2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 1074 Traffic King VS Sales King
Xiaomi is still Xiaomi, and Lei Jun is still Lei Jun.

The SU7 technology launch event was hailed as the Spring Festival Gala of the automotive industry, and that's no exaggeration. Many heavyweight media outlets and well-known figures attended the event, and the appearance of Tan Jincheng also caused quite a stir.

Although it may seem like flattery, what Li Bing and the others said was true. Tan Jincheng is always the main character wherever he goes. The moment he entered the press conference, he was surrounded by a bunch of people, and many reporters who considered themselves important wanted to ask him a few questions.

Chrysanthemum, Wei Lai, and Xiaomi are now synonymous with traffic in the automotive industry. Anyone who can film a short video of Tan Jincheng can gain huge traffic and a lot of likes on Douyin.

"Today is Lei's show, so please don't crowd around me. Just sit down and be prepared. Lei will be providing you with plenty of material later. Go back to your seats."

The reporters had no choice but to give up. The bigwig didn't want them to ask, and they didn't dare to ask either. They had originally wanted to ask Wei Lai about this user reward plan, as the 15 billion yuan investment was simply too much.

This incident not only caused a huge reaction among users, but also in the capital market. Weilai's stock price plummeted on the same day. Capital is just that realistic. Even though Weilai has a lot of cash on its books, they don't want to see Tan Jincheng spending money extravagantly.

Although the board of directors in Weilai was not just for show, Tan Jincheng never informed them about these things. As investors, they felt somewhat aggrieved. This was all money; it would be so much better to distribute it as dividends.

"Mr. Lei's press conference was really well done."

Tan Jincheng, Li Xiang, Li Bing, and He Xiaopeng sat in the center of the first row at the press conference, chatting casually.

"Hehe, to be honest, we all need to learn from Boss Lei about this. I'm here to learn this time."

He Xiaopeng has the closest relationship with Lei Jun. Lei Jun is both a mentor and a friend to him, having invested in him since his first venture. The two communicate far more privately than with others.

"Indeed, did you see that? Mr. Lei's clothes were all carefully chosen."

Everyone laughed. Before Xiaomi started making cars, his attire at Xiaomi product launches followed the style of Steve Jobs: T-shirts and jeans. However, today's outfit was clearly different, and he was going in the direction of Elon Musk.

Why do product launches in the tech world always generate so much buzz? It's not just because they know how to create hype, but also because they're meticulously prepared, unlike others who are so casual.

Nowadays, more and more manufacturers are paying attention to technology launch events, which is more or less a trend of learning from the tech giants.

The SU7 technology launch event truly lived up to its reputation as the "Spring Festival Gala of the tech world." Xiaomi invested heavily, with live streaming on Douyin, Bilibili, and WeChat Video Channel, as well as live streaming or real-time reporting from almost all mainstream financial, technology, and automotive media outlets. Some overseas media also gave it prominent coverage.

Simultaneous live streaming on three platforms—Douyin, Bilibili, and WeChat Video Channel—requires a significant amount of resources to coordinate, and the costs involved are considerable.

Xiaomi's foray into car manufacturing became the biggest topic in the last few days of 2023.

"This is a sure thing."

Tan Jincheng sighed inwardly, "Lei Jun will always be Lei Jun. The press conference was extremely emotional. He talked about his hardships along the way and paid tribute to a large number of car companies, including Tesla, BYD, and Woolai."

In recent years, mutual attacks within the industry have become the norm. You insult me, I insult you, all sorts of sarcastic remarks, and the atmosphere is extremely hostile. Only Wei Lai's press conference is relatively refreshing, as he doesn't attack his peers, but even then, he rarely mentions them.

Lei Jun's extensive homage to various industry trends is completely different from the current chaos in the industry, and it is indeed able to win the favor of many people. In the eyes of the general public, this sincere style is more infectious.

The three years of special circumstances have accumulated a lot of resentment, and many people need to vent their frustrations. Companies have taken advantage of this sentiment to develop marketing plans. However, 2023 has ended, and the venting has been done.

It has to be said that Lei Jun's grasp of market sentiment is very accurate. Using this kind of aggressive marketing method will only make casual observers more and more disgusted, except for winning back his own fans.

In addition, Lei Jun paid tribute to a whole group of companies, but "missed" Geely, which added a lot of discussion to his tribute. Nobody would believe that he forgot.

The Geely E8 model is directly competing with their products. Currently, the monthly delivery volume of the E8 has exceeded 6000 units, and with the ramp-up of production capacity, it is only a matter of time before the monthly delivery volume exceeds 10,000 units.

"It's definitely a sure thing. The product is strong enough, and CEO Lei is promoting it even more."

He Xiaopeng looked on with envy.

"We can't compare. Such a scene can only happen to Chrysanthemum and Millet. Even if we try to learn from them, it won't do us any good and won't have much effect."

"That's right."

With its cutting-edge technical specifications, controversial design, unique ecosystem story, and the founder's emotional narrative, Lei Jun talked for hours without revealing the price. He certainly knows how to generate buzz.

"Mr. Tan, how much do you think it will sell for?"

"Hehe, trying to trick me, but it probably won't be cheap. It will likely have some impact on your G6 and P7."

The price of the SU7 will definitely be above 20 yuan. Although it is possible that the price will be around 19.99 yuan, it will definitely take the high-end route and a differentiated competition model.

Among emerging brands, besides Seres targeting the L series from Weilai and Li Bing's Wenjie targeting the BBA market, companies like Xiaopeng are targeting Tesla, and their products are mainly aimed at seizing Tesla's market share.

The same applies to Xiaomi cars today. Tesla's market is a relatively lucrative segment, and due to its high price, it's also a relatively easy segment to capture. Tesla's frequent price reductions are also due to the increasing number of competitors.

"ET5 needs to be upgraded."

After the press conference ended, Tan Jincheng and Li Xiang quietly left the scene. Under the dim lights, they did not attract much attention. From today onwards, Xiaomi will be the biggest topic in the automotive industry for a long time to come.

The fact that Lei Jun didn't announce the price at the press conference, leaving that loophole, was a deliberate act to maintain hype before the product's launch.

"Yes, it needs to be upgraded."

The ET5, which has been on the market for many years, is a strategic product for Weilai to export to Europe. After the production capacity was increased, it also sold quite well in China, with the current average monthly sales volume remaining between 10,000 and 12,000 units.

However, as a product that has been on the market for many years, the impact of new products will definitely have a certain impact on the sales of ET5, making a model upgrade inevitable.

"Then let's release it. We'll launch the new facelifted model in 2024, and the launch date will be the same as the Xiaomi SU7."

Given the hype surrounding this launch event, the release of the Xiaomi SU7 will undoubtedly have a significant impact on the 20 to 30 yuan market. As a strategic product for WILTE in this price segment, the ET5, despite targeting a different user group, cannot undergo major changes, otherwise it would affect WILTE's overall planning.

The entire press conference garnered over 100 million views and was streamed live on multiple platforms, making it an absolute phenomenon and a true breakout success.

In terms of technical specifications, the revamped ET5 is definitely on par with the Xiaomi SU7. The technical specifications that Lei Jun touted at the launch event are not much of an advantage compared to the ET5, but at least these specifications are still among the top tier.

Coupled with its controversial appearance, the ET5 is indeed inferior to the SU7 in terms of product influence.

"The boss is going to compete head-on with the SU7."

"Can't you?"

The two exchanged a smile, revealing a sense of confidence. Admittedly, the ET5's influence is certainly not as great as the SU7's, but Weilai's core customer base is there, and it is the only main model in the 20 to 30 yuan market segment.

Within this price range, if you're looking for the Weilai brand, the ET5 is the best, and indeed the only, product.

The so-called 800V platform, integrated die casting, super motor, and the so-called self-developed CTB integrated battery technology—aren't these all things that Wei Lai has already done before? Besides, given Tan Jincheng's understanding of Lei Jun and the mobile phone industry, it's hard to know how much of the hype at this technology launch event is true.

At least in terms of so-called intelligent driving, Tan Jincheng doesn't believe in it. This thing requires a lot of driving data and huge computing power. Weilai and Xiaopeng Motors have been investing continuously for more than ten years, and the driving data has been gradually enriched.

Chrysanthemum has a strong technological background. Besides, which car company, including Tesla, didn't accumulate its strength little by little? Who would believe it if it came out of nowhere and boasted that it was in the first tier?

"Titan Alloy Super Die-cast Cluster; Hehe, Mr. Lei is really interesting."

As they walked out of Xiaomi's headquarters and got into Tan Jincheng's car, Li Xiang suddenly said something with a hint of teasing in his tone.

"Hehe, not really. I'm more worried about their intelligent driving system." A team of 1000 people and an investment of 33 billion are indeed a lot. Whether it's true or not, let's just assume it's true. But when it comes to intelligent driver assistance systems that involve safety, it's really not enough.

In terms of investment, the cumulative investment of Weilai and Juhua over the years is in the hundreds of billions, while car companies such as Xiaopeng, Wenjie, and BYD are all in the tens of billions. Technology suppliers such as Baidu, Momenta, and Horizon Robotics have also invested tens or hundreds of billions.

Even automakers like Geely, Great Wall, and Changan, which are not even considered top-tier, have invested far more in the research and development of intelligent driving solutions than this.

This thing is all priced in US dollars. It's not that the more you invest, the better it will be, but to think that 33 billion yuan can achieve the level of investment of hundreds of billions is just pure nonsense.

In addition, Tan Jincheng also noticed that Lei Jun's promotional terminology was not "intelligent assisted driving" but "intelligent driving".

"Yeah, maybe, sigh."

Under Wei Lai's philosophy of "safety first," Li Xiang understood what it meant.

Xiaomi's popularity remains high, frequently trending on social media from the day of its launch event on the 28th to New Year's Day. The annual sales review is also something everyone is concerned about.

During the New Year's Day holiday, all stores of Weilai have been notified that a facelifted version of the ET5 will be launched this year, with deliveries starting in April 2024. The current ET5 models will be converted into inventory models, and all stores need to adjust their sales pitches.

Although Weilai also frequently lowers prices, it doesn't have the reputation of being a backstabber. Besides compensating old users, the biggest change is that before each new model is launched, users are informed that new users can buy it if they can accept the old model, and can wait if they can't.

Many car companies, however, do not do this; they can use all sorts of deceptive tactics to clear their inventory.

"It seems like the price war will continue throughout the year."

Just after New Year's Day, BYD announced that it would lower the starting price of its Qin series to 7.98 yuan, stealing the spotlight by touting that electricity costs less than gasoline.

Owners of the Qin series, especially those who drive for ride-hailing services, felt like the sky had fallen. A year of driving for ride-hailing services couldn't even offset the losses caused by the price reduction of the car.

2023 was a difficult year for BYD, as the emergence of the phenomenal product Star Wish almost destroyed OceanNet's two heavyweight products, Dolphin and Seagull, forcibly reversing the company's entire strategy.

Despite the early model change and frequent price reductions, sales have not been significantly affected. From the start of deliveries to December, Wish Star delivered over 210,000 vehicles, a figure that was genuinely snatched from BYD.

Apart from May's delivery volume of 20,000 vehicles, Xingyuan's monthly delivery volume has never been lower than 25,000 vehicles. Seagull, on the other hand, has launched a sports version ahead of schedule and lowered the starting price, but it can only stabilize its monthly delivery volume at around 10,000 vehicles.

The Dolphin series was also severely affected. The importance of OceanNet to BYD is self-evident, and OceanNet's Dolphin and Seagull series are the sales leaders. They were directly crushed by Wei Lai's Star Journey series. The extent of the blow is unimaginable.

"BYD hasn't given up yet."

2023 was definitely not a good year for the boatman, but at the beginning of the year, before Wei Lai, he officially announced a price reduction for the Qin series, which was BYD's first shot in the counterattack.

"How could I possibly give up? I wouldn't be able to give up so easily either."

After decades of painstaking efforts, they were optimistic about the new energy industry from the beginning of the century. After the collapse of the gasoline vehicle system, they went all in on new energy. When the industry was gaining momentum, they announced a complete halt to the production of gasoline vehicles. It can be said that they bet everything on it in order to achieve their established goals.

As a result, in the year when he had the best chance of surpassing Wei Lai, he was completely crushed by Wei Lai with a single car. This made him not only give up but also have to struggle.

Since the Ocean series can't compete for now, let's use their Dynasty series and Qin series as a breakthrough point. The Qin series still has a lot of appeal in the market, after all, it has been a brand built up over many years.

"The Dynasty series does have a significant advantage, and BYD should make further adjustments after the Qin series."

BYD's biggest advantage lies in its strategy of offering a wide range of models supported by two major series, each with its own blockbuster and near-blockbuster models. With this strong system in place, they can still achieve good sales and certainly have the potential to make a comeback.

"Let's stick to our plan and not worry too much about these things."

In addition to the facelift of the ET5 this year, the Exeed S01 will also be facelifted. Based on the Exeed S01 and Star Wish, Exeed aims to counter the counterattack of traditional car companies and maintain its market share of 8 to 15 yuan.

With Exeed as the main product, the Galaxy series as a supplement, the fully transformed Yuechi series, and the Tank series embracing the new energy market, the company maintains a certain level of competitiveness through pure electric and hybrid models.

In the high-end market, Weilai has not made any major moves. The L series models are already full, and the E series will only be used to supplement some niche segments such as MPVs and station wagons.

For example, the ET5 facelift includes a station wagon version.

For Weilai in 2024, offense is no longer the mainstream strategy; maintaining market share is the goal. Price wars have become the norm, and blind expansion is not a wise move for a large company like Weilai.

"It's good to take it easy and consolidate the achievements we've made this year."

Changes in the environment and the increasing complexity of the market determine the direction of enterprises.

"Let's release the sales figures."

After January 5th, major automakers began to announce their full-year sales figures for 2023. Like year-end reports, among the new brands that announced their figures first, Li Bing's Wenjie achieved sales of 160,000 vehicles this year, maintaining steady growth. However, this growth rate is still insufficient for Wenjie's huge investment.

In order to increase sales, Li Bing had no choice but to abandon the strategy of sticking to the high-end market and start launching sub-brands, moving towards a lower-end strategy.

Xiaopeng Motors also announced its sales figures for the entire year of 2023. The delivery volume of 14.2 vehicles is not high, but it is very remarkable for Xiaopeng. Like Seres, Xiaopeng Motors also started slowly but achieved a turnaround.

Neta Auto, already in a state of chaos, only managed to sell 113,000 vehicles, with dismal delivery figures for the entire month of December, and a constant stream of negative news.

The annual delivery volume of over 100,000 vehicles by new energy vehicle startups is insufficient compared to the overall market; they can only be considered a supplement to the market. The real sales volume still depends on companies like Weilai.

Wei Lai, which has yet to release its sales figures, has become the focus of the market.

After all, even BYD, which was suppressed by Wei Lai throughout the year, has announced its annual sales. On January 7, BYD announced its annual sales. At the beginning of the year, it set a sales target of 3 million vehicles, but due to the sudden changes in the market, BYD was forced to adjust its annual sales target downward in the second half of the year.

However, BYD still fell short of their revised sales target of 250 million vehicles. The sales figure of 237.9 million vehicles was quite good, but failing to meet the target also drew a lot of criticism.

Now everyone is waiting for Wei to arrive, and Wei didn't keep them waiting too long.

Just before its official opening on January 8, Weilai officially announced its cumulative sales for 2023, totaling 367.9 million vehicles, of which new energy vehicles accounted for an astonishing 3 million units, leaving the competition far behind.

"Awesome, in a class of its own, Wei Lai's influence is growing bigger and bigger."

In the global new energy vehicle market, apart from BYD's more than 200 million vehicles and Tesla's more than 180 million vehicles, the highest-selling vehicle is Wuling's 63.6 vehicles. Wuling is the only car company with sales exceeding 300 million vehicles.

"Wei Lai, BYD and Tesla occupy more than 50% of the global new energy vehicle market share. The market structure is already set."

Of the 1400 million new energy vehicles sold globally, Weilai holds a 21.4% market share, while in China, Weilai holds a 31.6% market share, solidifying its position.

In addition, the total sales of 367.9 million vehicles by UAE also surpassed Suzuki, ranking ninth in the world. It was only 2.1 vehicles behind Nissan, which ranked eighth in the world, and less than 30 vehicles behind Ford, which ranked seventh.

Whether Weilai will surpass Nissan, Ford, or even Honda, which is ahead of Ford, in 2024 has become a hot topic of discussion in the market.

"Honda's total sales for 2023 are 400 million vehicles. Should we aim for that?"

This issue is also being discussed internally at Wola. If Wola wants to surpass Honda, its sales target for 2024 must be set at 400 million vehicles. If it exceeds this target, then Wola will become the fifth largest automaker in the world.

Although the company takes a stable strategic approach, it is never short of ambition and high aspirations within the company, from top to bottom.

Lei Jun (Lei Jun) is pursuing the "traffic king" route, so Wei Lai (Wei Lai) will pursue the "sales king" route and become the number one car company in China.

It's a personal competition between the king of traffic and the king of sales. Both are very young. Is it even a question?
(End of this chapter)