2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 402 Ambitious Young Man
When the fellow sees the fellow, tears well up.

That's impossible, but he was indeed genuinely enthusiastic. Li Zhen was quite curious about this fellow villager, especially after they met.

Aside from the fact that older generations of entrepreneurs suffered hardships in their youth and thus appear older, the new generation of entrepreneurs generally take better care of themselves and look younger, such as Pony Ma.

If you watch his interview videos from this period, you'll get a very youthful and inexperienced impression.

Tan Jincheng is young, and when he restrains his demeanor and dresses casually, he really looks no different from an ordinary college student.

It's hard to imagine that such a young man, who looks like a college student and has a humble personality, could create a large group in less than three years.

Even counting the years, it has only been four years since he started his business, and only five years since he graduated from high school.

His company, Guoxuan, was founded in 1995 and has been engaged in the battery business ever since. It only started to get involved in the power supply business last year.

Its business is relatively simple, and in terms of company size, it is actually not as large as Flashpoint currently.

In terms of education and connections, I am far superior to Tan Jincheng, but when it comes to the speed of enterprise development, Guoxuan can't even catch up with Shanchi in 12 years versus 4 years.

"That's not how you compare them, Mr. Li. You are an authoritative company in the battery field with advanced technology. To put it bluntly, FlashChe is just an assembly plant. Without the contributions of you predecessors in the battery field, there would be no electric vehicles of ours."

When you first meet someone, it's impossible to start by talking about work; you'll inevitably start by complimenting each other.

Tan Jincheng appeared very modest. Although Guoxuan was not a large company, just as Tan Jincheng positioned Orange Technology as small but beautiful, Guoxuan's strength was by no means weak.

In the lead-acid battery sector, their market share is not as large as giants like Chaowei and Tianneng, but that doesn't mean they are unknown.

In comparison, Guoxuan's influence in the lead-acid battery field at this stage was somewhat similar to that of Zhongke Sanhuan, a partner of Xinri. Its market share was small, but its technology was outstanding.

This is true for most technology-driven companies. They are relatively unknown in the early stages and are virtually unknown to consumers, but once they achieve a technological breakthrough, they develop very quickly.

Being relatively unknown doesn't mean they're not doing well. With the electric vehicle market growing so rapidly these days, even if their market share is small, Guoxuan's performance is still quite good.

For consumer companies like Flash, which target the end market, having their own brand means selling that brand. If they were also unknown, they would only face certain death.

This is why Tan Jincheng has always been so high-profile when promoting his company; only when your brand is well-known can consumers remember you.

"Mr. Tan, there's no need to be so modest. We old guys truly admire your ability to make the Flash brand a national name in just a few years. Creating a brand is no easy feat."

"Yes, I'm incredibly envious of that sales growth rate, especially this year. So, your company's official statement last year that it was due to production capacity constraints was absolutely true."

Dong Jinggui also joined in the praise, it's all business mutual flattery, no one can be absent.

For cars and electric two-wheelers, even if the companies themselves don't publish their sales figures, there are specialized statistical agencies that will publish them. Therefore, each company's sales figures are not a secret to its competitors.

Besides, no company that sells well doesn't disclose its sales figures. It's a form of advertising. If I sell well and don't say so, wouldn't that be a waste of money?
The first quarter sales of 25.83 vehicles by the Flash, with an average monthly sales of nearly 9 vehicles, have indeed surprised the market and all its competitors.

This is just the sales volume during the off-season. And you should know that their average monthly sales last year were not even 4 vehicles. Now, the off-season growth is more than double the average of last year.

The market is growing, and sales are rising for every company, including Yadi, but Flash's growth rate is too fast, far exceeding the market average, making it very strong.

Market predictions suggest that if Flashcar continues its rapid growth, it will be able to completely dominate the market and become the new sales leader in the two-wheeled electric vehicle industry by next year or the year after.

And the fastest pace might be this year!
The market is constantly changing, with companies like Chipstar taking six years to replace established leaders, while Flashspeed only needs three years at the fastest. The speed of market changes is truly unpredictable.

Xinri's rapid development in recent years is evident to all in the industry. Many peers believe that Xinri will be a star company in the electric vehicle industry for a long time to come. No one expected that the suddenly emerging Shanchi would steal the limelight even more.

"It's all thanks to the government. The economy has grown significantly in recent years, and people are willing to spend money. Otherwise, brands like ours that target the end market wouldn't have been able to grow so fast. If people don't have money in their pockets, how can they be willing to buy your products?"

"That's certainly true, but it takes real strength to gain consumer recognition for your brand in just a few years. Mr. Tan has done a really good job in this regard; your marketing strategies are practically university-level."

"Oh, that's because we don't have the technical strength. If I had the technical strength of Mr. Dong's family, I would definitely make a fortune quietly too." "So that's why Mr. Tan is entering the battery industry?"

The conversation finally got down to business, and Tan Jincheng immediately felt much more relaxed.

To be honest, although I'm used to the mutual flattery between business partners of this older generation, it still feels quite strange.

Tan Jincheng prefers to quickly move into the stage of discussing cooperation, even if there are disagreements and arguments, it feels more natural than this kind of flattery.

In short, I'm still not used to showing off. When will I be able to reach the level of Old Ma, who can shamelessly say he's not interested in money? That would probably make me a true veteran among entrepreneurs.

"Yes, batteries are not just batteries. In addition to the needs of Flash's current business, our electric vehicles will also need a large number of batteries in the future. This is a brand new industry and a great opportunity for Flash's development."

Li Zhen is a battery engineer and a technology-driven entrepreneur, so he naturally understands the significance of the 863 Program better than Dong Jinggui, who started his business through unconventional means. He can also understand what Tan Jincheng means.

At this point, although Tan Jincheng did not explicitly say that he wanted to get into the car industry, he no longer hid his ambition to enter the automotive sector.

In some ways, selling batteries is actually more profitable than selling complete vehicles. The battery is the most crucial component of an electric vehicle and also the most expensive.

Even in his previous life, Tan Jincheng had never owned an electric car, but he had experienced them. Plus, as a man, his love for cars was innate, so he had a fairly deep understanding of electric cars.

Unlike traditional gasoline vehicles, electric vehicles are relatively easier to operate once the three main components are sorted out.

The rest is simply a matter of making changes to the appearance. If the appearance doesn't work, just copy it. After all, whether it's a traditional gasoline car or an electric car, almost every company's first step is to copy.

To put it simply, a pure electric vehicle is like a large-sized mobile phone; once the core components are sorted out, the rest is just about adding fancy features.

Refrigerators, color TVs, televisions—they add everything they can; it's a classic formula, but people still buy into it.

Although Tan Jincheng looks down on the operations of these emerging forces, to adapt to the market, you have to learn from them, absorb the good and avoid the bad. There must be a reason why a model sells well.

"President Tan is aiming to capture a share of the future electric vehicle market; he certainly has a long-term vision," Li Zhen sighed.

The two-wheeled electric vehicle business is not very sophisticated. The traditional lead-acid battery business is already very mature. Although lithium battery two-wheeled vehicles are just beginning to develop, they are not actually very difficult to develop. Otherwise, so many manufacturers would not dare to enter the market directly.

It's okay not to rush into it. You can buy products from battery suppliers and wait until the technology is fully mature before developing it.

Flash Motors focuses more on marketing, taking the lead in launching a spokesperson system, which is actually the right approach in the electric vehicle industry. Technological accumulation is a necessity, but marketing is more important.

Li Zhen had learned about the electric vehicles from Shanchi and Yadi. After the two expressed their intention to cooperate, he even asked his assistant to buy the latest models from both companies, from low-end to high-end, and take a look at them.

To be honest, FlashCare's quality isn't as good as YaDrip's, but YaDrip isn't good at marketing, so it's true that it doesn't sell as well as FlashCare.

For Flash Motors, the two-wheeled vehicle business has already established a firm foothold. Taking advantage of this period of slowdown in high-speed development, it is in line with the company's development strategy to move from the low-speed civilian lithium battery business to the automotive lithium battery business.

Guoxuan started its involvement in the power supply business last year because it saw this opportunity.

It must be said that this young CEO is very ambitious and has excellent foresight, able to see future trends.

Furthermore, Li Zhen greatly admired that even while his internet business was thriving, he was able to focus on real industries, investing his profits not in the more lucrative internet sector, but in labor-intensive enterprises.

Our technology in power batteries is limited. To develop them, we must adopt a human resource strategy like BYD, leveraging our human resources advantage to reduce labor costs, which will inevitably create more jobs.

Having such an ambitious and capable partner is not necessarily a bad thing for Guoxuan.

"Haha, I understand. But let's not talk about that today. After the welcome banquet, let's go to the Luzhou Municipal Government and discuss this project together."

"In principle, both Guoxuan and I are very much looking forward to cooperating with President Tan and President Dong."

(End of this chapter)