2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 680 Weilai Auto's 2010 Sales Forecast

When did you become calm in the face of this situation of just waiting?

Tan Jincheng couldn't remember either. Actually, this kind of situation often happens when you go to government agencies. You get used to it after a while. The big leaders definitely have a lot of meetings.

While such situations are less common now, they do occur.

However, Mr. Tan has been in a good mood lately. The Yuechi A1 has gained a foothold in the market, and he has also reached a cooperation agreement with BMW on the G12 project. Mr. Tan doesn't care about such external matters at all.

"The cooperation agreement with BMW has been finalized?"

Wu Rong sat down without making a sound. This young boss was really quite humble. He didn't sit down until he sat down. He didn't look like the richest man in Yicheng or the top of the rich list from Anhui Province at all.

After the Forbes list came out, Tan Jincheng ranked 30th with 118.1 billion yuan and Zhang ranked 303rd with 25.9 billion yuan, making them prominent figures in the province. Previously, only Tan Jincheng had received a relatively high level of attention.

Judging from certain special channels and future trends, this young man's assets may far exceed those on the Forbes list, which is a common tactic used by lists and the wealthy.

Putting everything else aside, the current valuation of Weilai Motors alone is impossible to be low. It has sold nearly 1.2 vehicles in just one and a half months, which is unimaginably popular.

Based on this trend, Weilai Auto, which has only been established for two years and launched its first model in October this year, will be able to achieve annual sales of over 2 billion yuan with its Yangzi pickup truck and Yuechi A1.

"It's been agreed that we will jointly set up a project team to tackle the technical challenges first, and then produce batteries according to BMW's standards."

If it weren't for the technical difficulties, this would have been a routine business transaction. However, if the power battery components produced according to BMW's standards were used in commercial buses, it's hard to say whether Huanghai Technology would undergo a complete transformation.

Local government procurement means there's no need to worry about costs, but the long battery life could be an advantage, and the subsidies available would be substantial.

During the period of large subsidies for new energy vehicles in his previous life, Tan Jincheng, as a businessman, had talked about it in his business circle. As businessmen, when they get together, they all talk about how to make money. In his memory, the average subsidy for each bus should be around 8 yuan, and the subsidy for replacing the power battery was about 4 yuan.

This subsidy alone has driven countless manufacturers crazy.

There are many ways to defraud subsidies for new energy vehicles. The main ways are three: falsifying three certificates of conformity, applying for registration of vehicles that have not been produced in order to apply for government subsidies, and exaggerating mileage, battery parameters, vehicle length (buses), and other indicators.

In extreme cases, almost all car manufacturers participated in this subsidy fraud scheme at its peak, including disassembling and reusing a set of batteries and using the same set of batteries in multiple vehicles.

The most outrageous case is Jinglong Motors, which also manufactures buses. Goodness, this company defrauded more than 5 million yuan in subsidies. In the end, after the fraud was recovered and a fine was imposed, they had to return a total of 8 million yuan. That's really ruthless.

Wu Rong nodded and didn't ask any further questions: "The main reason I invited you here today is to discuss the possibility of Weilai Automobile being established in Luzhou."

Although it was their first meeting, Wu Rong had already learned about Tan Jincheng's personality and his style of working with Beicang District through various channels. He was quite tactful, but he preferred to be straightforward when discussing work.

If you keep going around in circles with him about the specifics of his job, the conversation might really run out of steam.

"We will have to wait until the sales figures for Yuechi in the first few months of next year to make a decision. We do have expansion plans, but we dare not expand aggressively at the moment."

"Does Yuechi have sales targets for next year?"

With the F3's sales booming this year, the ambitious CEO Wang and BYD have arrogantly declared that BYD's sales target for next year is 100 million vehicles!

A car company's sales forecast directly affects its annual plans, such as building new stores, coordinating with dealers, and recruiting employees.

If sales targets are set too low, it may lead to insufficient production capacity and dealers having no cars to sell. However, if sales targets are set too high and cannot be achieved, the consequences can be severe.

Things like layoffs are possible. BYD's sales target of 100 million units wasn't decided on a whim. After all, Mr. Wang is an engineering and technical guy who can do rational calculations.

BYD's production capacity in Shenzhen has increased, and the number of distributors has surged from 500 in 2006 to 1200 this year.

Assuming a dealer sells 800 units a year, that's an average of 2 units per day. The goal of 100 million units is not impossible to achieve, given that BYD has a wide range of models, and they launched many new models at this year's Guangzhou Auto Show.

Of course, Weilai Auto also has sales expectations for 2010. The Yuechi A1 has been well received since its launch, so we can be optimistic about the car market in 2010 as well.

Currently, Weilai has 300 dealerships, and plans to expand by another 100 next year, bringing the total number of dealerships to 400. Weilai doesn't dare to dream of each BYD dealership selling two cars a day. However, selling one car a day is still conceivable. Based on existing production capacity, Weilai Auto's sales target for next year is 15 vehicles.

The expected sales volume of 15 vehicles does not only include the Yuechi A1 brand, but also Yangzi Pickup, Huanghai Bus, and even Pajero.

The Pajero model has not sold well this year, with only over 7000 units sold by November. The production capacity in Xiangcheng is completely wasted. Next year, some of the Yuechi A1 production will be transferred to the Xiangcheng industrial base for production.

Yangzi Pickup's sales have exploded this year, and sales are expected to increase accordingly next year.

With the past week of December, the 2009 car market can be basically predicted. According to data from the company, Yangzi Pickup's total sales for the year should be between 24,000 and 25,000 vehicles.

Compared to the annual sales target of 2 vehicles set at the beginning of the year, the current figure is more than 20% higher than expected, which is a very good performance.

The sales target for Yangzi pickup trucks in 2010 was set at 3 units. As for the Yuechi A1, it is expected to sell more than 1.8 units throughout the year, and it is highly likely to surpass the Zhongtai 2008 to rank 11th in the SUV sales ranking, which would be even more surprising.

Weilai Auto also has high hopes for the performance of Yuechi A1 in 2010. With the increase in dealers, Tan Jincheng gave a sales forecast of 12 units for the whole year of 2010.

Achieving an average monthly sales volume of over 10,000 is quite challenging, but it's worth a shot. As for Pajero and Huanghai Motors, they're not included in the calculations, since they don't sell many vehicles in a year anyway, and Pajero even has to pay Mitsubishi a portion of the revenue.

What? There's also Sailing? Not to mention that Boss Tan has already sold this thing. Currently, there are only a few 4S stores nationwide, and they can't sell more than a few cars a year. There's no need to make any plans at all.

The Weilai Beicang plant is operating at full capacity this year. In addition to planned capacity expansion next year, the main focus will be on revitalizing the production capacity of the Xiangcheng vehicle manufacturing base.

An SUV production base with an annual capacity of 5 vehicles only produces one model that sells a few thousand units a year, which seems somewhat like a waste of resources.

"Yes, next year, Weilai Auto plans to achieve annual sales of 15 vehicles and an output value of 100 billion yuan."

With a production value of 10 billion yuan, monthly sales exceeding 10,000 units, and annual sales exceeding 100,000 units, this is the scale of a mainstream car company. Weilai aims to establish itself as a mainstream car company, not some unknown brand.

With the reputation of a mainstream automaker, they won't be ridiculed when they truly put their efforts into new energy vehicles.

"That's amazing. In just its third year, the company is already aiming to become a car company with a revenue of 10 billion yuan. President Tan's boldness is truly admirable."

Wu Rong felt more and more that Beicang District had really struck gold. Flash Group would have no problem breaking the 10 billion yuan mark in output value this year, and if Weilai Auto achieved its goal next year, then Tan Jincheng would bring two large group companies with an annual output value of over 10 billion yuan to Beicang District.

Two companies with assets exceeding 10 billion yuan that focus on the industrial chain – just thinking about them makes one envious.

At this moment, Wu Rong hadn't yet remembered that Tan Jincheng also owned an internet company and an investment company. Although these two companies didn't drive the industrial chain as much as Shanchi and Wei, the changes they brought to Beicang District were still very obvious.

Putting aside everything else, the employees of Orange Technology, especially ByteDance's advertising platform, are all very wealthy. They are very generous when it comes to buying cars and houses. The preferential policies for the self-built residential communities of Flash Group are not offered to the employees of these two companies.

ByteDance's employees are few in number but all are high-income earners, and almost everyone owns a car and a house. Orange Technology is a bit less well-off, but there are still quite a few employees who are willing and able to buy houses. It would be unreasonable to say that the rise in housing prices in Beicang District did not involve their contributions.

Even industries like KTV are much more prosperous than in the previous life, and the quality has also improved significantly.

Hurry up and get on board, or it will be too late. If you get on board now, you can take advantage of the preferential policies offered by Luzhou to get more benefits. Just like Luzhou City Investment and Chuzhou City Investment, who got on board last year, they made a fortune from the huge sales of Weilai Automobile.

Wu Rong no longer hesitated, because the data provided by Tan Jincheng was achievable. Even if sales fell short of expectations, a company with an annual output value of 50 billion yuan was a certainty.

"With a production value of 10 billion next year, Weilai Auto definitely can't rely on just one model. Shouldn't we develop a new model?"

"Yes, we will be launching new models in the future, including new pickup trucks."

"So there are still plans to expand production."

Tan Jincheng nodded: "That's true. The current output value can only maintain the sales expectations of the A1 and the existing pickup truck models. We will have to build a factory for new models in the future."

Wu Rong's eyes lit up: "Then, Mr. Tan, could you consider Binhu District? The Binhu District government, and even the Luzhou government, will definitely offer your company the highest level of preferential treatment."

(End of this chapter)