2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 682 New Energy Plan

December 16th, the first day of the eleventh lunar month.

The weather in Luzhou is already warm enough to wear thicker clothes, and you can already see down jackets on the streets.

"Drive slowly on the way back, the road home isn't in good condition."

Although Mr. and Mrs. Tan were in a hurry to return to their hometown, they still stayed in Luzhou for a few days. They had never actually been to Luzhou, the provincial capital, before. The Bao Gong Temple and Xiaoyaojin Park, which Tan Jincheng found uninteresting, were not viewed the same way by Mr. and Mrs. Tan.

In modern terms, these things are what they consider sentimental.

"Okay, I'll have Xiao Liu drive on the way back. He's an experienced driver and more reliable than me."

Men of all ages are interested in cars, especially new ones. Old Tan spent quite a while driving here.

However, he also knew on his way back that the highways in the province were not as easy to drive as those in Zhejiang Province, and he would have to take national highways more often.

Zhang Suzhi, who was standing to the side, asked Gu Qingqing, "Do you two have time to go back to your hometown for a visit?"

Gu Qingqing replied with a smile, "You'll have to ask him. I have time anyway."

Old Tan and his son chatted, Zhang Suzhi and her mother-in-law chatted, and little Tan Jinyue was busy running around. The scene looked very harmonious. Zhang Xuhui and others also came to see them off.

"Xiao Zhang, I didn't see you at Pengya's engagement party last time. Were you too busy?"

“Auntie, I was away on a business trip that time. Anyway, he will hold his wedding in his hometown during the Spring Festival. I can go then.”

"Oh, so do you have a girlfriend yet? You're not much younger than them, you should hurry up."

"He wasn't too busy to go; he's probably just single and embarrassed to go, afraid his parents would pressure him to get married if they were there."

Tan Jincheng is also good at being ruthless. The company's senior executives are definitely busier than ordinary employees, and their rest time is not as regular, but their time is relatively free.

Especially for managers like Zhang Xuhui, who are in charge of a subsidiary, their schedules can be arranged by themselves.

"Boss, don't just say it out loud."

"Haha, ignore him, he's just always so sharp-tongued."

"We probably won't have time to go back to our hometown. I have a signing ceremony later today, and after that we have to go back to Ningbo. The company is quite busy at the end of the year."

After chatting for a while, Tan Jincheng said to his mother.

At the end of the year, every company has to submit its work plan and investment plan for the new year, all of which need to be approved by Tan Jincheng. In addition, there are two listed companies, and there are also many research meetings and the like.

For ordinary people, Tan Jincheng doesn't need to get involved, but there are always some high-profile individuals.

Furthermore, although Luzhou City has reached a cooperation agreement with Weilai, a major cooperation is certainly not that simple. Today, they only signed a preliminary strategic cooperation agreement, and they will go to Ningbo for inspection in a few days.

The Luzhou municipal government has a relatively aggressive investment style, but that doesn't mean it's as foolish as some local governments that simply give money to other companies and get scammed out of billions of yuan.

These days, there are far too many places where the government can be cheated, and people are too embarrassed to say it.

For example, a certain Tai Motor, which claims to be the originator of domestic SUVs, has been deceiving local governments across the country under the guise of investment since the early 2000s. In a certain place in NM Gu, it acquired 6000 acres of land at an extremely low price, and also obtained a coal mine worth 1 billion yuan and two major coal mine resources.

Not only that, this guy used the same tactics to obtain information in multiple regions such as Xiangcheng and Tianjin, and boasted at various press conferences that he would invest 86 billion yuan to build this base, thereby acquiring a large amount of land.

In 09, a certain Tai Motor claimed that it had mastered the core manufacturing technology of new energy vehicles, and that it had independent intellectual property rights for pure electric vehicles, and had also obtained authorization for related invention patents.

But that's not the case at all. After acquiring these lands, they immediately mortgaged them to banks to obtain large amounts of cash. As for the industrial base they were supposed to build, that was out of the question.

If you're bold enough, you can really make money these days, and if you go big, you can even walk away unscathed.

The saying "He who steals a kingdom becomes a king" is absolutely true.

Flash Group has a good reputation for its investments. Although it doesn't shout slogans all over the country like other companies, it basically never fails to deliver on its promised investment projects. At the very least, you can see factories under construction and equipment being installed.

"The most important thing in the early stages of industrial investment is to see the equipment arrive at the factory. If the equipment doesn't arrive at the factory for a long time, then we need to be wary of this project."

On the eve of the press conference, Tan Jincheng and Wu Rong chatted about how local governments can avoid being deceived.

“Compared to equipment and vehicle production lines, building a factory doesn’t cost much, and the factory can be used as collateral for a bank loan.” Wu Rong nodded. Sure enough, the young people were naive. Older entrepreneurs wouldn’t have told them these things.

That's true. Once the equipment is in the factory, it's not so easy to take it away. But if you mortgage the factory building, you can just give it up. The same goes for the soil.

The fact that they dare to say this shows that Flash Group is serious about its investment projects.

In addition to the new energy vehicle project, Weilai Auto also plans to establish a self-developed engine center in Luzhou. Based on the current sales plan for Yuechi A1, it is not a problem to sell more than 10 vehicles per year in the next few years.

The engine is one of the core components of a gasoline-powered vehicle, and currently it is mainly sourced from Mitsubishi and Isuzu because sales are generally low.

But if they sell over 10 vehicles a year, then Mitsubishi shouldn't be allowed to make that money.

Currently, some domestic car brands, such as Chery and Great Wall, have the ability to independently develop engines. With good sales, Weilai must also have the ability to independently develop engines.

In terms of technology, Weilai Auto also has some advantages.

The collaboration with Foton and Cummins allowed Weilai to accumulate some engine technology, and Mitsubishi's engine technology could also be reverse-engineered.

10 o'clock in the morning.

The Binhu District Management Committee of Luzhou City and Weilai Automobile jointly held a grand press conference.

Wu Rong, representative of Luzhou City, along with Shanchi Group, Tan Jincheng, president of Weilai Automobile, and Zhang Yong, executive president of Weilai Automobile, attended the press conference.

From initial contact and negotiations to the formal signing of the letter of intent, the two parties only took 10 days, which was quite fast.

"The Weilai Automobile Luzhou plant covers an area of ​​840 acres and will be the core manufacturing base for Weilai Automobile's new energy vehicles in the future. After completion, it will have the capacity to produce 10 new energy vehicles per year."

Tan Jincheng did not disclose the specific investment amount at the press conference, as the timeline is too early to estimate the amount. However, this is only the first step in the current plan for the Weilai Auto New Energy Vehicle Project.

The initial plan for an annual production capacity of 10 vehicles should be sufficient before 2015.

"In conjunction with the Shangjin New Era Industrial Park, Weilai Auto's development and investment in new energy is a comprehensive investment that includes core components. Currently, we are learning from BYD and Mr. Wang, striving to become a mainstream automaker among independent brands."

At the press conference, Tan Jincheng also took advantage of Mr. Wang's popularity. Although Weilai Auto's reputation rose a lot in the fourth quarter, its brand awareness was not even as high as that of Zhongtai Auto when it first launched the Zhongtai 2008 in 2009.

Two years ago, a new car company that sold more than 10,000 cars in a month and a half would have shocked the market, but in 2009, it was just a dark horse.

The car market is so hot that the popularity of the Yuechi A1 is just the tip of the iceberg.

"New energy vehicles? I share the same view as Mr. Wang from BYD. This is the future trend, and we at Weilai Auto are also very optimistic about this sector. Currently, we have already made considerable investments in new energy vehicles."

Press conferences are also a form of corporate publicity, and Tan Jincheng has always been very high-profile when promoting his company and its products.

"Just this month, Jinshidai, a new energy company under the Flash Group, has reached a plan to purchase power battery components from BMW Brilliance. Like BYD, we at Weilai also have our own high-quality partners, and we believe that we will definitely make breakthroughs in the field of automotive batteries."

"By the way, you may not be familiar with Jinshidai. Let me introduce it in detail. It is a new energy company dedicated to battery technology. Currently, it and its subsidiaries have patented technologies in the fields of two-wheeled and three-wheeled electric vehicle batteries, as well as a series of consumer batteries including mobile phone batteries."

"We have a large enough customer base in the consumer battery sector, and we believe that this will support our automotive power battery plan. We welcome everyone to visit our battery factory if you have the opportunity."

There's still no sign of the Weilai Luzhou Automobile Factory, so we can try to redirect traffic towards Jinshidai.

Jinsheng Technology has made decent progress in the battery field this year. In addition to adding BMW as a major customer, it has also acquired the battery business for Leichi's low-speed electric vehicles.

In addition, there is a portion of FlashPower's battery business, but in this area, it mainly provides technical solutions, while the actual production is still outsourced to Boneng.

Jinshidai is better at lithium batteries than lead-acid battery companies, but it still can't compete with them in the lead-acid battery market.

"Mr. Tan, is the 840-acre factory the entirety of Weilai Automobile's investment plan in Luzhou?"

"Of course not. I believe everyone has seen the energy that our country's auto market has unleashed this year. Against the backdrop of the international subprime mortgage crisis, our auto industry has gone against the tide and become the world's number one. And this is just the beginning. So we will have more investment plans in the future."

"So, Mr. Tan, could you tell us what model Weilai Auto's first new energy vehicle will be? Will it be a sedan or an SUV like the current Yuechi A1? Also, will it still use the Yuechi brand?"

Tan Jincheng smiled and said, "Let's talk about the brand first. In the field of new energy vehicles, I will use a brand new brand, namely the Weilai brand trademark."

"As for the first car model? Haha, that's a secret for now!"

(End of this chapter)