2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 417 Details of Cooperation
There is already a considerable amount of research and development in the field of electric vehicles in China.

However, this is mainly concentrated in state-owned enterprises. State-owned car companies have relatively less pressure to make profits. In addition, they also need to assume certain social responsibilities, and their R&D investment is incomparable to that of private enterprises.

Currently, many cities across the country are already piloting pure electric buses, with some cities having delivered dozens of buses and others having officially put them on the road for passenger service.

The fact that buses are allowed on the road speaks volumes about the relatively mature technology involved. These are different from private cars; they are public facilities, and any accidents involving them would be major incidents.

Sometimes Tan Jincheng wondered if Guo Jia already possessed many excellent skills but was secretly hiding them from the public.

Take Chrysanthemum Factory as an example. It was banned for several years, but it became stronger the more it was banned. Is it because they already had relatively strong technology and then gradually released it? Otherwise, how could they have developed it in time?

Flash Motors wants to make electric vehicles, and it started its research and development even before major policy subsidies were introduced. Other companies will probably do the same, right?
I discussed the details of the cooperation with Ying Jianren. The main goal was to get Zhongtai to help build an automobile production platform. Needless to say, there are significant differences between a new energy vehicle production platform and a fuel vehicle production platform.

Tan Jincheng doesn't understand the technical details of converting gasoline vehicles to electric, but the operation should be much easier if it's just a conversion from gasoline to electric. Tan Jincheng doesn't know whether it involves modifying the existing gasoline vehicle platform.

However, rather than going through setbacks on their own, they should definitely make use of the readily available resources. Compared to Flash's experience in car manufacturing, no matter how much Zhongtai tries to improve, it is still incomparable to Flash, which knows nothing about car manufacturing.

The conversion from gasoline to electric vehicles is just a preliminary experimental plan. Tan Jincheng is unsure whether it can be completed on a gasoline vehicle production platform. If it can, then it would be very simple, as it can be completed directly at the Beicang factory without the need to build a production line again.

Converting gasoline vehicles to electric is certainly not a long-term solution, but it's sufficient for conducting experiments and testing the properties of electric vehicles and batteries. If you really want to develop electric vehicles, you definitely need to build them on a pure electric platform.

The pure electric platform is like a blank sheet of paper, allowing for free expression. Its innovation and freedom are much higher than that of converting gasoline vehicles to electric. In novel electric vehicles, the battery pack is placed under the chassis, making the wiring of the electronic control system much more reasonable and safe, and the overall layout is also much optimized.

Traditional gasoline-to-electric conversion, simply put, is replacing the fuel tank with a battery pack, but it cannot achieve the same level of control and rationality as pure electric vehicles.

“Okay, I’ll go and find out the technical requirements for converting oil to electricity in detail. If there are no problems, then it’s settled.” Ying Jianren nodded.

Neither of them is highly educated, and sitting in the office is like working in isolation. Ying Jianren has a slightly better theoretical understanding of cars than Tan Jincheng, but not by much.

Boss Xiao Tan has at least a decade more experience. He knows nothing about car manufacturing, but he's seen plenty of all sorts of super factories. In the era of live streaming, car manufacturers will stop at nothing to do for marketing.

Watching pretty young ladies livestreaming from 4S stores and car factories broadcasting the entire car manufacturing process all day long can help you remember some of the things you see. These are knowledge points that car manufacturers in this era do not possess.

Wu Jianzhong was primarily responsible for the actual management of Zhongtai, while Ying Jianren was more responsible for the company's decision-making and capital operations.

For example, the acquisition of Jiangnan Automobile and major cooperation with a certain company all require the decision of Ying Jianren, the actual controller. It is a basic procedure for Tan Jincheng to talk to him about cooperation.

Two mediocre people, neither of whom are truly knowledgeable, were discussing how to build electric cars in the office like they were showing off, talking about it with great enthusiasm and relish. It all sounded ridiculous.

But often, many businesses are born in such seemingly absurd environments. The important thing is not how absurd the idea is, but whether you dare to do it.

If you take action, even the most absurd idea might come true; if you don't take action, even the most theoretically sound idea is just nonsense.

The two country bumpkins chatted in the office for over an hour. It was almost noon when Tan Lihua and his wife finished their factory tour. The secretary led the three of them upstairs, and only then did the two men stop.

The main problem was that Jin Yue lost patience after the initial novelty wore off and started asking to find her brother. Tan Lihua, on the other hand, was very interested, as this was his first time visiting a proper car factory.

Men are fascinated by all things mechanical. Zhongtai's car factory has a proper car manufacturing platform. In order to reduce costs, Zhongtai also adopts the same human wave strategy as BYD, with a relatively low degree of automation.

But it is precisely because of this low level of automation that the scene of workers working enthusiastically is spectacular, a scene that highly automated factories cannot provide.

If quality control and automation efficiency are not taken into account, Tan Jincheng actually prefers a scenario like the Zhongtai Factory, because it looks more comfortable.

Compared to cold, impersonal machines, having a large number of real workers under your command gives you a much greater sense of accomplishment.

Tan Jincheng has always believed that, apart from those absolutely high-tech projects where even multi-person collaboration cannot achieve such success, any company that boasts that a few dozen people have created hundreds of millions is not very good.

Damn it, all the money goes to a few of you, or even dozens of you. It would be fine if you invested it or did something beneficial for society afterward, but if you don't do anything good with the money, it's a waste of social resources. It's right to be capable and make a lot of money, but it would be even more meaningful if, while you're making your fortune, you also let ordinary people have a share.

Of course, this is just Tan Jincheng's personal idea. In business, Tan Jincheng has always been accustomed to the idea of ​​making money together and achieving mutual benefit, so that more people can benefit together and his own risks can be reduced.

"Let's go, we're going to eat."

Tan Jinyue made a scene, and Boss Tan had to give her face. It was lunchtime anyway, time for lunch.

Work is work, but since it's a family trip, we also need to take care of their emotional well-being. Zhongtai naturally made perfect arrangements for the Tan Jincheng family's meals.

They ate lunch in the cafeteria, but the food was ordered from the hotel. They even ordered children's supplementary food specifically for Tan Jinyue. Wu Jianzhong had met Tan Jinyue before and knew the girl's status in the Tan family. She was much more tactful than Tan Jincheng in terms of interpersonal skills.

Having dealt with Flash Motors quite a bit, Wu Jianzhong naturally explained these details to his brother-in-law. Ying Jianren, being a seasoned businessman, was no less meticulous than his brother-in-law.

Tan Jincheng and his family were going on a trip. After finishing their business, they had to go to Yiwu. The original plan was to spend the whole day there and drive to Yiwu in the evening. However, they had already discussed the general cooperation method with Ying Jianren in the morning.

It seems we can leave earlier this afternoon.

If it is necessary to restart the production line, Zhongtai will assist Shanchi in building the production line. If not, then after the Beicang factory's production line is fully operational, a platform will be set up for testing the conversion of oil-to-electricity production.

If a brand-new production line is to be built, the cost will be borne by Flash. If it is not necessary to build one, Flash will only need to provide a small amount of funding, while ZT will provide manpower, technology, experimental results, and electric vehicle technology.

As for the battery technology, it will be exclusively owned by FlashDrive, and ZT will not covet it.

Whether or not the manufacturing platform is built, the Chunxiao factory area still needs to be built. There needs to be a place to conduct experiments and a testing site. At the same time, some technical personnel need to be transferred from the capital and Luzhou.

Frankly speaking, it would be better to conduct lithium battery experiments in remote places like Chunxiao and Luzhou Economic Development Zone, as it would be too dangerous to do so in the capital.

With the 08 Olympics approaching, any commotion they make will be a real problem for Hangxin New Energy and the research institute.

We need to talk to Lü Ruifeng about this. Their personnel relationships don't need to be changed, but we can consider changing their work location, whether it's Luzhou or Beicang. We can also mention any conditions we can discuss.

See, capitalists are so untrustworthy. They promise you great terms at the beginning and coax you into cooperating. But as time goes on, they can use all sorts of excuses to trick you into going to the places they want you to go.

While such reasons are somewhat valid, the bottom line is that they are not trustworthy.

Therefore, all promises made by capitalists cannot be trusted, nor can those made by people's entrepreneurs!
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After lunch, Tan Jincheng and his family rested for two hours in the lounge prepared by Zhongtai, taking a nap before saying goodbye to Ying Jianren and driving to Yiwu.

Both being located in the same major city area of ​​Yiwu, these two underlings look down on their big brother and don't want to follow him. "ZG Yongkang, the world's Yiwu, listen to that, how arrogant."

But there's nothing we can do about it; my younger brother's conditions are just too good.

Yongkang is not far from Yiwu. Before going, Tan Jincheng had already told Gu Qingqing that today's itinerary would be moved up, and Gu Qingqing was obviously much happier.

In the few days since she returned home, she has truly understood why she was reminded before. The enthusiasm was so overwhelming that Gu Qingqing couldn't handle it, but she couldn't just run away.

In terms of interpersonal skills, Gu Qingqing is really lacking. Orange Technology has very few older employees; it's almost entirely young people, mostly programmers. Their cooperation with investment institutions is also quite direct, with everyone discussing interests.

As for the school, they doted on her; she really didn't expect such enthusiasm when she got home.

Tan Jincheng arrived, and so did her savior.

(End of this chapter)