2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 1079 Ningbo Declaration
It's so lively, so incredibly lively!

Mr. Tan has been browsing Douyin (TikTok) much more frequently lately. He occasionally can't help but reply to comments in his own comment section, and he even goes to browse the comment sections of other car company bosses to give them a like.

In just one month, the traffic whirlwind brought about by Lei Jun has made the bosses and leaders of car companies restless. In addition to Wei Yingwu of Great Wall Motors, chairmen and general managers of large groups such as Changan and GAC have opened accounts and released videos to increase the brand's exposure.

"These are all car companies that mainly produce gasoline-powered vehicles. When all the traffic is directed towards new energy vehicles, gasoline-powered vehicle manufacturers are starting to feel uneasy."

It's understandable that they're restless. With the penetration rate of new energy vehicles already exceeding 40% and the market share of domestic brands approaching 60%, the market share of these traditional giants from the era of gasoline vehicles is declining day by day.

If we don't change now, it will really be too late.

To be fair, the rise of new energy vehicles has led to the overall rise of domestic brands. Nowadays, when choosing a brand, users are increasingly inclined to choose domestic brands, and they no longer feel ashamed to drive a domestic car.

This alone is a sign of industrial progress. In a large country's consumer market, it is a normal and expected trend for all markets to be dominated by domestic brands.

In a sense, the exaggerated publicity brought about by the entry of internet and technology companies is not entirely without its benefits. At least in the absence of new players, the existing forces, for their own interests, would not allow such a situation to occur.

Once the established order is disrupted, those who don't want to be eliminated by the market must make changes.

For every 10 cars sold, 4 are new energy vehicles, and among these 4 new energy vehicles, there is bound to be one from Weilai. Starting in May, good news has been coming one after another for Weilai.

To support the industry's recovery, although subsidies for new energy vehicles have been phased out, a series of policy measures are still being released from time to time. This time, the policy targeting the automotive industry is mainly driven by the trade-in program for old cars. The detailed rules were released at the end of April and implemented in May.

With the trade-in program as its core policy, coupled with initiatives to promote new energy vehicles in rural areas and the issuance of consumer vouchers in various regions, these policies work together to drive the market.

"We need to conduct thorough audits of stores in various regions. We must avoid using vouchers in a gimmicky way and ensure that the discounts that should be given to car owners are actually delivered to them."

Tan Jincheng knew all too well about the consumer vouchers. Although they were supposed to be subsidies for users, in reality, major manufacturers were indirectly pocketing this cash through price increases and other means. This was especially evident in the mobile phone industry, where they openly presented the national subsidies as their own benefits to users in their advertising.

Openly including the price after the national subsidy in the calculations at the press conference was incredibly blatant and disgraceful.

"Okay, I'll have the audit department keep an eye on it."

Starting in 2023, Zeng Jixiang began working in Ningbo. In addition to serving as the CEO of Weilai Technology, he also served as the head of Weilai's internal anti-corruption department, responsible for internal supervision affairs.

Tan Jincheng's personal assistant, Zeng Jixiang, who was on the fringes of the Weilai Group's overall system, was the most suitable candidate. This was also a step for Tan Jincheng to establish his authority and prepare for his future return to the group headquarters. In addition to Zeng Jixiang, Tan Jincheng also arranged for Li Yaohui to assist him.

Both of them were trustworthy and perfectly suited to monitor the internal situation, especially Lai Yiu-fai. His background and position as Tan Kam-ching's driver allowed him to access many things that outsiders couldn't.

A businessman's personal driver is not just someone who is simply responsible for driving in the traditional sense. They need to know a lot more. In addition to comprehensive safety matters, other business matters depend on the businessman's attitude.

If he were to help with personal matters or assist with company affairs, Lai Yiu-fai would have no problem becoming a middle manager now.

As the company grew larger, Tan Jincheng could no longer manage most of the departments. Ever since Lei Jun announced that he would elevate Xiaomi's intelligent driving system to the top tier this year, Tan Jincheng had become somewhat wary and began to slowly sort out the company's internal affairs.

The automotive industry chain is a huge system, and it is obviously impossible to remain completely pure, but it cannot go too far either. In recent years, sales have exploded, and internal expansion has increased to some extent, leading to more problems.

"We are a large company with good profits, so there is really no need for us to do something that would lower our standards."

Lai Yiu-fai also agrees with this point. Coming from a rural background, he worked as a Bing and then came directly to Tan Kam-ching's company after retiring. He has met many people, but he is also quite experienced. Although Lai Yiu-fai is considered a veteran, he is much more "pure" compared to other senior executives.

One thing he appreciates about his boss is that he always considers the feelings of ordinary users. While businesses prioritize making money, large enterprises must also have a certain sense of social responsibility. They should earn the money they deserve, but they should not earn the money they shouldn't.

The business environment is changing, but many companies are indeed doing this; not all companies are just pursuing profits.

“No problem. We just received our dividends. If we start taking government subsidies now, our competitors will attack us.”

In April, Wei completed the dividend plan for the 2023 fiscal year, distributing 46.57 yuan per 10 shares. All management personnel who held shares received a large dividend, ranging from hundreds of thousands to over 100 million yuan.

One by one, they were in a good mood. With Wei Lai's ability to make money and distribute dividends, they really didn't need to pay attention to the stock price trend, nor did they need to rush to cash out.

The new energy industry chain reached its peak market value in 2020 and 2021, but since 2022, the A-share market has entered a bear market, and it is still the same now. The new energy boom has also subsided a lot.

In fact, given Weilai's current revenue and net profit, a PE ratio of 30 to 40 would be enough to justify a valuation of three trillion yuan. However, the A-share market is peculiar; when it is in a bear market, the market simply doesn't care whether you are undervalued or not.

There's a saying that valuations in a bear market can't be judged by common sense. Even if a listed company has reached a reasonable valuation, it can still be halved in value during a bear market.

Some junk stocks, however, may experience a continuous upward trend against the market trend due to a rumor or even the name of the listed company. The current valuation of these stocks is generally considered not high, but no one wants to suppress them any further.

This is what a bear market is like. Just like when housing and car prices fall, everyone wants to wait and see.

Fortunately, the bear market pattern in A-shares should be changing. In February, the Shanghai Composite Index fell to 2635 points, the lowest point since 2019. There are also policy measures that are leaning towards the stock market. It is highly likely that the time for a change is coming soon.

Under normal circumstances, when A-share trading falls into a full-blown trough and the index hits new lows continuously, there will be a recovery process. And given the current economic situation, some stimulus is indeed needed.

Weilai's market value is entering a recovery period, and it's not far from returning to a normal valuation.

"This major policy is favorable to us, and we must make good use of it. We cannot miss this opportunity because of our greed."

The 15 billion yuan user reward plan that Weilai set at the beginning of the year lasted for a whole year. It fully considered the time it would take for users to raise the funds and also relieved Weilai's pressure on production capacity.

This user feedback program is essentially a trade-in program. Some users may not want to change their cars for various reasons, so external incentives are needed. The company's own trade-in program, combined with the national subsidy for trade-ins, doesn't rely on users, so sales are guaranteed.

This decision wasn't entirely based on user perspectives; it was also related to the current environment. The Xiaomi SU7 brought a huge amount of attention to electric vehicles, but it also generated a lot of controversy.

Putting aside the grudges between Xiaomi and Huawei fans, just the fact that a newcomer to the industry has received such a large number of orders right away, with a daily pre-sale volume that a year's production capacity can't even meet, makes anyone envious.

The emerging electric vehicle manufacturers are struggling to survive, managing to sell only around 100,000 vehicles a year. Xiaomi, on the other hand, filled its entire production capacity for the year in less than two days. According to information disclosed by Lei Jun, Xiaomi's factories have started operating on two shifts to maximize production capacity.

The number of comments urging for delivery in its comment section is approaching the level of the launch of Wish Star last year. Lei Jun also played the same trick that Tan Jincheng used to do when he went to the factory to "tighten screws". Although it was the second time that netizens had seen it, they still found it hilarious.

Based on Xiaomi's production capacity, their deliveries could reach over 10,000 vehicles in June. At the most conservative estimate, Xiaomi's deliveries this year will be at least 100,000 vehicles, and if production capacity allows, Xiaomi's deliveries this year will reach over 120,000 vehicles.

What level is this?
Last year, Wenjie, which ranked first among emerging electric vehicle manufacturers, only delivered 16 vehicles in a year. Xiaomi, on the other hand, caught up with the delivery level of the top emerging electric vehicle manufacturers in just nine months, which is astonishing.

The key point is that Xiaomi's delivery volume is not their actual order volume, which makes people even more envious.

Starting in May, following Lei Jun's live-streamed driving of the SU7 and being maliciously cut off, the mutual attacks within the automotive industry showed a clear upward trend. Just as Tan Jincheng predicted, when these two automakers are in the same arena, the arena becomes exceptionally lively.

Wei Laiye will inevitably be affected. At this critical moment, he must be extra careful in everything he does to avoid giving his competitors any leverage.

"Compared to Mr. Yu, Mr. Lei's publicity makes me more worried."

For a long time, Tan Jincheng admired Lei Jun. His series of actions in the mobile phone market transformed a seemingly low-end company into a model of an interconnected industrial chain with innovative designs.

However, mobile phones and cars are fundamentally different. Exaggerated marketing tactics for mobile phones won't have a significant impact, as most people can afford to buy one for a few thousand yuan.

With current technology, even if it doesn't match the advertising, it's not unusable. At most, the user experience will be worse, but it won't have a significant impact on safety.

Cars are different; these things can really kill people. Since its official debut, in order to raise expectations and create a huge contrast with the final "affordable" pricing, its various exaggerated statements have surpassed those during its time in charge of the mobile phone industry, such as selling cars at a loss and casually saying at the press conference that the MAX version has no rivals under 200 million yuan. Although there are attempts to cover up these claims, they are enough to show the change in its mentality.

Leaving aside the intelligent driving system, its videos on Douyin (TikTok) such as dropping watermelons from high altitudes and sudden braking at 200 km/h left those of us in the know speechless.

Although Da Zui did create some abstract incidents, such as driving from Shenzhen back to his hometown for over a thousand kilometers with intelligent driving taking over and allowing him to sleep, overall, apart from being far ahead and his boasting being annoying, it wasn't particularly outrageous.

Moreover, Chrysanthemum is a real company with real capabilities; behind the boasting is the technological support of Chrysanthemum.

If this continues, something bad will happen sooner or later.

"We should avoid promoting our intelligent driving solutions too much recently. During the vehicle delivery process, we need to do everything possible to remind users, provide them with training, and distance ourselves from their exaggerated claims."

The seemingly lively banter and exaggerated publicity actually reflect several deep-seated changes and anxieties in the current domestic auto market.

The penetration rate of new energy vehicles has exceeded 40%, and there is not much room for further improvement. The new energy vehicle market has essentially changed from a blue ocean market to a red ocean market, and the competition for incremental growth has become a competition for existing market share.

In the pursuit of market share, it's not just about competing on products and prices; it's also about engaging in fierce battles over public opinion.

The clash between old and new ideas, the transformation of marketing models, the anxiety of survival and the growing pains of transformation are all the basis for the industry's mutual attacks. For consumers, the war of words between car companies also provides more topics of conversation. In fact, such war of words may even lead companies to launch more cost-effective products in the competition, so that consumers can benefit from it.

"The changes are indeed too drastic. Is the boss trying to make us focus on the core product capabilities?"

After the SU7 was released, especially after orders exploded, marketing expert Li Xiang could clearly feel a major shift in the current public opinion market, with a sudden increase in insults, verbal battles, and even direct naming of people at the launch event.

Wei Lai has also been subjected to some subtle attacks this month, and the public relations department needs to pay close attention to market sentiment. If you were to ask which department in Wei Lai is the most nervous right now, it would definitely be the public relations team led by Zhou Ao, the public relations manager.

Just because you don't provoke others doesn't mean others won't provoke you, especially for leading companies that have a precipitous lead over other car manufacturers, which have always been the focus of the market.

Tan Jincheng nodded: "Yes, we should learn from Tesla and try to become as invisible as possible."

I'm actually a little envious of Tesla now. All the negative news about Tesla on the Chinese internet seems to have disappeared overnight. Nobody is talking about it anymore, and the executives who used to talk big are ignoring it.

They really made a fortune quietly.

"Hehe, it's a bit unlikely for us. Our target is too big, especially since the current controversy is mainly about domestic brands. But we'll try our best. Of course, the legal department will also need to cooperate with us."

Zhou Ao chuckled. With the change in public opinion, Zhou Ao had become an internet celebrity, and he quite enjoyed this feeling.

"Okay, you can go and cooperate with the legal department. I'll talk to them."

For automakers, focusing on improving the product experience and sincerely treating users is far more important than making empty promises. For consumers, while observing the situation, returning to the product itself and making the choice that best suits their needs is the wise thing to do.

However, this is only an ideal situation; no company or consumer can ignore public opinion.

Wei Lai was involved, but at the same time, Tan Jincheng hoped that Wei Lai could extricate himself from the situation and focus on improving product quality, making cars seriously and serving consumers.

Based on Tan Jincheng's calculation that the ultimate market penetration rate of the new energy market will be between 50% and 60%, the current market growth potential is already very small. Given this limited growth potential, there is still much work to be done if Weilai wants to maintain its advantages.

According to internal plans and forecasts, by 2026, the market penetration rate of new energy vehicles will exceed 50%, taking a dominant position. In the pure electric vehicle sector, where we have always had an advantage, the coverage rate of semi-solid battery models can be increased to approximately 40%.

The range is generally 600 to 800 kilometers, and the supercharging can provide a 10-minute charge to alleviate range anxiety and charging anxiety, just like refueling a car.

For hybrid vehicles, the focus is more on fuel consumption when the battery is depleted. A fuel consumption of 5 liters per 100 kilometers when the battery is depleted is the technical goal of Yulai and also a springboard for Yuechi Automobile's transformation. As long as the fuel consumption when the battery is depleted is reduced, there will be no more debate over technical routes.

As for intelligent driving, given the current exaggerated claims and increasingly serious chaos, legislation is imminent. Therefore, the commercialization of L3 and even L4 must be accelerated.

One day in the future, once the legislation is completed, we will be able to openly and legitimately promote Level 3 autonomous driving, without having to resort to some so-called Level 2.999 to skirt the edges. That will be the true first tier.

This is real strength.

In terms of market and competition, although the price war has been going on for almost two years, it will only become more rational in the future. Pure price wars cannot bring about absolute growth, but will instead make real consumers remain in a wait-and-see state.

To boost growth rates, technology, ecosystem, and user experience are paramount, and increasing overseas exports is a key factor. However, overseas markets won't tolerate such practices; any exaggerated advertising could result in fines of tens of millions of dollars.

New energy as the main driver, technology as the driving force, and rational competition are the core principles that Weilai is taking seriously in the new energy vehicle market for the next two to three years. Given the current chaotic situation, Weilai must do its best to break free from this predicament and focus on development.

"Okay, I'll go and make the arrangements right away."

On May 20, Tan Jincheng, Chairman of Weilai Group, sent an internal email to all employees, formally formulating a company-wide strategy of "new energy-led, technology-driven, and rational competition," requiring the entire company to address the upcoming market competition based on this strategy.

The email to all employees contained a lot of information, including calls to increase R&D investment in areas such as the three-electric system (battery, motor, and electronic control), intelligent driving, intelligent cockpit, and electronic and electrical architecture, adhere to multiple parallel technology routes, and actively explore alternative fuel routes such as green methanol to ensure technological leadership and market adaptability.

We will concentrate our efforts on tackling next-generation key technologies such as ultra-fast charging, solid-state batteries, high-performance computing chips, and the integration of AI large-scale models into vehicles, striving to achieve breakthrough progress.

Under the premise of rational market competition, Tan Jincheng put forward higher requirements for the R&D team and the marketing team, and also put forward new requirements for suppliers and colleagues in various departments.

This internal email to all employees appeared on the internet in just one day, triggering a series of chain reactions. Some curious onlookers dubbed Tan Jincheng's internal email the "Ningbo Declaration".

Increasing investment in research and development and focusing on next-generation technologies represent WIL's vision for the future. Rational competition means that WIL will not actively get involved in public opinion, nor will it engage in unsustainable price reductions that would deplete its market share.

The idea of ​​prioritizing new energy vehicles is easy to understand; it means that in the future, Weilai will favor new energy vehicles in its product planning and user experience.

"While other car companies are still busy with verbal battles, Weilai is already focusing on the future."

The company email mentioned the term 2026 several times, which shows Weilai's confidence. Indeed, except for January and February when the overall sales volume was less than 20, Weilai's sales volume increased significantly starting in March.

For Weilai, there has never been a slow season in the market in recent years. Taking specific models as an example, the L series maintains an absolute dominant position in the range-extended electric vehicle market. The E series, which is also high-end, can not achieve the same absolute dominance as the L series, but its overall sales are quite average.

There are no blockbuster products, but every single one is a passable or even excellent work. The whole series is like a hexagonal warrior, leaving no room for criticism, which is quite impressive.

The high-volume Exeed series, especially the Star Wish series which has consistently held the top sales position across the entire brand, has left all A0-class sedans, including BYD, and even A-class sedans feeling hopeless.

Based on their internal experience and the conclusions drawn from disassembling the vehicle, this model, released in 2023, will remain a top-tier pure electric vehicle even in 2025 without a generational change.

The limited-time starting price of 6.58 yuan has long ended, but the Star Wish, which returned to a starting price of 6.98 yuan, is still selling very well.

As the top-selling vehicle across all categories, Exeed Wish achieved cumulative sales of over 165,000 units from January to April this year, with sales exceeding 50,000 units in March alone. Since its official delivery, Wish has delivered over 380,000 units in just 13 months.

With a technological advantage of more than two years ahead, it has crushed the entire A0-class sedan market.

To put it simply, so far, in the A0-class sedan market, apart from the facelifted Wuling Bingo, only JAC has released a new car in the past five months, and Geely is the only company with plans for new cars in this segment throughout the year.

When a racing track only plans to release a mere three new cars a year, doesn't that demonstrate its advantage?
"That's what you call truly being far ahead!"

(End of this chapter)