2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 848 A Different Kind of "Wei Lai"

The 2015 Guangzhou Auto Show attracted over 63 visitors, setting a new record.

The number of visitors has been trending younger in recent years, which is a major characteristic of the auto show in the past two years.

"They're all just 'LSPs' (ladies' who come to see the car models and celebrities.")

The booths for both Wynn and Lotus were packed with people, especially Lotus, which was mostly frequented by young people.

This includes the newly launched EVora400, named the Lotus series, as well as some older Lotus sports cars. This is the first time they have all made a collective appearance in China. The British like to play with the concept of pure handcraftsmanship, and this kind of thing is still very popular.

The Lotus sports cars that made their debut were quite attractive to young people, but the most attractive thing was the car show models.

The models hired by Wei Lai have always been excellent, fitting Boss Tan's aesthetic from 2023, completely different from the current non-mainstream styles. As a luxury sports car brand, Lotus has even higher requirements for its car models.

In addition, they also invited a few minor celebrities to endorse them.

There were many people looking at the cars, but even more people were looking at the models, snapping photos with cameras or their phones.

"Whoever came up with this kind of advertising method is definitely a genius, with luxury cars and beautiful women."

The week-long auto show brought a huge influx of people to Weilai. Countless bento boxes were distributed, and the staff in both exhibition areas were extremely busy. However, the benefits were also obvious.

Within a week, Lotus and the ES8 have been trending on Weibo and Baidu, and their popularity on Autohome, Yiche, and Baidu Tieba communities has remained high.

While there was some hype involved, the actual level of interest was still quite considerable.

Lotus attracted attention because of its unique design and the shock of the entire family making its debut. No matter when or where, luxury cars are always the most eye-catching. Driven by the popularity, Lotus's exhibition area was comparable to that of Porsche, Ferrari and other brands.

Online guidance is possible, and while offline guidance is also possible, it's not as easy.

Discussions about Lotus mainly focus on comparisons with Ferrari and Porsche, covering a comprehensive range of aspects from price and styling to on-site performance, user feedback on power and build quality, etc.

"That's right, we'll use this marketing method from now on."

This comprehensive comparison with Ferrari and Porsche wasn't something Tan Jincheng taught him; it was a plan devised by the public relations and marketing department themselves.

"This was also inspired by the boss's speech."

"Haha, the fact that you came up with a good plan is due to your own abilities, it has nothing to do with me."

Benchmarking against luxury brands across the board is actually a very effective marketing strategy. That's why Kyoko and Dazui are always touted as the best models under 500 million yuan, and are always compared with luxury brands like Rolls-Royce and Bentley.

The fundamental reason is to elevate one's own prestige. Whether it is the best within 500 million yuan is not important; what matters is leaving consumers with such an impression.

As the saying goes, a lie repeated enough becomes the truth, and this couldn't be more true when it comes to marketing.

As long as consumers are consistently reminded that Lotus is compared to Porsche and Ferrari, they will eventually develop a sense of familiarity with it.

"Competitors in the mobile phone industry use the same marketing methods to completely crush Apple. It's a bit shameless, but it's actually quite effective in the long run."

"There aren't many people in our automotive industry who are openly using this approach right now, but it's not like there aren't any. We can use this marketing method for our future products."

Zhongtai exploited Volkswagen in every way, and then openly announced its intention to acquire Volkswagen while it was in trouble. In fact, it was using the same trick. However, the boss, Mr. Ying, obviously did not realize the benefits of this trick and stopped using it after using it once.

"Could we also increase this kind of marketing approach for the ES8?"

Tan Jincheng thought for a moment and said, "That's possible. It's also acceptable to include some BBA-like SUVs for comparison, but models that are a level above us in price. However, we should keep it within limits and still promote it as the best SUV under 100 million."

"We've just started playing, so let's not go too hard."

Lotus has its heritage; it was once one of the top three luxury sports car brands, a fact no one can deny. However, in the present day, it still lags far behind the German Big Three (BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi).

Take your time, there will be more models to be launched later anyway.

The bustling seven-day auto show saw executives from Weilai taking turns to boast and generate plenty of buzz.

The happiest people were undoubtedly the organizers of the auto show and the media reporters. The reporters were delighted because they had plenty of topics to discuss, and the organizers were equally delighted. Before the auto show even started, they had generated a lot of buzz, and they certainly hoped that this buzz would continue during the show.

Tan Jincheng himself spent three days at the Guangzhou Auto Show, during which he also visited the Guangzhou Weilai and Lotus 4S stores to inspect some of their sales figures.

Plans can't keep up with changes. The Yuechi series sold so well that Tan Jincheng's original plan to expand to 500 dealers and 4S stores was halted. However, in just this year, Weilai has added more than 50 new dealers and 4S stores.

To date, Weilai has a total of 630 dealers and about 400 4S stores. Among these 600 dealers are some of the top dealers in the country, such as Guanghui, Guoche, and Pangda.

These dealers carry a range of models, including the Citroën Elantra, Tank, Aion, and pickup trucks, covering the largest sales and profit lines in the country.

As for the Weilai series, with only one model priced, Weilai is still not open to dealers and continues to operate on a self-operated model.

Weilai's self-operated offline stores are divided into several levels, with the highest level being called Weilai Center. Unlike traditional car brand 4S stores, Weilai Center offline experience stores can provide a variety of functions such as showroom, office, reading, leisure, growth, gathering, and urban cultural services.

This thing was copied by Tan Jincheng. In his previous life, he had visited some new energy vehicle experience stores and felt that they were pretty good. They didn't have the oppressive feeling of traditional 4S stores and were very relaxing.

To date, Weilai has a total of 23 Weilai Centers, covering 19 cities.

The secondary stores are called Weilai Spaces, which can be understood as a smaller version of Weilai Centers. There are also service centers, delivery centers, and other secondary institutions.

Compared to first-tier service providers, second-tier Weilai Space has expanded much faster, with 100 stores opened nationwide to date, covering 60 cities.

During the third-quarter earnings call this year, Tan Jincheng stated that by 2020, Weilai plans to build at least 20 more Weilai Centers and 120 Weilai Spaces, bringing the total number of stores to 350.

In addition, we will accelerate our global expansion, continuing to increase the number of stores in the popular Nordic countries.

Speaking of these stores, most of them were absorbed internally. During the time of Flash, Zhang Xupeng flew all over the country to inspect stores for a period of time in order to expand GXG's business.

At the time, Tan Jincheng's instruction was to buy if possible, and to lease as long as possible if they couldn't afford to buy or wouldn't sell.

In addition, ByteDance's advertising platform and family trusts have also purchased a lot of real estate over the years. Since both of them are investment companies, how could they possibly miss the opportunity to appreciate in real estate value?

Real estate is always an important asset that investment institutions cannot ignore.

Tan Jincheng doesn't actively get involved in real estate because he's afraid of getting into trouble. This industry is too complex; even an inexperienced contractor or someone who hauls sand can be easily manipulated. But that doesn't mean he doesn't understand the value involved.

Moreover, he doesn't even need to personally intervene; he can simply give the order, and someone will naturally handle the purchase of the commercial real estate.

Many of the offline stores in Weilai were established through rent-seeking from Flash Group and ByteDance, and their actual costs are far lower than the current market average.

"In fact, the distributors probably know that our Weilai brand will not be handed over to him, which is why they are scrambling to take over the operation rights of other brands."

By continuously expanding its self-operated stores and establishing a comprehensive service mechanism from customer experience to after-sales service, anyone could tell that Mr. Tan was determined to firmly grasp the core brand of new energy in his own hands.

Fortunately, although sales of the Weilai series have increased significantly, they do not affect the core interests of distributors.

With a series of large-scale events taking place at the end of the year, Tan Jincheng spent three days in Guangzhou, and after inspecting the surrounding cities of Dongguan and Shenzhen, he rushed back to Ningbo.

"Trying to build cars?"

Li Bing was still Li Bing after all. The reason Tan Jincheng rushed back to Ningbo was because Li Bing had arranged to meet him.

Internet companies are jumping on the bandwagon, and even Jia Yueting, who has absconded with his business, is still tirelessly building cars. He has made the most of the Aston Martin partners he lured in. LeEco has also announced that the prototype of their first model, MuleCar, has been completed and is expected to be unveiled at the Beijing International Auto Show next year.

This news was announced by Boss Ding. Speaking of which, Boss Jia's ability to deceive is truly amazing. Even business veterans like Lao Sun and Lao Ding endorse him.

I don't know what Lao Ding was thinking. Maybe he got anxious seeing one internet company after another entering the automotive industry.

During the Guangzhou Auto Show, Baidu officially announced that it has reached a strategic cooperation agreement with W3C and BMW, and will cooperate with these two automakers in all aspects on the commercialization of autonomous driving.

In addition, Mr. Li also announced that Baidu has officially established an autonomous driving business unit, with plans to commercialize autonomous vehicles within three years and achieve mass production within five years.

This can be considered an official announcement that they are entering the car manufacturing industry.

"The funniest thing about internet giants is that they are like twins, sharing the same mindset. If you have something, I have to have it too."

Li Bing brought news that he wanted to build cars.

Besides seeking technical support from Wei, he also wanted to attract investment by meeting with Tan Jincheng. Everyone knows that Boss Tan is wealthy and a leader in the new energy industry, so investing in him is definitely the right choice.

Most importantly, Tan Jincheng is also known as the "Midas Touch," which is like offering incense to the God of Wealth for businessmen who are fond of metaphysics.

"I have already visited Mr. Liu from Jingdong and Mr. Ma from Tencent, and they have agreed to invest. In addition, Mr. Zhang from Gaoling Capital has also verbally expressed his interest in joining."

"Oh, right, Kyoko also said she could invest, but only if you, Mr. Tan, are willing to join. I wonder if you have this idea, Mr. Tan."

Tan Jincheng could freely criticize these internet giants, but Li Bing dared not. In fact, persuading these three companies to invest wasn't easy; he drank himself into a stupor with Dongzi and talked himself hoarse with Pony Ma. Although these three companies agreed to invest, they implied that he should still consult Tan Jincheng's opinion.

It's fair to say that Li Bing was somewhat apprehensive about his fellow villager's opinion. If his villager agreed to join the project, his dream of building cars would proceed incredibly smoothly.

For Tan Jincheng, entering the game was not just a simple matter of entering the game. A new force supported by Wei Lai was different from other new forces. Look at Xiao Peng, because of Wei Lai's investment, he is doing better than others in the new forces.

When seeking investment, if someone hears that it's a venture capital round invested by Tan Jincheng, even if the other party is not optimistic and unwilling to invest, they will be much more polite and leave themselves a chance.

Xiao Peng has already obtained the automobile production qualification, which is being obtained by borrowing Haima Automobile.

In addition, Tan Jincheng's entry will also bring him some other investors, such as Shunwei Capital and Sequoia Capital, with whom he has close cooperation.

These are all big spenders.

"Oh? I didn't hear him mention it during the auto show."

"Haha, I told him not to tell you beforehand. It feels better if I'm the one to reveal the news."

Before anyone knew it, Li Bing had started using honorifics. He is currently the CEO of Yiche and the largest shareholder of Yiche (Li Xiang's shares in Autohome were acquired by ByteDance, and he only retained 1.5%). Strictly speaking, Tan Jincheng can also be considered his boss.

Yiche can be said to have been saved by Tan Jincheng, and its listing also benefited from Tan Jincheng's efforts. Currently, Yiche's market value is around 40 billion US dollars, which includes Autohome. In fact, before the acquisition of Autohome, Yiche's market value had been stable at around 10 billion US dollars for a long time.

Tan Jincheng's investment in Yiche actually resulted in a loss, and Li Bing felt somewhat sorry for his fellow townsman.

He personally holds an 11% stake in Bitauto and has a net worth of around $5 million, but he is not as wealthy as He Xiaopeng.

"Brother Bing, you don't need to be so polite. My previous promise still stands. I will support anyone who wants to build their own cars, including you and Xiangzi. It's more interesting when the industry is diverse."

Tan Jincheng suddenly had a mischievous glint in his eye: "But, have you decided on a name for your company yet?"

He was now eager to know what kind of company name Li Bing wanted.

Li Bing didn't expect Tan Jincheng to agree so readily. This young man was indeed as generous and trustworthy as ever.

However, he looked helpless when he heard this question.

"Actually, I really like the name Wei Lai, but unfortunately you beat me to it. Right now, I haven't thought about what to name the company. Do you have any suggestions?"

"You might not believe it, but when I first heard the name Wei Lai, I felt like I had lost something. Isn't that amazing?"

Nonsense, that's your own name.

"Haha, I'll take it as a compliment on my naming skills. You have no idea that we all privately complain about how terrible I am at naming things."

"That's still better than Xiao Peng. That guy is shameless for choosing a name. He just used his own name, and it sounds awful. I can't bear to lose face like that."

"Haha, he probably wants to be in line with Xiaomi."

It's not impossible; He Xiaopeng and Lei Jun can be considered both mentors and friends.

Tan Jincheng stroked his chin: "We have Weltmeister, we have Hozon Auto, and we have Leapmotor. These should all belong to the abstract style. Xiaopeng and Xiaomi are both junior companies, so why don't you choose one that is similar to our style?"

Company names are both important and unimportant. Is Apple a good name? Certainly not.

Tesla also uses a person's name, but as long as you grow large enough and your brand awareness is wide enough, great scholars will naturally come to debate with you.

"Looking to the future? That's certainly a great idea, but what's the right name? Your Wei Lai has already taken over the entire track."

"What about Wenjie? It represents exploring the unknown and pursuing the ultimate. It's different from our meaning, but it's still quite close."

Boss Tan's perverse sense of humor kicked in again. He thought of a bunch of emerging brands, and there were some that sounded pretty good, like the yet-to-be-released Voyah and Jihu, which were not bad either, as was Geely's Ke series.

However, all of these are somewhat inconsistent with what I just said about being similar to Wei Lai's style.

Li Bing pondered for a long time, and it was clear that he valued the car manufacturing company very much, as he could think about a name for so long.

After a while, Li Bing smiled and said, "Okay, this name is good. It's similar in meaning to Wei Lai, so we've hit the jackpot."

A different Wei Lai, a different Wen Jie.

"So, who do you plan to appoint as CEO of Yiche?"

"For the time being, I will take over as CEO. I will step down as CEO after our car is completed and focus on building the car. As for the candidate, Zhang Xu'an is the initial choice."

Zhang Xu'an is a long-time employee of Bitauto. This Wall Street elite has held several key positions at Bitauto since joining in 2006, and currently serves as CFO.

"Yes, it's a tradition for the CFO to succeed the CEO, so this arrangement is good."

Like He Xiaopeng, Li Bing did not give up his current job before the car was officially unveiled. Perhaps this is to leave himself a way out. This is probably the difference between new energy vehicle entrepreneurs and Lei Jun (CEO of Xiaomi).

This guy manufactures cars using his own legal entity and the brand name Xiaomi, which means he's not leaving himself any way out.

However, speaking of CFO, Xiaomi's biggest change this year is that it hired a top-notch CFO, Zhou Shouzhi, born in 1983, who officially joined Xiaomi as CFO on July 1st this year.

This person was also a key figure in driving Xiaomi's IPO, but he left his post three years after the IPO and joined Zhang Yiming's team to continue serving as CFO.

The addition of top talent can indeed bring about a qualitative change to a company.

Take Wei Lai as an example. Although Tan Jincheng had always emphasized family design, the cars he produced always felt a little lacking. It wasn't until Thomas, the design director of BMW, joined the company that they truly developed their own family design language.

"I plan to see if I can persuade JAC to provide the car manufacturing license, like how Xiaopeng found Haima to manufacture for them. If we can't persuade them, we plan to acquire Lifan's shares and borrow their production license."

"Therefore, this round of financing will be more substantial."

Then Li Bing added somewhat apologetically, "Because there are many investment institutions this time, and Tencent is also interested in leading the investment, we may not be able to offer Xiaopeng as many shares."

It's no secret within the industry that Tan Jincheng acquired a 10% stake in Xiaopeng for $500 million.

"Haha, Pony Ma really doesn't admit defeat; alright, let him lead the investment, just tell me how much you plan to raise this time."

Baidu is planning to enter the car manufacturing industry itself. This year, Ali (Baidu's founder) partnered with SAIC to establish a 10 billion yuan internet car fund and also invested in Roewe, which is quite a significant move.

Pony Ma hasn't made any moves in internet-based car manufacturing yet, but it seems he's planning something big this time.

"The total scale is 100 million US dollars, and 20% of the shares will be sold, but Tencent wants 15%."

That's a valuation of $5 million, which is quite a bit more expensive than when He Xiaopeng raised funds. However, He Xiaopeng is not short of money, so he is relatively stingy about transferring shares.

Li Bing, on the other hand, didn't have much money.

As Li Bing just said, his idea is still the same as Tan Jincheng's idea in his previous life: to play the battery swapping game.

At this point, he was unaware of how long the battery swapping timeline would take, but in terms of ambition, Li Bing's ambitions were truly quite grand.

Battery swapping stations are similar to gas stations. One aspect is that they have achieved their goal of generating a steady cash flow. At the same time, they are also beneficial to other car companies, as cooperating with Weilai can reduce the construction costs of charging piles.

With $100 million, it would definitely be a Series A round. Li Bing, who sold 20% of his shares, clearly realized that Weilai needed a large amount of funding. Therefore, the equity structure was more complicated than A and B, using ABC shares.

Investors like Tan Jincheng, who entered in the Series A round, received Class B shares.

"Then I'll take 2%, that's not unreasonable, is it?"

There's not much to say about the valuation. The lead investor agreed to a valuation of $500 million, and he had no choice but to either participate or exit. It's only $100 million, which Pony Ma could easily have taken over, and he could afford the loss.

Dongzi and Leizi are also going. Xiao Ma is going to take 15%, so the remaining 5% will be split among the three of them. It seems like they won't be able to bring anyone else this round.

There aren't enough shares to go around.

Oh, right, there's also Li Xiang. He also invests personally; I wonder how much he'll get.

"Not at all, thank you, Mr. Tan."

That's incredibly kind of them; this went much more smoothly than drinking heavily at Dongzi's place.

"Brother Bing, you're too kind. Please call me by my usual name in private. Let's make a name for ourselves in the automotive industry together."

You old rascal, go play with battery swapping, haha, swap one battery and don't say a word. I hope you can keep it up like you did in your past life, so that Wei can also get some when he comes.

Haha, Wei Lai is playing with gasoline cars and new energy vehicles, Wen Jie is playing with battery swapping, isn't that exciting?
"By the way, are you going to the Internet Conference?"

(End of this chapter)