing their roots.

However, the cost is too heavy for British industry to measure in terms of money and time.

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: ID:lishiqiche2016, author: Wang Jian

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.