2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 919 "The Busiest Man at the Auto Show"

The new force has finally arrived.

At the Shanghai Auto Show, the three leading new energy vehicle startups all made their debut, bringing their latest products. Li Bing presented the M9, priced at over 40 yuan, which focuses on high-end services for user communities and high-end circuit replacement.

Despite the name change, they still focus on high-end products. In addition, they showcased a three-minute battery swapping solution for the first time.

I must say, the hype is really strong. The three-minute battery swapping solution is, to put it simply, like changing a mobile phone battery. It's incredibly exciting. In an era when new energy vehicles are just starting out and consumers are still very concerned about range anxiety, it's truly a highlight.

"Beautiful, absolutely stunning; by the way, when will it be released?"

There are too many things to criticize about Li Bing, but to be fair, his aesthetic sense is truly top-notch, and there's really nothing to criticize about that. Even though his luck was stolen and his name was taken away, he can still create car models with eye-catching exterior designs.

The hype surrounding battery swapping is quite impressive. In an era where fast charging technology is relatively underdeveloped, battery swapping offers a lot of potential. In fact, Tesla initially considered battery swapping, but ultimately chose the fast charging route due to its high cost.

Weilai also follows the fast charging route, which is different from but not contradictory to the fast charging route; it's just a matter of choice.

"September, but the exact date hasn't been decided yet."

Li Bing was all smiles. Their first car, manufactured by JAC Motors, had finally been completed. With the support of several major investors, Wenjie's IPO went relatively smoothly. According to the plan, Wenjie planned to raise approximately US$10 billion, which would be mainly used for research and development, battery swapping station construction, supply chain and manufacturing, operating funds, and so on.

Wenjie is the second pure electric vehicle company to go public after Tesla, and the first pure electric vehicle company in China to go public in the US. Li Bing, who is well-versed in the ways of the Internet, has achieved another first after Bitauto.

"Congratulations, you've given Wenjie an opportunity for development."

Tan Jincheng offered his heartfelt congratulations, not only because he was one of Wenjie's shareholders, but also because he and Li Bing had been friends for many years, and he was very happy to see everyone making progress together.

Furthermore, if Wenjie's battery swapping model succeeds, it will be a good thing for all car companies. You can play with fast charging, but there will always be places where battery swapping is needed. It's just that this path is too difficult.

Furthermore, this guy does spend money rather recklessly. He was fine when he was at Yiche, but why does he seem to have suddenly become rich?
"Thank you. I'll come to Ningbo to see you when I have time, and we can talk about our battery cooperation."

Tan Jincheng's blessings were sincere, and Li Bing could feel it. From Yiche to Wenjie, from investment to helping solve the car qualification problem, Tan Jincheng had helped him a lot, but in the past two years, the two had not had as much contact.

Having found a new financial backer, Li Bing wanted to downplay Tan Jincheng's influence on Wenjie. At the same time, Tan Jincheng was also somewhat dissatisfied with Li Bing's spending habits. The two had a significant conflict in their business philosophies, and Tan Jincheng subsequently lost interest in investing in Wenjie.

As expected, after its IPO, ByteDance will quickly cash out most of Wenjie's shares and recoup its investment.

The public's impression of Tan Jincheng is that he is rich and powerful, and he often gives out money and subsidizes users. It seems that he spends money without restraint. However, Tan Jincheng's spending is always purposeful, and everything is based on his personal or corporate interests. He does not spend money recklessly.

He rides his bicycle to bars, and he's frugal where he should and spends where he should. Extravagance is simply not a thing for Tan Jincheng. He's also quite low-key in his personal life. Apart from the fact that he bought some luxury homes a few years ago, he hasn't had any other large expenses.

He always wears clothes from his own company's brand when he goes out, and he currently uses a Meizu phone. He owns some luxury cars, but he basically drives his own brand cars when he travels, which is quite low-key.

Their corporate culture is also greatly influenced by him. The executives are very hardworking when it comes to publicity, but they are relatively low-key in their personal lives. Wei Lai rarely has any negative news such as flaunting his wealth.

In terms of business management, Li Bing's drastically changed style made Tan Jincheng feel somewhat unfamiliar. Founders often squander investors' money, and this is how many startups go bankrupt.

After making several suggestions with no effect, Tan Jincheng knew that Li Bing had changed. He knew far more about the shady dealings in Wenjie's procurement than Little Ma and Dongzi did.

Perhaps he didn't make much money while working at Yiche. Despite Yiche going public, it didn't actually change Li Bing's personal net worth much. For a long time, he didn't have the money to buy a new car and drove his Audi A6, which he had driven for many years.

"No problem, let's have a couple of drinks together then, as a way to celebrate."

"You cook?"

"no problem."

Tan Jincheng looked Li Bing up and down and couldn't help but laugh: "You're still wearing it. I thought you changed it."

Although there is already an intention to withdraw from Wenjie, there will still be some cooperation between the two companies. Wenjie, which is very weak in terms of supply chain, still needs to maintain cooperation with Wei, especially in terms of battery procurement.

Seeing Tan Jincheng staring at his wrist, Li Bing laughed and waved his hand, saying, "How can I exchange it? This is the most expensive gift I've ever received, and it's my 36th birthday present. I cherish it very much."

"When you turn 36, I will definitely give you a gift that suits your taste; it's really infuriating that you're only 33, and we old folks feel like we've lived in vain."

Eight years have passed in the blink of an eye. The Rolex Submariner "Hulk" that was just released back then brought Li Bing a lot of warmth.

Eight years ago, Tan Jincheng's car business was just beginning, and he was short of money, but he still tried his best to help him. Now, with Wenjie, looking back, this young man who is nine years younger than him can truly be considered his benefactor.

"Okay, I'll wait. Three years will pass quickly. Alright, I still need to go and support He Xiaopeng and President Shen. I'll be leaving now. I wish your new car great success."

The emergence of new players has completely changed the marketing model of traditional automakers.

At the 2018 Shanghai Auto Show, the largest number of attendees were executives and founders of car companies, and founders of emerging car brands were almost all present, enthusiastically promoting their new cars.

It's all about personal relationships. Some of these car companies are ones he's invested in, like Wenjie and Xiaopeng Motors, while others are friends he's had some contact with, and still others are in the same group as him.

Wei Lai's ET5's price-cutting strategy disrupted the chaotic pricing model of existing new energy vehicles, making major automakers grit their teeth in anger. However, this was only the competition on the surface; behind the scenes, everyone maintained harmony.

It would be good to ride the wave of popularity along the way.

The Tesla booth was packed with people. Many reporters were there for Musk, but most of the consumers were there for Tan Jincheng. No matter how famous the maverick is internationally, in this exhibition area, Tan Jincheng was the most popular car company boss, without a doubt.

As soon as Tan Jincheng left, a large group of people rushed to the Tesla exhibition area, staring at Factory Manager Ma in disbelief.

When they arrived at the Wenjie booth, Tan Jincheng's appearance quickly drew a large crowd of attendees. Cameras and mobile phones clicked incessantly, and some of the more enthusiastic attendees even squeezed forward to take photos with Tan Jincheng.

Li Bing was both envious and happy, wishing that Tan Jincheng would stay a little longer and bring more visitors to their exhibition area, but he also knew that this request was obviously unrealistic.

As a high-end model, the Wenjie M9's direct competitor is the Weilai ES8. In terms of configuration, it is comparable to the ES8. The difference is that the M9 has a battery swapping solution and a more refined customer service plan than Weilai.

You can even see news reports of Li Bing frequently dining and exchanging ideas with customers who pre-ordered the Wenjie M9. Buying a car allows you to dine with the car company's boss and have him toast you. This is just as sensational as Tan Jincheng opening the car door for the owner.

Images of Li Bing, his face flushed and smiling, raising a glass to toast car owners are frequently seen online. People may get used to it in a few years, but it's quite novel now.

Excluding Wenjie, Li Bing's current net worth is approximately US$3.5 million, of which US$2 million comes from Yiche and the remaining US$1.5 million is his earnings from Mobike.

This month, Mobike was sold to Wang Xin for $27 billion, with Li Bing, who was among the earliest investors, making a profit of $1.5 million.

Mobike, founded in 2015, has been competing with its old rival Ofo for two years. Despite having a large user base, it has been unable to turn a profit. Last year, it burned through billions of yuan and suffered heavy losses, so it urgently needs a buyer.

Wang Xin acted decisively. A certain Meituan, which was rushing to go public, needed such a business. Whether it made money or not was not important. What was important was that there was a new story to tell. That's the internet.

$27 billion is nothing to Wang Xin.

Like Wenjie, Meituan also plans to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in September. Based on the current IPO progress, its market value should exceed US$400 billion, and it has the opportunity to surpass Baidu in the market, enjoying great success.

BAT has been replaced by ATM; a new internet era is about to begin.

Another listed internet company is Pinduoduo, which plans to list on Nasdaq in July. Pinduoduo already has over 4 million annual active users and has rewritten the rules of e-commerce with its cutting-edge pricing strategy.

Compared to Mobike's decisive sale, the other two giants in the bike-sharing market, OFO and HelloBike, are in a much worse situation. HelloBike is surviving thanks to Ali, while OFO's problems are even more serious. The company is facing an unprecedented crisis and public opinion.

Four years later, the capital market finally realized how sharp Tan Jincheng's vision was, from complete vehicles to the most basic electric vehicles for the elderly, from independent production to investment and cooperation with ride-hailing companies.

From passenger cars to commercial vehicles, Tan Jincheng has dabbled in almost everything related to cars, but he has avoided the bike-sharing industry. According to an insider at ByteDance, they received a letter of intent for investment and were interested, but the project was halted when it was submitted to Tan for approval.

Four years have passed, and the bike-sharing market has not produced reliable companies like the ride-hailing market; instead, it has become a mess.

Like a tour performance, Tan Jincheng arrived at the third booth after Tesla and Wenjie. Li Bing from WM Motor, which is located next to Wenjie, also came along.

WM Motor, one of the world's top three internet companies, has always firmly held the position of the leader among emerging forces. From 2015 to 2018, it enjoyed unlimited glory. Just looking at the resume of WM Motor's founder, Tan Jincheng is a junior in comparison.

Shen Hui, former vice president of Geely, senior vice president of Volvo and general manager of Volvo China, was also a key figure in Geely's acquisition of Volvo team.

Compared to internet moguls who know nothing about car manufacturing, this guy's resume is incredibly strong, as is his entire team. By all accounts, they seem to be the most reliable car manufacturing team. From the angel round to February of this year, WM Motor has raised 190 billion yuan in funding. It is said that another 3 billion yuan will arrive in Q30. The total of 220 billion yuan is almost the sum of the funding raised by Wenjie and Xiaopeng.

If you were to interview consumers, experts, and industry insiders at this time, they would all say WM Motor, even if the new players eventually break through.

With a professional founding team and a capital-intensive, self-built factory model, the company boasts strong financing capabilities, including multiple rounds of investment from giants such as Baidu, Tencent, Sequoia China, and SIG Capital. No one would believe that such a car company would go bankrupt in a short period of time.

"Did I remember wrong? Or is my memory confused?"

After meeting with Shen Hui and exchanging a few pleasantries, Tan Jincheng approached Weltmeister's first mass-produced vehicle, the EX5, his mind filled with doubts.

He vaguely remembered a failed startup that made pretty good cars, so why does the EX5 look so ordinary? Or is he mistaken?

"How was it, Mr. Tan?"

Unaware of Tan Jincheng's inner doubts, Shen Hui was enthusiastically introducing their mass-produced model, the EX5, to Tan Jincheng. Speaking of which, although WM Motor is the most successful among the new energy vehicle companies, it is still far behind WM Motor.

At this auto show, they brought their first mass-produced vehicle, a compact SUV, the EX5, which is marketed around the concept of "technology for all" and targets the 15 yuan market. Its competitors include the BYD Song EV400, Xiaopeng G3, and Weilai ES3, among others.

In fact, they had initially planned to follow the pricing strategy for new energy vehicles, but the Weilai ET5 completely overturned the pricing strategy, forcing them to urgently modify it.

Disrupted from their plans, they impulsively set the lowest starting price at 17.98 yuan, directly targeting the next price level to undermine their competitors and try to increase sales.

It would be a lie to say he wasn't angry, but Shen Hui was being extremely polite at the moment. You see, he was only able to invite Tan Jincheng through Li Shufu's connections. He had met Tan Jincheng and eaten with him, but that was all.

"The car has many highlights and is a very cost-effective car. Your pricing strategy is very smart, and I believe it will sell very well."

Forget it, it doesn't matter whether I remembered it wrong or not. Tan Jincheng was too lazy to think about it. Anyway, there are all kinds of new brands, so it's not strange to misremember a name.

Take the new energy vehicle startups that showcased their cars at this auto show as an example. Besides Weixiaowen, there were also Singulato, Qiantu, Xinte, Byton, and Aiways, with all sorts of strange and varied names.

Never heard of it? That's right, many of them are exhibiting while preparing to pack up and run away.

Let alone his past life, even in this life, Tan Jincheng still has some doubts about which capital is controlling these new forces.

"Thank you for your kind words, Mr. Tan. I hope so."

Whether Tan Jincheng was simply praising it or not is unimportant; what matters is that it brought him traffic. He just needs to say in front of a group of media cameras that their EX5 has a high cost-performance ratio. The main focus is on making technology accessible to everyone, so isn't cost-effectiveness the most important thing?

Tan Jincheng was indeed just making empty praise. To be honest, he didn't see anything amazing about the mass-produced EX5. As a compact car, it has a bit of a CRV look to it, and the design is just so-so.

Of course, it's also possible that they visited the Tesla and Wenjie booths first. Compared to them, the EX5's appearance is indeed not good enough. However, their main focus is on the 15 yuan market with strong cost performance, so as long as the appearance is acceptable, it's fine.

Furthermore, Shen Hui and his team come from the traditional car manufacturing industry, specifically from the era of "copying." It's understandable that they might find it difficult to change their traditional design thinking in the short term, and it's normal for their designs to resemble those of other cars.

Of course, the EX5 isn't without its highlights. The build quality is decent, the pricing aligns with their brand strategy, it boasts Level 2 intelligent driver assistance, and a 400km range (actual range is unknown; these days, battery specifications are often exaggerated).
In addition, WM Motor's advertised free hardware model and its promise not to raise prices after subsidies are phased out are also very eye-catching.

The so-called "car price will not increase as subsidies are phased out" means that users will pay the subsidized price, and even if the subsidies are gone in the future, the price will remain the same, with WM Motor covering the price difference. It has to be said that this is quite a gimmick.

WM Motor's idea is to make money through subsequent software services, but Tan Jincheng knows that this is pure nonsense. Unless your orders can be as high as the Maodou 3, what company would dare to make such a big claim?

It's nothing more than a publicity gimmick; they'll either cut corners or rip people off with the software later.

The emergence of new players has been a baptism for the traditional automotive industry's marketing methods. At the same time, they have also brought over the bad habits of the internet. However, for now, it is still better. Once mobile phone manufacturers enter the market, their advertising methods will become even more exaggerated.

For WM Motor to achieve its advertising goals, it needs a significant breakthrough in sales and must sell a large number of cars in a short period of time. However, Tan Jincheng thinks that's unlikely.

The three models, EX300 to EX500, are priced between 11.23 yuan and 14.88 yuan after subsidies, which is indeed not expensive.

But it is precisely because of this that Tan Jincheng felt that WM Motor's car was unlikely to have a huge number of orders. The design lacked highlights, and although the other features were highlights, they did not have much of an advantage compared to other companies.

Competition in the 10 to 15 yuan price range is extremely fierce. Car manufacturers not only have to compete with traditional car manufacturers and new energy vehicle companies, but also with direct competition from the gasoline vehicle market, which is the main volume market. Almost all car companies want to get a piece of the pie.

In terms of design style, it's unremarkable; in terms of intelligent driving features, it's not as good as the Xiaopeng G3; moreover, they are targeting family users, which is completely contrary to the positioning of new energy vehicle companies towards young users.

The reason why new forces are called new forces is not only because new money is entering the market, but also because they are aimed at young users who are willing to try new things. As for family users who focus on cost-effectiveness, most of their choices are still relatively conservative.

Why not buy the Yuechi A1 at the same price point? The Yuechi A1 is currently undergoing a generational change and is being heavily discounted. Apart from being an "older model," it is superior to the so-called new energy vehicles in terms of maintenance and service.

"You're so smart, targeting young users."

After moving from the WM Motor booth to the Xiaopeng booth, Tan Jincheng, who was more familiar with He Xiaopeng, whispered in He Xiaopeng's ear that Xiaopeng's first mass-produced car, named G3, was targeting young technology enthusiasts and urban families at the same price point.

With its focus on a high-tech feel, featuring a 360-degree camera on the roof and intelligent vehicle-machine interaction, combined with the G3's design language and price, it is very popular among young users, and the number of pre-orders for the G3 is also quite good.

According to He Xiaopeng, they will start deliveries in December this year, and should be able to deliver 1500 vehicles that month. The total delivery volume for next year will be around 15,000 vehicles, which is quite a good result.

WM Motor's delivery will start earlier, in September this year. The official statement is that 1000 vehicles can be delivered in the first month and 5000 vehicles can be delivered throughout the year, which is also a good result. However, Tan Jincheng is more optimistic about Xiaopeng.

It wasn't because of his past life's knowledge, but because he saw the flaws in WM Motor's positioning from the marketing plans of the two companies. Cars don't necessarily sell better the cheaper they are; you have to choose the right target audience.

The traditional brainwashing marketing tactic of selling combs to monks is no longer effective.

Unless the EX series receives very good reviews after its release.

"You're kidding me, you've really screwed us over. But I never intended to play those tricks like they do, so it won't affect us much, haha."

With the new car launched and orders plentiful, He Xiaopeng was in a great mood.

"Haha, Tesla will be produced in China soon, so let's give everyone a rundown of the intensity beforehand, so you won't be unaccustomed to it when the time comes."

He Xiaopeng was speechless for a moment, and could only give a thumbs up and say, "You're awesome."

If other car company bosses said this, it would seem arrogant, but if it came from Tan Jincheng or Wang Chuanfu, no one would think there was anything wrong with it. Currently, in the new energy vehicle industry, only these two dare to say this without being questioned.

Currently, there are only two companies with advantages in vehicle manufacturing, production capacity, and core components for new energy vehicles. Taking batteries as an example, all emerging brands either purchase from Jinshidai or from BYD.

Even if you choose companies like CATL and Guoxuan High-Tech, ByteDance, controlled by Tan Jincheng, is also a shareholder of these companies, so you still have to let him make money.

In the field of automotive chips, Tan Jincheng also has a place in the direction of domestic substitution. Many other suppliers of new energy components are located in Ningbo, and Tan Jincheng is also an important shareholder in many of them.

It's extremely difficult to completely bypass it in the field of new energy vehicles. To put it in perspective, there's absolutely no problem with it.

"Alright, let's talk again later. I still need to go check out the Great Wall."

"Alright, go ahead. Thanks for your support, Mr. Tan. I've already arranged for someone to send you a car to Ningbo. Give me some feedback when you get there."

The two companies are similar in terms of their strategies, but the difference is that Xiaopeng started with the lower-priced market, while Weilai started with the mid-to-high-end market and then moved downmarket.

"no problem."

"Okay, if you're free tonight, I'll treat you to dinner. If not, that's fine. By the way, you've practically become a walking billboard today."

Wherever he goes, a large crowd gathers. Tan Jincheng's popularity has exceeded the expectations of all the car company executives. Traditional car companies that can get along with him have begun to urgently contact him to see if he can spare some time to stand at their booth for a while.

They had always known that Tan Jincheng was very popular, but they didn't understand why he was so popular at this year's auto show.

"Isn't one price a bit too much? Is there something else going on?"

We need to get someone to investigate.

(End of this chapter)