2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 735 "Factory Director Ma"

Factory Director Ma attached great importance to the arrival of the inspection team from Weilai.

The reason is simple: in the past two years, Chinese companies that have gone global, especially car manufacturers, have become incredibly wealthy and powerful.

Even large automakers like GM and Chrysler have to bow down; Tesla is just a small factory, so of course it also needs investment.

Does it matter where the money comes from?

Following its successful IPO, Tesla is now preparing to purchase GM's Texas factory for expansion, building an electric vehicle factory with an annual production capacity of 25 vehicles.

The problem was that there was no money. At this time, what Director Ma needed most was money. The headquarters in Austin had been bought from HP, and the factory was still like the old small warehouse.

"Haha, this female host on Old Mi's side is really sharp, she dares to ask any question."

In the car on the way from the airport to Tesla's headquarters, Tan Jincheng was watching an interview video of Jack Ma at the time of Tesla's IPO. From the footage, the still somewhat green-looking Ma appeared to be squatting by the roadside while being interviewed.

Yellow taxis occasionally whiz by in the background. Compared to the arrogant Factory Manager Ma I saw in the video in my previous life, the current Factory Manager Ma is still a bit green, and he gets stuck on the female host's questions several times.

For example, when the host asked him if his divorce would affect the company's equity structure, he hesitated for several seconds. The same thing happened with how he planned to solve the company's profitability problem.

However, the confidence on his face was still that of a madman, and he said he would make Tesla one of the most competitive companies in the 21st century.

Awesome!
"Haha, this is nothing. But Director Ma is really a madman. And you know what? The Americans fall for this kind of thing, and they have the right to be arrogant."

Tan Jincheng kept calling him "Factory Director Ma," which influenced Shen Nanpeng as well; now he unconsciously started calling him "Factory Director Ma" as well.

Ma Yun certainly has the right to be arrogant. He was able to write programs and make small games to sell when he was a teenager, and he was a billionaire in his twenties. He enjoyed all the luxuries he could before he founded Tesla, such as luxury cars and beautiful women.

He founded PayPal, and Taobao imitated this software. In fact, many entrepreneurs in China are imitating him.

To be honest, if it were just Tesla, this guy wouldn't have almost gone bankrupt. The main problem was that he almost messed up his rocket project. He invested $100 million and launched three times, all of which failed, and as a result, he ran out of money.

If he was just into cars, with a net worth of hundreds of millions of dollars in 1999, he wouldn't have been unable to make a living even building an electric sports car.

“Right now, he wants to buy GM’s plant in Texas and expand it, but he definitely doesn’t have enough money. The timing of your cooperation is really good.”

In any endeavor, offering help when someone is in dire need is far better than adding to their existing success; it also makes negotiating terms much easier when you arrive when the other party needs you most.

"It's fine, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if we take the shares based on the current valuation. It's not like we're short of a few dollars anyway."

From the time Tesla went public until the day Tan Jincheng arrived, it was only 13 trading days. The stock price fell below its IPO price on the fifth trading day after its listing, and then remained sluggish for several more trading days. It was only after news of a collaboration with Wei Lai that the stock price rebounded.

Over 13 trading days, the average share price was only $19.32. If we calculate based on the rules of the A-share market with a 90% discount rate, it's not much different from the issue price. Even if we calculate based on the closing price of $20.64, the difference is actually not much.

Based on Tesla's current total share capital of 9300 million shares, its market value at the close of trading was $19.2 billion. At most, Ma Chang would give Tan Jincheng 10% of the shares, which would be $1.92 million.

The average share price is around $1.8 million, so Mr. Tan really doesn't care about such a small discount.

Less than $2 million? Jinqing Investment can easily come up with that amount. It's much better than secretly buying in the secondary market.

"Haha, you've certainly made a fortune these past two years, haven't you? You must have raked in quite a bit in the investment market."

No secrets stay hidden forever. Tan Jincheng didn't deliberately promote his Xiangjiang Investment Company, but he couldn't hide it. It frequently appeared on the list of major shareholders and always made substantial profits, which inevitably attracted the attention of some people.

It's quite normal for Shen Nanpeng to notice star stocks like BYD and Tencent.

The sharp moves made by BYD, and the name Jinqing, made it hard for him not to think of Tan Jincheng's actions. He knew that ByteDance's engine had been dominating the domestic secondary market since 2007.

"Oh, not at all. I can't compare to you Wall Street bigwigs. You guys eat the meat, I'll just have some soup."

Tan Jincheng did not deny it. Taking the last Apple stock crash as an example, he directed Cheng Linfeng to buy at the bottom. In the past month or so, Apple's stock price has stabilized and rebounded to over $250. Although the increase is only about 20%, there is plenty of money to be made.

Austin is the capital of Texas. It is not very large, about 1.2 times the size of North Warehouse, and has a population of about 80. This population density is relatively high for a sparsely populated area like the United States.

Although it is not large in area, Austin has a strong economy and is an important technology center in the United States. Dell's headquarters are located here, and other well-known companies such as IBM, Apple, Google, Intel, and Cisco also have branches here.

"Damn, so many big companies have branches in one city, and there's even the headquarters of awesome companies like Dell. If this were in China, this city would be incredibly powerful. How could it only have 80 people?"

In terms of GDP, Austin was around $900 billion in 2009. This tiny place would rank in the top 10 in China. The Americans really have something.

"That's right. With so many tech companies and industrial clusters, if this were located in one of our cities, it would be like a takeoff. We really can't keep up with them in terms of technology."

"Take it slow. It's already much better, and it will only get better from here on out. You've seen the rapid development in China over the past two years, Mr. Shen."

The situation before and after 2008 was indeed different. Once overall confidence increased, so did motivation.

The period from China's accession to the WTO until 2015 was indeed the best decade. Business was easy, hard work could really lead to wealth, and if you were a little quick-witted, you could earn a lot by setting up a stall.

Street vending is still not prohibited in many cities these days.

"Indeed, things should be better once smartphones become more widespread. Speaking of which, Mr. Tan, you have a really good eye. You actually helped Xiaomi secure its venture capital round. Mr. Lei's startup projects are getting a lot of attention."

Shen Nanpeng is an investor, and he cares more about profits. However, the better the domestic economy develops, the better the investment environment will be for him. From any perspective, he hopes that the domestic economy will get better and better.

He's been traveling all over China, and the news of ByteDance's investment in Xiaomi Technology has gone viral in the country. Some people might not be optimistic about venture capital firms investing in Xiaomi.

However, Shen Nanpeng believes that Tan Jincheng's investment in Xiaomi Technology is understandable. Regardless of whether Xiaomi will succeed, investing in Xiaomi Technology is in line with strategic needs due to the reasons for investing in Dexian Electronics.

Over the years, Shen Nanpeng has also come to understand ByteDance's investment strategy in the primary market, which is to make industrial layouts around the newly established Weilai New Energy Group.

Whether an investment makes money is not important; what matters is enriching the group's industrial chain. Weilai Auto's industrial chain layout is already taking shape, and it only needs to develop diligently to succeed.

It's not surprising that they're making industrial plans; larger companies, whether they're physical or internet companies, all have this awareness.

What Shen Nanpeng admires about Tan Jincheng is that he has been focused on industrial layout since he first started his business. The companies and investments he founded may seem like a mess, but once integrated, they form a complete industrial chain.

If Elon Musk's ambitious declaration to build the most influential company of the 21st century when Tesla went public was a testament to his immense aspirations, then this unassuming young man before us also harbors great ambitions.

Perhaps he had been laying the groundwork for these plans since he started trading clothing, but unlike Musk, Tan Jincheng has been quietly working on them.

This is probably the difference between Western and Eastern perspectives on prices.

Compared to Westerners, we are more reserved and don't like to boast before we've accomplished something.

The car swayed and bumped as it arrived at Tesla's headquarters. Manager Ma had already sent people to pick them up. Yu Liguo, Hu Zhengnan, and others were also waiting at the entrance. Tan Jincheng was not on the same flight as them.

In his previous life, he saw rumors on the internet about Malaysia Airlines, saying that a large number of experts were on the same flight. Whether it was true or not, Tan Jincheng didn't know, but thinking about it, there were indeed safety risks behind it.

We're all on the same flight, so it's better to be safe than sorry and not get caught in the same trap.

Now, another horse is the boss of Lao Mi. At present, everyone's relationship is quite good. However, when the relationship between the two parties deteriorates in the future, it would be best for high-ranking officials like Yu Liguo and himself to come here as little as possible.

"Mr. Shen, boss, thank you for your hard work."

Yu Liguo knew Shen Nanpeng, and Tan Jincheng and his group quickly stepped forward to shake hands after getting out of the car.

Shen Nanpeng responded with a smile, "It's no trouble at all. I'm just here to broaden my horizons. I haven't really visited a car factory before."

It's true that it was tough. Flying from NY to Austin is almost 2,000 kilometers. If he hadn't gone to find Shen Nanpeng and Li Bing first, he would have flown directly to Texas like Yu Liguo and the others.

At this moment, Tesla's reception staff also arrived. They recognized Wall Street figures Shen Nanpeng and his group, but not Tan Jincheng and his group, who had only seen his documents.

At that time, Tesla was really just a makeshift operation. After the management turmoil, the employees left behind at Tesla were probably as abstract as Jack Ma.

It doesn't matter if you don't know him. The young man who is surrounded by the Weilai Auto team and Shen Nanpeng must be Mr. Tan Jincheng, the founder and president of Weilai Auto.

"Mr. Shen, Mr. Tan, welcome to Tesla. Elon is already waiting for you."

Yu Liguo, who was standing next to him, smiled and explained, "It's over there in their factory, not in the office; come on, I know where it is."

The president of Tesla is very well-known, but they had never met him before. This time, they came to Texas a few days in advance and met with this famous CEO. It was truly an eye-opening experience.

A child prodigy who achieved financial freedom before the age of 30, spent years indulging in luxury hotels, then took over Tesla, and then, shortly after Tesla's IPO, went through a divorce – he's done it all. This is typical of American companies; look at Tudou.com, their divorce ruined their IPO.

"That's his style, let's go."

Shen Nanpeng laughed, clearly he understood Musk better than Tan Jincheng and the others. He was indeed amazing, but his style of doing things was indescribable, seemingly different from other founders on Wall Street.

"Hehe, speaking of which, Mr. Tan, your entrepreneurial experience is somewhat similar to Elon's. You both combine the internet with physical businesses. I feel like you two should have some common ground."

That's right. This guy was already writing games when he was a teenager, and his initial fortune came from the internet industry. But now he's invested in the new energy vehicle industry.

"Haha, it's okay, I'd also like to see Tesla's factory."

Tan Jincheng had read a lot of news about Tesla during its heyday and about CEO Ma, but he didn't really know much about Tesla in its early stages, which made him very curious.

In terms of new energy vehicles, Tesla at this time did not have a mature model. A mature car company cannot have only one sports car; it must have a high-volume model.

Musk is clearly aware of this problem. The electric sports car was originally priced at $10, but now, due to cost control reasons, the price has increased from $10 to $10.9, which has already caused dissatisfaction in the market.

But that's not the most important thing. The most important thing is that the cost can't be controlled. Even if the cost is reduced from $14 to $12, it's not enough. We lose money on every car we sell.

The design of the Edamame S is already underway, and Musk is promoting his Edamame S all over the world.

"As far as I remember, Maodou S was launched in China around 2014?"

The first batch of Maodou S phones were priced at over 70 yuan, and were jokingly referred to online as the biggest "leeks" (victims of exploitation). However, if you look at the first batch of Maodou S buyers, they were all celebrities.

Lei Jun was also among the first batch of buyers. Will these people be the ones to be taken advantage of?
Besides, whether or not someone who dared to spend over 70 yuan to buy a pure electric car in 2014 was a sucker or not is another matter, but they were definitely not short of money.

Let alone in 2014, even in 2024, not many people can afford a car costing over 70 yuan, let alone a pure electric car, which was not a very popular concept at the time.

"Goodness, they've even designed the Maodou S. It's a good thing they didn't plagiarize it, otherwise this would have been a huge joke."

In terms of new energy vehicles, we definitely need to learn some of Tesla's ideas. At first, Tan Jincheng even thought about directly copying the appearance of the Elephant S and Elephant Y, but then he thought better of it.

The design of Weilai cars in its previous life was already very appealing, so there was no need to copy Tesla. Besides, Weilai's first electric car was mainly an SUV model, and sedans should be postponed.

Several emerging electric vehicle manufacturers started with SUVs as their entry point. Weilai Auto did the same with gasoline vehicles. In order to stabilize the market, Tan Jincheng decided that his first electric vehicle would also be an SUV.

As for sedans, that would be the Aion series, which is also under development, but the release date will be postponed.

"Tan, come here quickly, let's see how our pure electric vehicle compares to yours?"

The group arrived at Tesla's existing factory in a flurry. The factory area was very small, and you could see the end of it at a glance.

Unlike domestic car factories that rely on sheer numbers of workers, Tesla's factories have very few people and rely more on machines. At this time, Tesla's total number of employees was less than a thousand.

Musk was chatting with engineers next to the production line when he saw Tan Jincheng and his group and loudly beckoned them over. He was really outgoing.

"Hey Elon, aren't you afraid I'll steal your technology?"

When it comes to being thick-skinned, Tan Jincheng is second to none. If you, a foreigner, can be so friendly, why would I be afraid of you?

At this time, Factory Director Ma was only 39 years old and his figure had not yet changed, which was completely different from the image of him in later years who took off his suit and danced at the press conference with a big belly.

Damn, Factory Manager Ma is 187 cm tall, more than ten centimeters taller than Tan Jincheng, and much stronger. Tan Jincheng really looks like a junior standing next to him.

Factory Director Ma laughed heartily: "I've long heard that you, Tan, are very good at English. Today I've truly witnessed it firsthand. As for worrying that you might steal our technology? Aren't we already collaborating on that?"

“That makes a lot of sense. We’re here for cooperation, aren’t we? Here, this is Mr. Shen Nanpeng from the Red Shirt Group. I don’t think I need to introduce him further, do I?”

"Hi, Elon, long time no see."

Shen Nan waved and greeted them. Apart from their different personalities, he increasingly felt that these two had a lot in common: both became famous at a young age, both achieved financial freedom at a young age, and both had great ambitions.

Speaking of which, our "own man" Tan Jincheng's net worth exceeded 100 million yuan much earlier than Factory Director Ma's.

"Hi, Shen, welcome! Come and see our Maodou S, isn't he beautiful?"

This guy is actually quite good at finance, but when it comes to finance, Director Ma is no better than a primary school student compared to Shen Nanpeng and the man in red behind him. He doesn't dare to be too presumptuous with Shen Nanpeng.

Selling his edamame, raising more funds to buy factories—everything required the support of Wall Street capital. Even a hero can be brought down by a lack of funds.

Wall Street is full of villains, all obsessed with money and willing to do anything for it.

Factory Manager Ma is also a member of Wall Street, but his behavior is somewhat unconventional. He makes money, cashes out, and enjoys life to the fullest, but he still has some conscience, investing all the money he earns into real industries and high-tech sectors.

In addition, the treatment at Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory is much better than that of domestic car companies, making it one of the more conscientious capitalists overall.

"It's beautiful. I'm looking forward to its market launch and mass production. I will definitely buy one after it's released."

Shen Nanpeng responded with a smile, and these words were not just pure flattery.

It has to be said that the design of the Maodou S is really, really beautiful for this era, with a sense of cutting-edge technology. However, the Weilai ES6 is not bad either.

For the first model of the Weilai brand, Tan Jincheng chose the ES6, which has a relatively low price. It is currently in the promotion stage, and there are photos of the ES6 in the media, which also look very exciting.

Musk has also seen photos of the ES6, and he has to say, it really amazed him. He always thought that their Model S was the most beautiful electric car in the world, but he never expected that there would be such a perfect car on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.

Musk believes that the capabilities of WooLan Auto need to be reassessed.

After communicating with Yu Liguo and others who had arrived earlier, Musk discovered that Weilai Auto was not only very advanced in design linguistics, but also had amazing technology in power batteries.

The technological expertise required to meet BMW's requirements for the power battery project is truly remarkable.

Technological breakthroughs are achieved by technical personnel, but design language is not so simple. In his view, Chinese independent car companies have no design language to speak of, and Wei Lai is unique.

A car company with its own design language is definitely not simple.

"Haha, thanks Shen. So, Tan, what do you think? Will you buy our Maodou S?"

"Of course, but I would prefer Elon to send me one, and then I can send you one of our ES6s, so we can exchange them and see how well we've absorbed each other's technology."

Damn it, you dare to sell it for over 70 RMB in China? Do you think I would dare?

"No problem, but Tan, what do you think of our current Roadster? Is there any chance that this model will be available in your country?"

“It’s worth a try, but I’m not sure how the sales will be. If you’re interested in entering our domestic market, Elon, I can help you.”

It accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.7 seconds, which is the standard for supercars. In the US, it only costs $109,000, which is about 700,000 RMB at the current exchange rate. To be honest, it's not expensive at all.

However, if it were to actually enter the Chinese market, the price would at least double. But it's still worth a try, since sports cars don't need to be sold in large quantities anyway.

If Factory Manager Ma wants to bring the Tesla brand into the domestic market ahead of schedule, he could give it a try.

Wei Lai can sell this sports car through an agency, and before the ES6 is launched, he should be able to sell at least a few thousand units.
Having experienced the booming car market in 2009 and this year, Tan Jincheng no longer dares to underestimate domestic consumers. They are truly willing to spend money. Ordinary people can't afford toys worth one or two million yuan, but the rich don't care about the money.

Selling a few thousand vehicles, even if it's just through an agency, would be a significant source of revenue for Weilai Auto.

Factory Director Ma rolled his eyes. This was a good idea. After going public, they would have raised funds, but the pressure to meet performance targets would also be immense.

But this old guy is just arrogant, not stupid. How could he possibly agree so easily?

“That’s a good idea. Let’s talk about it later. Come on, we can eat and chat at the same time. Is this your first time in Austin, Tan? I’ll treat you to some of the food here.”

Tan Jincheng and Shen Nanpeng exchanged a glance and couldn't help but laugh.

"Let's go then, I can't wait."

This was an unexpected bonus; before they came, they were only thinking about patents and equity investments.

(End of this chapter)