2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 1007 Wei Lai's Major Strategic Adjustment
After exceeding 7000 deliveries in June, the Weilai L1 achieved another milestone in July, surpassing 8000 units to reach 8589 units, once again attracting market attention.

In mid-July, at the Shanghai Automotive Forum, Tan Jincheng's words about "Versailles" still resonated. The Weilai L1 has changed the landscape of the high-end SUV market above 30 yuan, proving that domestic brands, based on electrification, do indeed have the strength to compete with BBA (BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi).

Even with the price rising to 33.8 yuan, it still couldn't change the fact that it was a hot seller.

"Range-extended electric vehicles do have their advantages, but as the research institute said, their space is also limited. To some extent, they are indeed a transitional product. If Weilai wants to gain a foothold in the electric vehicle market, it must make breakthroughs in pure electric vehicles."

Li Xiang has returned from Europe, and Yu Liguo has taken over the renovation of the German factory. According to Wei Lai's plan, the German factory will start trial production in September next year, focusing on producing models that are more suitable for European users.

The ET5 and ES3 are selling well in Europe, but the actual products produced are different from those in China. Unlike consumers in China and North America, European consumers prefer small cars and hatchbacks.

The focus is on practicality, environmental friendliness, and handling. This is mainly due to the narrow roads and parking difficulties in Europe. The mainstream models in the market are generally smaller than those in the Chinese and American markets. The large muscle cars and super-large SUVs from American brands are not popular here.

Tesla's popularity in Europe is largely due to its all-electric advantage, but also because its exterior design and size are different from traditional American models, making them more in line with the aesthetics and usage needs of the European market.

In the future, the German factory will mainly produce compact pure electric vehicles that meet environmental regulations and can be accepted by European users without too many changes. The Exeed S01 is one of the plans to enter the European market in the future.

Li Xiang nodded: "The progress of the new model development plan is currently in line with expectations. In addition, we should also launch some new products in niche markets."

He is the CEO. Unlike Tan Jincheng, whose task is to control the strategy and future of Weilai and prevent the giant ship of Weilai from deviating from its course, Li Xiang, as the CEO, needs to focus more on the business itself.

Whether Weilai makes money, how much return it can bring to shareholders, and how much profit it can bring to investors are the key points that Li Xiang needs to focus on. In addition to vigorously promoting it on social media, what Li Xiang has done since taking office is to optimize Weilai's product structure so that Weilai can always maintain its competitive advantage.

"Have you finished writing your proposal?"

Tan Jincheng was also invigorated. He realized that one must be strong to succeed. Wei Lai had its own advantages, but it also had its own disadvantages. Leaders should be more mindful of potential crises and update their product concepts to create products that fit the current market environment.

Li Xiang smiled and said, "Now that it's done, it's up to President Wang and President Hu. If they have time, we can have a meeting, and we can also have President Yu, President Li, and President Bao have a video call."

"Oh, if possible, let Robin join us too."

"Okay, no problem. Go ahead and make the arrangements. Arrange a time with them. I'll stay home for the next few days. I'll have Xiao Zhao adjust my schedule to accommodate you."

Tan Jincheng's remarks on the Shanghai Automotive Forum caused quite a stir. He used the Weilai L1 to benchmark against BBA (BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi), directly challenging their market position and endorsing domestic car brands. Some felt relieved, while others thought Tan Jincheng was being arrogant.

In the post-special era, the reshaping of consumption concepts and the coexistence of new energy vehicles and gasoline vehicles have led to many ideological clashes in the 2021 car market. Those who prefer gasoline vehicles will still choose gasoline vehicles.

Traditional gasoline-powered models such as the Nissan Sylphy, Volkswagen Lavida, Corolla, and Yuechi A1 still occupy the top spots in the sales charts, and BBA (BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi) remain synonymous with luxury in the minds of consumers.

Tan Jincheng's remarks were somewhat radical at the time. Not to mention consumers, even most car company leaders did not agree with this view. They did not think that one day in the future, when consumers were buying a car, their first thought would be electric cars or domestic brands.

Although the mainstream consumer group has changed, the group that occupies the mainstream social thinking is still the same group of people. Even people like Tan Jincheng, born in the 1980s, prefer gasoline cars and joint venture brands such as BBA to domestic brands.

There's no other reason than that we've been let down by domestic brands too many times. In the last century and the early 2000s, the image of domestic brands was indeed not good, and not many people would have thought that things would change dramatically in just a few years.

"Actually, I'm not exaggerating. People feel that consumption concepts haven't changed much because the channels for expressing them haven't changed significantly."

On August 6th, a meeting concerning the future of the company will be held at the headquarters of Weilai.

With some time to spare before the meeting began, staff in the conference room were setting up the equipment, while Tan Jincheng and others chatted idly in the lounge, discussing the differences in acceptance between domestic and foreign brands.

"Take the hottest mobile phone market as an example. Around 2010, consumers were proud to own an Apple phone. Apple was synonymous with high-end. Besides the fact that Apple's products were indeed good, the most important thing was that at that time, there were very few domestic mobile phones that could be presented as competitive."

"Another reason is that Android phones were not performing well back then, but look at the past few years, do people still talk about Apple phones? And the first choice for Android phones is no longer Samsung."

In the years around 2010, Apple, Samsung, Sony, and other brands with iOS were synonymous with high-end products. But now, Huawei, Honor, Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo, Meizu, and others have become the top choices for users.

Speaking of cheap, these brand phones are not cheap at all. Xiaomi, which once claimed to conquer the market with a price of 1999 yuan, has seen its flagship models this year sell for five or six thousand yuan or even more than ten thousand yuan. The Xiaomi 11 Pro is priced at 5699 yuan, the 11 Ultra at 6499 yuan, and their first folding screen phone has an even more exaggerated price range of 9999 yuan to 12999 yuan.

Even the Black Shark series, positioned as a gaming console, sells for 5299 yuan, while the Xiaomi 11, which focuses on high sales volume, has a starting price of 3999 yuan.

Is it cheap? Not cheap at all. This is Xiaomi, a brand known for its high cost-performance ratio. Their pricing strategy is to keep increasing the price. However, although some consumers complain that the phones are getting more and more expensive, they still sell like hotcakes.

Consumers may simply reduce the frequency of device replacements, but they will still prioritize these domestic brands, which undoubtedly represents a qualitative change in brand awareness.

As for everyday consumer brands like clothing, such changes occurred even earlier. And for big-ticket consumer goods like cars, significant changes have also taken place, as evidenced by the sales figures of domestic brands such as BYD, Geely, Woolai, and Great Wall.

"As century-old brands, BBA certainly acknowledges their level of luxury. We have also learned a lot of excellent management and technology from BMW. We have benefited greatly from the cooperation. However, market changes are not as slow as the media says."

A few thousand, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of vehicles may not have a significant impact, but if sales volume is maintained for several consecutive years and the market share increases, then that's a different story.

One of the most fundamental changes is that during the Flash Era, the luxury brands running all over Beicang were almost all BBA (BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi), with the Audi A6 series dominating the streets. However, in recent years, domestic high-end models, led by Weilai, have become increasingly common in Beicang.

"What the media says is not important; what is important is that we believe in this belief."

Li Xiang, Hu Zhengnan, Wang Fengying, Bao Wenguang, and Robin Danholm, who made a special trip to sit in on the meeting, were present. Also present were Li Chunrong and Yu Liguo, who attended the meeting via video link, and Zhu Pei from Yangzi Automobile.

The top executives of the seven major systems of automotive business under Zhidou Auto, Lotus, Yangzi Auto, Yuechi Auto, Weilai Auto, Proton Auto, Weilai Overseas, and Weilai Group all attended the meeting.

In terms of personnel allocation, it is clear that this is a major adjustment targeting the Wei Lai system.

"The ultimate trend of any market will be dominated by domestic brands. This is true in Europe, this is true in North America, and I believe it will be true for China in the future. This is our opportunity."

Robin, who had been in her position for a few months, agreed with Tan Jincheng's view. This professional manager was very dedicated and familiar with the domestic environment. She had been working in China recently, and in her words, she liked both the food and the weather here.

Furthermore, she also expressed her opinions on epidemic prevention and control policies and accepted our policy guidelines; of course, whether she said this sincerely or not, Tan Jincheng did not care, as long as she maintained consistency with the group in terms of public image.

In the post-special era, our practices have caused some controversy both domestically and internationally, but these are not things that a businessman can decide. What Tan Jincheng needs to do is to keep in step with the higher-ups.

At the same time, the group's senior executives are not allowed to make any controversial remarks on these matters. While senior executives from Weilai may be active on the internet, the group has requirements regarding the remarks made by individuals including Tan Jincheng.

That means no matter how active you are, you can only focus on the group's business and your own work, and you should share or talk less about your personal life on the internet.

"Yes, there's no reason why our market should be special. We're not a small economy. Domestic self-sufficiency is the trend for any large economy."

Robin has made very rapid progress since taking office. The first slogan she shouted after taking office was: "Make Lotus the Porsche of the electric era by 2025." Her core strategy is also very simple: use Tesla's approach to maintain Lotus's driving DNA.

After taking office, Robin acted swiftly and decisively, immediately announcing the discontinuation of the gasoline-powered Emira and shifting to the all-electric version. He also launched the production version of the Evija electric supercar ahead of schedule, targeting the Tesla Roadster 2.0 version, with a price of over £200 million.

It doesn't matter how many of these super electric sports cars can be sold; the purpose is to set a brand benchmark and let the market see Lotus's capabilities in producing super sports cars worth tens of millions.

The third project is to launch a mid-range electric sports car, priced between £8 and £12, and achieve profitability through high sales volume.

In addition to re-establishing its brand DNA, Robin also advocates for self-developed electric drive technology, collaborating with Weilai and Jinshidai to reduce costs while eliminating reliance on suppliers.

In terms of marketing strategy, Lotus has transformed itself from a niche gasoline car brand to an electric performance benchmark by fully benchmarking against Tesla, and its slogan has been changed to "Tesla's performance, Lotus's soul".

This is essentially a direct copy of Tesla's brand strategy from its inception. While it might look bad for the brand, it's actually the most effective and attention-grabbing approach under a global strategy. In reality, it's not that shameful; not only domestically, but electric vehicle brands worldwide are copying Tesla, given Elon Musk's massive influence.

Robin, as the former president of Tesla, personally endorsed Lotus, leveraging his dual background in Silicon Valley technology and automobiles to attract the attention of the capital market and the tech circle.

At the user level, Lotus has upgraded its "LOtus Electrified" owners' club, offering privileges such as track days and OTA upgrade previews. The dealer system has also eliminated traditional dealerships and adopted a direct sales model.

With online ordering and directly operated experience stores, Lotus is now promoting its products worldwide. In terms of cooperation with the government, Lotus is also actively communicating with the government to try to obtain their electric vehicle subsidies and policy support.

The Heysel plant will be retained and will be developed towards electrification in the future. After 2025, Lotus will abandon its existing gasoline-powered models.

Robin's strategies were all optimizations based on Lotus's original strategies. Robin's version was much more aggressive than Tan Jincheng's, but Tan Jincheng did not interfere too much with her operations.

Lotus is already a publicly listed company, so whether it will be good or bad in the future has little to do with Tan Jincheng himself. From another perspective, even if Robin's aggressive approach fails in the end, it will not have a significant impact on Wei Lai and himself.

In any case, everything is paid for by the capital market. With strategic partners such as its parent company, Weilai, Gaode, and Orange, Robin has already begun to contact Silicon Valley companies including Apple and Google to seek strategic cooperation.

Lotus's electrified Eletre SUV is planned to be produced at the Jiangcheng plant and is expected to be launched in the fourth quarter of next year. This is the first all-electric SUV launched since Robin took office, and it is aimed at the Porsche Taycan and Tesla Model X.

The renderings of this electric SUV have been released. It adopts Lotus's new electrification language, retaining the low-profile lines of Lotus sports cars while maintaining the proportions of an SUV body. Its drag coefficient is only 0.26, which is the best in its class.

In terms of aerodynamics, Lotus still has a significant advantage, and its lightweight design is also one of its strengths.

The retractable rear wing and hidden air intake grille pay homage to Lotus supercars, while the split headlights and continuous LED taillights give it a high-tech feel.

In terms of color and materials, carbon fiber roof and two-tone body are basic features. In addition, the main color of Weilai blue and the red that Chinese people love are added, injecting Weilai culture into the genes of Lotus.

The interior also follows a technological route. In addition, after this SUV goes into mass production, it will participate in a lot of track races, such as running lap times at the Nürburgring. This thing may not be of much use to ordinary consumers, but it is still very authoritative on niche tracks.

Robin's radical approach has also sparked some controversy, causing a huge public opinion crisis among some relatively conservative user groups, especially in the UK, where there are a large number of conservative users.

However, Robin doesn't care much. Lotus's future target group is some Porsche users and those who are against Tesla. Tesla Model X and Model S, as high-performance electric vehicles, have a large user base.

Tesla has a strong brand appeal worldwide, but it also has a group of anti-Tesla users who disapprove of any of Tesla's products or Musk's actions.

Porsche's customer base also has a loophole: the electrification process is too slow. In Lotus's home turf of Europe, electrification is now considered the right thing to do in the automotive market, and many car companies are suffering from environmental problems.

SUVs are even more popular among Chinese consumers. As the first and only legendary sports car brand controlled by Chinese capital, Lotus actually has a lot of room for development.

In his previous life, Lotus never sold very well under Geely's ownership, which was what Tan Jincheng couldn't understand the most. Logically speaking, with just the name and the chrysanthemum-shaped marketing model, it should at least have improved brand awareness, if not significantly increase sales.

"Alright, everyone's almost here. Let's begin. Today's speaker is Mr. Li Xiang. Let's get started."

With Zhao Xinyi's signal, the meeting officially began.

This is a comprehensive strategic adjustment based on the plan of the captain, with Tan Jincheng working behind the scenes and Li Xiang carrying it out. It involves a major adjustment to the current product line in terms of various brands, models, future technology routes, trend upgrades, and so on.

When Li Xiang first took office, his online arguments were child's play. Today's meeting is the biggest event since he took office. Li Xiang started preparing for this meeting as soon as he was transferred to the position of CEO of Weilai.

In the past few months, Li Xiang has also visited all the factories and R&D centers of all the brands under Weilai in various places, his footprints covering the world.

Despite this, he has maintained a high frequency of online exchanges, which shows that the genes of an internet person are ingrained in his bones.

"Then I'll begin. Thank you, boss, for letting me host this meeting."

Li Xiang smiled and didn't refuse. Today should be the biggest test since he took office. As CEO, he needs to balance the interests of various systems while ensuring the main product line of the group company.

Tan Jincheng smiled and made a gesturing gesture.

Tan Jincheng made the decision to promote Li Xiang ahead of schedule after much consideration. Zhang Yong's sudden departure was a loss for Wei. In fact, if Tan Jincheng had let him stay in office for another year or two, it would have been fine.

However, after consideration, it was decided to let Li Xiang take over ahead of schedule. Zhang Yong has his own pursuits, and Wei Lai also has his own new plans. Rather than keeping a CEO who is physically in one camp but mentally in another, it is better to directly cultivate a new one, even though it is a bit rushed.

However, the outside world is still paying close attention to Li Xiang's appointment. Like Tan Jincheng, Li Xiang only has a high school diploma. It is quite interesting that the largest new energy vehicle company in China is led by two post-80s with only high school education.

This is not to say that Wei Lai does not value academic qualifications. Hu Zhengnan and Wei Lai's engineers are all highly educated elites. The outside world is full of curiosity about how two young people with low academic qualifications will ultimately control the direction of a company.

As for Tan Jincheng, if he had to choose between Li Xiang and Zhang Yong, he would definitely choose Li Xiang. First of all, both of them are born in the 1980s and have excellent product management experience. They have no problems with each other in terms of user awareness, concepts, age gap, etc.

Secondly, both are considered representatives of 5G surfing. Although Tan Jincheng does not reply to Weibo posts as frequently as Li Xiang, Tan Jincheng, who is mainly active on short video social platforms, updates his posts quite frequently.

Tan Jincheng is quite satisfied with the current senior management structure of Weilai. The CEO is Li Xiang, who is the same age as him. With the automotive market nearing saturation, Li Xiang has little chance of starting another business, and the probability of him changing jobs is also low.

The technical direction is controlled by industry veterans like Hu Zhengnan. Hu Zhengnan's future has been secured through contracts and compensation, and Lei Jun will not have such an opportunity again after failing to poach him last time.

Thanks to Tan Jincheng's foresight, Lei Jun's attempts to poach talent from the Weilai Research Institute were very limited. The team members were still recruited from Jilin, which infuriated Shufu Ge.

It's funny to think about it. Lei Jun's nationwide survey was warmly welcomed by many host manufacturers, especially Geely, who thought there was a chance for cooperation. In the end, he was so angry that he called Tan Jincheng to complain.

This matter has made headlines several times, and the feud between the two sides has been established.

Wang Fengying, who was hired at a high price, is now in charge of Yuechi Auto and can be considered the "discipline committee member" of the company. The Iron Lady has demonstrated her methods in the supply chain and internal anti-corruption efforts.

Lee Chun Rong, the founder of Proton, has lived overseas for many years. Over the years, he has rebuilt Proton from almost ruins, regained its rightful market share in the Malaysian region, and revitalized Proton as a national brand in Malaysia.

Neither Tan Jincheng nor the Malaysian government can criticize Li Chunrong's work ability. Tan Jincheng has already discussed with the Malaysian side to adjust Proton's shareholding structure so that Li Chunrong and the management team that has made outstanding contributions to Proton will have a certain number of shares in Proton.

Tan Jincheng has never been stingy in offering shares to top talents. In fact, these top talents are no longer attractive with just salary and benefits. The best way to retain them is to lock them in with shares and make them partners.

Robin is the foundation of Lotus's internationalization and a calling card for the brand to showcase itself to the world. Robin's role is not only in her operational capabilities, but also in Tan Jincheng's use of her to express the brand's determination to go global.

Even if Robin leaves, a globally renowned CEO will be invited in the future, just like the spokesperson for W.L.A. on the world stage. A Western face is necessary.

In addition, it goes without saying that female executives can also increase Lotus and W.A.'s global visibility, and those who understand the implications in North America know what that means.

Local leaders like Zhu Pei at Yangzi Motors have the limitations of their time, but they also have their own unique approach to handling local relationships. Perhaps their abilities are limited, but they are sufficient for niche markets in China.

The newly joined Bao Wenguang also has similar genes. Although Yangzi Automobile and Zhidou Automobile also have export plans, they mainly target the domestic market. These two mass-market brands are more about ensuring the coverage of the Weilai brand.

"Alright, let's start with Yuechi Auto. Right now, Yuechi Auto's problems are the most important."

Like Tan Jincheng, Li Xiang didn't offer many pleasantries; he went straight to the point with zero frames of directness.

(End of this chapter)