What's wrong with me being a rich man?

Chapter 573 Mentorship (6k)

NIO was established in November last year.

At the time, its appearance was met with skepticism in the automotive industry. People felt that these internet people were acting strangely, suddenly starting to think about building cars, which was simply incomprehensible.

However, with the phenomenal success of Carbon Silicon Kyushu this year, much of the ridicule and disdain directed at NIO and Li Bin has dissipated. Instead, more investment institutions have come forward to contact and scrutinize yet another internet car maker.

Li Bin seized this opportunity and capitalized on the small wave of success among his peers, and is now close to finalizing a financing round of over $1 million.

He is a veteran of the internet industry. In his early years, he served as the general manager of Dangdang.com. Later, he was taken away by a husband-and-wife business and continued to sell domain names and rent out servers. Then he started Bitauto, a company with a pan-automotive ecosystem, and finally successfully went public in 2010.

Compared to Yu Xing, his internet career is not as well-known. NIO also received funding from internet friends at its inception, including Pony Ma, Liu Qiangdong, Lei Jun, Li Xiang, Zhang Lei of Hillhouse Capital, and Shen Nanpeng of Sequoia Capital.

NIO seems to have had the genes to raise funds from the very beginning.

Yu Xing once commented on Singulato Motors, founded by Shen Haiyin, a former executive of 360. One reason he was not optimistic about it was that it did not invest heavily. NIO's smooth financing round in the middle of the year was also due to this factor that was valued by institutions.

Investors don't all know cars, nor can they be experts in every industry, but they always have extra approval for those who follow already successful paths.

Both Yu and Li Bin transitioned from the internet industry to car manufacturing, both led their companies to IPOs, and both invested heavily. If Yu could succeed, why can't Li Bin?
Li Bin doesn't mind being viewed this way by institutions; in fact, he hopes for more similar perspectives.

However, he also has his own ideas about car manufacturing.

Besides learning about battery swapping from European manufacturers, Li Bin still believes that Tesla's approach of showcasing technology through sports cars and then building a high-end brand image is more likely to succeed.

Even though Silicon Carbon Kyushu achieved remarkable results this year, he did not change his mind.

Kyushu is certainly a good place, but the extended-range route is still undoubtedly a transitional option.

He understood why Mr. Yu made this choice. It was simply because the technology threshold for range-extended vehicles was low, and the infrastructure of the electric vehicle market was not yet mature. However, it was precisely at this stage that it was easier to use differentiation to shape a brand image.

Should we start with the easy parts and then move to the difficult ones, or start with the difficult ones and then move to the easy ones?

NIO aims to do the latter, and believes that Tesla's path has a greater future.

Therefore, NIO's first car is to be a pure electric sports car that can break track records, internally named EP9.

To break records, the power must be strong, and to have strong power, the motor must be powerful.

NIO hopes that the electric motors that showcase technological capabilities in sports cars can also be successfully transplanted into its own mass-produced vehicles. It began technological research and development and cooperation in this area at the end of last year.

Li Bin hopes to quickly build up combat capability, so his first choice is to find mature products in the supply chain, hoping to obtain high-performance permanent magnet synchronous motors that can provide at least more than 1200 horsepower for the vehicles.

In pursuit of speed records, the EP9 spared no expense in its design, featuring four separate motors.

However, when NIO searched for products according to these requirements, it found it difficult to find suitable motors, and even Huichuan Company, which supplies motors to Silicon Carbon Group, could not provide them.

This wasn't too unexpected for Li Bin, since there had been almost no similar demand in the market before.

So, after failing to find a solution, NIO began its own research and development, starting with the difficult and then moving to the easier, which is how it progresses through challenges.

The problem arose during the research and development at the end of April.

NIO's motor technology team encountered patent issues during the feasibility review of their permanent magnet synchronous motor design. They planned to use flat wire winding technology to reduce copper loss and improve heat dissipation efficiency, but…

Silicon Carbon Group already owns the relevant patents.

Not only that, but also the rotating high-frequency injection method, which uses the rotor salient pole effect to extract position information by injecting high-frequency voltage signals and thus solves the failure of the traditional back EMF method at zero low speed, was also patented by Silicon Carbon Group in 2014.

Flat wire winding technology is not unavoidable, but it is a key technology for improving the power density of motors. Without it, energy efficiency would be reduced by about 2%, which would not meet the requirements of high-performance electric vehicles.

NIO's desired sports car clearly needs this.

As for the rotating high-frequency injection method, it is essential for trams to achieve stable operation across the entire speed range; otherwise, low-speed performance would be limited.

NIO doesn't know if it can bypass the high-frequency injection method, but the current team hasn't found an effective solution within a limited timeframe.

On May 3, Li Bin received a notification from his team saying that an acquaintance from Huichuan Company had spoken to him, indicating that the latest motor developed in cooperation with silicon carbide could meet the requirements previously put forward by NIO.

The patents are in Lingang, and the motors are in Lingang.

When Li Bin arrived at Lingang, watching the trucks carrying Kyushu drive away, a question suddenly popped into his mind: How did the question of starting with the difficult and then moving to the easy end come about?

At 3 p.m., Li Bin met with President Yu in the president's office of the Silicon Carbon Group.

His cheerful expression froze before he could even say hello, thanks to a single sentence from the other person.

Yu Xing glanced at his watch: "Mr. Li, I can only give you five minutes. Go ahead and speak."

Li Bin's heart sank.

Seeing this, Yu Xing laughed and said, "Just kidding, Mr. Li, it's just a joke."

Li Bin breathed a sigh of relief.

Yu Xing's smile faded, and he corrected, "It's 10 minutes."

Li Bin: "..."

Seeing that Li Bin's expression had tightened again, Yu Xing laughed and said, "Just kidding, Mr. Li. I noticed you were very serious. I just ran into some trouble and was thinking that everyone should relax a bit."

Li Bin couldn't help but touch his face, unsure whether he had been serious or not just moments before.

He knew on his way here that Mr. Yu had gotten into a conflict with Tencent, and upon hearing this, he said, "Mr. Yu, I'm a Douyin user. I spend an hour on Douyin every day. Starting tomorrow, I'm going to spend two hours on it!"

Yu Xing laughed: "You can choose whichever you like, it's not mandatory. Mr. Li, what about NIO? I heard from a friend that they're planning to invest in you."

Li Bin was genuinely delighted, and he immediately took the opportunity to recount NIO's development this year.

And, since we're here, we should also ask Mr. Yu directly about the changes and trends in domestic new energy policies.

Regardless of the difficulties, the sales volume of Silicon Carbon Group is currently the apple of the eye of the authorities. According to rumors, even the subsidy policies that have already been finalized are being considered in some places to support Silicon Carbon Group first.

As for which places...

Li Bin, who is based in Lingang, has great faith in the flexibility of Shanghai.

Yu Xing listened attentively while sipping his tea.

After a long pause, he asked, "How did your car company obtain its production license?"

In March of this year, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) released a draft for public comment on the "Regulations on the Management of Newly Established Pure Electric Passenger Vehicle Enterprises," and the official notification was issued shortly afterward.

Li Bin perked up, and even spoke faster: "President Yu, do you have connections?"

Yu Xing was both amused and exasperated: "No, Mr. Li, what kind of person do you take me for? Where am I supposed to find a way? The official document is due next week, and I just happened to think of this."

Li Bin asked with concern, "President Yu, what are the differences between the official draft and the draft for comments?"

"You really don't know?" Yu Xing asked, puzzled.

Li Bin sighed, "President Yu... I really don't know."

He wasn't surprised at all that President Yu knew about the new policies for new energy vehicle companies in advance. It was said that Silicon Carbon Group had several pilot projects with the higher-ups, such as the storage of electric vehicle data, which involved Silicon Carbon Group.

From last month to this month, with the steady growth in sales of Silicon Carbon·Jiuzhou, the praise in the public for the rise of independent brands has become one of the testaments to Silicon Carbon Group's position in the new energy field.

"It will be released next week. There are some changes, mainly that the regulations are clearer. Previously, the scope of 'pure electric passenger vehicles' was not clearly defined, but this time it is clearly included in 'pure electric' and 'series hybrid', excluding low-speed electric vehicles because those cannot pass the 'double 100 standard'," Yu Xing said thoughtfully. "Oh right, before it was said that the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) would approve it alone, but now it will be the NDRC and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). The NDRC is responsible for investment access, and the MIIT is responsible for production access."

"Actually, we had to deal with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology before, but now it's even clearer."

"Otherly, the main change is that the explicit barriers have been lowered while the implicit barriers have been raised. Previously, there were hard requirements for R&D years and investment scale, but now reducing these requirements will allow more companies to apply. However, now mastery of core technologies is still required."

Yu Xing grasped the key points of the policy changes.

The new energy production qualification of the Silicon Carbon Group was obtained smoothly with the help of Lingang. At that time, it was indeed not difficult. However, the current policy changes are driven by market performance.

Hafei Motors obtained its license in 2010, but has ceased production this year. At its peak, it was a leader in the domestic microcar market, but now it has ended up with its employees being laid off.

Other manufacturers, such as FAW, Changan, and Dongfeng, have conservative new energy strategies and their market performance has been mediocre.

However, with the development of BYD and Silicon Carbon Group, higher requirements are now being put forward for quality, and in terms of technology, companies are required to have independent intellectual property rights and authorized invention patents.

When Li Bin heard President Yu mention the technology aspect again, he felt it was time to formally propose a cooperation request: "President Yu, NIO still hopes to enter the market as soon as possible. When I saw the draft for comments in March, I was prepared to go to domestic manufacturers to do contract manufacturing first. On the one hand, we have their experience, and on the other hand, we can reduce the financial pressure."

Yu Xing nodded slightly: "If you build your own factory and apply for the qualifications, it will take at least one and a half to two years. Outsourcing can indeed save time, but you still need to do a lot of testing."

He gave a small reminder.

Li Bin said seriously, "This definitely needs to be done thoroughly. We also hope to save time from building our own factory and invest more in research and development and testing, since new energy will develop rapidly in the next few years."

Yu Xing hummed in agreement and picked up his teacup.

Li Bin continued, "That's also what we're thinking, Mr. Yu. I came here today hoping to cooperate with Silicon Carbon. I heard that the motors you developed in cooperation with Huichuan can be used in high-performance sports cars. NIO wants to start with this aspect."

Yu Xing asked, "Where's Li Xiang? I saw him at the auto show last time, didn't he say he was also going to start with performance sports cars?" Li Bin chuckled, "Whoever makes it first gets to decide, he hasn't made up his mind yet."

“I know you’re looking to buy that motor, right? Then just talk to Huichuan directly.” Yu Xing didn’t intend to create any obstacles. “They should be happy to see the motor’s performance.”

Silicon carbide motors are jointly developed with Inovance. The maximum power of the motors used in Kyushu vehicles is 240kW, while the latest motors are even more powerful at 260kW.

However, the Silicon Carbon Group believes that 240kW of power is more than enough, and the latest model is more of a show-off.

Li Bin was overjoyed, but then asked a question: "President Yu, I wasn't quite clear about your cooperation model with Huichuan before. Since you can produce motors with greater power, why not make some high-performance sports cars?"

"Are you worried that silicon carbide will launch a product with a similar approach to yours and compete with it?" Yu Xing laughed. "Mr. Li, not at the current stage. Silicon carbide hopes to serve our customers well in the next few years and exert influence on infrastructure. High-performance sports cars are great. Break records, prove the technology, and the market will also feel it."

“The last time I met with people from BYD, they wanted to join us in promoting how electric vehicles would revolutionize the speed of gasoline cars, but we didn’t participate.”

“Our actions are still based on the perspective of the Silicon Carbon Group in manufacturing cars. The family users we are targeting now are not too concerned about speed. They just need something that is good enough. We hope to devote more energy to other aspects.”

BYD has launched the "Tang Battles Foreign Lands" challenge, which is a 0-200 meter acceleration and off-road challenge against gasoline vehicles.

This does indeed help to convey the advantages of trams.

However, Silicon Carbon Group is still conveying its brand image from the perspective of "family cars". Not only are the cars designed from this angle, but the company's actions are also based on the same stance.

Li Bin seemed to be thinking for a moment, and then said, "President Yu, in addition to motors, NIO also sincerely hopes to cooperate with silicon carbide on patents."

Yu Xing asked, "So what patent achievements do you have now?"

Li Bin hesitated and said, "We've just started focusing on research and development."

Yu Xing understood: "So that means it's not there yet, Mr. Li. You know we offer free licensing for our battery safety patents, right? That's no problem. The safety of electric vehicle batteries isn't just a matter for one manufacturer, but for the entire industry."

“If one family’s car burns down, many people will say that the tram burned down. It’s a whole system.”

"As for other patents, if you have patents, we can license them to each other. If you don't have patents, then you just need to pay patent fees."

Li Bin licked his lips: "President Yu, we are determined to invest in research and development. Patents will come later. Today, I hope to establish a framework for mutual licensing with silicon carbide."

“I heard that the Silicon Carbon Group has a technology alliance with several companies, including Huichuan, Jingjin, Yangjie, and Aluminum-based companies.”

"Could NIO join this too?"

He came here to consider various cooperation methods, and the best one was to join the technology alliance formed by the Silicon Carbon Group.

To be honest, this technology alliance was completely unknown before. It was only after Kyushu's sales took off that it caught the attention of some people who discovered that it was a collaboration from upstream to downstream, involving cross-licensing of patents and technology sharing.

Li Bin hopes to accelerate NIO's development through this approach.

If joining is not an option, the best-case scenario is to obtain patent cross-licensing rights from Silicon Carbon Group separately, or at worst, pay patent fees.

Yu Xing blinked: "President Li, NIO can apply, but it requires a vote from members and approval for cross-licensing of patents. NIO doesn't have the experience in this area yet, so how do you expect us to approve it?"

Li Bin tried hard to persuade her, saying, "NIO will be available soon."

Yu Xing smiled slightly: "Okay, then we can talk about it again when NIO has time. The same applies to silicon carbon and you. As for the patents you want to use at this stage, I know about the financial pressure when starting a business. You can have your subordinates negotiate. We can offer a discount first. You can use them now, and we'll put the cost on your account later when we do joint procurement."

Li Bin was somewhat disappointed, but still wanted to try again.

After listening for a few minutes, Yu Xing pointed to his watch and laughed, "Five minutes have already passed."

Five minutes have certainly passed, and several five-minute intervals have passed in fact.

Li Bin suddenly recalled President Yu's opening remarks, which seemed like a joke back then, but now seemed less like it.

He then thought that this wasn't the worst outcome; getting an IOU from the silicon carbon group wasn't bad either.

Li Bin expressed his gratitude to General Manager Yu for his help.

Yu Xing asked a question: "Mr. Li, it's fine for you to use an electric motor, and you won't publicize the fact that silicon carbide is involved in our research and development, but Huichuan definitely needs to be promoted. How will you showcase NIO's technology then?"

"Running fast isn't just about the motor, it's also about battery technology and thermal management technology. We will also further develop our own motors," Li Bin replied, revealing his signature honest smile. "Of course, Mr. Yu, could you please say that Huichuan's publicity is fine, but not that kind of, uh, very special publicity?"

Yu Xing glanced at Li Bin: "Well, Huichuan just needs a good reputation in the industry."

Li Bin was truly grateful.

He was speechless, so he impulsively placed an order on the spot and bought another Kyushu Max.

Yu Xing tried to persuade them but failed, and could only watch as Kyushu completed a single transaction.

After leaving, Li Bin asked one last question: "President Yu, I heard that the expansion of silicon carbon production will end next month. What is Kyushu's sales target for this year?"

Yu Xing laughed and said, "I've heard, I've heard, Mr. Li, you have so many 'hearsay's'! Our sales have already met the target, and the rest are just extra surprises."

Seeing that President Yu was unwilling to disclose the details, Li Bin did not press further, but simply congratulated Jiuzhou once again on its achievements in the market.

He invited the head of the silicon carbon industry to dinner that evening, but the other party had something to do and had to decline.

Li Bin was escorted to the elevator entrance, and then left the Silicon Carbon Group with his entourage.

"Boss, how is it going?" Vice President Zeng Boyuan asked from the side.

Li Bin smiled and said, "President Yu is a very nice person. We'll give you an IOU here. You can discuss the patent fees with Silicon Carbon tomorrow. We'll put it on the tab first and settle the bill later."

Zeng Boyuan listened to the unexpected answer, thought about it for a while, and felt that it was alright.

Li Bin reached the car, held onto the door, looked back at the "Silicon Carbon Group" logo, then at the silicon carbon factory not far away, and said enviously, "We need to have our own factory, we need to have our own factory as soon as possible."

Zeng Boyuan immediately replied, "There definitely will be!"

According to the plan, it will happen, but it's unclear whether the company can follow through with the plan.

Li Bin felt both excited and hesitant.

He glanced one last time at the words "Silicon Carbon Group," got into the car, and said, "We need to have our own core patents."

Zeng Boyuan, in the passenger seat, added, "There definitely will be!"

After the two bosses finished their enthusiastic exchange, the secretary in the driver's seat asked, "Shall we go back to the hotel?"

"Let's go back to the hotel and have a short meeting." After paying his respects, Li Bin thought he would take the opportunity to discuss his thoughts on carbon and silicon with everyone, but he quickly changed his mind. "We'll go back later. Let's check in at the 'Yu Ma Ancient Battlefield' first."

Everyone in the car laughed, but they were all willing to go and take a picture.

One side is a shareholder, and the other has provided significant assistance; it's really hard to say who will win emotionally.

When Li Bin arrived at the location, he reminisced about the past and imagined the scene of the two bosses fighting, feeling an extraordinary longing for it.

……

Yu Xing was unaware of Li Bin's whereabouts, but he quickly informed Huichuan and mentioned the cooperation with NIO to the company.

He has no ill intentions towards NIO.

Or rather, after seeing many unreliable electric vehicle projects, he felt that car companies like NIO, which could popularize the concept of electric vehicles in the market, were worth helping.

Yu Xing did not have dinner with Li Bin that evening, although he did have a prior invitation.

Liu Ge and Liu Jiankai, whom I hadn't seen for a long time, returned from Hong Kong and visited their mentor under the cover of night.

Bitcoin's overall upward trend from last year to this year has been good; however, "KBTC," founded by Liu Ge, is still leaving Hong Kong.

The price trend of the currency is acceptable, but Hong Kong's policies are not.

Liu Jiankai met with President Yu before setting off to have a chat, and also brought some additional news.

“Mr. Yu, the person you asked me to find for you in the US has been found.” Liu Jiankai took a sip of wine. “It’s your senior classmate who committed financial fraud, Yu Xuhui. He has now changed his name to Deng Yuxiu and is in Houston.”

Upon hearing the name, Yu Xing paused for two seconds, then exclaimed, "Found it? I thought we'd never find it again."

“They’ve been looking for him, but he’s deliberately hiding. He’s got some tricks up his sleeve. Hmm, he’s moved around a lot since you, Mr. Yu, started your business.” Liu Jiankai said with a smile, “And, based on the information we have so far, he also plays with Bitcoin. He’s got some insight.”

Yu Xing clicked his tongue: "That's very good."

He made a request: "Get his coins over here."

Liu Ge, engrossed in his cryptocurrency dealings, frowned and said, "This is difficult. They're all decentralized, and his coins are very secure."

Yu Xing glanced at Liu Ge and said, "If cryptocurrency is decentralized, can people also be decentralized?"

Liu Ge suddenly understood and nodded silently.

(End of this chapter)