From knock-off old-man's electric vehicles to industrial giant

Chapter 111 Remote Vehicle Control Function, First Generation Intelligent Vehicle System

"Mr. Xu, your words are enough... We must launch a fierce attack and take it down in the shortest time possible!!"

next second.

Wang Lei was jolted!

Then, unable to resist, she gripped Xu Yi's hand tightly and said with heartfelt admiration.

A scholar will die for one who understands him.

The phrase "research and development as a safety net" was coupled with "all-out attack."

This moved many of the men present so much that they looked at Xu Yi with teary eyes!

A strange excitement welled up inside me!

I can't contain my emotions!!

Actually.

Under conditions where there are no restrictions on imports, pursuing the path of domestic research and development is inherently a thankless and arduous task.

Not to mention that they are developing their own underlying devices such as power semiconductors.

The lack of market demand is only a superficial reason.

The underlying reason is that neither the investment community nor the technology community is optimistic about it.

These days, the internet economy, the sharing economy, and the self-media economy are all the rage, and any investment you make will be low-asset and quick to return.

There are too many smart people.

When people can make easy, quick money, the real economy receives even less attention.

The research and development of SiC devices requires expensive equipment, and wafers are dependent on imports, which compresses profit margins to 20%. It is a capital-intensive, slow-return, and risky business.

More importantly...

For large companies and large-scale project procurements, the tech industry often does not have a high opinion of domestically produced components.

In a word.

If you have the budget, import Infineon without hesitation.

The "authority" and "quality" of imported components are unshakeable.

In this situation, if any domestically produced product has even the slightest problem—whether it's its lifespan, durability, or high-voltage load performance—it will be blamed and criticized.

What's more.

In the early stages of developing our own products, the technology was not as mature as that of foreign countries, so we couldn't get any big orders.

This creates a negative cycle.

In Xu Yi's memory, domestically produced SiC chips have risen on a large scale.

This occurred after the major sanctions that took place 19 years ago.

Not only are various chips unavailable, but semiconductor prices are also skyrocketing, with frequent production disruptions.

This forced a bunch of domestic new energy vehicle companies and technology companies to turn to domestic strategic investment, investing heavily in supply chain manufacturers like Tyco Tianrun and Tianyue Advanced, which have their own R&D and production of silicon carbide, thus achieving self-sufficiency and overtaking.

"However, for now, it's not that serious."

Xu Yi quickly considered the matter in his mind.

Because in the next year or two, the new energy vehicles and supercharging stations on the market will iterate at an extremely fast pace, and at that time, 120kW power will only be considered basic fast charging.

At that time, domestically produced SiC chips will be able to shine, and with the increase in mass production scale, there is still a lot of room for cost reduction.

Xu Yi and his management team spent two days in Kyoto.

After multiple rounds of communication, both parties finalized the subsequent production plan and development strategy.

……

Thursday.

When Xu Yi returned to the company.

Two more pieces of good news came from within.

"Sales in October are steadily improving, and we expect to break through the 16,000-unit mark by the end of the month."

"In addition, our newly established car mall ecosystem team has received widespread praise from car owners who have already taken delivery of their vehicles offline. Monthly sales have exceeded 1,500 orders, and more than 500 cars have had their windows tinted. All of this is thanks to General Manager Zheng. As a franchisee partner, he personally liaises with modification factories, selects and procures products for the company, and plays a crucial role in maintaining the customer base..."

The marketing department reported this.

Traditional car manufacturers on the market are trying every means to extract profits from existing car owners, including expensive maintenance and repair parts. However, the Star Mini is at a disadvantage in this regard.

Because the car price is so cheap, and the initial maintenance of new energy vehicles is very simple, only the air conditioning filter and windshield wipers need to be replaced, and the chassis and four-wheel balance need to be checked.

Needless to say, the replacement parts are all domestically produced, so the parts-to-vehicle ratio won't be too high.

Xingchen Automotive itself would not want to raise the after-sales costs for car owners for no reason, as that would be harmful in the long run.

But who would have thought.

The idea of ​​a "car mall" has brought considerable profits to the after-sales service sector.

To address this, the software maintenance department quickly updated the car mall's software page. Now, not only can users purchase Star Auto's in-vehicle system, but they can also post pictures and reviews, and consult pre-sales and after-sales customer service.

The entire car mall's homepage now features more exquisite promotional images.

It has essentially created an internal ecosystem for Taobao.

...

"Alright, from today onwards, the Car Mall Ecosystem Department is officially established. Lao Zheng... I would like to invite you to serve as the Executive Director of our Car Mall Ecosystem Department. Would you like to join us?"

Xu Yi smiled.

Today, I invited Zheng Guozhao to the company headquarters and specifically issued a "recruitment request".

Previously, Zheng Guozhao was a partner of a first-tier distributor, but he could see that this guy definitely had some "talent" in ecological operation and product development.

Selling electric vehicles for the elderly quickly opened up the market, leaving a large number of middle-aged and elderly people completely bewildered.

Now, by selecting products for the car mall, they have also maintained a good relationship with the young car owner group.

With such achievements, joining their Starry Sky as a senior executive and being offered stock options is more than enough.

Moreover, the company is currently in a period of rapid development and is in need of personnel. Any talent who can get things done is needed by Xingchen Automotive.

If the brand ecosystem is well-developed, the profits can be no less than those of launching a single car model.

even.

In the future, Xingchen Automotive Industry will not only be able to sell in-car products.

You can also make car models, valve cores, and even furniture, small appliances, and outdoor camping supplies...

For example, the so-called "human-vehicle-home ecosystem".

Whether it will become a hit in the future is another matter, but it doesn't hurt to promote the concept first.

……

"Mr. Xu, I've been waiting for this opportunity for a long time!"

Zheng Guozhao looked excited!
No need for extra salt!

Since coming into contact with Xingchen Motors, his career has undergone a dramatic change.

Most importantly, as he learned more about the company, Xingchen Motors, he discovered that it had a truly profound foundation!

There are many things about Mr. Xu that he can learn from.

This is a real opportunity to grow big, become strong, and reach the top!

Welcome to our team!

The two shook hands sincerely, and the Xingchen Auto Mall Ecosystem Department was thus established.

...

"Currently, the product selection in the car mall has received very positive feedback from car owners. I will continue to work hard to promote and expand the Xingchen brand ecosystem!"

"It's a bit of a pity," Zheng Guozhao said excitedly. "After a period of booming sales, the sales of various categories have gradually stabilized and are no longer showing a straight upward trend."

Since the owner base of the Star Mini has not yet reached the scale of traditional car companies, its temporary popularity is already due to the strong support of both new and old owners.

and so.

Zheng Guozhao will definitely continue to work hard in this area, personally contacting manufacturers, negotiating prices and selecting products, and striving to make car owners who do not purchase products from their car mall feel that "not buying is a loss".

"I feel at ease with you around."

Xu Yi nodded.

The brand ecosystem is something that requires long-term cultivation, and he didn't expect it to take off all at once.

Or rather, achieving the current results is already quite an accomplishment.

With such high acceptance among car owners and stable profits, what more could you ask for?
You can't expect people who don't buy Xingchen cars to come and buy things from their car store, can you?
……

in the afternoon.

Xu Yi held another meeting and dealt with two more matters.

The first is about the launch of "cloud services".

Their next car will focus on basic intelligent features and a price anchor of 200,000 yuan.

In addition to the car's inherent strengths, its software capabilities also need to be developed.

To talk about the foundation of intelligence—

So without a doubt, it's the "remote vehicle control function".

Each vehicle needs to be equipped with an "on-board T-BOX" hardware device for communication between the back-end system and the mobile APP, enabling the display and control of vehicle information via the mobile APP.

The most basic "remote vehicle control function" actually includes the following features—

— Remotely unlock and unlock car doors.

— Remotely open and close car windows.

—Remotely turn the air conditioner on and off.

—Check vehicle location.

—Vehicle malfunction alert.

...

Don't underestimate this just because it's already very basic.

But in today's automotive market, that's definitely a "high-tech, high-quality feature"!

Let's take a very common example.

Similar to joint venture giants like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and second-tier luxury car companies.

If you want to remotely turn the air conditioning on and off after purchasing the car, you will need to pay to renew the subscription after three years of ownership. The price is 798 yuan per year.

In other words.

In the sweltering summer, if you want to remotely turn on the air conditioner, you have to pay an average of two yuan per day!

This system is also used by some traditional domestic brands in the market, except that the price is slightly lower or a one-time purchase service is offered.

This feature truly became widespread in China when new energy vehicles were widely adopted.

The main selling points are intelligent differentiation and intelligent driving.

Even features like automatic parking, automatic parking space finding, and even more advanced highway navigation assistance and urban navigation driving functions have gradually been reduced to standard features.

Needless to say, the remote vehicle control function is just a piece of cake.

...

Implementing this function is not complicated.

Once the onboard hardware is sufficient, the only remaining issue is resolving the cloud-based requirements.

Xingchen Automotive adopts a hybrid cloud model, which is "self-built core server + public cloud elastic expansion".

Recently, we spent hundreds of thousands of yuan to build a dedicated server room in the basement and purchase a core server cluster as a private cloud to store some core car owner information and vehicle core technologies.

On the public cloud side, they directly rent cloud servers from Alibaba Cloud, which is also the solution for most new energy vehicle companies.

The vehicle network function itself is not complicated, but it is necessary to consider the pressure of "millions of concurrent data" after the scale of car owners expands greatly, and the redundancy space of public cloud to cope with the automatic expansion of elastic demand.

If you adopt a fully self-built server from the beginning, not only will the cost be high, but the construction period for a large-scale server cluster and a sophisticated data center will also take several months.

Building a large data center can only begin after the sales of the next car have stabilized.

Besides.

Another thing is the creation of their own exclusive in-vehicle infotainment system.

The intelligent vehicle system of new energy vehicles is, to put it simply, another form of "Android system".

However, when it comes to core services such as "vehicle control, intelligent driving, and intelligent cockpit," and the control of vehicle security and privacy data, there is still a significant difference between it and mobile phone systems.

Xu Yi's request was very simple.

The first version of the in-vehicle infotainment system was sufficient to include core functions such as Gaode Maps (in-vehicle version), QQ Music, nearby charging station recommendations, display of driving range and tire pressure, adjustment of electric seats, windows and lights, and switching of driving power modes.

Besides that, the biggest requirement is smoothness!

Aside from being smooth... it's fucking smooth!!
Those "dumb car infotainment systems" that start with poor software quality, cram in a bunch of presumptuous functions, or become so laggy that a single tap takes two seconds to load as the system storage increases over time.

It is absolutely forbidden to appear on their Star Car's infotainment system.

It can have fewer features, but it absolutely cannot lag!

Otherwise, this kind of in-vehicle infotainment system will be even more difficult to use than the physical buttons in a gasoline car, making users hate it...

It's truly a tragedy that they spent money only to have it turn into negative publicity.

...

"Mr. Xu, as per your requirements, we need to implement a vehicle infotainment system. The most efficient solution is a combination of joint customization and in-depth self-development."

Currently, all major mobile phone manufacturers on the market can be considered as business options.

Furthermore, I hired headhunters to thoroughly search for relevant talent in the market, and we've already found several senior system development professionals. However, poaching them from other industries comes at a slightly higher premium.

"This is what Fang Ziqiang, the HR director, said."

Developing their own in-vehicle infotainment system, no matter how simplified, involves system framework development and UI design, and it must be absolutely smooth and lag-free. It's definitely impossible for their current software team to handle it.

"Tell me more about it," Xu Yi said.

Fang Ziqiang chimed in, "We've contacted senior designers for the Flyme system, system optimization engineers for MI UI, and cellular network engineers who have worked on the Huawei Communication module team... There shouldn't be any problem for us to assemble a self-developed system team in the short term."

In terms of internet connections and resources, Xingchen lacks them.

it's fine.

Even with the ability to mobilize substantial cash reserves, headhunting firms are still willing to operate within this network.

Moreover, Xu Yi wasn't looking for industry leaders or top talents; he only needed mid-to-senior level personnel with relevant senior team experience.

The mobile phone industry has reached a certain stage of intense competition, with "high-speed growth" turning into "competition for existing market share". Price wars have led to a decline in profits, and there is an overflow of talent in the industry, with the turnover rate being much higher than in previous years.

Even without directly recruiting, some industry professionals are already paying attention to the booming new energy vehicle sector.

Take newly established new energy vehicle companies as an example. They often offer a 20%-50% salary increase, making it the golden period for job hopping.

Regarding the customization system, Xu Yi prefers the current clan.

The "Flyme 5" system from this period can be considered a classic.

Partnering with a car manufacturer to customize the first-generation in-vehicle infotainment system can also significantly reduce development time.

Otherwise, making them work from scratch to meet his requirements would be a project that would take at least a year.

Most importantly, if the clan suffers setbacks in development and loses a large number of core talents in the next year or two, Xingchen Motors can seamlessly take over!
We've assembled the strongest in-vehicle infotainment software team in the automotive industry!
Thinking of this, a smile appeared on Xu Yi's lips.

I couldn't help but hum a little to myself.
……

(End of this chapter)