What's wrong with me being a rich man?

Chapter 404 Crossover Trend

In June, the range-extended prototype of the Silicon Carbon Group is finally set to be unveiled in the first week.

This prototype vehicle uses a cage-like body and does not have an integrated die-cast rear floor because the development of ultra-large die-casting machines and heat-free aluminum alloys is still quite slow, making it difficult to provide effective expected milestones.

This situation was somewhat disappointing for Yu Xing, but it was understandable that integrated die casting was a pioneering move in the industry and would not be smooth sailing.

Therefore, the Silicon Carbon Group has prepared two solutions. One is the current cage-type body, which itself has experience from Volvo and belongs to a first-class technology that can provide a sufficiently safe body.

The other option is to add a mass-producible integrated die-casting process for the rear floor, which brings industry-leading standards.

Regarding the future goals of the vehicle body, better materials + better craftsmanship + better structure is a clear development path that can be followed.

"Tsk, it looks... pretty harmonious, huh."

Yu Xing would come and take a look from time to time even before the prototype was fully rolled off the production line, and he thought it looked quite pleasing to the eye.

He stared at the rounded front of the car, and suddenly an adjective popped into his mind—"tiger-headed and tiger-brained."

“Very good.” Design Director Bangle, standing beside him, said in clearly broken Chinese, “Low wind resistance.”

He specifically studied the vocabulary that appeared in his daily work.

Yu Xing nodded slightly, glanced at it a few more times, and ended his reluctant browsing for the day.

Once the engineering design of the prototype vehicle is finalized, the next step is to optimize various aspects, including the front and rear suspensions, collision energy absorption structures, body styling and aerodynamics, interior passenger experience, and so on. The work needs to be further refined.

"Building cars isn't that easy. In that time, I could have almost been killed by Tencent while working on WeChat." Yu Xing casually used this analogy to describe Hu Zhengnan.

Hu Zhengnan, now fully aware of his boss's entrepreneurial history, immediately retorted, "President Yu, that's not how it is. You've already sold WeChat to Alibaba and started researching the new energy industry."

Yu Xing shook his head with emotion, feeling somewhat excited as he watched the prototype car's outline emerge day by day.

However, his excitement didn't last long before he received a call from Jia Yueting, the head of LeEco.

LeEco's senior vice president visited last week, and then there was no further news until today when the boss, Jia Yueting, personally called.

"President Yu, thank you so much for selflessly sharing your car manufacturing experience with Ren Jiasheng. I have benefited greatly just from hearing his account." Jia Yueting was both polite and enthusiastic.

He started with a string of thanks, followed by a series of praises, and finally made an appointment to come to Hong Kong next month to seek in-person guidance.

When Yu Xing received this call, he wasn't particularly emotional. Even when he worked for LeEco "before," he never had any contact with his employer.

He only made one firm and confident statement: "Mr. Jia, you asked me, you came to the right person."

We've found the right person, of course we've found the right person. We're all transitioning from the internet to new energy, what bad intentions could they possibly have?

Of course, we hope that more people will join us in making this market bigger.

However, Yu Xing did not expect that before Jia Yueting of LeEco arrived in Hong Kong, people from the new car manufacturing forces came to visit the Silicon Carbon Group first.

Following LeEco, Xia Heng, the founder of "Orange Auto," also arrived in Lingang, similar to Ren Jiasheng, to observe the new energy projects located in Shanghai.

Xia Heng is a professionally trained engineer, graduating from Tsinghua University with a major in automotive engineering. He previously worked at GAC R&D Center.

It's not surprising that someone like that would want to get involved in new energy.

Yu Xing found the project's name strange, and asked it directly upon their first meeting: "President Xia, why are you making 'Orange Cars'? Is it because you particularly like eating oranges?"

“President Yu, we have Apple for cell phones and Orange for cars,” Xia Heng replied cheerfully. “We brainstormed and thought this was quite energetic and could also reflect our goals. A soldier who doesn’t want to be a general isn’t a good soldier. We really want to be the ‘Apple’ of the automotive industry.”

Yu Xing understood. Okay, the market and brand are built up. If you can really achieve explosive sales, anything is possible.

He could only laugh and say, "If Mr. Xia manages to build the car, then you must make sure the orange paint looks good, make it your signature color, it'll be very eye-catching. Hmm, Mr. Xia, how far has this project progressed? Have you contacted any investors yet?"

“Yes, Mr. Yu, we also think orange is more youthful and fashionable.” Xia Heng paused and said, “We are in contact with a wide range of investors, but the ones we are in contact with now are atypical investors, not professional institutions, but internet companies, such as Li Xueling of YY and He Xiaopeng of UC. They have good investment interest, but they want us to find people first and build a team first.”

Upon hearing this, Yu Xing roughly understood the background of this "Orange Cars".

If He Xiaopeng had invested, it might have been the predecessor of "Xiaopeng Motors." Perhaps he couldn't stand the name and simply named it after himself.

He stated, "Mr. Xia, Silicon Carbon Group absolutely welcomes any team that wants to enter the new energy industry. We have opened up some of our patents and are willing to work with upstream and downstream suppliers to help develop new projects. If your team needs our services, you can contact us directly."

Yu Xing didn't hold onto his knowledge. It's impossible to see the technology of a new project just by glancing at it. The other party mainly came to learn about team building and to absorb the experience and lessons learned from the development of the Silicon Carbon Group from scratch to its current state.

It's good that we can form a connection with the Silicon Carbon Group; perhaps there will be more opportunities for cooperation in the future.

Yu Xing arranged for senior executives to accompany Xia Heng and his group, introducing them to the situation of the Silicon Carbon Group and the investment promotion policies in Lingang.

Just two days after this wave of orange sales ended, another founder of a new car startup called Yu Xing's mobile phone, hoping to come to Lingang to see the development of the Silicon Carbon Group.

"Xiao Zhang, ask Mr. Sun when he'll be available. Mr. Li Bin from Yiche.com wants to come to Hong Kong for an inspection. We should keep him in charge of receiving him." Yu Xing made the arrangements after finishing the call.

Zhang Yangxu was shocked when he heard his boss's words: "Again? President Yu, why are there so many people coming to visit us lately? First LeEco, then Orange, and now Bitauto, what's going on?"

Founded in 2002, Bitauto is an automotive information website and a publicly traded company that went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2010.

Yu Xing thought for two seconds and said, "It's probably because the trend of car manufacturing has blown a little over to the internet sector."

The three companies that have emerged this time are all directly or indirectly powered by the internet.

LeEco sought a new narrative, while Chengzi, like Xia Heng, a traditional automotive professional, keenly observed new industry trends, and Yiche.com, a vertical information website…

Yu Xing heard Li Bin answer his question in person.

“Mr. Yu, I believe there is a market for range-extended vehicles, but I’m just saying this as my opinion, please don’t be angry, Mr. Yu.” Li Bin preemptively made amends, and then continued, “I think Tesla’s pure electric vehicle approach has a broader market, and its route from supercars to affordable cars has almost been successful.”

"If a market like the United States can support the emergence of Tesla, then our large domestic market can certainly provide the same support."

"Taking advantage of the current industrial policies, there is a good chance of transplanting a successful development path," Li Bin said.

Yu Xing was a little surprised, feeling that this person was different from what he remembered, and asked with a smile, "President Li has gone to see Tesla?"

Li Bin shook his head.

Yu Xing was even more surprised: "Since President Li thinks Tesla's approach is worth learning from, shouldn't you go there first to take a look? Why did you come to Lingang first?"

“Mr. Yu, I think it’s enough to grasp his idea. Car manufacturing also needs to be combined with local conditions.” Li Bin said seriously, “Carbon Silicon Group has had two rounds of financing very smoothly. I really want to come and learn from Mr. Yu. Car manufacturing is too expensive. You have to be able to raise enough funds.”

Yu Xing almost lost control of his expression when Li Bin, the CEO, came to him to learn about financing...

I'm not good at fundraising, you're the real expert!

He quickly raised his cup to drink tea, and after putting the cup down, he couldn't help but smile sincerely: "Well... Mr. Li, the new energy vehicle industry will definitely see a flourishing of diverse products. You can ask me about other things, but I really don't have much to say about this financing."

“It’s not that I’m keeping secrets from you. You see, after I sold WeChat to Alibaba, I immediately poured money into the project before finding investors. I thought to myself, if I don’t put my own money in, I definitely won’t be able to convince investors.”

"Mr. Li, you've also taken a car information website public. I had no connection with the automotive industry before."

"So, this financing..."

Yu Xing was in a difficult position.

This is something I really can't teach.

But he was not one to keep secrets. Then he thought, one bad person is bad, and a group of bad people are also bad. So he laughed in a seemingly joking manner, "I spend a lot of time thinking about making money. Sometimes, I watch the news, and oh yeah, I saw Mitsubishi Motors being shorted before. I even thought, if all else fails, I might as well learn from them and short sell to make money."

Li Bin listened to President Yu's joke without taking it to heart.

He simply nodded and then said, "President Yu, I'm considering how to assemble a team to build cars. Once I have some ideas, I hope the Silicon Carbon Group can provide more guidance."

"Mr. Li, do you also want to start by building supercars?" Yu Xing asked.

Li Bin confirmed, "Yes, we'll build sports cars first, which will not only showcase our capabilities but also build up our technological strength. Then we'll transfer that technology to other companies, just like Tesla did."

Yu Xing cannot say that this route is unacceptable.

After a moment's thought, he reminded him, "Mr. Li, products in the price range of sports cars also require support in the supply chain, such as materials. This might be a bit difficult in China."

Li Bin smiled and said, "President Yu, I'll just buy it from abroad. People who are willing to buy sports cars are more concerned about value than price. There are groups of people who buy Tesla sports cars abroad, and there will be similar groups in China."

Yu Xing had already sensed the extravagance of President Li's spending spree.

This kind of extravagance is different from that of President Jia; well, it's hard to describe.

He nodded, stood up to shake hands with the man, and then arranged for an executive to take him on a tour of the silicon carbon group.

The company had received three groups of people with similar needs over a period of about a month, and the itinerary was already very familiar to them, which made Li Bin and his team extremely satisfied.

Yu Xing couldn't help but talk about this at the executive meeting, exclaiming, "Our continuous and successful financing has really stirred up a hornet's nest for cross-industry car manufacturing."

Hu Zhengnan joked, "President Yu, you were the one who started this crossover. Lingang is now a hub for crossover businesses."

Yu Xing shook his head repeatedly, which was met with a burst of laughter.

Hu Zhengnan then said, "President Yu, President Li's idea of ​​learning from Tesla to make money from supercars and then build cars for ordinary people is quite interesting. Do you think it can succeed?"

"What is success? How is it defined? To what extent? Is it being able to raise money to sustain development?" Yu Xingxian said, then shook his head and said, "Tesla's supercars have only sold a little over two thousand so far, and NIO... cough, how many will the future CEO Li be able to sell?"

He said, "If Mr. Li is just creating a gimmick, that's fine. But if he's really trying to make a living by mass-producing sports cars, that's definitely not going to work. The domestic supply chain will definitely develop rapidly, and the cost of manufacturing cars will continue to decrease. What he can make, others can make too."

Mr. Yu didn't know exactly how Li Bin wanted to learn, but he felt it should be the former, which could be used for fundraising.

The topic of cross-industry collaborations wasn't discussed much; the main focus of the meeting was the progress of silicon carbon-based electric vehicles.

However, the convergence of different ideas on car manufacturing still makes for a good topic of conversation over dinner.

Two days later, Yu Xing brought up these three families again at a dinner with Liu Wanying, Zhong Zhiling, Lü Haiying, Liu Jiankai, and others to discuss them.

“President Yu, looking at the current situation, the three core components of electric vehicles can all be made by suppliers, which greatly lowers the barrier to entry for car manufacturing.” Liu Jiankai seemed quite normal when he wasn’t talking about currency. “Since more people can get in, the competition in the future will definitely be fierce.”

Yu Xing agreed: "Yes, so we still need to increase investment in technology, continuously accumulate technological advantages, and then transform them into market leadership. Then we can accumulate brand value. If we can compete relatively fairly overseas, then the situation will be quite good."

He laughed again and said, "Liu Ge, I'm counting on you. If you can make money from cryptocurrency, remember to invest in my R&D."

Upon hearing the keyword, Liu Jiankai's mental fog seemed to smooth out, and he chuckled to himself.

Liu Wanying was interrupted by Liu Jiankai's Patrick Star-like laughter. She couldn't help but glance at him before raising her phone: "Everyone, I have some news worth noting. Tencent has launched a new software beta test called 'Weishi.' Can you guess what kind of business it is?"

Weishi, a brand-new app under Tencent, has just been launched.

Yu Xing's gaze sharpened, and he directly revealed the answer: "It's about making short videos."

"Accurate, very accurate." Liu Wanying put down her phone and laughed. "It looks like a short video app similar to Vine from abroad."

Zhong Zhiling raised an eyebrow in surprise: "The penguin is moving so fast. It seems that everyone is quite optimistic about this new social platform direction. It is indeed worthy of being called a penguin. It learns very quickly."

Lü Haiying also said, "Sister Ying mentioned this last time. I went back and took a look. It's quite popular overseas, so it's definitely worth trying. We can see how Tencent does this and also see how well the Vine model is adapted to the domestic market."

Liu Wanying looked at Yu Xing: "President Yu, what do you mean?"

Yu Xing gave him a look. What else could he say? He had no choice but to help the penguin throw away the lifeline it had found.

(End of this chapter)