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

Chapter 156 Will Starcraft lose money building cars?
"Holy crap, that sounds amazing!"

"I want to buy it!!"

"The exterior and interior of this car have been completely redesigned... You know, even just getting a wrap and color change outside costs four or five thousand yuan. It's only because Xingchen officially advertised the price for the color change. Now they've also replaced the battery with such high-tech ones and added features. I hope Xingchen isn't losing money making these cars?"

"No way? The manufacturer can still lose money? You guys are really something else!"

"Look at what it says above, there are only 5,000 units available for the initial launch. Doesn't that mean the manufacturers aren't very willing to produce them? If they were making money, why would they resort to this kind of scarcity marketing?"

"Hiss—that's true. Polestar batteries are only used in cars that cost 200,000 yuan. The cost might be quite high. It's not really going to cost 80,000 yuan!"

"To be honest, I was originally thinking of waiting and seeing, but since it's a limited edition... I have to grab it now!!"

……

At first glance, everyone was simply "amazed".

But under Yang Li's eloquent introduction...

That feels different.

Take this "cherry blossom pink car paint" for example.

Some people might add it to the cost of color change, which would add several thousand dollars.
In addition, there's this "remote vehicle control function".

People did the math and realized that many cars costing over 100,000 yuan don't even have this as a standard feature.

Not to mention the interior.

If you go to the secondary car modification market, wouldn't it cost you a thousand or two to modify a set of parts?
Adding all that up, the cost exceeds ten thousand!
Not to mention the "Polarstar Battery," a powerful weapon in the arsenal!

--hiss!!
All things considered, selling this car for 80,000 yuan wouldn't be unreasonable!

In a short time, many people found themselves engaging in PUA (Pick-Up Artist) tactics.

You can't blame them for that!

The only thing to blame is that the current car modification market is just that expensive.

Through various comparisons and contrasts.

Isn't Xingchen Automotive ethical enough?

……

Seeing how enthusiastic the live streamers are.

Yang Li knew he had made the right bet!
This car will undoubtedly generate a lot of buzz and discussion.

He immediately smiled faintly:
"If you want to be the first to know the details and test drive this car, please follow our updates. As soon as the Starry Mini Ultimate Edition opens for pre-orders, I will definitely place an order immediately..."

I'll share more with everyone then, and I'll be using this car for my first outdoor travelogue program!

After Yang Li finished speaking, he was looking forward to the fans' reaction.

after all.

This is my first travelogue program!!
Unexpectedly, the style of the live stream had completely gone astray.

-

"I want it so badly! I really want it!!"

"This car is so pink, I love it!"

"A bunch of grown men fighting over a pink car, isn't that disgusting? I'm a female fan, so please let me have it first."

"Female fan? Take off your pants for a check first."

"Why don't we create a group chat? We can grab the cars together and exchange information about where to get them."

"That makes sense. Those in the live stream who want to buy should help each other out."

"+1"

...

"..."

Yang Li stared in disbelief.

Suddenly I feel like I'm some kind of human robot.

—It's pretty boring.

He had been preparing for this live stream for quite some time.

They're just riding the coattails of the new Starry Night Mini model again.

It's just to promote their own "travelogue program".

But these guys turned out to be something else entirely.

I can't see the main point at all!!

Are you going to lock in the order without even looking at the actual car?

They don't want him as a car reviewer anymore?
"Damn... never mind, count me in."

"The first batch of car owners can contact me to borrow their cars for a fee."

Yang Li said hurriedly.

He was planning to have his assistant and team try to snatch it together.

But judging from the situation, he was genuinely afraid he wouldn't be able to snag one.

Logically speaking, for a car reviewer of his caliber, it would be reasonable for manufacturers to send him a sample car for testing and promotion even before the car has been released.

But Xingchen Motors doesn't do that.

Top-ups are purely for top-ups; we never offer any giveaways like free cars upfront.

Even if it's for testing and detailed car reviews and promotion, that will be some time after the release, how can he wait that long?

……

……

"Mr. Xu, the survey results are in..."

"How to say?"

"Nearly half of the users chose the price of 71,000, 30% chose the price of 80,000, and only 20% chose the price of 65,000..."

"That's quite optimistic. By the way... have platforms that cater to female users been pushing traffic to them?"

"We've already promoted it. Weibo and Xiaohongshu are our main target areas. A considerable number of women have noticed it, and some female car owners are even complaining, saying why this special edition wasn't released earlier, so they wouldn't have bought the regular long-range version."

Yu Nian said with a smile.

For the Starry Mini Ultimate Edition, they don't plan to hold a separate product launch event. They will just follow the normal online and official promotion channels, and then open the app pre-order channel.

After all, Polestar's battery production capacity is insufficient.

The first batch is limited to 5,000 units.

Reservations will be open at that time.

Shouldn't they be able to book them all in one or two days?
"Okay, then we'll open official pre-orders in three days. Once the pre-order quota is full, the first batch of Star Mini Ultimate Editions will be delivered a month later."

Xu Yi made the arrangements.

The new model was launched very quickly.

Since the production capacity of Star Mini and Polestar batteries are readily available, the other additions are not complicated.

He didn't want to do that monkey show.

They did a lot of promotion, but then they kept delaying the opening of pre-orders.

After keeping everyone in suspense for months, pre-orders finally opened, but it's still several months before the cars are delivered.

There were even one or two configuration versions that were delayed in production.

That's not just treating consumers like monkeys.

This really exposes their incompetence. They can't even control production capacity and the pace of marketing; who knows what kind of chaos they're in internally.

……

……

Deep city.

Fixed charging positions at the Starry Sky Supercharging Station.

Huang Jun sat in the driver's seat, having finished another day of driving.

Compared to his unfamiliarity on the first day, he was much more efficient today. Over the past two days, he has gradually figured out the patterns of taking orders and the roads in the city, and he has not made any mistakes in taking the wrong route.

Looking at the income again, all the fatigue of the day was relieved.

Today's transaction amount: 461 yuan!

If you work 30 days a month, you'll definitely earn over 10,000 yuan a month!

Huang Jun was truly shocked!

Good guy!
Driving for ride-hailing services can actually be quite lucrative, much more than he expected!
He only worked eight or nine hours today, and didn't even get any big orders.

If you're lucky, or if you run an extra hour or two, wouldn't you be able to earn 500 yuan a day?
He found himself getting used to it.

Driving for a ride-hailing service is much more interesting than going to work. The passengers I pick up and drop off are all kinds of people, including a talkative older man who I chat with the whole way.

There was also a female college student who took a taxi. As soon as she got in, the whole car was decorated in a Chanel style. She praised the car for being comfortable, spacious, and good-looking, saying it was much better than other ride-hailing cars.

Huang Jun's smile was harder to control than an AK-47 the whole time!!

For a moment, I felt like I had recouped at least 150,000 yuan of the money I spent on the car, which cost me 200,000 yuan!
In today's ride-hailing market, cars like the one he drives are extremely rare. Many cars costing 80,000 or 100,000 yuan are considered very expensive.

So driving for a ride-hailing service is tiring, but not boring or tedious.

of course.

There were also unpleasant experiences.

For example, some people eat or smoke as soon as they get on the bus... and some insist on being taken to the door even when they've already arrived at their destination.

Huang Jun didn't take these low-quality passengers to heart.

Making money—

The key issue is that ride-hailing orders in Shenzhen are coming in one after another, and they just can't be stopped.

There's no time to complain about these things.

"Oh right... I uploaded a video last time, let's see if it got any views."

While charging, Huang Jun didn't know what to do.

I simply opened my phone and started browsing the backend of the uploaded videos.

According to his estimation.

I doubt anyone will pay attention.

But as soon as it was opened...

His eyes widened in surprise.

100,000 views.

Surprisingly, nearly a hundred more comments appeared below.

-

6. Using a car worth 200,000 yuan for ride-hailing services

[If I drive this car for 8 years, will I be able to earn back the cost of the car?]

[He took out a loan of nearly 200,000 yuan to buy a car, and then drove for Didi (a ride-hailing service) to pay off the loan. What kind of intelligence is that? In the end, the car depreciated, was forced to be scrapped, and he lost all his money??]

[Can you earn five thousand, or six or eight thousand a month? After paying off the car loan and factoring in vehicle damage, it'll all be gone.]

[Who would have thought that owners of Xingchen Motors are all like this?]

[Assessment complete: This person is truly stupid!]

[Awesome, what an idiot!]

What a terrible injustice!

...

After reading the comments section.

Huang Juntian has collapsed!
The corners of my mouth, which were just turned up in a good mood, suddenly couldn't hold back anymore.

Oh no—how did posting a random video turn me into a huge scapegoat?
Is driving for a ride-hailing service really that bad?

Open the private message.

There were even people chasing after him and cursing him!

Everyone's talking about his car loan. It's not just about gritting his teeth; it's downright stupid and idiotic!

of course.

Huang Jun didn't deny it when he saw this.

He felt it was foolish of him to take out a loan to buy this car.

It was beyond my financial means.

But now, he feels he has found a way to get rich through hard work.

Earning 500 yuan a day by ride-hailing is not a problem at all.

The car will recoup its cost in at most two years.

Moreover, he had tried out all aspects of the Starry Sky S7.

It seems to be designed specifically for ride-hailing services; its range, ride comfort, and refueling costs are all incredibly attractive!

It's not like what's said online at all.

Earning five or six thousand yuan a month? What the hell?

These people are seriously misunderstanding things!
-

He thought for a moment, then simply picked up his phone and took another picture.

"Hello everyone, I'm Master Huang... I posted a video a couple of days ago, and I didn't expect so many people to criticize me."

It seems everyone is quite concerned about my situation, thank you all in advance.

I don't deny that taking out a loan to buy a car is a foolish thing to do.

I didn't think too much about it at the time; it was just a young person's impulsive decision to place the order.

But if you say that you can't make money driving the Star S7 for ride-hailing services, then I really need to clarify this.

He even said he could pay off his car loan for a month without eating or drinking.

Isn't that nonsense?
If that's really the case, why don't I just sell the car? At most, I'll only lose 20,000 or 30,000 yuan, which I can just consider as paying for my impulsive act.

But in fact, I actually made quite a bit of money driving for ride-hailing services.

For example, I earned 461 yuan today.

He hasn't even finished ten hours of running yet, but I believe this data will prove many people wrong.

Because of Xingchen Motors' welfare policy, I didn't spend a single penny on charging costs.

This car is a bit expensive—

But it's much more economical than other gasoline and natural gas vehicles on the market!

……

(End of this chapter)