I am farming in the real world.

Chapter 223 The conspiracy of the Rubik's Cube Battery Swap Alliance!
Wang fried!

A complete and utter bomb!
After listening to Chen Jue's entire plan for the "Magic Cube Battery Swap Alliance", everyone at the dinner table was shocked!

The third phase will invest a total of 15 battery swap stations.

They even have to provide discounted steel parts to car companies that join this alliance?
You should know that among the materials that make up the entire car, steel accounts for between 65% and 85%.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that young aluminum alloy materials have become popular in the automobile manufacturing industry in recent years, with new technologies such as one-piece die-cast aluminum alloy body frames and all-aluminum engines emerging one after another.

However, aluminum alloys are expensive, and most car models that can use aluminum alloys are usually high-end luxury cars.

Just like the carbon fiber on a supercar, only the rich are willing to spend the money.

As for the mid- and low-end civilian cars with the largest ownership in the automobile market, considering the economic cost, the parts of the car body that can be made of cheap materials are basically made of steel.

Beams and pillars, swing arm chassis parts, bearings, engines, gearboxes, etc.

Once the prices of these components and materials are discounted by 30%, the manufacturing cost of the entire vehicle will drop by at least % from the original level.

What does it mean to reduce the manufacturing cost of a whole vehicle by 30%?
Let’s take a simple analogy: Two competing car companies AB with similar positioning simultaneously launch entry-level economy models priced at 10 yuan to the market.

The manufacturing cost of a vehicle for Car Company A is 7 yuan, so if it is sold at a price of 10 yuan, it will make a profit of 3 yuan.

Car Company B saves 30% in costs compared to Car Company A, so it can make a profit of 5.1 yuan for selling the same car.

In order to seize the retail market from car company A, car company B, which has joined the "Magic Cube Battery Swap Alliance", can launch a price war against A without any pressure.

The original retail price of 10 yuan was slashed to 6.98 yuan.

Let the rival car company A lower its prices to the lowest point.

If the price is lowered further, the retail price of Car Company A will not be able to cover the manufacturing cost of the entire vehicle, and it will basically lose money on every vehicle sold.

If this kind of operation continues, the entire market will be divided up by car company B, and car company A will only end up with bleak operations or being acquired by car company B.

Faced with such huge cost advantages, any car company would choose to join the Magic Cube Battery Swap Alliance with their eyes closed.

If you don't join, you will go bankrupt. There is no other way.

"Conspiracy!"

"Absolutely an open conspiracy!"

"Brother, this move of yours is too ruthless, even more ruthless than BYD's price war. If this battery swap plan can be implemented, I'm afraid the domestic automobile market will be turned upside down." Xiang Qingshan rubbed his hands excitedly.

At this moment, he finally understood why Chen Jue invited him, a stainless steel worker, to join a dinner party with a table full of bosses from emerging car companies.

They are rushing to send a big order to Qingshan Holdings!

Not to mention how much stainless steel is needed for the 15 battery swap stations, the total annual sales of these four car companies, NIO, Li Auto, Xiaomi, have already reached one million vehicles.

This does not include the Rubik's Cube car that will soon be on the market.

Once the production capacity is fully rolled out, the amount of stainless steel materials required will be enormous.

Even the usually calm Lei Jun's heart started beating wildly after listening to Chen Jue's ambitious proposal for a battery swap alliance.

There is a very famous joke in the business world: third-rate companies sell products, second-rate companies sell services, and only truly first-rate companies choose to sell standards.

The emergence of the Magic Cube Battery Swap Station project is equivalent to setting a new standard for the entire new energy vehicle industry!

Those are the electric vehicles made by various car companies, whether they are pure electric, extended-range, plug-in hybrid, or some other miscellaneous models.

Any car that has an electric battery and wants to enjoy the battery replacement service will have to equip its chassis with a battery pack that meets the size specifications of the "Magic Cube Battery Replacement Station" in the future.

And once the number of battery swap stations reaches the 15 described by Chen Jue, it will exceed the number of gas stations in the country.

Then the range anxiety problem that has limited new energy vehicles for more than a decade will be solved! Imagine when you are driving a pure electric car and it is almost out of power.

Just open the Amap navigation and do a random search. There are several battery swap stations within 2 or 3 kilometers where you can go to swap batteries at any time.

A battery swap takes less than 3 minutes (the speed of NIO's fourth-generation battery swap station), which is more convenient than queuing for refueling.

Say goodbye to the 30 minutes or even longer wait for charging.

In addition, a pure electric vehicle consumes only 1 cent of electricity per kilometer, and home charging can even cost as little as a few cents.

Who will buy a fuel car at that time?
"If it was a few years ago, before the rise of domestic new energy vehicles, your battery replacement plan would have been a total loss if it had been implemented, brother."

"But this year the penetration rate of new energy has exceeded 50% (one out of every two new cars sold is a new energy vehicle)... This battery swap solution does have a great chance of success!" Lei Jun expressed his thoughts after pondering for a moment.

Seeing that the leading big brother, Mr. Lei, felt that this plan had great potential.

He Peng, Li Xiang and Li Bin also started to get excited and were just about to agree on the spot to join the so-called Rubik's Cube Battery Swap Alliance and act as the initial initiators and advocates of industry standards.

After all, after listening to the big picture that Chen Jue described, everyone realized that the sooner they joined the battery swap alliance, the more benefits they could enjoy.

There are only benefits and no disadvantages for the development of its own car company.

It’s just adding a battery pack replacement module, and the cost won’t be much.

What's more, after the standard battery replacement, the original excuse for plugging in is not cancelled, which is more acceptable to consumers.

However, after praising Chen Jue's bold and radical plan, Lei Jun still raised some personal opinions and concerns in person.

For example: the deployment of 15 battery swap stations will inevitably affect the customer flow business of gas stations.

If malicious competition arises at that time, the "Magic Cube Battery Swap Alliance" will have to face more than just pressure from its competitors in the automotive industry.

There is also pressure from domestic energy giants such as Sinopec and CNPC.

In addition, in order to attract new car companies to join, Magic Cube Group also has to cover the cost of some steel parts consumed by them in manufacturing complete vehicles.

Taking into account the investment in battery swap stations, the funds involved are not just 2250 billion.

In the short term, it will reach at least 5000 billion, or even one trillion level!

With such an exaggerated amount of funds, even if Xiaomi Group was sold, it would not be possible to get it out.

After listening to Lei Jun's concerns, Chen Jue also patiently explained: "First of all, even if our battery swap alliance does not appear. When the fuel vehicle sales restriction order is implemented in 2030, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles will continue to rise from 50%, the gas stations of PetroChina and Sinopec will be affected sooner or later."

"As for the investment in battery swap stations, you don't have to worry. I think everyone has seen the profitability of the Magic Cube Group in the past two days. It is more than enough to afford 15 battery swap stations in three phases. I will lead the entire project on my own. If you are interested and have spare money, you can also invest in it. I will leave 100 billion shares for each of you."

"As for the supply of steel parts, which is what everyone is most worried about, I will contact my cousin's Red Star International Trading Company to provide Tsingshan Holdings with high-grade iron ore raw materials at a cost lower than the market price."

"After that, we will have to process the components of the vehicle. I believe that with the mechanical manufacturing level of our Magic Cube Group, the products we produce will not be inferior to those of suppliers such as Magna and Bosch."

With the mining speed of MC [Pickaxe] and his familiarity with the layout of various mineral resources in the Far East, the last thing Chen Jue lacks is raw materials.

However, the biggest difficulty that had troubled him before was how to reasonably transport large quantities of [iron ore] raw materials to the country for cash.

Now, there is this "Magic Cube Battery Swap Project" taking the lead.

It not only solves the input channel of MC [iron ore], but also integrates domestic new energy vehicle companies, and raises the cost-effectiveness of domestic new energy vehicles to a new level.

It can be said that it is no exaggeration to say that it kills two birds with one stone!
As for whether Lei Jun and others are willing to follow up, that is not a problem for Chen Jue to consider.

Even if they didn't follow, Chen Jue wouldn't worry.

Because Chen Jue has now obtained Zotye Auto's car manufacturing qualifications, the worst that can happen is that he can just close the door and play with it himself. The cost advantage of MC output is enough to raise the price of the whole vehicle to a level that even BYD's boatman would be scared when he hears it.

(End of this chapter)