2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 1084 "Let's Pay Our Respects Too"

"Are we really going to adopt a contraction strategy?"

Another year has passed since the Guangzhou Auto Show. The arrival of the Guangzhou Auto Show means that another year is almost over. For car companies, the Guangzhou Auto Show has a significance of carrying on the past and opening up the future, and their enthusiasm for participation is still quite high.

In the past two years, joint venture brands have become less and less enthusiastic about participating in auto shows, and most of those that do participate have reduced their spending. Auto shows seem to have become a stage for domestic brands to showcase themselves.

Tan Jincheng could understand this. In October, the retail share of domestic brands had risen to 65.7%, while that of German brands had fallen to 15.8%. Given the poor sales, it was normal for car companies to cut expenses.

Each auto show is a showcase of technological innovation, and also a microcosm of the reshuffling of car companies.

"Not really, just trying to play it safe."

Tan Jincheng has a strange feeling about exhibitions in Guangzhou. Although his business is in the Yangtze River Delta, it started in Guangzhou. Even though the Canton Fair has declined, some of his companies still insist on participating, and the Guangzhou International Auto Show is no exception.

This year's Guangzhou Auto Show saw the company book an entire exhibition hall to debut the ET9, with major brands showcasing their latest battery technologies, smart cockpits, and intelligent driving systems.

In October, Weilai achieved sales of 50 new energy vehicles in a single month, continuing to break the global sales record for new energy vehicles. Booking an entire exhibition hall seemed more like a way of showcasing its strength.

In the course of business operations, businesses sometimes need to undertake certain facade projects.

"It's good to stabilize things; it'll give us old guys a way to make a living."

At the ET9 booth, Boatman, Comfortable Guy, and Tan Jincheng, known as the new traditional trio, were chatting around the ET9. Comfortable Guy's words seemed to have a hidden meaning. Their A0-class sedan, released this year, did not make a big splash in the market, but it sold quite well.

Geely's new energy vehicle sales this year mainly come from three major series: Galaxy, JIK, and Lynk & Co. Among them, the Galaxy series, with its strategy of high quality and high price, has quickly captured the market and accounts for 55.6% of the overall new energy vehicle sales.

The E5, E8, and Starship 7 are all best-selling models in the Galaxy series. The E8, developed in cooperation with Weilai, is quite competitive, provided that the production capacity of the large screen is optimized and the early deliveries are stabilized. Combined with Weilai's advanced intelligent driving experience, this car is quite competitive as long as the delivery can keep up.

Currently, E8's monthly sales are maintained between 8000 and 10,000 units, with a delivery cycle of within four weeks. In the future, with the addition of new large screen suppliers, E8 may be able to reach monthly sales of 15,000 units.

"That's right, let's take a break too."

Boatman chuckled, ignoring Shufu's veiled criticism. The entire Ocean Network strategy had been shattered by Weilai's Xingtu brand, which, to be honest, was a severe blow to the morale of all the managers, including himself.

However, it has been more than a year now. Although he is still being suppressed, he has long since recovered emotionally and can now remain calm in the face of such subtle mockery.

In the past year or so, I've heard all sorts of ridicule.

"My two uncles are teasing me again. We've developed too fast and been a bit too aggressive in the last few years. It's necessary for us to settle down and reflect."

Compared to the Shanghai Auto Show in April, the Guangzhou Auto Show at the end of the year was less popular, but there were still many highlights, such as the competition among the million-dollar luxury cars: the Weilai ET9, Yangwang U7, and Hongyan S800.

The former two were open for hands-on experience, while the Hongyan S800 was unveiled with a black cloth enclosure, employing a mystery marketing strategy. So far, all four models of the Hongyan series have been showcased, making it one of the highlights of the Guangzhou Auto Show.

In addition, the battle for popularity between Dazui and Lei Jun was also full of highlights. Dazui appeared with the 4 Series, while Lei Jun appeared with his SU 7 Ultra, with a pre-sale price of 814,900 yuan. 3680 units were pre-ordered in 10 minutes.

It has to be said that Lei Jun's traffic is really high and his product marketing ability is really strong. Netizens jokingly call him Xiaomi's number one salesman, which is absolutely true. With the pre-sale price of this thing, he can generate 30 billion yuan in sales in just 10 minutes.

Lei Jun took Su Bingtian to the auto show, while Yu Dazui teamed up with the CEO of Chery for a live broadcast. Both companies were hotspots for traffic, vying for the spotlight during the auto show. Lei Jun still likes to visit other companies. No sooner had Boatman and Shufu left than he arrived with Su Bingtian.

"Mr. Tan, congratulations on setting another record, and congratulations on the launch of the new ET9."

It's perfectly normal to describe Lei Jun as beaming with joy. In October, the delivery volume of the SU7 exceeded 20,000 units. With such a high starting price as the Ultra, it has still secured so many orders, which shows how successful its product planning is.

The popularity of the SU7 has had a significant impact on Xiaomi, extending beyond just car sales. Xiaomi, a master of marketing, leveraged this momentum to sell a wide range of products across its ecosystem, and even sparked competition in the air conditioning market.

Recently, the conflict between Xiaomi and Gree has been ongoing, and the old grievances between him and Ms. Dong have been brought up again. The escalation of the conflict between the two companies is actually caused by changes in market share.

Xiaomi's strategy of using cars to drive sales of related ecosystem products has indeed been successful, and the capital market also recognizes this model. In October, most companies' stock prices entered a period of adjustment after experiencing a series of surges, while Xiaomi's stock price continued to rise, with a monthly increase of nearly 20%.

"Not at all, this year is Lei's year, we're just joining in the fun."

In the automotive and technology sectors, 2024 can truly be called the year of Xiaomi. While Lei Jun (Xiaomi's CEO) can occasionally create a lot of buzz, as can other companies, no one can suppress Xiaomi's popularity throughout the year, or rather, no one can suppress Lei Jun's popularity.

However, in Tan Jincheng's view, this approach of concentrating the company on one person's IP is also very risky. If the product quality cannot keep up, it will be very dangerous once the reputation collapses.

Xiaomi is a supply chain company with strong supply chain integration capabilities. However, companies in the supply chain also have profit needs. Given Xiaomi's style, it's hard to say whether the product competitiveness of its subsequent models can keep up.

The argument that Xiaomi, as a first-time car manufacturer, doesn't know how to cut corners seems plausible, but it also reveals that cutting corners is already commonplace in the car industry. Can Xiaomi uphold its original intention in car manufacturing?

Furthermore, is its investment in research and development truly keeping pace with the current development of automobiles?

From 2020 to 2024, over five calendar years, Xiaomi's cumulative R&D expenditure was 816 billion yuan. It sounds like a lot, but when averaged out, it's only about 163 billion yuan per year, which has to be spread across industries such as mobile phones, home appliances, and automobiles.

Oh, right, and there's also the so-called chip. Their R&D investment is really appalling. Tesla, which Lei Jun admires the most, invests 10% of its revenue in R&D every year, averaging about 320 billion yuan per year. This is the foundation for the sustained strength of its products.

This applies to companies like Wynn, BYD, Chrysanthemum, and Geely. More investment doesn't necessarily mean more advanced technology, but for large conglomerates with diverse businesses, more investment means more trial and error, increasing the probability of success.

"Not at all, your company is doing much better."

The unveiling of the all-new ET9 has diverted a significant amount of attention from luxury cars priced in the millions. While pre-orders haven't yet opened, the ET9's cutting-edge technology and the application of its own high-end chip have generated considerable anticipation among some users.

Of course, for the core selling points that million-dollar luxury car users care about most, such as space and privacy, and in-car conferencing systems, the ET9, which was open for experience at this auto show, received good reviews.

However, since Weilai has already announced the price in advance, there's no rush for pre-sales. Giving users more time to experience the product and allowing them to understand it better is actually better.

When will pre-orders begin?

At the event, Lei Jun also symbolically experienced the ET9, and they exchanged compliments.

"Pre-sales will begin after the press conference."

The interview with Liu Yifei during the National Day holiday was just a warm-up for the ET9. This flagship model still needs a formal launch event to let users better understand the various configurations and selling points of the vehicle.

The press conference is scheduled for the 25th, after the Guangzhou Auto Show ends. When pre-sales begin, users can also make an appointment to experience the ET9 at the Weilai offline store. All subsequent arrangements have been made.

尉来ET9的发布会安排在11月25日，而菊花的S800发布会则安排在11月26日，说起来还挺有意思的。

One company played it transparent, the other played it mysterious; they held press conferences one after the other, a very well coordinated approach.

"Okay, then I wish you great success."

After spending some time at Weilai's exhibition area, Lei Jun brought a large group of people to Xiaopeng's exhibition area. If you were to ask who was the busiest person at the auto shows in the past two years, it would definitely be him.

Tan Jincheng smiled and responded. He didn't plan to visit other exhibitors today, but instead intended to stay at the ET9 exhibition area a little longer. The ET9 launch was just a simple pre-launch event, without any large-scale publicity.

However, it received praise from RM Daily for being independently controllable, having a core and soul, and being the first domestic and only one of only two models in the world to apply steer-by-wire technology. The news broadcast even gave it a few seconds of screen time.

Today, some well-known figures will be here to experience the event, including some from the G-side, who is in charge of receiving them.

Lei Jun smiled, seemed to want to say something but hesitated, and ultimately left without saying anything.

Tan Jincheng roughly knew what he was going to ask. Since October, companies such as ByteDance and Weilai Group had been quietly disposing of their assets. For example, Jinxin Times had begun to reduce its holdings in upstream companies and begin to scale back its upstream layout.

ByteDance's fund management company has also made some changes to its stock holdings. Although it hasn't been publicized, it has still attracted some attention in the secondary market. As a seasoned investor, Lei Jun naturally noticed this as well. ByteDance will no longer hold large amounts of Xiaomi stock in this valuation cycle. He actually wanted to gather information and sound out Tan Jincheng's opinion, but unfortunately, it seems he won't have that opportunity today.

With such a busy schedule, if I don't find an opportunity today, I might not have one at all.

Xiaomi is quite different from Leapmotor, another company invested in by Tan Jincheng. In this share reduction plan, Leapmotor is not included due to previous commitments.

Unbeknownst to many, Leapmotor, a previously unknown brand, has topped the sales charts among new energy vehicle startups for eight consecutive months. Its sales in October have already exceeded 38,000 units, and it is highly likely that it will break the 40,000 mark in November.

As of October this year, Leapmotor's annual sales have exceeded 20 vehicles, and the total sales for the year are expected to reach 30 vehicles. Considering the promotional efforts in the last two months of the year, the total sales for the year should reach at least 28 vehicles.

The "Golden September and Silver October" of 2024 was quite impressive. From the early setbacks of the S01 to the rapid transformation to range-extended electric vehicles, Leapmotor, with its half-price range-extended electric vehicles, saw its sales increase rapidly and ultimately achieved a comeback victory.

Most importantly, according to Leapmotor's announcement, it will achieve its first profit in Q4. With self-developed technology, precise positioning, and resource integration, Leapmotor has achieved a comeback from a latecomer to a leading player.

Since it no longer has ideals, Leapmotor is the second new energy vehicle company to achieve profitability and is doing better and better. The first company to achieve profitability was Seres.

In the end, it all comes down to range extenders.

Among the emerging electric vehicle manufacturers, Leapmotor and Xiaomi Motors represent two completely different models. Xiaomi is primarily driven by marketing, and since its inception, it has been accompanied by a huge traffic halo, engaging in various marketing campaigns and creating a buzz every day. Any keyword can trigger a surge in traffic.

Whether it can boost sales is another matter, but at least it's common knowledge.

Leapmotor, on the other hand, operates on a completely different model. Leapmotor was founded in 2015 and was extremely low-key before its sales surged. Before this year, it was practically unknown.

Leapmotor's stock performance in October was not good, entering a period of adjustment similar to the A-share market. However, the fact that it was able to achieve profitability in the fourth quarter is still very good, especially for major shareholders like Tan Jincheng, which can be considered great news.

The reason why he was able to reduce his holdings in Xiaopeng Motors, Wenjie Motors, and Xiaomi Motors was because he caught a good time. However, the reason why he could not reduce his holdings in Leapmotor was that it was able to achieve profitability and self-sufficiency, so the pressure on these shareholders was much less.

Amidst a full-blown price war and a technology war, Leapmotor has achieved success by winning through volume, managing to turn a profit with a gross profit margin of only 8.4%. Leapmotor's success is truly remarkable.

Throughout October, major automakers performed very well in the new energy vehicle sector. Weilai achieved sales of over 50 vehicles, and other automakers also achieved good results. Weilai's previous reward program and the trade-in policy initiated by it led to other automakers responding in kind, which boosted car consumption to some extent.

Take Geely as an example. In October this year, Geely's sales of new energy vehicles exceeded 10 units for the first time, showing a significant growth rate.

The only leading company facing immense pressure is probably BYD. Geely, which learned from BYD's experience, has further squeezed BYD's living space after it grew up. With pressure from the front and pursuit from traditional car companies such as Geely and Changan, BYD is finding it increasingly difficult.

However, compared to the risk of bankruptcy in 2010, things are much better. By constantly adjusting its product strategy, BYD has no hope of challenging for the top spot in the world in the short term, but it is doing quite well.

After the Ocean series crashed, the Dynasty series became a market that BYD could not afford to lose. The Qin series, which started at 7.98 yuan and crashed the price of gasoline cars, boosted the sales of the entire series. Now BYD has begun to focus its main efforts on the Dynasty series.

As long as they adjust their mindset, BYD remains a car company that cannot be ignored, and it can still guarantee a place among the top three global new energy vehicle manufacturers.

"Welcome everyone to the NIO ET9 launch event. It's been a long time, and I've missed you all very much."

On November 25th at 7:30 PM, the launch event for the new Weilai ET9 was held in Guangzhou.

Tan Jincheng, president of Weilai Group, once again personally gave a speech, which was broadcast live across the entire network. With the pre-event promotion starting during the National Day holiday, the popularity was still very high. In the current automotive industry, if Lei Jun is the highest traffic, then Yu Chengdong and Tan Jincheng are among the top three.

"I've rarely hosted new car launches in recent years, and some people may be wondering if I'm planning to retire. Let me address that here: retirement is still a long way off."

Tan Jincheng's style leans towards humor, completely different from Lei Jun's storytelling style and Yu Zheng's technical style. He usually uses a teasing tone to narrate his press conferences; of course, this teasing is only directed at himself and Wei Zilai.

"As everyone knows, I didn't go to university, and neither did our CEO. So we have to keep a low profile, study hard, and keep up with industry trends. That's why we've reduced some of our public appearances."

Tan Jincheng's self-deprecating remark caused a burst of laughter from the audience.

Weilai is an atypical company. Its founder and CEO both have only a high school diploma, which is something that would be impossible in any large company. Yet, this has been achieved in Weilai. And it is precisely these two high school graduates who have led the new energy vehicle industry.

The president's style is relatively mild, but the CEO is different. In the last two years, things have been better, but a few years ago, the CEO dared to scold anyone he could get his hands on, and was once regarded as "uncivilized", which was a great spectacle of the Internet.

“I previously said that Weilai Auto might not launch a model priced above 50 yuan, nor did it have any plans for a million-yuan luxury car. The ET9 is a complete slap in the face to that statement. Let me explain here.”

"To be honest, our competitors performed too well. BYD and Chrysanthemum's two million-yuan luxury cars put a lot of pressure on us."

"Some users felt that WILAI's high-end image was insufficient, so we used the ET9 to prove that WILAI is a truly high-end brand. Technological equality and a high-end image are not contradictory, hence the creation of the ET9."

It's self-deprecating, yet incredibly domineering.

Competition for high-end brand image is becoming increasingly fierce. BYD's "Look Up" series and the high-end image of Chrysanthemum have affected Weilai's image among high-end brands to some extent. Although it does not have a significant impact on sales at present, it adds up, and no one knows whether Weilai will be squeezed out of the domestic high-end market by these two companies one day in the future.

"Here, I would also like to pay tribute to Mr. Lei and to BYD and Huawei. It is their excellence that has enabled us to always stay focused on technological innovation. Thank you to our outstanding partners."

Another burst of laughter followed. After so many salutes, everyone had become numb to it. There was a hint of mockery in Tan Jincheng's words, but no one really cared. Everyone knew this was a perfectly normal thing.

"In any industry, benchmarking seems to be the theme of major press conferences. However, I want to say that the newly launched Weilai ET9 does not benchmark against any product, because we have many cutting-edge technologies and the world's most advanced electric vehicle-related technologies."

"The ET9 is the best model that WILAY has made so far. It is WILAY's technological flagship, the culmination of Jinshidai's new era battery technology, and a breakthrough for WILAY in range-extended electric vehicle technology."

"If we're talking about benchmarking, then it's about price. In terms of price, we've benchmarked ourselves against the traditional BBA (BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi) prices."

The theme of this press conference was self-deprecation and domineering, showcasing technological confidence in a domineering way. There was a certain degree of exaggeration involved, but as Tan Jincheng said, this is indeed the best model that Weilai has produced so far.

Unlike others, Tan Jincheng doesn't like applying immature technologies to products. For example, with the ET9, Weilai could have easily paired it with its own semi-solid-state battery to enhance its selling points, but Tan Jincheng ultimately rejected it.

Immature technology, besides posing security risks, also has the suspicion of being a pie in the sky; these days, there aren't many people willing to believe in empty promises.

Although it had been a long time since he had given a speech, Tan Jincheng managed the entire press conference quite well. In an hour and a half, he basically covered everything that needed to be introduced, giving users across the internet a deeper understanding of the Weilai flagship model ET9.

The live stream was still incredibly lively, with discussions about technology, pricing, and Boss Tan's sales pitch scrolling across the screen.

"Starting at 68.8 yuan, that's really not expensive. In my opinion, it's much more cost-effective than the SU7 Ultra. I just don't know how the pre-sale results will be."

To be honest, those in the know understand that Weilai's cars offer better value for money than Xiaomi's cars. In terms of configuration parameters and intelligent driving features, the basic version of the SU7 is even inferior to the high-end version of the Exeed S01.

The price difference between the two is so small that you could even buy another basic version of the Star Wish car with just a little extra money. Moreover, in terms of advanced intelligent driving, Weilai offers a mature version, while Xiaomi's product is not even a semi-finished product.

Comparing the ET9 to the SU7 Ultra might not be appropriate, given their different vehicle attributes, but in terms of price, the new ET9 is clearly more luxurious and offers better value for money.

"As you all know, we briefly launched the ET9 before. At that time, the technology was not very mature, so the product was not ideal. We admit that. The poor sales at that time are proof of that. Here, we would like to express our apologies to the old ET9 users."

"We also considered this when we launched the pre-sale for the original ET9 owners. Existing owners will be able to trade in their old cars for a new ET9 at a discounted price. We will push this information to existing owners when the pre-sale starts."

Back then, ET9's actions could be considered a form of exploitation, mainly because they were too hasty and it triggered some negative public opinion.

Now that Weilai has the capability, it also wants to make some compensation to the old owners of the ET9, since users who can afford this type of car are all big spenders.

This will also help improve pre-sale performance.

"Of course, you can also compare Mr. Yu's performance at the S800 launch event tomorrow and see which of these two models you prefer. You can also compare it with the Yangwang U7, as both models are excellent products."

When it comes to playing tricks, Tan Jincheng is no slouch either. At the Guangzhou Auto Show, the luxury models of the three companies were compared multiple times.

(End of this chapter)