2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 870, the Founding Edition, is sold out!

In 2016, with over 600 million active smartphone users, the speed of information dissemination was far beyond what the PC era could match.

"Boss, don't delay any longer. If we don't leave now, I'm afraid you'll have to continue working as a salesperson this afternoon. Let's hurry up and leave while it's lunchtime."

Zhao Xinyi has been closely monitoring the changes in online popularity and has also arranged for staff to keep track of changes in pedestrian traffic in the vicinity.

According to the information gathered, the online buzz was growing, and the number of people heading over was also increasing, which made her somewhat worried.

Tan Jincheng glanced at the still noisy exhibition hall and nodded.

Two and a half hours were all allotted for the show, and after going through all the procedures, Boss Tan was exhausted.

Zhao Xinyi is right. If we stay any longer in this situation, we'll really have to continue this afternoon.

"Okay, you can make the arrangements."

Zhao Xinyi immediately made the arrangements, clapping her hands at the staff around her: "Come on, everyone, come over and take a group photo, then hurry up and take turns eating, we'll be busy this afternoon."

"Also, the boss has prepared a gift for everyone; in addition, everyone has worked very hard today, so we just had a quick lunch, and the boss has arranged a big dinner for everyone tonight."

"Also, everyone remember to make arrangements for the customers who are still in the store. Liu Han, remember to make those arrangements."

Zhao Xinyi is decisive and straightforward, yet possesses a unique feminine thoughtfulness. She can arrange her own duties perfectly and even help Tan Jincheng with things he might have overlooked.

For example, she arranged lunch, and she also promised to give everyone in the brand store a gift and a big dinner in the evening.

In terms of a full-time secretary, she is more suitable than Zeng Jixiang. Zeng Jixiang's expertise is different from hers, and Tan Jincheng is much more at ease since her return.

The energetic Zhao Xinyi arranged everything perfectly without needing Boss Tan's help.

"Secretary Zhao is right. Everyone will have a hard day today. Let's just grab a quick bite for lunch and have a proper meal in the evening."

"That's great, thank you boss!"

"Long live the boss!"

Today was indeed a very busy day. The boss was busy opening doors for car owners, and the staff also needed to help entertain guests and maintain order.

Most of the staff in the experience store are young women. They had been looking forward to the big boss's visit for a long time, but until this morning, they did not know the specific event arrangements and were just doing their jobs under the guidance of store manager Liu Han.

When the process began, they were just as surprised as the car owner and the reporters. The boss's process was more professional than that of professional 4S store sales staff, which was hard to imagine.

As professionally trained service staff, they could naturally tell that the boss was putting on a show for publicity, but it was truly rare to see someone as humble as the boss as opening doors for so many car owners.

For two and a half hours, the boss maintained a smile on his face, mechanically repeating these actions over and over again. There was no sign of impatience on his part, even though he had not received any professional training.

Their composure alone was enough to impress them; those who succeed truly possess great perseverance.

Tan Jincheng did not stay in the brand store to have lunch with the staff. Taking advantage of Liu Han's arrangement of customers on site, he hurriedly left the brand store surrounded by security personnel.

The reporters followed, hoping to find an opportunity to conduct an interview.

Some car owners at the scene noticed that Tan Jincheng and others had left. Those who had already taken delivery didn't care, but those who hadn't taken delivery yet felt a little regretful.

"Oh dear, we're too late. We missed getting Mr. Tan to open the car door for us."

"Yes, it's a pity, but I can understand. Such an important person can't possibly spend the whole day in the store doing such boring things. It's already very good that he can spare a morning to serve us car owners."

"It's not just Boss Tan alone today. In other stores, all the senior executives from Wei Lai came out."

"It's quite interesting. Although I know it's to promote the new car, the fact that all the senior executives are involved shows that they've really adopted a humble approach."

"Yes, if all our domestic brands could be like the senior executives at Weilai, and be willing to serve car owners, then our domestic brands would definitely be able to do even better."

The car owners of Weilai are mainly wealthy and thoughtful young people aged 24 to 35. They have their own opinions on Tan Jincheng and Weilai's marketing methods, but they must admit that they highly approve of these marketing methods.

After all, it's a source of great pride for these car owners.

Since the afternoon of April 24th, the enthusiasm surrounding the entire senior management team of Weilai opening the doors for car owners has been growing. This marketing model can be described as an explosive marketing campaign in the automotive industry. Unlike previous marketing campaigns, this is a campaign that has broken out of its niche.

Beyond the automotive industry, many sectors are discussing the actions of the executives at Weilai. The high level of public interest has boosted sales of Weilai's two models, with orders for the Weilai ES6 and ES8 continuing to rise since the 24th.

At the same time, Wei Lai's breakthrough has put immense pressure on other car companies, while also giving them a sense of relief.

The special investigation into new energy vehicle subsidy fraud, launched by four ministries in January this year, is still ongoing. This investigation has uncovered as many as 72 companies involved in the fraud, with 76374 vehicles and a total amount of 92.707 billion yuan.

The sheer scale and scope of the crackdown sent shockwaves through the entire automotive industry. The already weak A-share market saw a further decline in automotive-related stocks. When the special investigation team announced which companies had been penalized for subsidy fraud and the 2016 subsidy policy had been cancelled, a sharp drop ensued.

In addition to fines and the cancellation of subsidy qualifications, there are even more severe penalties. For example, companies such as Suzhou Jimxi Bus had their vehicle production qualifications revoked because of subsidy fraud.

Both Li Fan and Li Bing were very nervous. Although the punishment for Li Fan had been announced, given the extensive investigation and severe penalties, no one dared to predict whether there would be any additional punishments.

If they were to face the most severe penalties, the deal would have to be cancelled, and Lifan would have to return the 6.5 million yuan that it had just received and hadn't even had a chance to enjoy. Li Bing didn't want that to happen.

"Don't worry, since you've already been fined, there won't be any further penalties. Besides, you've already completed the transaction and the higher-ups have approved it, so there's no reason to revoke your qualifications. You're just worrying unnecessarily."

"Hey, the investigations have been too strict lately, and it's thanks to your actions that the pressure has been eased for everyone."

This investigation was indeed thorough. These car manufacturers and parts suppliers who committed subsidy fraud probably acted with impunity because they thought they could get away with it because of the sheer number of people involved. Some of their fraudulent methods were so clumsy that they were easy to spot.

However, they did not expect the four ministries to investigate so thoroughly this time, even going back to 2014, and four months have passed, yet the investigation still shows no signs of stopping.

In his previous life, Tan Jincheng roughly knew that some new energy subsidy fraud cases were more extensive to investigate, but he was not very clear about the specific details. He didn't know if it was just a psychological reaction or if it was really the case, but he always felt that the investigation was much more intensive.

Perhaps it really is the butterfly effect.

"Nearly 10 billion yuan has been fined in just four months, and there's no sign of it stopping. It's certainly severe enough."

The punishment of directly canceling the vehicle production qualification is unimaginable; it's equivalent to forcibly shutting down this company, and such a penalty is unprecedented.

"Yes, that's too ruthless. So we need to be more disciplined in doing business. The old, crude methods don't work anymore."

The corporate landscape in the new era can never be the same as it was in the early days. Today's traditional car companies all grew up from the early days, and even some state-owned enterprise leaders still retain the style of that early era, doing things without much care.

In this new era, it is clear that operating a business in this way is no longer viable. These "old guys" cannot adapt to the market, so new players will naturally take their place. In the past few months, new car brands have sprung up like mushrooms after rain.

Even Beijing Dongfeng has established an automotive division, and capital involvement is becoming increasingly frequent.

"Hehe, you guys must have had the best month so far, right? Sales really surged in the last week, didn't they?"

Speaking of this, Li Bing was extremely envious. They didn't need to put in much effort to find out about Weilai's sales figures. They could simply place an order on the Weilai APP and see how the sales were doing by observing the changes in delivery time.

"Haha, not bad, the ES8 definitely benefits a lot."

Pure electric vehicles with a starting price of over 400,000 yuan are indeed not selling well. The fact that only 3000 of the 5000 Founder Edition vehicles were sold in five months proves this. Given Weilai's current brand awareness, even if the starting price were 300,000 yuan, they would probably have sold out long ago.

However, starting from the marketing campaign on the 24th, the number of ES8 orders increased, especially the remaining less than 2000 Founder Edition vehicles, which were extremely popular. After all, since delivery, the feedback from car owners on the Weilai APP has been incredibly impressive.

Not only is the interior extremely luxurious, but the most impressive feature is the WILAI intelligent driving system. Take WILAI's Sentinel Mode, for example; it's a global first and is currently only applied to the WILAI ES8 model.

Sentry mode differs from traditional dashcams. Although there is still some controversy regarding privacy, the Sentry mode pioneered by Weilai is indeed very impressive. When Sentry mode is activated, the vehicle uses hardware devices such as cameras and sensors to monitor the surrounding environment in real time in order to deal with potential threats or abnormal situations.

When a vehicle enters a high alert state, it can proactively monitor its surroundings and respond to potential threats, which not only enhances vehicle safety but also provides greater convenience and protection for vehicle owners.

For example, minor collisions that occur in blind spots of underground parking lots are often difficult to detect, and the car owners who are involved in such incidents have no good recourse other than to accept their bad luck.

According to feedback from the Weilai APP, ES8s with Sentinel Mode enabled can trigger an alarm based on the saved images when such situations occur, saving car owners a lot of losses. This information is based on real-time feedback from some car owners.

In addition, there are remote alarm modes, such as waking up the car owner and calling the police in the event of a car accident. Although this has not yet been confirmed, the promotional materials from Wei Lai make it seem very cool.

What's most thoughtful is that when introducing this feature, Wei Lai added a special note: he hoped that this feature would never be activated.

This showed the car owner a great deal of sincerity and was truly very humane.

These are all cutting-edge technologies from Weile, previously only appearing in promotional materials. However, with the launch of the Weile ES8, they have officially come to the public eye. The cameras and sensors that Weile collaborates with are from leading global component manufacturers such as Hikvision and Bosch. While there is some controversy among companies and the media regarding the privacy of Sentry Mode, car owners don't seem to care much about such things. The first batch of users who received the Weile ES8 Founder Edition immediately began experiencing these cutting-edge Weile technologies.

Saturday, October 4.

"Holy crap! The Founders Edition is gone?"

The ES8 has been one of the hottest topics in the car market recently, and the limited Founder Edition is even more popular due to its special status and the empowerment of executives from Wei Lai.

The already limited inventory was completely sold out in just one week!

"Damn, are there really that many rich people these days? There are over 1000 cars in stock."

Those who managed to snag one were naturally overjoyed, while those who missed out were filled with regret. Since they were going to buy it anyway, the Founder Edition was definitely the most awesome option.

In fact, the internal staff of Weilai were also very surprised. Before the event on April 24, there were only 1200 units in stock of the Founder Edition, because some of the stock was reserved for favors.

However, 1200 vehicles is still a very high number. In just one week, they were all ordered, and some were even locked in.

"Hehe, I thought that these 1200 Founder Edition cars would take until July or August to sell out, but they were sold out in just one week. It's amazing."

Throughout April, the production and sales of new energy vehicles continued to grow rapidly. Based on the current market share, the total sales volume of new energy vehicles in April was estimated to be between 3.5 and 3.7 units.

The upward trend is very encouraging, and the market is becoming more and more accepting of new energy vehicles.

"There are still many rich people, which is a good thing. The fact that the Founder Edition has sold out means that our Weilai ES8 will soon enter the formal sales stage. That's when you will need to face the challenges."

The Founder Edition has some prestige-enhancing features, and its sales figures don't represent true sales. However, it's still quite encouraging that the ES8 achieved sales of over 1000 units in its first month after launch.

Of the 5000 limited edition vehicles, 1000 were reserved for prestige projects and other business needs, and 4000 were actually used for market sales.

With 4000 vehicles and over 16 billion yuan in revenue, it has already had a relatively significant impact on Weilai's revenue. Making high-end models is so lucrative once you open up the market.

"Yes, the market has never lacked high-end brands. It's not that we can't do high-end, but we lack the heart to do it."

A single marketing campaign can significantly impact Weilai's image. With the May Day holiday approaching, a peak sales period, and the continued buzz, it's likely to bring some changes to Weilai's sales.

"Yes, our sales are good now, so we need to pay more attention to quality and after-sales service to car owners. We can't ruin the image we've worked so hard to build."

Building an image takes a long time, but destroying one is incredibly easy.

Tan Jincheng does not want everyone to become complacent with their current good results and relax their standards of quality and service.

"No problem, everyone knows that."

"Alright, you can go ahead and get busy. I have some things to do later."

Zhang Yong smiled, gestured to Zhao Xinyi beside him, and then went out. The boss's personal marketing approach was indeed extraordinary. All 1200 Founder Edition vehicles could be said to have benefited from this marketing campaign.

The boss has already paved the way for the high-end image of the ES8; now it's up to him, the CEO, to maintain that high-end image.

He deserves credit for stabilizing the situation, but if things went wrong, he, the CEO, would be the first to be held accountable.

Has Tan Jin'en arrived?

After Zhang Yong left, Tan Jincheng looked at Zhao Xinyi and said.

"He's here. Wait in the conference room outside. I'll go and call him in."

Tan Jincheng nodded, and after a while, Tan Jinen walked cautiously and quietly into his elder brother's office.

"Brother, why did you call me here?"

This guy is usually so busy that it's hard to see him even if he wants to. I don't know why he called me over here now.

Tan Jincheng looked up at his cousin and said, "You're doing pretty well."

Money and power are the two things that nourish men the most. Tan Jin'en, who started his own business, had his business going very smoothly thanks to the secret protection of his elder brother and sister-in-law. His energy and spirit were completely different from that of an ordinary college student.

Tan Jincheng could immediately see the change in his cousin's demeanor; although he was putting on a good act, he was still a bit arrogant, though his eyes remained calm.

not bad.

"Hey, big brother, what brings you here when you're so busy?"

Tan Jin'en scratched his head somewhat embarrassedly. He could act like a boss in front of his company employees, and he was full of confidence when interacting with people because he had money in his pocket. But he dared not put on airs in front of his cousin.

"Transfer some of your company's vehicles. The ride-hailing situation has changed, so don't expand any further."

After all, he was his cousin, and it wasn't easy for him to build a career. Tan Jincheng couldn't possibly keep quiet about the changes in the situation after he knew about them.

"Ah? What's going on?"

"You don't need to worry about what's going on. Just listen to me and you won't go wrong. Focus on your studies and come to Wei for an internship when you're a senior."

There are some things I can't tell him, namely that Didi and Uber should be merging by the end of this year at the latest. Since last October, when Didi lowered its price per ride from 1.5 yuan to 0.99 yuan, the two companies have been locked in a life-or-death struggle.

During the Spring Festival, when the two sides fought the fiercest, Didi burned through 100 million yuan in just one week. Uber's price of 1.8 yuan per kilometer could no longer be sustained. Last year, Uber suffered huge losses, all due to its business in China.

The relentless cash-burning war has exhausted the last bit of patience from the various investors behind the scenes. According to information obtained by Tan Jincheng, Apple, a common investor in both Didi and Uber, will inject another $10 billion into Didi.

The announcement should be made in the next few days, and some analysts believe that this move makes Uber's prospects in China less than optimistic.

While analysts were still making wild guesses, Tan Jincheng was on fire; he was 100% certain that the merger of the two companies would be completed this year.

Taking advantage of the current market boom, selling off some of the fixed assets at a high price would be very beneficial for Tan Jin'en's shell company.

"Is there some change in Didi and Uber's business? Okay, I'll listen to you, brother. I'll study hard and take some time to reflect."

"Alas, the good days are coming to an end."

Having been a boss for over a year, Tan Jin'en wasn't completely clueless. In fact, during that time, their business was essentially about exploiting loopholes, using shady methods to take advantage of Didi and Uber.

The actual revenue generated from operations is very limited, and the profits are negligible.

"Haha, at least you have some self-awareness. This kind of business can't last. You're lucky you got the most lucrative piece of the pie. But I have to remind you, you can sell the car to some car rental companies."

"As for your company's drivers, I don't object if you want to sell them to them, but don't sell them for too high a price. You've already squeezed a portion of their income, so don't go on to fleece them."

Tan Jin'en said nonchalantly, "I understand. If they want to buy, I'll just sell it at half price or give it away. Anyway, I've made enough money in the past year or so."

This isn't bragging; he has indeed made a fortune in the past year or so. With the support of a billionaire's older brother, their order-brushing techniques are top-notch in the market.

In addition, under the influence of Tan Jincheng and his wife, Tan Jinen's vision is much broader than that of the average young person. He enjoys the thrill of entrepreneurship and wants to earn some pocket money, but he does not have any pursuit of money.

To put it bluntly, his entrepreneurial spirit is like Xiao Wang's—he doesn't care about making or losing money, he can afford to lose.

"If you've shown some awareness, then go ahead and do it. Just don't invest any more money in the company. As for whether to shut it down, that's your decision, I won't interfere. But you need to study hard from now on."

Tan Jincheng said seriously, "Based on your current educational background, you are not qualified to work at Wei, unless you work on the production line and tighten screws. So if you want to prove yourself, you have to show something."

A degree from a 985 or 211 university is very common in Weilai. There aren't many good universities in Ningbo to begin with, so Tan Jin'en's degree is indeed not impressive.

Seeing his older brother so serious, Tan Jin'en also said solemnly, "I understand. I will study hard for the next two years, or rather, I will try my best to take the postgraduate entrance exam."

Tan Jincheng nodded: "It's good that you have this intention, but as a poor student, you can forget about taking the postgraduate entrance exam. I won't help you with that."

This kid is very smart, but he has never been interested in studying, so Tan Jincheng doesn't expect him to get into graduate school.

Seeing that he still had something to say, Tan Jincheng was too lazy to listen to his nonsense: "Get lost, I have things to do and don't have time to talk nonsense with you. If you need any help, ask your Sister Zhao."

(End of this chapter)