2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 986 "The Advantage Lies With Me"

P.S.: I have a recommendation today. If you have any votes, could you please vote for it to make the data look better?

"Old Hu, has Old Lei contacted you privately?"

It's been over a week since Lei Jun left Ningbo, and November is already over. The weather in Ningbo is getting colder and colder. I don't know if it's just psychological, but the weather this year seems much colder than usual.

The car market saw a V-shaped recovery in the second half of the year, with domestic new energy vehicles performing exceptionally well in November. Total sales across the country exceeded 20 units in a single month, setting a new sales record for new energy vehicles.

Popular models such as the Weilai L1, ET5, and ES3 are not only breaking sales records but also appearing at the top of various sales charts.

The L1 continues to sell very well, while the ET5 continues to break its own export records, still targeting the European market, which shows that the ET5 is becoming increasingly popular in the European market.

Of course, it is also related to the ongoing chip shortage. Some production lines at several Volkswagen factories continue to be shut down, while sales in the German market are rising. Due to the chip shortage, some regular models have to be suspended, with priority given to Porsche models, resulting in delivery delays or production limitations for some models.

Also affected are many well-known automakers, including Honda and Daimler. Honda's North American factories have extended their shutdown period, which has left a good sales window for the export models of Weilai.

The advantages brought by stockpiling chips fully materialized at the end of the year, putting Tan Jincheng in a very good mood.

In addition to forcing major automakers to embark on the path of self-developed chips, the chip shortage has also accelerated the reshuffling of the industry. Under the chip shortage, automakers with weak risk resistance will find it more difficult to survive, and industry resources have begun to tilt towards leading automakers with well-established supply chains, thus promoting the increase in market concentration.

In the future, the car companies that will survive will be those that prioritize supply chain security and technological self-reliance and control. Only such car companies will have the foundation for sustainable development.

Hu Zhengnan was taken aback by his boss's question: "President Lei? What does President Lei want with me in private?"

"Oh, so the boss is worried about him poaching people, right? I don't have any here, but I have heard that quite a few employees in the institute have received calls from headhunters recently."

Many car companies, large and small, claim to have their own research institutes, but in reality, only about ten can truly qualify as such. These ten companies each have their own strengths due to their different research directions.

Therefore, it is difficult to simply judge which company is the strongest. However, in terms of employee size, BYD definitely has the most, with a research and development team of over 3.5 people, which is the largest in the country.

Secondly, Geely Research Institute has a total of 1.3 R&D personnel, ranking third in the country in terms of total number of employees.

The R&D team, comprised of over 10,000 designers and engineers from more than ten different countries, covers multiple fields including automotive, electronics, materials, and systems. They have accumulated considerable technical expertise in battery technology, new energy vehicle manufacturing, and the three-electric system, and possess a substantial number of patents.

The Weilai Research Institute, which has the shortest establishment time, invests substantial funds in technological research and development every year. Apart from operating costs such as taxes, Weilai invests almost all of its annual profits in technological research and development.

To be honest, Tan Jincheng didn't really make much money from You Weilai. What he received was mostly dividends from the capital market. However, compared to the funds he invested in the ByteDance stock market rescue a few years ago and the funds he personally invested, almost all of these dividends were lost.

Of course, that's not how it works; it was just a joke.

Tan Jincheng chuckled: "Old Lei said he wanted to visit our research institute. Based on what I know of him, he's definitely up to no good. I'm sure he's the one who brought all these headhunters here."

Lei Jun wanted to visit the Wei Lai Research Institute. Even if he guessed that the guy had ulterior motives, he had no reason to refuse him. This was a normal business interaction, and even a direct competitor would not turn away a customer.

Tan Jincheng was worried about his staff being poached on a large scale, so he had people keeping an eye on him recently.

“There are only a few research institutes in China that can be considered research institutes. The state-owned enterprises certainly wouldn’t dare to make any big moves, so our domestic brands are the first choice. This is not exactly a new thing.”

Hu Zhengnan also laughed. Xiaomi denies that it is building cars, but people in the industry know that they have actually been preparing for it for a long time and the team is being built. It is inevitable that they will poach people from major OEMs.

"Boss, you had the HR department re-sign everyone's contracts a few months ago, just to keep an eye on General Manager Lei, right?"

"That's right, we're keeping an eye on him. Everyone says I'm dishonest, but compared to this guy, I'm actually quite decent. By the way, don't let him fool you. Wei Lai still needs you, so let's work together."

In front of his own people, Tan Jincheng had nothing to deny.

Ordinary technical talents, or even engineering talents, are not difficult to recruit. Although the contracts were renewed, Wei Lai did not make the contract terms too harsh. He mainly retained talents by improving their benefits.

We're all just working people; it's perfectly normal for us to follow whoever offers the best pay, and there's nothing wrong with that.

However, in the new contracts that Wei Lai signed with the core members of the technical team, he also added some restrictive clauses. Apart from that, he mainly increased their compensation, such as for technological breakthroughs and patents achieved through collaboration on a certain project.

Before commercialization, a bonus will be awarded. After commercialization, the team will also be able to enjoy the benefits brought by their research and development results, such as authorship rights and profit sharing, which will be greatly enhanced.

This proactive approach to improving team compensation has been widely praised throughout the company and has also boosted morale.

Of course, if someone still wants to leave under these circumstances, the company can only wish them well. As long as they don't betray the company's interests, everyone should part ways amicably.

However, if the company's interests are truly betrayed, Tan Jincheng is not someone to be trifled with. A powerful company must have a very strong legal team. If such a situation occurs, Tan Jincheng will absolutely not be soft-hearted. This kind of thing has happened before.

"Boss, I don't know how to answer what you're saying. I don't have any plans to resign for the time being, so you don't need to worry."

Hu Zhengnan was speechless for a moment, but what the boss said made sense. If Xiaomi wanted to build good cars, it certainly couldn't rely on Lei Jun's influence alone. It also needed a technically savvy person to take charge.

Just like Zhang Yong when Weilai was first established, Tan Jincheng is the soul of Weilai, while Zhang Yong is its foundation.

Thinking about it this way, he is indeed suitable for Xiaomi's car manufacturing project, and the boss's question was not wrong.

At their level, it's really hard to persuade them to join by simply offering money or equity benefits. Zhang Yong is worth billions, and Hu Zhengnan is no less so. They've made more money from Wei Lai than they could spend in several lifetimes.

More than anything, it's about making a new choice in career development. Zhang Yong wanted to go out and try his luck, and that's the reason.

"A person with high emotional intelligence would say that they have new pursuits, while a person with low emotional intelligence would say that once they have money, they start to act recklessly. For example, when my foreign trade business was doing well, I wanted to get into two-wheeled electric vehicles, and after that, I wanted to get into four-wheeled vehicles."

"Yes, all living organisms are essentially the same; the differences lie only in the specific details."

"Let's assume that if Mr. Lei really invites you to join Xiaomi, what would you choose? Don't worry, if you really have the idea of ​​joining, I will treat you the same way I treated Mr. Zhang."

Since the matter had already been brought up, Tan Jincheng didn't mind having an open and honest discussion with Hu Zhengnan about the topic.

It seems that Hu Zhengnan's joining Xiaomi in his previous life was going to be next year. Tan Jincheng doesn't know exactly how Lei Jun persuaded Hu Zhengnan, but from an operational point of view, it should have been quite difficult, or rather, the two sides should have had an unpleasant experience.

In the early stages, Hu Zhengnan did not directly join Xiaomi, but rather served as a partner at Shunwei Capital and an advisor to Lei Jun, participating in Xiaomi's car manufacturing plan indirectly rather than joining directly.

This is actually quite rare. Although there are so-called competition agreements, people of their status and level generally don't set up too many obstacles.

Just like when Wang Fengying joined Weilai, Changcheng was also very quick to let her go. Everyone here is a prominent figure, so there was no need to go through all this trouble.

"Let's assume something. Let me think about it."

Hu Zhengnan began to organize his thoughts. Born in 1975, he would be considered a young and middle-aged man in any other company. It was only because the boss was so young that they, a group of people born in the 1970s, seemed a bit "old".

But they are all in their prime, so it's impossible that they haven't considered their future career plans.

“I have been in the automotive industry for over 20 years. I have worked in state-owned enterprises and private enterprises, and I have also started my own business. I have seen all kinds of business models. My career reached its peak in Weilai.”

"Logically speaking, if someone like Mr. Zhang were to join a new energy vehicle brand with their reputation and experience the internet-based car manufacturing industry, it would indeed be a great experience."

Tan Jincheng poured Hu Zhengnan a cup of tea without interrupting his narration.

Such heart-to-heart talks between executives have become increasingly rare in the development of Weilai. Tan Jincheng often wondered if he would not have joined Nezha if he had had such heart-to-heart talks with Zhang Yong earlier.
Upon joining Weilai, the boss entrusted him with important responsibilities, appointing him as vice president and chief engineer of projects such as ES8 and L1, driving the development of Weilai's pure electric vehicle project. Later, he took over as president of Weilai Research Institute, participating in the development of Weilai's first-generation modular architecture and architecture for intelligent electric vehicles.

Now, he is also involved in the development of the Weilai integrated intelligent chassis and vehicle-machine integration. It can be said that he has been fully entrusted with the control of the technology, which shows that he is highly trusted.

"I have indeed thought about my career planning, and joining a new force would certainly be a good choice, but I don't have that idea at the moment."

After saying that, Hu Zhengnan smiled and looked at Tan Jincheng.

Tan Jincheng smiled and said, "Tell me the reason."

"The reason is that Mr. Zhang and I have different pursuits. Mr. Zhang seems to have the idea of ​​transforming into a capital market, but I still want to conduct more in-depth research in technology. Currently, our technology research and development direction is very much in line with my taste."

Manufacturing electric vehicles can be difficult in some ways, but it can also be very simple. As the boss said, it's nothing more than a battery, some casing, and a few other components.

Weilai already possesses integrated die-casting technology, offering unique advantages in multiple dimensions such as cost reduction, efficiency improvement, performance enhancement, and process simplification. These advantages alone have brought significant benefits to Weilai. For instance, in current high-end models, all components have been replaced with integrated die-cast parts. Through simulation, the overall vehicle structure has been directly optimized, shortening the development cycle to 1 to 1.5 years.

Although it has increased the cost of car ownership for consumers, it has also brought many benefits. The ET5 and ES3, produced using integrated die-casting technology, are very popular in Europe.

Having tasted the benefits, they will naturally want to try this integrated, modular technology in other areas as well.

In addition to vehicle models, Weilai is currently developing two other core projects. The first is an integrated intelligent chassis, which is designed around the battery and uses battery-to-chassis integration technology to directly integrate the battery cells into the chassis, achieving structural sharing with the chassis.

One chassis architecture, a hundred different car models, similar to assembling building blocks.

We can try the chassis and battery, so why not try the vehicle infotainment chip? This is the second major project of Weilai, the central integrated electronic and electrical architecture, which realizes a central integrated supercomputing through a chip solution of 1 SOC + 1 MCU.

These two major projects are collectively referred to as the "Building Block Project" within Weilai. Once these two projects achieve significant technological breakthroughs, coupled with the already realized integrated die-casting technology, then future cars will truly be able to be assembled piece by piece, like building blocks.

Modular design, versatile models, and extremely short R&D cycles will make car manufacturing simpler and simpler. How can those who pursue technology not look forward to this?

"Didn't you ever think about becoming capital?"

Tan Jincheng could understand Hu Zhengnan's pursuit, but he was still curious about Hu Zhengnan's views on capital. As he said, Zhang Yong's departure from Weilai was due to career planning reasons, but it could not be ruled out that he wanted to become a capital player.

Often, whether it's entrepreneurs or professional managers, they can't really be considered capital. This was true from the earliest Jack Ma, Pony Ma, Lei Jun, and Tan Jincheng. For a long time, these people had to be at the mercy of capital.

FlashTech's record for the fastest IPO in China has its own reasons, but there are also factors that appeal to capital. There was no other way; at that time, Tan Jincheng was short of money and needed capital support, so FlashTech, which had the fastest monetization ability, became a bargaining chip.

However, things change once entrepreneurs become capital.

Although Zhang Yongzai has a net worth of tens of billions in Weilai, he is still a professional manager by profession. To put it bluntly, he is just a high-level employee. As long as he is in Weilai, no matter how much his net worth increases, it will never become capital.

Because Tan Jincheng is behind him, no investor would choose to cooperate with him, thus eliminating that possibility.

Hu Zhengnan laughed and said, "Just like ordinary employees pursue financial freedom, not lacking money, and being able to work when they want and rest when they want, becoming capital is certainly a great temptation, but at my current level, I can't reach that level, so I won't dream about it."

He was involved in technology, which was much more behind the scenes than Zhang Yong. If Wei hadn't asked the executives to open social media accounts, very few people would have known him. It was much more difficult for him to become a capital investor than for Zhang Yong.

"Okay, I got it. Also, keep an eye on the personnel changes at the research institute. Don't let Lao Lei really poach them all. We've trained them for so long, we can't let him benefit from it all."

Ironically, after leaving Ningbo, Lei Jun didn't go straight back to Beijing. Instead, he went to Taizhou, which is also in Zhejiang Province, where the headquarters of Geely Research Institute is located.

With a series of visits to leading domestic car manufacturers, Xiaomi is making increasingly big moves in the car manufacturing sector.

"Okay, I'll keep an eye on it; by the way, boss, what do you think of our joint procurement plan with Xiaomi and Xiaopeng?"

As the head of technology research and development, Hu Zhengnan was more concerned about the development team's stability than Tan Jincheng, as this would affect the project's progress, especially in the development of Exeed's first model.

The Building Blocks Project is a research and development project that will last for several years. Currently, the top priority project is the development of the Exeed S01, while Volkswagen has already launched a new energy vehicle priced at 25 yuan.

This price might not seem like much to consumers, but for price-sensitive console manufacturers, it represents a completely different story.

Joint venture brands, once considered high-end, are now actively embracing the new energy vehicle market priced below 30 yuan.

The Exeed needs to be launched as quickly as possible to gain a foothold in the market segment between 10 and 20 yuan.

Tan Jincheng shook his head: "President Lei is shrewd; he won't agree so easily."

Unlike Xiaopeng, He Xiaopeng, although it did not have the experience of being collectively misled by its executives, still has relatively high procurement costs due to its weak brand power. Now that it has gone public and car sales have increased, cost reduction has become one of its top priorities.

Otherwise, the losses will only get bigger and bigger, and it will be difficult to explain to the capital market. Although it will lose some autonomy by purchasing parts together with Weilai, it is definitely more beneficial than harmful to Xiaopeng Motors at this stage.

Therefore, Xiaopeng will not have much resistance to the joint procurement, since they don't have much say in the supply chain anyway.

Lei Jun's idea was obviously different. Xiaomi's brand influence was far superior to that of Xiaopeng. Although they hadn't even produced a car model yet, the Xiaomi car manufacturing team had no idea about the specific sales figures.

However, based on the current leading companies in the new energy vehicle sector, benchmarking against Xiaomi in car manufacturing is definitely not a problem.

Starting ahead of Xiaomi, Lei Jun certainly doesn't want to lose his voice. If all else fails, they can just follow the same approach they used when Xiaomi produced its first generation. The environment will be much better than it was back then.

Whether Lei Jun agrees or not will not have much impact on Tan Jincheng. He has promised to provide them with a stable supply of parts within his own system. The level of supply will definitely be one level lower than that of Tesla, but it can be guaranteed to be on par with the supply level of the leading new energy vehicle companies.

Business must go on. Lei Jun has made it clear that he will purchase batteries and battery management systems from Jinshidai. As for whether they will be the exclusive supplier, that remains to be seen.

Tan Jincheng has also connected him with a group of new energy suppliers in Ningbo, such as Top, LKK, Haitian, Joyson, and Xushen, etc. Whether he can negotiate a discount depends on himself.

That said, Ningbo is truly a "lucky place" when it comes to the supply of new energy vehicle components, with many large domestic core suppliers gathered here.

"That's true. If they disagree, they disagree. It won't have a big impact on us. It will be two or three years before their cars are released."

Tan Jincheng thought so too. Based on Weilai’s current R&D investment and progress, two or three years of planning would be enough to create a significant advantage, in addition to the fact that the “Weilai Group” of new power brands is also growing well.

The advantage is mine.

"By the way, how's the development of Zhidou's new model going?"

From January to November, the total sales volume of new energy vehicles in China reached 110.9 million units. It is a certainty that the annual sales volume will exceed 1.3 million units, and the annual sales volume of major car companies can be basically calculated.

Weilai is expected to maintain its number one position in annual sales, but compared to the two dark horses this year, it is not dazzling enough, or rather, it is a bit lukewarm.

Of the two dark horses, Tesla's Model 3 is nothing to write home about, but the other dark horse, Wuling Hongguang MINI EV, is quite enviable.

In November alone, sales exceeded 33,000 units, with an expected annual sales volume of 130,000 units. The positioning of "People's Car" is incredibly precise. Currently, the target customer groups include recent college graduates, young men and women who have been working for one or two years, those who need a second car for their families, and even the elderly who use it for leisure and commuting after retirement.

It can be said that Wuling almost single-handedly revived the A00-class market, which had cooled down in the previous two years.

"We need to hurry up. Let's learn from Lei Jun and try our hand at the A00 market."

In this regard, Great Wall Motors has already taken the lead. This year, they released the new ORA Black Cat, and its sales in November also increased significantly. Regardless of how much a car costs, the actual sales figures are truly impressive.

Most importantly, the large sales base is conducive to brand promotion and support for technological research and development.

Imagine if the Hongguang MINI EV sold over 100,000 units annually; if it were under the Weilai brand, Weilai could become the world's first new energy vehicle brand with annual sales of 400,000 to 500,000 units.

It's not just Exeed that needs to accelerate the launch of new models; Zhidou also needs to speed up its development.

P.S.: I recommend a new book by a fellow author. It just came out and is about Korean entertainment. Readers who are interested can check it out.

　After his rebirth, Han Shujun only wanted to write a few blockbuster dramas to make a good living.

　　Until he met...

　　"S, do you think the pose in the photo I sent you looks good?"

　　“Oppa, there are a few difficult scenes in the filming, I want to act them out with you in person…”

　　"Shujun-xi, can I come to your house tonight to discuss the script?"

　　……

　　Years later, Han Shujun discovered that everything he had today originated from a strange, secret message.

　　(hy, multiple female leads)

　　
　
(End of this chapter)