2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 871 The Sense of Urgency Brought by Factory Director Ma

"Boss, it's very simple if you want to help Jin En."

In Zhao Xinyi's view, if the boss wanted to help his cousin, it would only take a glance, and someone would handle it perfectly for him; it was just a few cars.

Tan Jincheng shook his head: "Let him handle it himself. We can't take on everything."

It's fine to protect and support them, but brothers and sisters need to grow. We can't arrange everything for them; they need to experience things for themselves.

Tan Jin'en has already made considerable progress. He has been running his company for over a year, and Tan Jincheng believes he can handle it well.

As for their company's drivers who buy cars from him, they mainly buy Aion S and Aion Y models, which are very suitable for ride-hailing. Even if Tan Jin adopts a half-sale, half-gift attitude, they can still make a profit by selling the cars as used cars at a reasonable price.

For a long time, the ride-hailing market has been a relatively good industry. For grassroots drivers, although it is hard work, they can indeed earn money.

If it weren't for the incident in 2019 that led to a rapid increase in the number of people working in this field, it would be considered a pretty good profession.

Normally, if you buy a car and work for a while, you can earn back the money for the car. Furthermore, his requirement for Tan Jin'en is not to exploit the drivers. Using a half-sale, half-gift approach will allow them to recoup their investment as quickly as possible.

"Speaking of which, boss, your younger brothers and sisters have all grown up. You can start bringing them into the company gradually."

Zhao Xinyi, as a trusted confidante, understands the boss's thoughts best.

The boss has had a tough ten years. Almost none of his family members were able to help him. The only person who accompanied him through the hard work was Zhang Xupeng. In addition, after meeting the boss's wife, she also helped him a lot.

It's not that family members won't help, but the boss is just too amazing. He was only 19 when he started his business, and his younger siblings are still young. Now that they've finally grown up, they can help the boss in some ways.

Even though the boss may no longer need this kind of help, it's better to have it than not.

"Yeah, those brats have finally grown up."

Tan Jincheng had a slight smile on his face. He knew the personality of each of his younger siblings very well in his previous life, and he had carefully nurtured them in this life, and had also been quite strict in disciplining their personalities.

So far, his family members who stayed in Ningbo have not caused him any trouble.

The eldest cousin from my third maternal uncle's family, Zhang Wenshao, is already 26 years old. He currently works at Orange Technology, where he is responsible for logistics and transportation. With a few more years of experience, he will be able to work independently.

Zhang Qingliang, whose fate was changed, has a son named Zhang Wenzuo who was born in the same year as his cousin. The boy is a good student and is now studying at Ningbo University, majoring in vehicle engineering, which belongs to the School of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics.

Privately, Tan Jincheng had spoken to the institute and donated a lot of money, which made things much easier for Zhang Wenzuo in terms of his studies. During winter and summer vacations, Zhang Wenzuo would usually intern at Weilai.

Unlike other relatives, Zhang Qingliang and his wife have always worked at Flashtech, so they know Flashtech and Wei Lai better than any other relative. They also have more opportunities to interact with Tan Jincheng, so they know their nephew quite well.

Zhang Qingliang has done a good job in his son's education. Zhang Wenzuo even played with Tan Jinyue when he was a child.

This kid is quite shrewd. He knows to study hard and learn about automotive-related majors. After graduation, he'll definitely be able to find a job in Weilai and live a life free from financial worries.

Tan Jin'en has a rather unconventional personality and wants to start a business during her university years by leveraging her older brother's influence, while Zhang Wenzuo has no such idea at all.

According to Tan Jincheng's idea, this kid would be more suitable for a technical research and development department after graduation, while Tan Jinen would be more suitable for a management position.

"It's not necessary to put them in front-line positions. Putting them in some important deputy positions is also a good thing for you, the boss."

Zhao Xinyi understood perfectly that the boss would definitely use these brothers and sisters. A deeply capitalized Wei Lai could never become a family business, but the boss couldn't possibly not use capable relatives.

"They're still in school now. You can figure out how to arrange things after they graduate."

These matters can only be arranged by Zhao Xinyi; it's not convenient for him to handle them himself.

Zhao Xinyi nodded and didn't continue the topic.

"By the way, boss, Musk sent an email yesterday, wanting to get in touch with you."

"Huh? Why is this old guy looking for me?"

Just a few days ago, this old guy was liking the marketing campaign for the Weilai ES8 on Twitter, and said he would learn from it for the upcoming Model X. Weilai's cooperation with Tesla over the years has been quite pleasant.

The Maodou X is also an SUV, and it's a competitor to the Weilai ES8. This guy is very shrewd; while praising Weilai, he's also trying to promote himself.

In addition, the Model 3 is also in Tesla's production plan. From only having one Model S available for sale, Tesla's new model development speed can be described as very fast.

Musk is a maverick. Although he intends to make Tesla his supplier, he is not afraid to compete with Tesla in the whole vehicle market. Tesla is growing very fast, but at least for now, Tesla is still the most popular new energy vehicle brand in the world.

Compared to someone like Tan Jincheng, who's a complete charlatan, someone like Factory Director Ma is a maverick who's never afraid of competition and does things in a rather unconventional way.

"According to the email, they probably want to build a battery factory in North America and want us to provide some technical assistance."

Wei Lai and Tesla are strategic partners, sharing many technologies. Despite the competition, their cooperation is very close. Tan Jincheng is probably aware of some of Tesla's plans.

From the moment they acquired SolarCity Energy, Tan Jincheng probably knew that Lao Ma (Tesla's founder) wanted to build his own battery factory. Large enterprises certainly attach great importance to supply chain security, and Tesla would not entrust such a secure supply of batteries to Wei Lai.

"Sure, remind me to call our factory manager Ma later so I can discuss the cooperation method with him."

Tan Jincheng doesn't expect to secure the supply chain of a large company, nor does he have the capability. Musk wouldn't allow such a thing to happen either, and neither would he. All those investments he's made are ultimately for the sake of supply chain security.

Since that's the case, why not take some benefits from the cooperation?

"Tesla plans to build a Gigafactory in Nevada, scheduled to begin construction at the end of this year. According to Musk's email, it seems they want to reach a cooperation agreement with us. The purpose of this factory is to provide battery supply for the upcoming Model 3."

Tan Jincheng nodded. 2016 was a pivotal year for new energy vehicles. Those who developed well this year or secured a place for themselves will be able to succeed in the future electric vehicle market.

The three most popular new energy vehicle companies in the previous life all became famous in this year. They didn't own any cars, but they still gained brand awareness.

Although the benefits of domestic new energy policies have cooled somewhat due to large-scale investigations into subsidy fraud, the subsidy policies are still quite generous. Taking batteries as an example, the "Industry Standard Conditions for Automotive Power Batteries" issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology represent a major transformation in the battery industry.

The situation is the same both domestically and internationally; Tesla faces equally severe challenges.

"It's normal. The number of pre-orders for the Edamame 3 is very high, and it's destined to be a hit. It's perfectly normal for them to want to use their own batteries."

The Mate 3 was released on March 31 this year, with a starting price of 35,000 yuan, equivalent to 228,000 yuan. It has brought down the price of pure electric vehicles, and therefore received a warm response from the global market as soon as it was released.

On the day of the launch, more than 11.5 people placed orders in the global market, and more than 32.5 orders were placed in the first week.

"We also need to speed up the release process; we don't have much time left with the release of the Edamame 3."

The release of the Tesla Model 3 signifies Tesla's official entry into the mass market from the high-end market, and is also a major indicator of Tesla's sales volume. Tesla has recently been pursuing a high-end strategy, with both models priced above 30 yuan.

Currently, the brand image of Shangduan has been largely established, and the sales of Weilai ES8 during the May Day holiday were also quite good. The performance of this model after its launch has exceeded expectations.

The goal of selling 1,000 vehicles per month should be achieved in a relatively short time.

However, in the mass market, Weilai has not yet launched any new models. Although the development of the ET series has entered the final stage, the price of the SUV is still a bit high.

The current price reduction is due to substantial subsidies. Once the subsidies decrease, the high selling price will be a major factor preventing the product from selling well.

"Indeed, the Maodou 3 is selling too well, which puts too much pressure on us."

The response to the release of the Model 3 was far beyond market expectations, with more than 30 pre-orders within a week, which is simply astonishing.

Thankfully, the Model 3 is currently being sold in China as an imported model; otherwise, a large number of new energy vehicle manufacturers in the domestic market would have gone out of business.

"We've been a bit complacent these past two years, and the R&D department definitely needs to put some pressure on them."

After thinking for a moment, Tan Jincheng said, "Let's go to the research institute."

If Weilai wants to surpass Tesla, they don't have much time left.

According to historical trajectory, Tesla will build a factory in China in 2018. Before that, Tan Jincheng knew that their biggest problem was production capacity. The order of more than 30 vehicles seemed very encouraging, but they could not deliver them.

This is Weilai's biggest opportunity. Currently, Weilai's production capacity is superior to Tesla's, which is also their biggest advantage. They must seize these two years.

The key point is that, thanks to this small butterfly effect, the domestic new energy vehicle market is now completely different from what it was in the previous life. BYD and Weilai, the two giants, firmly control the market. Besides them, there are some state-owned enterprises, mainly BAIC, that entered the new energy field early and invested heavily. Others are really having a hard time, and correspondingly, they are engaging in more subsidy fraud.

For a new company like Weilai, whose operating methods are completely different from those of traditional car companies, it is seen by the scoundrels as a troublemaker. Weilai has brought earth-shattering changes to the market, and even Dizi dares not act like he did in his previous life.

Both the industry quality standards and the employee benefits are much better.

Dizi's slow development in the past two years is largely due to the pressure brought by Wei. For companies like theirs that rely on manpower, it is difficult to transform into intelligent technology. They can only grit their teeth and continue in this way.

However, their biggest competitor offers significantly better compensation to its employees, and they can't remain silent about it, otherwise they really wouldn't be able to recruit anyone.

This is no casual remark. Wei Lai has driven up the overall wage level in Beicang, and their payment terms for companies in the supply chain have also led to improvements in employee benefits for those companies.

Currently, the labor market in Ningbo is extremely hot under this atmosphere, and this atmosphere will soon spread to the entire Zhejiang Province and the entire Yangtze River Delta region as Wei Lai's influence grows.

All the cattle and horses have gone to the Yangtze River Delta, so the Pearl River Delta is naturally in a panic. Even if Dizi is unwilling, he doesn't dare to go too far.

The entire industry has undergone significant changes, and Tan Jincheng really can't guarantee that Tesla won't start its factory construction plan in China ahead of schedule due to production capacity constraints. If that happens, then there really won't be much time left for Wei Lai.

After all, almost half of 2016 has already passed.

"Okay, I'll make the arrangements."

The Weilai Research Institute is located at the border of Xin'gan and Da'gan, at the foot of Jiufeng Mountain, about a 15-minute drive from the city center. There must be a reason why the boss suddenly wanted to go to the research institute.

Tan Jincheng did not stop them, and about ten minutes later they set off for the research institute.

Yu Liguo is still on a business trip. Currently, Hu Zhengnan is in charge of the research institute. Last time, when all the senior executives of Weilai went out to help the car owner open the door, Hu Zhengnan also went. He was sent to Hangzhou, while Yu Liguo went to Shanghai.

"Boss, what brings you here all of a sudden?"

Today is May 2nd, still within the May Day holiday. The boss originally had no plans to come here, so there must be something he needs to do.

Tan Jincheng smiled and said, "I came to visit and also to give you some extra work."

Hu Zhengnan was completely confused, not understanding what the boss meant by the second half of his sentence. However, it was clear that the boss had a new idea. This boss was good in every way, except that his thinking was too clear and also very unconventional, which sometimes made it hard for them to keep up.

They really couldn't have imagined this kind of outrageous marketing tactic. Just thinking about a bunch of grown men being led by their boss to practice opening car doors in a corner of the parking lot gives them goosebumps.

However, the results are indeed incredibly good. Perhaps I should learn more about the internet and communicate more closely with users?
The boss who runs the 4G internet service is really something else; his competitors are suffering terribly because of him.

"No more meetings, they're boring. Show me around and tell me about the current development progress of the car model, and especially introduce the Weilai brand."

Holding a meeting with on-duty staff during a major holiday is bound to upset employees, and Tan Jincheng didn't want to sit in the office and chat idly.

"Okay, boss, what would you like to know?"

Hu Zhengnan clearly preferred this arrangement as well, and he didn't want to hold meetings in the office.

Yu Liguo needs to travel frequently, and he is also getting older. For the research institute, he is more like a public relations officer. The normal operation of the research institute is basically managed by Hu Zhengnan.

Hu Zhengnan was also happy to see this situation. Under the protection of his boss and Yu Liguo, he was able to grow up quickly and had a bright future, becoming the future dean of the Weilai Research Institute.

This is currently a very prestigious position in the industry.

How does it feel to see the Maodou 3 so popular?

The boss is putting him to the test: "It's very stressful. But then again, no amount of technology can beat a cheap price. $3.5, a price of over 20 yuan, combined with Tesla's high performance, is really amazing."

"That's absolutely true; the whole world is subject to the law that cheap things are really appealing."

“Our Weilai brand’s sales are steadily increasing, and we have now established a mid-to-high-end image. However, the reason why we haven’t reached the same level of popularity as the Tesla Model 3 is that the price is too high.”

“I’m wondering what would happen if our new model were priced between 20 and 30 yuan.”

"Yes, so what are your thoughts?"

Hu Zhengnan immediately understood what the boss meant: "Does the boss mean we're planning to launch a car model priced at over 20 yuan?"

Currently, all of Weilai's SUVs have a guide price of over 30 yuan. Even the Weilai L1, a range-extended electric vehicle that will be launched soon, is priced at over 30 yuan.

The ET series does have plans to include models priced below 30 yuan, but there are currently no plans to launch them. The ET series follows the same pattern as the ES series: launch the more expensive models first, and then the cheaper ones.

In this way, in addition to maintaining the brand image, it is also possible to obtain as much high-end profit as possible.

Clearly, the boss's current intention is to launch a new SUV model priced between 20 and 30 yuan.

“That’s right, it’s time for us to enter the mass market, or it will be too late.”

"Yes, Tesla's biggest problem right now is production capacity. Once they solve the production capacity problem, we really won't be able to catch up with them."

Compared to the industrial relocation efforts of the United States in recent years, which have resulted in a weakening of the industrial chain, China, which is now the world's largest automobile consumer market, has seen its domestic production capacity increase. The rapidly developing industrial chain, coupled with impressive infrastructure development, is currently China's greatest asset.

Tan Jincheng is not optimistic about Tesla's plan to build a battery factory in North America, arguing that after a century of industrial accumulation, foreign companies' supply chains are no longer keeping up with the times.

Their true development will come from building factories in China, relying on our industrial chain, and incidentally localizing Tesla models in China. Only by truly opening up our market can they truly launch their globalization strategy.

Hu Zhengnan, who works at the top research institute of a leading new energy vehicle company, naturally has his own insights, so it's not surprising that he knows these things.

"Tesla's Model X is about to be delivered. This model shows that Tesla also has ideas in the SUV field, and we should pay attention to it."

The design of the Maodou X is very impressive, but due to its complex falcon-wing door design, there were serious delays in the delivery process, and the quality issues have also been difficult to resolve.

Tan Jincheng vaguely remembers that this car had a problem with the trim panels potentially falling off, and nearly 10,000 Maodou X vehicles were recalled in North America, apparently at the end of this year.

Clearly, this model was a failure for Tesla, but it provided design ideas and marketing strategies for the Maodou Y.

He's not afraid of Maodou X, but Maodou Y is a legendary product; its sales volume can be said to be comparable to the current Yuechi A1.

If Wei Lai wants to face the upcoming challenges, he must launch his own "Edamame Y".

"We must launch a mid-size SUV as soon as possible, priced between 20 and 30 yuan, and its performance must be no weaker than the current ES6. Only in this way can we maintain our competitiveness and even achieve high sales volume."

The selling point of the Maodou Y is not its exterior design, but its spaciousness, long range, intelligent features, and technological advantages, providing a comprehensive solution for both family users and those seeking performance and a superior driving experience.

To put it simply, it's about cost-effectiveness. The reason why the Maodou Y, with its bare interior, can sell so well is simply because it has achieved a balance in terms of price, safety, performance, and space.

Weilai's design is absolutely on par with Tesla's, and its technology is also on par with Tesla's. Developing a mid-size SUV priced between 20 and 30 yuan using the experience accumulated from existing models is definitely not a problem.

Hu Zhengnan stroked his chin and smiled, "Then we'll be launching a lot more new models by the end of next year."

According to internal plans, Weilai will launch the Tank 500, Weilai ET7, Weilai L1, and the concept sports car EP9. In addition, existing models will be upgraded and redesigned, and a mid-size ES series will also be launched.

"Haha, no wonder the boss said to give us more responsibilities, these responsibilities are indeed not light."

"Within the range of 20 to 30 yuan, my requirements are not just about lowering the price. We need to do everything to the extreme and achieve a good balance between driving experience and performance. We can refer to the existing Yuechi A1 approach in this regard."

"Simply put, I am asking you to make your own Yuechi A1 in the field of electric vehicles. This is both an encouragement and your goal."

Hu Zhengnan was speechless for a moment: "Ha, boss, that's certainly a lofty goal, but we'll take it."

Two years ago, if someone had told him that a pure electric vehicle could sell hundreds of thousands of units a year, he would have been skeptical. However, the Maodou 3 provided them with a wealth of experience and offered more ideas to later companies.

If a company can create a blockbuster SUV in the traditional gasoline vehicle sector, then it is equally possible to do so in the pure electric vehicle sector.

“Very good, Mr. Hu is very generous; let’s go to the office and have a good chat.”

(End of this chapter)