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

Chapter 162 Known in the martial arts world as "Little BYD"

"So, the rubber formulation has been solved?"

Xu Yi was somewhat surprised by the progress made by Kong Hui Technology.

"We have collaborated with leading domestic tire and rubber manufacturers on rubber formulations and conducted research and development. Ultimately, we decided to use ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) rubber. The initial samples met the requirements in terms of elastic modulus and air tightness."

However, fatigue resistance and aging resistance still need further testing, and we are working hard to speed up this process...

Guo Konghui said.

From a hardware perspective, the core component of air suspension is the air spring, and the key to the air spring is the rubber airbag.

The rubber compound directly affects various performance indicators of the airbag.

These include lifespan, sealing, and comfort.

After hearing his explanation, Xu Yi roughly understood.

Many outsiders previously thought that the difficulty in developing air suspension lay in the fact that China could not produce rubber, but that's actually a bit of a stretch.

Top-quality rubber formulations are very difficult to achieve.

Don't forget that China is also the world's largest consumer of rubber and a major producer of rubber products.

When it comes to tire consumption, who can beat the domestic brands?
With a well-developed upstream and downstream supply chain, it's not really difficult to create a rubber formula that can be used for automotive air suspension.

The subsequent verification, testing, and targeted optimization are quite time-consuming.

These are all customization needs of the automotive industry.

The implementation of a new formula also requires a long period of verification and optimization. For example, the "aging resistance" test must ensure that there are no cracks within 5-8 years under different climatic conditions.

Laboratory simulation environments need to be accelerated, but fixed cycles are also necessary.

"Yes, air suspension is already very common in the truck freight industry. The logic is the same for extending it to the passenger car market..."

Xu Yi added a sentence.

He enjoys discussing technology applications and ideas with professionals.

As mentioned before, air suspension has advantages in terms of load capacity and lightweight design.

The heavier the car, the more advantageous and cost-effective it is to use air suspension.

"With a weight of one or two tons, gasoline-powered cars certainly don't need air suspension. In addition, imports are expensive and the customization cycle is long, so the air suspension market has never been able to open up."

But new energy vehicles are different; the weight of a single new energy sedan can easily exceed 2.2 tons.

For large SUVs and MPVs, the weight is at least 2.7 tons or even more than 3 tons.

Using mechanical springs alone to bear the weight is too costly and too strenuous.

Therefore, I believe that as the market share of new energy vehicles continues to expand, the air suspension chassis damping system will develop into a relatively common core component, and even a necessity for high-end new energy vehicles.

Xu Yi said slowly.

For vehicles weighing between two tons and below, air suspension is used to enhance driving quality and improve ground clearance, serving as a "nice-to-have" feature.

However, for cars weighing over 2.5 tons, air suspension becomes a "must-have".

In addition to requiring higher load-bearing capacity, it can also meet the need for lightweight design.

Vehicles weighing over three tons do not use traditional single mechanical springs.

Otherwise, the vehicle's own weight and metal fatigue alone will be enough to cause you problems.

Furthermore, the excessive weight of the vehicle is a very serious problem.

Not only will the cornering inertia be terrifying, but chassis handling will also become very difficult to maintain, and the requirements for the braking system will be even more extreme. Four-piston calipers and large brake discs are just the beginning.

In addition, the anti-collision safety design needs to be upgraded, and more materials need to be added.

We need to find solutions to this series of problems.

You might as well just lose weight from the start!
and so.

Air suspension, hydraulic suspension, electromagnetic suspension...

You have to choose one.

The patents for hydraulic suspension and electromagnetic suspension are more complex, and the research and development costs are higher.

Although air suspension may seem "high-end" at present, it is actually the lowest cost and easiest to develop option.

-

After listening to Xu Yi's words...

The old academician's eyes became brighter and brighter!

Guo Konghui never expected that he would meet an industry professional whose ideas and expectations were completely aligned with his own today!

And she's so young.

He had similar ideas as early as two years ago.

With the continuous development of the new energy vehicle market in the past two years, my commitment to focusing on air suspension has become even stronger!
He has shared his philosophy with industry professionals and investment institutions on more than one occasion.

However, traditional OEMs have a wide range of choices; they can import without necessarily producing domestically.

Investment institutions, on the other hand, are more pragmatic and only care about immediate gains.

Don't talk about the development prospects of China Automobile or the major trends in the domestic industry.

They don't care at all.

Just one sentence.

Can you make money?

Why bother if you can't make money?
Even if you can make money, you're saying you have to work hard for two or three years, and the market might not even exceed 10 billion in the future. That would mean the return period and rate of return are too low.

Wouldn't it be better to spend the money on something else?

...

"Mr. Xu, I never expected that your views would be almost exactly the same as my father's!"

Guo Chuan was shocked and exclaimed in amazement.

can be seen.

Although the old academician did not speak, he was not calm.

For those engaged in R&D, the most important thing is that their technical concepts align. For both parties to cooperate deeply, they must agree on their respective concepts.

Otherwise, even with money and resources, the technological approach to research and development will not be valued and will be difficult to realize.

He's already this old.

This domestically produced air suspension project is very likely to be the last research and development project of his life.

Starting a business with his son and a group of students, it might be a bit unrealistic to say he's pursuing a dream, but at least he wants to create something that can truly shake up the industry!
"Yes, our next vehicle from Xingchen Automotive is a large-sized new energy SUV. So, we're here not just to discuss procurement, but also to make a large-scale cash investment, engage in in-depth joint research and development, share patents, and accelerate the localization of domestically produced air suspension..."

Xu Yi explained his purpose.

Acquiring Kong Hui was a must. With their team, we could achieve a significant lead in the industry for the core self-developed air suspension components for the chassis!

but.

When he mentioned large-scale investment and equity participation, the expressions of several core senior executives of Kong Hui's team at the scene were not so relaxed, and they even hesitated.

In particular, Guo Konghui, as the leader of the entire technical team, is not a first-time entrepreneur. He has his own ambitions and naturally does not want to lose control.

Moreover, they also need to share patents.

This isn't about money.

at this time.

Xu Yi continued with his next sentence.

"Our initial purchase volume for Xingchen Automotive is 50,000 sets. If the new car launch goes smoothly, we will need at least 100,000 sets of air suspension throughout the year."

...

--what?

Take less? !
Fifty thousand...one hundred thousand sets?!

Guo Chuan couldn't help but widen his eyes.

The other core team members present also began to breathe rapidly.

It's hard to suppress intense emotions.

to be frank.

It's really going too far to demand control and patent sharing right off the bat.

It's the kind of thing that's very hard to believe.

But then again...

Konghui Technology's current expectation is that as long as they can quickly mass-produce and launch air suspension, and deliver 30,000 sets of orders in the first year, that would be a great success for them.

After all, expectations are just expectations. Considering the current domestic market, 30,000 units per year is already quite remarkable.

Once they've developed it, they'll need to find an OEM to ship it to them.

Xingchen Motors, on the other hand, simply presented its answer openly.

"Academician Guo, our idea at Xingchen is not to control the technology route, but to help Kong Hui grow as quickly as possible to realize the industrialization of domestic air suspension, and to provide sufficient resources and support."

After all, if we don't accelerate development at the current pace, the R&D and mass production cycle could be extended by another two years.

Even if we at Xingchen are optimistic about domestically produced air suspension systems, we may not be able to wait for this cycle.

Moreover, we have ample cash flow to support subsequent R&D funding. Among all the emerging electric vehicle companies, none places more emphasis on fundamental R&D than Xingchen Automotive.

Xu Yi provided the necessary reasons.

As Xingchen Automotive began to make a name for itself in the industry, its reputation as a "research and development fanatic" gradually spread.

Not only are they developing their own electric drive systems and various key components, but they're also getting involved in semiconductors, making it their main goal to do everything they can.

In order to develop and make money, even the old man's car has not stopped production.

To put it nicely, this is called "not being fussy about details".

To put it bluntly, they're resorting to any means necessary!
This style, this approach... inevitably brings to mind another well-known leading new energy vehicle company.

then.

Recently, Xingchen Automotive has also been dubbed "Little BYD".

I wonder what BYD's internal perspective is on this.

Many people expressed curiosity.

……

"We really need to think about this carefully now."

Guo Konghui gave a helpless smile.

The conditions offered by Xingchen Automotive far exceed the progress they have made in developing their own air suspension.

He is not only responsible for his own family, but also for the dozens of students who are involved in in-depth research and development in the company, all of whom are shareholders.

Those who are willing to participate in this kind of arduous, low-level research and development, and work on it for several years, all hope to get a "good price" in return.

"Mr. Xu, I'd like to ask another question: what are your views on the future development of the chassis components industry?"

Guo Konghui then asked another question.

Xu Yi pondered for a few seconds and then gave his answer: "The chassis of a car is an integrated project. Steering, braking and suspension are all inseparable from each other. Moreover, it is a barrel effect. We will score the shortest part."

Therefore, simply securing the supply of a single core chassis component is not our ultimate goal at Xingchen Automotive; we must undertake comprehensive self-developed and system-wide tuning engineering.

Guo Konghui felt a surge of emotion: "It seems we have reached a consensus."

Only someone with a deep understanding of the automotive industry and chassis hardware could say something like that.

Building cars is not a jigsaw puzzle.

Even if you assemble all the parts to the standard of 90 points, you may not necessarily get a 90-point answer.

To a large extent, it still relies on data calibration.

This isn't about how much money you have; ultimately, the companies that succeed will be those that have a clear understanding of this.

Similarly, Konghui Technology's self-developed air suspension is just a starting point. In the future, they want to become a member of the high-end supply chain by relying on a complete chassis system solution with air suspension as the core.

In this way, they can forge a deeper bond with OEMs, making the booming new energy high-end vehicle market inseparable from them.

Xu Yi thought so too.

But he prefers to "take the lead"!
……

Guo Konghui was very satisfied with the views of the young entrepreneur in front of him.

With this understanding, it's no wonder that they were able to achieve great success in such a short time.

Unlike some of the industry's scoundrels.

Despite seemingly working hard to build cars, enjoying abundant upstream and downstream supply chain resources, and being supported by national policies, the future is actually quite predictable.

The two teams collaborated smoothly because of their shared perspectives.

(End of this chapter)