Chapter 967: Alto
The population of a city is an important indicator of its development, but it is not completely related to whether the city is developed. For example, in today's India and the Far East Empire, the cities' development is mainly based on the huge inland market.
After all, the rigid needs of food, clothing, housing and transportation are impossible to change. There is a huge difference between a market with hundreds of millions of people and a market with tens of millions of people, and it is not a market with a million people or even less. This is why the European and American powers are so greedy for India and the Far East Empire.
While Tirpitz and Aaron were talking, a car drove through the street. East Africa is a major automobile producer in the world, so Tirpitz was not surprised that there were cars in Mbeya. He had seen many in Dar es Salaam and other places before.
"I don't think I have seen the car just now on the market. It looks very good!" Tirpitz said.
"That is an official car in East Africa. Generally, only government officials can ride it, so it is not sold on the market, but it is not impossible to buy it, but ordinary people can't afford it." Aaron said.
"What brand is it? If possible, I would like to buy one and take it to Germany."
"Alto (To), second only to the Crown, and the Crown is generally only for the really big guys to ride."
This Otto is actually the name of the previous generation of Hechingen Prince, Ernst's grandfather. For example, the capital of Hechingen Province is Otto City (formerly Pretoria). Of course, it is translated as Alto in the Far East Empire. Ernst remembers that there was this brand in the Far East Empire in his previous life, and "To" has the metaphor of progress and development, which conforms to the aesthetics of the people of the Eastern country. In other regions, the name Otto is also in line with European traditions. Ferrari and Benz are just the names of the founders.
It is worth mentioning that Benz is currently responsible for the automobile production business of the Hechingen Consortium in Germany, and the brand "Mercedes-Benz" is naturally produced.
As for the Crown brand Aaron mentioned, Tirpitz had also heard of it. East Africa had given some European royal families cars of this brand, including one from William II. However, William II preferred domestic cars, so his Crown car was placed in the garage, but this did not prevent the Hechingen Consortium from holding many German car companies.
If possible, Tirpitz himself would certainly want a Crown, but the car was too expensive and had a very low production.
"I think if the Alto just now could be exported on the market, the sales volume should be good. Its appearance design is eye-catching."
As a business car, the Alto is more stable in design, which is very attractive to politicians.
Aaron said: "In fact, it just looks good. In fact, the internal experience is not much better than other vehicles on the market. However, if there is an export version in the future, the interior may be improved."
As luxury goods, the decoration of European and American cars is quite luxurious, but there are many differences in the judgment of cars in East Africa. Even though the production of cars in East Africa is not large now, the positioning of cars in East Africa is divided into two types: ordinary consumer goods and luxury goods.
This also reflects the ambition of the East African government, which is to promote cars to the civilian class in East Africa. This plan seemed crazy in the 19th century, but it was very reasonable for Ernst. After all, cars were a normal means of transportation in the past.
Of course, while East Africa was vigorously developing cars, it did not give up the research on trams. In the past, tram research was not much later than that of cars. It was just that there were few cars in the world in the early days, and the world had sufficient oil energy. However, with the rapid increase in the number of industries and cars and the impact of the oil crisis, people had to turn trams over again in the 21st century for research, but nearly a hundred years were wasted in the meantime, which seriously hindered the development of trams.
Therefore, East Africa can retain tram research and development when all other countries in the world turn to oil car research and development, which is good for the future development of East Africa.
Moreover, trams have a wide range of application scenarios. In Ernst's view, electric cars, motor cars, and new energy vehicles in the past are all trams, including the current trams.
It can be said that Ernst has clearly arranged the direction of the development of East Africa's science and technology in the next world. As long as there is no outflow of talents and technology due to defeat like Germany, the fruits grown from the seeds planted by Ernst will be enough for East Africa to eat for hundreds of years in the future.
Of course, for now, the East African government's car popularization plan still has a long way to go. Take the current domestic car production and sales model in East Africa as an example, which is very different from that in foreign countries.
However, this difference will not hinder the development of East Africa's automobile industry. The Soviet Union implemented a more thorough planned economy than East Africa in the past, and it was able to achieve a car ownership similar to that of European and American countries. East Africa can naturally do it.
What the Soviet automobile industry lacks is a slow response to market demand. After all, what vehicles the Soviet automobile factory produces, the Soviets can only enjoy what vehicles, rather than what the Soviets need, what the Soviet automobile factory produces.
East Africa can still avoid this. After all, East Africa's automobile production is composed of two major parts, the Heilongjiang Consortium and state-owned enterprises. The Heilongjiang Consortium is an out-and-out private capital. The production of its automobile brands is completely on the same track as the international ones. It also covers and participates in many foreign automobile manufacturers and can feed back data to East African state-owned enterprises.
As a naval officer, Tirpitz did not pay much attention to East African cars. East Africa has always been a major car-producing country. The world's first car was produced in East Africa, and there are many car brands sold in the international market in East Africa, but this does not reflect the production situation of the domestic automobile industry in East Africa.
And the East African government naturally could not show the secrets of the development of East African automobile industry to Tirpitz, an outsider. Cars are not just a kind of vehicle, but also closely related to East African military, transportation, and industrial development.
Especially when the East African military is equipped with a large number of cars, this is quite advanced in the world's military.
In Mbeya City, although it was just a circle around the station, it also opened the eyes of Tirpitz and other Germans. Mbeya City broke the Germans' imagination of the "barren", "dangerous" and "uninhabited" scene in the interior of East Africa.
After all, East Africa is a closed country. Almost no outsiders have been able to go deep into the hinterland of this country before, so the existence of Mbeya City broke the false fantasy of Tirpitz and others.
The climate here is pleasant and the scenery is magnificent. It is not the "malaria-ridden" or "civilized desert" place as rumored. Of course, this is limited to East Africa. If it is other places in Africa, it is still very appropriate.
Apart from other things, it is still easy to figure out what the Germans' own colony Cameroon is like. Basically, the negative propaganda about Africa is completely consistent.
Of course, Cameroon and Gabon are indeed worse than Congo in Africa. The environment is basically a tropical rainforest area. Even East Africa cannot have a large transformation capacity for the tropical rainforest area, let alone these colonies with a sparser population.
The essence of West Africa is still the tropical savannah area in the north of the Gulf of Guinea, but from a climate perspective, it is still somewhat inferior to East Africa. After all, West Africa has relatively fewer plateaus and relatively low altitudes, which makes it hotter. However, West Africa's mineral resources are indeed very rich, especially oil, iron ore, bauxite and other resources.