Homo Sapiens

Meanwhile.

Siam, Chiang Mai Province.

As the automotive industrial base planned by the Homo Sapiens Company, some of its infrastructure had already been roughly established by Domino through various shell corporations.

After more than three months of consolidation, Qingye Automobile Company, which had entered Chiang Mai Province early on, now had three production lines in operation.

Meanwhile, Gem Automobile, Yangon Automobile, the Chiang Mai Group’s own Glory Automobile, Nanyang Automobile—a joint venture between the Siam Group and the Homo Sapiens Company—and the Ubon Group’s wholly-owned Tungsten Steel Heavy Industry had all successively established factories here.

Currently, these factories were completing their infrastructure and preparing supporting facilities.

Although it looked like six different automotive enterprises had been established, they were, in reality, just six subsidiary brands of the Homo Sapiens Company.

Therefore, the market positioning of these companies also differed.

For example, the Gem and Tungsten Steel lines focused on engineering vehicles, heavy-duty trucks, excavators, cement mixers, and agricultural vehicles.

The Yangon and Glory lines focused on sedans.

The Nangyang and Qingye lines focused on auxiliary vehicles, small trucks, vans, RVs, luxury cars, and buses.

In any case, the six companies would adjust their product positioning to avoid concentrating their products in a single narrow category.

At this time, Qingye Automobile’s three production lines were manufacturing small trucks, vans, and mid-sized buses.

The hundred-plus engineers poached from Lifan Automobile had now adapted to life in Chiang Mai Province.

Guan Jianzhi, whose entire family had immigrated to Hongsawaddy, had been particularly quick to adapt. He had already learned some internal secrets. While he wasn’t privy to any core information, he at least had some knowledge of the products the company planned to produce in the future.

Guan Jianzhi was a transmission designer and was currently serving as the head of the transmission design department.

For any given car, the components could be broadly divided into the engine, transmission, chassis, drivetrain, electrical systems, tires, body, glass, and interior.

Among these, the tires, body, glass, and interior presented no significant technical barriers.

Especially not for the Homo Sapiens Company.

As for the core components, they previously had to import parts, or even entire assemblies, from companies in Huaguo, East Japan, and Germany, which greatly increased production costs.

But now, they were finally moving toward domestic production.

This pace of localization far exceeded the previous estimates of major foreign automakers.

In the transmission R&D team, Guan Jianzhi had already designed several transmissions based on Japanese models, as per the company’s prior request.

The reason for referencing Japanese transmissions was mainly that the engineers from East Japan were truly skilled at design. The problems with their products often stemmed from cutting corners on materials, not from flaws in the design itself.

And since materials happened to be the Homo Sapiens Company’s strong suit, combining the two made the Japanese transmission designs the most cost-effective option.

Guan Jianzhi and the others were feeling a little anxious, because today, the company’s parts supplier had delivered the components to Chiang Mai Province.

As soon as they received the shipping container, they eagerly began assembly.

In truth, their worries were unnecessary. As long as there were no major flaws in their design, the performance of the components would definitely exceed specifications.

Although the parts supplied by Sea Snail New Material were a lower-spec version, their performance still far surpassed that of similar products on the market.

There were five transmission models in total, and they had received 20 sets of parts for each.

Soon, Guan Jianzhi and his team finished assembling the first transmission, one designed for a small truck.

After pouring in the specialized transmission fluid, they mounted the transmission onto the test bench.

Guan Jianzhi wiped the fluid from his hands with a rag. "Time to see what it’s made of!"

The test officially began.

First, they tested the operation of the various gears.

The engineer in charge of testing went through the gears one by one and found no major issues. At worst, his unfamiliarity with it made the shifting feel a bit clunky.

But after testing it a dozen or so times, he grew more proficient. With the help of the booster pump, shifting was relatively easy.

Guan Jianzhi wasn’t surprised by this. After all, the design borrowed heavily from existing models. If it still had major problems, they might as well pack up and go home.

But the next tests were the most critical.

Namely: lifespan, high-intensity stress testing, and performance under harsh environmental conditions.

Only by seeing if it could withstand this abuse could they determine whether the transmission was up to standard.

Lacking much confidence in the parts supplier, Guan Jianzhi began to feel nervous. He really couldn’t understand why the company would use a no-name supplier like this.

"Old Guan, you confident?" a balding engineer standing nearby asked with a smile.

"Heh, let’s just leave it to fate," Guan Jianzhi said with a shrug.

’What can I do? Nothing!’

They activated the accelerated life test system. Instantly, the transmission’s gears and bearings began running at frantic speeds, and on the test bench’s computer screen, the numbers for its projected lifespan began to jump.

A young engineer joked, "I bet it won’t last more than three years."

"That’s generous. With a no-name product like this, it’ll be a question if it even lasts a year," another, older engineer said with contempt.

Guan Jianzhi’s expression wasn’t great either. If the product failed the test, he worried the company would think there was a problem with his design.

But as the seconds and minutes ticked by, their expressions grew more and more peculiar.

The projected lifespan on the test had already surpassed five years, which was quite good for a transmission.

After all, many automakers’ transmissions developed problems after just one or two years.

However, that wasn’t the limit.

The value quickly broke past ten years.

It finally shot all the way up to 15.3 years before a serious malfunction occurred.

"This..."

The group of engineers, having been proven spectacularly wrong, could only look at each other in bewilderment.

The balding engineer swallowed hard. "Could it be an anomaly? Should we try another one?"

As if waking from a dream, Guan Jianzhi agreed that one test wasn’t reliable enough and nodded. "Let’s test another one."

They removed the malfunctioning transmission and set it aside nearby for a full inspection.

They began testing the new one while inspecting the old.

After disassembling it, Guan Jianzhi found that the bearings were fine. Instead, two of the small gears had worn down, increasing the tolerance and causing the malfunction.

If not for the accelerated life test, they normally wouldn’t have worn down so severely within 15 years, as a vehicle is never in continuous, 24-hour operation.

After replacing the two small gears, readjusting the tolerance, and changing the fluid, Guan Jianzhi found that the transmission could still be used.

Just then, the results for the other transmission’s accelerated life test came in: also around 15 years.

This time, they were all completely stunned.

"This parts supplier is incredible."

"Could it be a subsidiary of Bosch, or maybe a joint venture?"

"Who cares who they are? If we can guarantee this parts quality, we can sign off on this transmission right now."

Guan Jianzhi suppressed his excitement and continued assembling the remaining transmissions. After all, this entire batch of samples was meant for testing.

For a full week, they were holed up in the testing facility.

Only after they had tested the final sample transmission to failure did Guan Jianzhi and his team stop their work.

By then, they had accumulated a mountain of test reports. They no longer had any doubts about the quality of the new supplier’s products; instead, they were filled with admiration.

In the eyes of the engineers and designers, a product of this quality was a breath of fresh air in an industry that now championed planned obsolescence.

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