2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 742 Annual Sales Exceed 10 Units (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

"Happy birthday, boss."

On Monday, August 16th, which was also the Qixi Festival in the lunar calendar, Lai Yiu-fai greeted Tan Kam-ching with a smile as he came to pick him up for work early in the morning.

Tan Jincheng chuckled and extended his hand: "Just that one sentence?"

"Haha, of course not."

After saying that, Lai Yiu-fai took out a tote bag from his side. Ever since he found out when his boss's birthday was, he would prepare a small gift every year on this day. This was something his wife taught him.

In his wife's words, no matter how big the boss is, he is still a young man in his twenties, and he will always be happy to receive a gift, regardless of its value.

"What's it this year? I remember last year it was razors, right?"

Tan Jincheng accepted it without any hesitation and opened it right in front of him.

"Hey, a thermos cup, it's pretty. The weather's getting cooler, so I'll need it; I can soak goji berries in it."

Everyone has their little hobbies, and Tan Jincheng is no exception. He has a hobby of collecting cups. He has bought all kinds of cups at home, some cheap and some expensive. He will buy any cup he thinks looks good.

When I'm bored, I sometimes browse these kinds of shops on Taobao, which is something my close friends and family know.

"Haha, that's not the case. Boss, you're too old to need to soak goji berries. It's us who are about to start doing it."

Having worked for the boss for several years, the couple was surprised to find that he was only 25 years old. They were truly moved when preparing the gift.

"Let's go to the company."

Mr. Tan smiled and said nothing more. He placed the bag on the seat next to him. Every year on this day, he would receive several such small gifts from close subordinates, friends, and some suppliers with whom he had close relationships.

Of course, there are also government officials involved; don't assume they only accept gifts and don't give them.

People close to him, like Lai Yiu-fai, would have the items delivered directly to him, while others wouldn't have that opportunity and would be handled by his personal secretary, Tsang Kei-cheung. Of course, Tan Kam-ching would also check them afterwards, and anything too valuable or unsuitable would be returned.

"Okay, by the way, boss, I saw a news report these past two days. The Beijing-Zhangjiakou Expressway has been stuck in traffic for two days now. It's strange that it's been stuck for so long even though it's not a holiday."

When people take holidays, crowds will inevitably start to move around. The number of people traveling in shopping malls, on roads, and on highways for various reasons will more than double compared to usual.

During holidays such as National Day and Spring Festival, the chances of traffic jams increase significantly.

Despite it not being a holiday, there was a massive traffic jam stretching for dozens of kilometers, which didn't clear up for two days. The aerial photos were truly shocking, and the news topic exploded immediately.

Lai Yiu-fai spends a lot of time on his phone, so he easily came across this news.

"What's so strange about traffic jams? There are probably a lot of coal trucks over there, right?"

“This time it’s different. I don’t think it will be cleared in a short time. I’ve seen those pictures. There are big trucks, coal trucks, and cars. The national highway next to it is still under construction.”

Lai Yiu-fai, a veteran driver who had served in the military, was very perceptive and had a feeling that this major traffic jam would last for at least a week.

"Oh? Really? Let me check the news."

Tan Jincheng also became interested, took out his phone and found the news, but he was stunned after seeing the picture.

Holy crap, isn't this the most famous traffic jam from my past life? It lasted 21 days and covered 120 kilometers, and it was the record for the longest traffic jam in China up to 2023. In the years after the traffic jam ended, the trees on both sides of the road became much more lush.

"Haha, this traffic jam is no joke. Look at the highway, there are so many middle-aged women. Just like you said, it won't be cleared up anytime soon."

"Right, I also saw quite a few middle-aged women on the highway, plus so many large trucks."

"Hehe, this could be an opportunity for us."

Tan Jincheng flipped through the photos taken by the media again and again, thinking about how to make something out of them. The so-called "three auntie models" is a nickname for the Nissan Sylphy, Toyota Corolla and Levin.

These three cars are relatively slow in speed because they are equipped with CVT continuously variable transmissions that are slow to start and naturally aspirated engines that are not technologically advanced.

In addition, a large number of owners of these three types of cars like to drive at a snail's pace of 80 km/h on the highway. If you encounter several of these types of cars driving side by side, it's like a ghost traffic jam.

This massive traffic jam lasted for such a long time, generating a lot of news coverage and attracting widespread public attention.

As someone working in the automotive industry, there's actually a business opportunity to be found here. The three major brands are all Japanese brands, and given that the sales of Japanese brands have declined by about 30% this year compared to previous years, it presents a great opportunity.

The collaboration with Tesla was a public event, and the framework for the collaboration was completed in just half a month, bringing considerable traffic to Weilai Auto. Throughout July, the Yuechi A1 still held the title of the best-selling model, selling 1.3 units.

This is a good start to the second half of 2010. Car sales in August were just average, but from September onwards, we will enter the golden period for car sales, and it's time to start promoting.

Having worked with Tan Jincheng for a long time, Lai Yiu-fai was able to understand some of his boss's underhanded tactics in advertising. He only told his boss about it because he saw news reports about many "old lady" cars on the highway.

Sending people to put up banners in front of Toyota 4S stores to steal their business—this tactic really opened his eyes.

"Boss, do you think our Yuechi A1 will be the best-selling SUV this year?"

"It's a bit difficult. Although we occasionally get the top spot for a month, the gap between us and the CRV is not that big. Last month, we were only a few hundred cars behind. Plus, the Tiguan is also making a strong push now."

Since the second quarter, sales of the Tiguan have been gradually increasing. It is one of Volkswagen's main models this year, and last month the Tiguan broke into the fourth place in SUV sales.

The competition between the CRV, the king of this segment, and the Yuechi A1 has become fierce, with the two almost taking turns to hold the title of the best-selling SUV in a single month.

In addition, although the sales of RAV4 have declined significantly since the recall, it remains competitive and ranks among the top five in sales every month.

As for domestically produced models from independent brands, apart from Great Wall's H3, other SUV models have almost completely failed in the second quarter. It can be said that Yuechi A1 is almost fighting against the entire joint venture brand in the SUV market by itself.

The root cause is that domestic SUVs are still targeting the low-end market, and low-end SUVs have completely stopped selling this year.

按汽车工业协会的数据来分析，指导起步价12万至17万的中端车型和指导起步价17至25万的次高端车型分别占据了24%和33%左右的份额。

The low-end market accounted for 24% of the market share, a sharp decrease of 7% compared to last year, indicating that the low-end market is shrinking rapidly.

The pricing of a car determines its market. To be honest, Tan Jincheng did consider setting the price of the Yuechi A1 even lower to seize the market with a more affordable price.

In hindsight, the pricing range we used back then was the right one. 10 to 15 yuan was the most reasonable pricing range for the first model.

In terms of price, the Yuechi A1 is nearly half the price of the CRV, RAV4 and Tiguan, and the Great Wall H3 is even cheaper. The profit margins are simply incomparable.

The road to competition between domestic independent brands and joint venture brands is still long and arduous.

To create more room for survival, in addition to improving their own design and quality, they also need to put more effort into marketing.

The best option right now is to give Japanese brands, whose sales have clearly declined this year, a piece of their mind by attacking their competitors and seizing some of their market share.

"Even if we don't get it, getting second place is not bad. After all, our car has only been on the market for two years, so this performance is already very good."

"Second place is definitely not a problem, that's for sure."

Unless a single car is sold in the last four months, the Yuechi A1 can still firmly rank in the top five, or even the top three.

With August more than halfway through and summer vacation approaching, the Weilai Automobile Factory has recently hired a number of temporary workers.

Anyone who frequently recruits knows that there are a group of temporary workers in the labor market who just loaf around. They only do day-paid work, earning a hundred or two hundred yuan a day. If they need money, they'll work a few more days, and if they don't need money, they'll quit after earning a hundred or two hundred yuan.

In short, they'd rather lie down than stand up. These old hands are hard to manage; they can quit whenever they want.

It's usually not a big deal, but it's a real headache when there are production tasks. However, it's summer vacation now, and Weilai Automobile can hire a large number of college students to work as temporary workers.

College students are cheap and easy to use, and most importantly, they are obedient and easy to fool.

According to the latest minimum wage standards in Zhejiang Province, the wage standards for part-time hourly workers are divided into four levels: 9 yuan, 8 yuan, 7.3 yuan and 6.5 yuan.

For less than 10 yuan, you can buy an hour of college students' time; it's truly amazing!

However, the Weilai Automobile Factory wasn't so bad. At least the temporary workers they hired were mainly college students. These college students would be the main employers in the future, so they had to leave a good reputation.

Because of the tight production schedule, temporary workers at the Weilai Automobile Beicang Plant are paid 12 yuan per hour, which is more than 30% higher than the minimum wage standard.

In addition, a lunch is provided for the day shift, and a meal allowance of 10 yuan is given for the night shift. Temporary dormitory is also provided.

The conditions and benefits were certainly not as good as those of regular employees, but a college graduate could earn 3000 yuan a month, which was quite good in 2010, making it very attractive.

The work is not that complicated; it involves sorting and packaging small parts. Some people are assigned to quality inspection positions after simple training, where they are supervised by a master craftsman.

"Speaking of which, why is the workload so heavy this month? It's much heavier than last month."

Liu Li is a student at Yongcheng Vocational and Technical College, which is located in Beicang. His proximity to the school made it easy for him to find temporary work at the auto factory. He was recruited last month after the holiday break, along with dozens of other students. "That's right," he said, "these past few days I've been working over 10 hours a day, wow."

The one who answered him was Pu Yunyang. He and Liu Li were classmates and fellow villagers. He was too lazy to go home for the summer vacation, so he was persuaded by the class teacher to work as a temporary worker in the factory. He was temporarily assigned to the part sorting position.

I said that, but I was actually a little happy inside.

Working 10 hours a day earns 120 yuan. With subsidies, I can earn about 4000 yuan this month, and 6000 yuan over the summer vacation. That's enough to buy a really good computer.

"Hehe, you guys don't know this, but I heard that the company is preparing to reach 10 units in sales, which is why they're speeding up production."

The person who picked up their conversation was a short, chubby man of similar age wearing work clothes.

Liu Li clearly didn't believe him: "Zhang Wenshao, where did you find out about this?"

We're all temporary workers, so why should your information be more up-to-date than ours?

"Hehe, believe it or not, I just know it."

Zhang Wenshao chuckled, suppressing the urge to continue talking and chatting. If his cousin hadn't forbade it, he really wanted to share more inside information.

That's right, this short, chubby boy is Tan Jincheng's older cousin, currently studying at Ningbo University.

His cousin forbade him from talking nonsense at the company or revealing his identity. However, as a temporary worker, no one would believe him if he claimed to be the big boss's cousin.

Actually, he didn't know much, and what he knew were just snippets he overheard at his aunt's dinner table. He didn't know any more information, so how could his cousin possibly tell him any of that?

His close relatives and peers, like Tan Jincheng, have all grown up. The oldest, Zhang Wenshao, is already 19 years old, and the youngest cousin is already 8 years old.

In his previous life, Tan Jincheng had a very good relationship with his younger siblings and knew each of their personalities very well.

Tan Jincheng had high expectations for them, the first of all being that they had to go to university.

At the beginning of the century, opportunities were plentiful, and academic qualifications were not particularly important. Many people from humble backgrounds achieved success. However, now it is 2010, and academic qualifications have become extremely important.

Bigwigs like Jack Ma, who like to give speeches in public, often say that academic qualifications are not important, but have you ever seen any big company conducting campus recruitment at colleges and universities?

Even if his younger siblings don't need to worry about finding jobs, they still need to have a proper bachelor's degree.

The second step is that after entering university, Tan Jincheng will arrange for you to intern at various factories nearby, such as the factories of Shanchi, Jinpeng, Weilai Automobile, and even the factories of Leichi old man's car.

In short, it involves going to the front lines, where a specialist will assess the candidate's abilities, and then provide training based on those abilities.

As a business grows, it's perfectly normal to mentor younger siblings. Tan Jincheng isn't afraid of the company becoming a family business; he can adjust the organizational structure at any time based on his shareholding ratio and control over the company.

This is why, as the company's founder, Tan Jincheng had enough confidence to control the group, just like the founding monarchs of ancient times.

Zhang Wenshao is right. Weilai Automobile is indeed increasing its production capacity in order to break the annual sales record of 10 vehicles. As of July this year, the total sales of Yuechi A1 reached 79098 vehicles.

Based on the current sales figures for August, the sales volume of Yuechi A1 will exceed 90,000 units by the end of August, and the annual sales volume of Yuechi A1 will definitely exceed 100,000 units by September.

As of 2009, in the national passenger car market, only 21 models had annual sales exceeding 100,000 units, and only 28 models had annual sales approaching 100,000 units (over 90,000 units).

Among domestic brands, there are only five models: BYD F3, F0, Chery QQ, Xiali, and Geely Free Cruiser. All of them are low-end sedan models, and there are not a single SUV model.

In fact, currently only the Honda CR-V has achieved annual sales exceeding 10 units, and the Yuechi A1 will definitely be the second SUV model to break the 10-unit mark in annual sales.

The first and fastest model among domestic brands to break the 10-unit annual sales mark.

Based on the time from its launch to annual sales exceeding 10 units, the Yuechi A1 was launched in less than 12 months by the time it broke the record in September.

In fact, as early as August 4th, the total sales of Yuechi A1 had already exceeded 100,000 units. Last year, 19501 units were sold. With the sales from January to July this year, the total sales easily exceeded 100,000 units.

However, Weilai did not announce that its total sales exceeded 10 units this month. The buzz surrounding its cooperation with Tesla and the exposure of Jinqing Investment's shell company is still there, so there is no need for it to compete with itself for attention.

In the words of the marketing department, we need to prepare something big.

What does it mean to have total sales exceeding 10 units? It must mean annual sales exceeding 10 units, and it must be the fastest record for a domestically produced model to reach 10 units to be truly impressive.

From management to workshop employees, everyone at Weilai Auto is very motivated these days.

September is one of the peak sales months for automobiles, aiming to reach 10 units for the year. In August, the Weilai Automobile Factory was operating at full capacity, especially the Beicang Factory, which not only operated three shifts but also hired a large number of temporary workers.

In order to secure more inventory, 4S dealerships are now very confident in stocking up on the Yuechi A1.

There's no way around it, once this thing is accepted by the market, the sales volume is unstoppable, there's no worry about it not selling. The Yuechi A1 is selling too well right now.

With the preferential policies that Weilai offers to its dealers still in effect, the situation for Weilai's dealers is completely different from that of Dizi's dealers.

On one side, people are clamoring and threatening to pay penalties to leave the network; on the other side, people are rushing to stock up on goods, even willing to pay in advance.

Believe it or not, some of the Dizi dealers who had already left the network even inquired about joining Weilai Auto's dealer network.

However, the root cause is determined by the mechanism between the two. With so many models of the Dizi, the F3, which sells well, can still make a profit even under the most stringent conditions, so it's worth enduring.

But the key issue is that Dizi forces dealers to bundle certain unsold models with their vehicles, which is very problematic.

If I can't sell them, I'll have to restock, which means I'll be stuck with them.

However, this problem doesn't exist for Weilai Auto. They only have one model, which sells very well, making the situation quite simple.

Of course, Weilai Auto does offer some bundled sales, such as the Yangzi pickup truck, but the scale of these bundled sales is not large, and not all dealers offer them.

For example, 4S stores in urban areas of first-tier cities do not need to be equipped with pickup trucks due to policy restrictions.

If Dizi's dealers only need to sell popular models like the F3 and F0, would they all defect en masse?

Therefore, sometimes employing a "car-sea strategy" is not necessarily a good thing. Geely almost went bankrupt with its car-sea strategy, only surviving thanks to the Emgrand model. Didi's car-sea strategy also drove its dealers to the brink of collapse.

Weilai Auto will offer a wide variety of models, but it will absolutely not engage in a "car sea" strategy. What's the point of having rows and rows of different models in a 4S store if they can't be sold?

Sales and production in August were in full swing, just like the hot weather. Liu Li and Pu Yunyang didn't need to rush back to register because their school was in Beicang, so they worked until the last day of August.

"Liu Li, you had perfect attendance in August, totaling 310 working hours. Including subsidies and the full attendance bonus, the total is 4180 yuan. If there are no problems, sign here and go to the finance department to collect your salary."

"Pu Yunyang, perfect attendance, total 313 working hours, 4206 yuan. Take a look, if there are no problems, sign and go collect your salary."

Liu Li and Pu Yunyang rubbed their hands together excitedly. They could earn more than 4000 yuan a month! Including the hours they worked in July, they had already earned more than 7000 yuan. Wow, they had never earned so much money before.

"Alright, college students, thank you for your hard work these past two months. Weilai Auto will remember you. Go back and study hard. Weilai Auto welcomes you to join us again after graduation."

"In addition, if you intend to join Weilai Auto after graduation, the work experience of these two months will be added to your resume and you will be given priority in recruitment. At that time, you will no longer be doing temporary work."

As soon as the HR person in charge of the personnel assessment finished speaking, a series of chattering sounds came from the scene.

"Holy crap, is this for real?"

Liu Li and Pu Yunyang exchanged a glance. Ningbo Vocational and Technical College only offered a junior college diploma. In an era where academic qualifications were becoming increasingly devalued, graduates couldn't find particularly good jobs.

They never expected to receive such treatment for a summer job, and they were certainly willing to work at Weilai Automobile.

In the past two months, they have seen the benefits of regular employees at Weilai Automobile, especially those in the technical department, who are extremely envious.

"Alright, everyone, go home now. Be careful on your way back to school. The company will send a car to take you to Beicang, Ningbo, or the train station for those from other places, depending on your school's location. Remember to meet at the designated meeting point, or we won't wait for you."

The HR was very satisfied with the students' reactions, as everything was done according to the boss's requirements. In addition, all salaries were paid in cash, all to plant a seed of hope in the hearts of these students.

College students from well-off families don't come to factories to work as temporary workers. Even if they come out of curiosity, they won't stay for more than a few days. Those who stay are basically from average-income families, and they don't usually have that much cash on hand.

The factory is operating at full capacity and very efficient this month, so there's no problem meeting the inventory needs for September.

In early September, the sales data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers had not yet been released, but the internal statistics from Weilai Automobile were already available, showing that sales in August reached 11985 vehicles.

From January to August, the total sales of Yuechi A1 reached 91083 units, just 8917 units short of the annual sales target of 10 units.

"September is the peak season for sales. Based on a daily sales volume of over 400 vehicles, we should be able to reach annual sales of over 100,000 vehicles by the 18th or 19th. Let's get the marketing materials ready."

Holding the sales figures, Tan Jincheng chuckled and gave instructions to Zeng Jixiang.

Haha, 10 vehicles! That's awesome!
(End of this chapter)