I am farming in the real world.

Chapter 224 Ambition of Self-developed Lithium Batteries
This dinner tonight was so thrilling.

Because the "Magic Cube Battery Swap Alliance" project mentioned by Chen Jue at the dinner table is a set of standards that is enough to bring about changes in the entire automotive industry.

Although this project is still in its initial stage, there are still a lot of problems to be solved.

But after Chen Jue's patient explanation and logical analysis, Lei Jun, Xiang Qingshan, and the heads of the three new car-making forces, NIO, Xiaopeng and Li Auto, all decided to join the alliance.

After all, this is about overthrowing the old automobile market and creating a new set of standards.

With the intensive deployment of Magic Cube battery swap stations, the influence and benefits that can be brought are measurable.

If you don't get on board at this time, it would be equivalent to being left at the forefront of the times.

However, although he talked a lot, Chen Jue had already made some preparations in advance when it came to the specific details of the plan.

The first point is that Magic Cube Automobile, a subsidiary of Magic Cube Group, invested and acquired the battery swap project that NIO had invested and planned for 280 years with a cash price of 8 billion yuan.

This includes 3000 existing NIO battery swap stations at home and abroad, as well as all patents for battery swap stations and NIO power batteries, supporting technicians and subsequent profits.

With the injection of 280 billion yuan in cash, the company's entire debt was reduced from more than 800 billion yuan to just over 500 billion yuan, almost on par with the debt scale of new forces such as Ideal and Xpeng Motors.

After receiving such a large sum of cash, Li Bin, who was overwhelmed by the debt crisis, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“Put down your burdens and hit the road with a light load! After 10 years, NIO is setting sail again!”

“Thanks to @Jue, CEO of Magic Cube Group, for the support, which has given NIO a new life.”

After the two parties completed the formal signing at NIO’s headquarters and reached this strategic cooperation worth 280 billion yuan, Li Bin specially posted a long article on his social platform.

In addition to thanking Chen Jue, the article also reflected on NIO’s strategic mistakes in the past few years.

Afterwards, we will return to our main business of car manufacturing, strive to double sales, and give back to all investors and shareholders.

As soon as the news came out, NIO’s US stock price soared by more than 30%.

Including those NIO owners, after learning the news, they also spread the news in car club groups and car circle forums.

“Finally the battery swap station project was axed.”

"Mr. Li made a heroic move and saved NIO's life! (dog head)"

"If I really go bankrupt, it will be hard to buy maintenance parts in the future (covering my face)"

"But then again, isn't Cube Auto afraid of following NIO's old path by buying so many battery swap stations?"

"Anyway, I don't see any future for the battery swap solution."

"Who cares! If they are willing to pay this money, it means there must be profit. Recently, the battery replacement service is 8% off. Thank you so much to that boss (funny)"

Since NIO’s battery swap service rights have not stopped, it just changed the operator.

In addition, a number of preferential policies have been introduced recently on battery swap prices, which has won a good reputation among hundreds of thousands of NIO car owners.

It also caused Magic Cube Auto, a new force car company that has not sold a single car, to once again create quite a stir in the domestic car circle.

……

Of course, the overall plan of the "Magic Cube Battery Swap Alliance" is still in the promotion stage and has not yet been announced to the public due to the change of ownership of the NIO battery swap station.

However, Chen Jue has already signed a strategic cooperation agreement in private with Lei Jun, Xiang Qingshan and others.

The 15 Rubik's Cube battery swap stations will be put into use in batches in three phases over three years, starting with the facelift of the NIO battery swap stations.

Taking into account technology research and development, iteration and capital costs, the total cost of the entire project has been adjusted to 2500 billion yuan.

70% of the shares were led by Chen Jue's Magic Cube Group, and the remaining 30% were shared by Xiaomi Auto, NIO, and Tsingshan Holdings.

Whether it's technology, materials or cash, Chen Jue is willing to take them to play as long as they make up their share.

As for when this project plan to reshape industry standards will be announced to the market.

Chen Jue discussed with everyone and temporarily decided to set it to the evening of January 2025, 1, the New Year's Day holiday.

That day happened to be the launch conference for the first batch of Magic Cube Auto models. By announcing them to the public at the same time, a certain amount of marketing and publicity expenses was saved.

……

After attending the World Robot Conference in Shanghai and completing the layout of the most critical part of the Rubik's Cube Car, Chen Jue returned to Vancouver on a private plane.

After running around the world, including Germany and the imperial capital, Chen Jue finally returned to his comfortable base.

Standing behind the large floor-to-ceiling glass in the president's office, gazing at the Rui County Deepwater Port Terminal that was gradually taking shape outside the Rubik's Cube Factory, Chen Jue felt a great sense of accomplishment.

"When the Magic Cube Automobile's models are officially put into production, they will be shipped overseas on roll-on/roll-off ships from this port." Chen Jue muttered twice.

After lying on the MC [bed] and resting for an hour and completely replenishing his personal energy, he began to deal with some major decisions and personnel transfers within the Magic Cube Group.

First of all, Zotye Auto completed the restructuring and merger and issued a call-up order to old employees.

Zotye Auto has regained its former glory from its original dismal state of operation with more than 2000 employees.

Of course, it has now been renamed 'Magic Cube Auto' and Zotye is just a sub-brand of it.

However, with the injection of the first phase of 100 billion cash flow, Zotye's 10 previous car manufacturing bases in Hangzhou, Kangyong, Changsha, Xiangtan, Jinhua, Xiangyang, Daye, Linyi, Jintan and Wudu across the country were all activated and restarted, and the production lines arranged by the parent company were also upgraded.

With the incorporation of the Weimar Automobile Manufacturing Base in Vancouver and the large-scale application of the "Magic Cube Arm", Magic Cube Automobile's 11 manufacturing bases now have the capacity to produce 500 million complete vehicles annually.

As for the number of employees, it has skyrocketed in recent months.

As the salaries offered are generally 30% or even 50% higher than those of their peers, the number of front-line technical staff at each base has reached more than 20 through social recruitment and the return of old employees.

While solving the employment pressure in various places, it also made the originally "thin" Magic Cube Group suddenly expand.

"Good guy!"

"It's more exciting than playing Red Alert and recruiting troops at a rapid pace! With no upper limit on funding, you can just start recruiting people, right?" Chen Jue was a little dumbfounded when he saw that the number of employees under him had reached such a large scale.

I used to complain that several subsidiaries were developing too slowly, but now they have skyrocketed more than 10 times in just a few months.

If the main business of 'Magic Cube Arm' had not been selling well, Chen Jue would probably have to find a way to cash out MC resources to support so many people.

In addition, due to Magic Cube Auto's large-scale recruitment in the industry, many friendly car companies have also felt considerable pressure.

First, it spent more than 50 billion to acquire Zotye and obtain its car manufacturing license, and then spent 280 billion to buy NIO's battery swap station project.

Coupled with the recruitment of more than 20 front-line technical employees, anyone with a discerning eye can see that Magic Cube Auto is going to do something big.

However, there are too few spy photos and information about the models leaked from Magic Cube Auto.

The only Zotye ZT700 that is well known to everyone was sealed up after being pulled back to the Rubik's Cube factory because it was the TOP1 champion model in the Nürburgring.

So much so that the entire automotive industry is guessing what kind of car this Magic Cube Car will come up with.

Is it to follow BYD's low-end and cost-effective route?
Or is it a high-end luxury brand like Huawei's Celes, JAC's Wenjie, Xiangjie and Zunjie?

In short, everyone in the automotive industry is guessing, and no one can explain it for sure.

Only Chen Jue, the initiator, knew what kind of car he wanted to build.

"There is no problem with fuel vehicles. The conditions for self-developed engines, gearboxes, and chassis have been met."

"The only thing left is the biggest difficulty of new energy, the 'battery pack'!" Chen Jue spent several hours reviewing important resolution documents that required his final decision.

Then I compared the various types of "battery packs" currently available on the market.

After acquiring Zotye, Chen Jue instructed Ying Ren to contact several large battery suppliers to obtain samples and quotations.

Among them, the one with the largest installation volume, besides BYD's blade battery, is the Kirin battery produced by CATL.

Both of them are lithium iron phosphate technology routes, which have higher energy density and higher safety factor than traditional ternary lithium batteries.

In addition, there is the Kunpeng battery recently launched by Chery Automobile, which is said to have reached the level of solid-state batteries. It can be charged for 5 minutes and has a range of 400 kilometers. The total range can reach 1200 kilometers. It is expected to be officially mass-produced and launched in 2027.

As for the batteries used by foreign-funded car companies, about 20% of the market share is divided up by LG Energy Solution, SK On and Samsung SDI in South Korea, and they basically produce ternary lithium batteries.

In terms of overall technology, it lags behind the two major domestic battery giants by several generations.

"The production capacity of BYD and CATL is very limited. If you make an order, you have to wait in line for at least half a year to get the spot goods."

"Moreover, the implementation of the battery swap alliance plan will have a significant impact on these two major battery manufacturers."

"It seems that we still have to develop our own batteries!" Chen Jue muttered a few words.

He flipped through the battery project he bought from NIO, and took out the lithium mica that he accidentally discovered while digging the tunnel in northern Myanmar from his MC backpack.

He felt that if he wanted to come up with some disruptive technology for his Rubik's Cube Car, he would have to focus on MC materials.

While he was thinking, the president's phone on the table rang.

It was Zhang Siyue, the new female secretary of the President's Office, who called: "Mr. Chen, the county leaders are planning to invite you to dinner tonight. Are you free?"

When Chen Jue saw that a leader had asked him out, he agreed without thinking too much.

As for the piece of [lepidolite], he took it along with other battery samples and casually threw it into the MC village in the underground base of the Rubik's Cube Factory, intending to come back after dinner to test the parameter performance with MC props.

He never expected that his unintentional little action would, like a domino effect, trigger a radical change in the energy structure of the entire human society!

(End of this chapter)