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

Chapter 297 Mr. Xu, get out of the cockpit.

After several rounds of negotiations, the cooperation between Xingchen Group and Tianqi Group finally finalized the contract details in the last week of March.

From all perspectives, it would be difficult for Tianqi to refuse this funding and a huge order that would be tied up for five years.

Currently, other major domestic power battery manufacturers, such as CATL and BYD, mostly choose to cooperate with suppliers like Ganfeng Lithium, which can provide battery-grade lithium salts and lithium hydroxide on a long-term basis.

Tianqi Lithium's product positioning is more focused on upstream raw materials and upstream lithium resource sales.

This is not to say that Tianqi Lithium is not good.

In fact, Tianqi Lithium's current gross profit margin is very high, reaching an industry-leading level.

After all, the upstream resources are there, and by leveraging this advantage, Tianqi can supply lithium concentrate and chemical products at a cost lower than the industry average.

However, under pressure from debt, Tianqi Lithium is still frantically trying to increase revenue from multiple levels. They have made a huge gamble of swallowing an elephant, and they must have excess revenue and profits to cope with the ever-decreasing cash flow.

For example, by connecting raw materials to lithium chemical products and expanding the business of "long-term contracts for battery-grade lithium salts," the company can absorb the intermediate links and thus increase profits.

At the time when both parties signed the contract.

Xu Yi achieved his goal of securing upstream supply chain resources.

Several senior executives of Tianqi Lithium.

After securing funding and a long-term contract, his previously indifferent expression turned into an almost uncontrollable smile – a smile even harder to suppress than an AK.

"President Xu, it's a pleasure to cooperate with you, a pleasure to cooperate with you..." Jiang Anqi breathed a sigh of relief, holding President Xu's hand, showing no trace of the previous unpleasantness.

They used this equity stake to gain the biggest cash flow benefit at present, and also brought Xingchen, the largest power battery manufacturer in China, on board.

Xu Yi suddenly realized, "President Jiang, you were unwilling before, but your expressions changed so quickly."

“Hey…we’re just being cautious about strategic financing. Mr. Xu, you got what you wanted, it’s a win-win situation,” Jiang Anqi said with a smile.

Clearly, Tianqi still felt he had gotten the better deal.

These days, there aren't many "great philanthropists" like Xingchen Group.

Xu Yi's expression gradually became calm, as if he suddenly realized that he had given up too many conditions because of his "impatience".

Actually, he was smiling inside.

Ha ha.

You might earn…

But I'll never lose out!!
……

the other side.

The automotive industry has shown a vigorous development trend since the beginning of the year. Despite the reduction in subsidies for new energy vehicles, the overall trend has not been affected.

According to experts, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles has increased from 1.35% in 2015 to 7% in January of this year.

This is a very optimistic figure. Based on this, some people have further inferred that by the end of the year, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in the country is very likely to exceed 10%.

Of the 100 people who buy a new car, 10 choose new energy vehicles. Even if hybrid vehicles are included, this is still an extremely impressive figure.

Sales of new energy vehicles exceeding two million units, or even surpassing three million units, would be enough to sustain several car companies.

Discussions on topics such as "Are new energy vehicles viable?" and "Should I buy a new energy vehicle?" have gradually become blurred on the internet.

The questions have gradually shifted to "Which new energy vehicle brand is the best to buy?" and "Which regions are safe to buy new energy vehicles without hesitation?"
Among them, Xingchen Automotive is an indispensable term in this wave of discussion.

The Starry Night L7 achieved a remarkable sales record of over 9000 units in February, continuing to lead the sales record of domestic high-end products with its dazzling performance.

Many people are speculating whether the Starry Night L7 can break through the monthly sales mark of 3 units in March, and all indications suggest that this is highly likely.

Priced above 300,000 yuan, it's a domestic brand, and it's a new energy vehicle... with monthly sales exceeding 10,000!

Could it be that we're really going to become number one in Tianjin?!

"Xingchen is the strongest domestic brand. Who agrees? Who disagrees?"

"Although Xingchen takes two or three months to deliver the cars, I never complain about their slow delivery or production capacity issues, because... they're good at it! After driving the car for two months, I can still sell it for 10,000 more than a brand new price."

"Range extender technology has three advantages: low fuel consumption, long range, and less anxiety. The best technology is the one that can solve the problem. Xingchen Auto understands first principles, and Mr. Xu is a truly clear-headed person in car manufacturing."

A new group of "praise cultists" has emerged online, praising Xingchen Motors from various angles.

Upon closer inspection, they turned out to be fans and pre-order customers of Xingchen Automotive.

After sales soared, the voices criticizing "President Xu for playing tricks" disappeared, leaving only harmony.

The success of Xingchen Group has further boosted the sense of pride among car owners, subtly convincing them of their own worth.

A while ago, a car reviewer reported online that the Starry Night L7's claim of achieving an accuracy rate of over 96% in automatic parking was suspected of being false advertising.

He pointed out that the Starry Night L7 cannot complete automatic parking in its own parking lot and parking space.

As soon as the video was posted, it immediately stirred up a hornet's nest, with a large number of rebuttals flooding in.

"Who would park at this angle? There are cars on the opposite side and the side. You're deliberately making things difficult for car companies."

"The blogger is probably just stirring up trouble. I've driven in many parking lots, and the parking space shown by this blogger is definitely one of the most difficult ones. At least seven out of ten people can't park in it. The remaining three who can park in it are not because they are good at it, but because they are just stubborn. They would rather reverse the steering wheel ten times than change to an easier parking space."

"I can't find a parking space like this even if I'm looking for one. It's so cramped it's a headache for anyone. And you still insist on letting cars park there?"

But something unexpected happened.

That same afternoon, Wu Xinzhou, head of Xingchen Automotive's intelligent driving division, even posted the video on Weibo.

The reply was only three words long:
— "Resolved"

Wu Xinzhou has been relatively free lately.

The development of the high-speed navigation feature is nearing completion.

The communication work regarding testing LiDAR point clouds and self-developed chip architecture wasn't particularly urgent, so I enjoyed surfing the internet in my spare time.

He had his department retrieve the vehicle's backend data, and then, based on the parking space ratio shown in the video, he recreated the details one-to-one.

They quickly conquered this "super difficult parking space," which netizens considered a pointless challenge.

An update that evening completely silenced the car reviewer.

"666! Xingchen is awesome!"

The car reviewer/blogger was completely convinced.

When he posted the video, he did have the intention of riding the wave of popularity, but considering Xingchen Auto's history of maliciously smearing self-media, he was somewhat uneasy, fearing that his account would really be in trouble because of it.

But who could have imagined that the response would be so "dramatic"?

He was impressed by the magnanimity and technological vision of large corporations.

Actually, he was overthinking it. Xingchen's swift and decisive actions were aimed at certain media outlets that were blindly smearing him. As for the technical issues raised, Xingchen Automotive naturally focused on the problems themselves.

Instead of addressing the person who raised the problem.

This incident triggered a series of subsequent effects.

Some mischievous Star Car enthusiasts specifically sought out extremely tricky and difficult parking spaces, and after testing, found that their cars indeed couldn't fit in. They then tagged Wu Xinzhou in the same way.

"Master Wu, you're supposed to be the number one expert on Xingchen Intelligent Driving, but I can't even park in a random spot. Is this some kind of false advertising? (laughs...)"

The following evening, Wu Xinzhou's answer was still concise—"Resolved!"

With maximum speed and efficiency, another tricky irregular parking space was solved.

Car enthusiasts exclaimed "666!"

The crowd of netizens was taken aback.

A powerful aura suddenly swept across the Weibo community, and for a time no one could suppress it!

Whose general is this?

So incredibly brave?! You must know.

With its current computing power and multimodal perception capabilities, the Xingchen L7 is indeed somewhat inadequate for handling intelligent driving in urban areas.

But parking spaces are inanimate objects.

The algorithm utilizes almost all the cameras and millimeter-wave radars deployed throughout the vehicle to their fullest potential, greatly reducing distortion and blind spots.

Xingchen has even developed a set of near-field modeling algorithms that are geometrically accurate for features like automatic parking, with specific strategies for narrow and extremely narrow parking spaces.

A few cases from fellow car enthusiasts are naturally no challenge for them.

Gradually, more and more car enthusiasts joined the ranks of those "deliberately finding fault".

When Wu Xinzhou woke up, he found that his account had received thousands of mentions, a significant portion of which were feedback that "automatic parking cannot be used."

Take a closer look.

The parking spaces they found were so big that even experienced drivers would gasp in shock.

He was the first to rule out a number of scenarios where the parking lines were inaccurate or could not even be called parking spaces.

Then, dozens of scenarios that "need improvement and optimization" were selected.

"Provocation, still provoking!!"

Wu Xinzhou curled the corner of his mouth.

The intelligent driving department has started working overtime; this time they're really going all out.

A full week has passed, and Wu Xinzhou hasn't uttered a single word on Weibo.

Just as everyone was speaking out in the comments section, thinking that this expert was going to admit defeat and bury his head in the sand.

Wu Xinzhou updated his social media on a weekend evening:

—Resolved!!

Those three chilling words brought about an update that resolved dozens of complex scenarios reported by car enthusiasts.

"Awesome! (voice cracks)"

"Holy crap, I'm really impressed! There are so many parking spaces here that I can't even fit my own car in them, yet the Starry Night L7 can! That's insane!!"

"That car is amazing!"

“My partner is a level three disabled person when it comes to parking. I just showed her the video, and she said there was definitely someone crammed into the hood of that car.”

"Who did they stuff in? Could it be that Wu Xinzhou crawled inside himself?"

"Wu, the expert, specializes in intelligent driving algorithms. He spends all his time in the R&D office, so he might not be a good driver. On the contrary, President Xu has publicly admitted in the media that he is a good driver... The answer is obvious: Wu Xinzhou got President Xu into the company."

"666, Mr. Xu, stop hiding, come out of the cockpit!!"

"How dare you! Do you believe Mr. Xu will crawl out from under the steering wheel and hit you in the knee?!"

-

The topic "[Starry Night L7 is going crazy]" has become a trending topic.

This has drawn both envy and helplessness from many competitors.

This is absolutely insane!
The news that "Starry Night L7 sales exceeded 10,000 units in March" immediately became a trending topic, but it was even pushed down to the bottom of the list and did not generate the kind of heated discussion that was expected.

Everyone's almost used to it.

They believe this achievement is reasonable, and that breaking through this number is also due to the release of Xingchen's production capacity.

But only those in the industry know just how outrageous this rate of capacity expansion and supply chain management efficiency is!

Jia Yueting continues to push forward Faraday Future's (FF) financing and car manufacturing business in the United States.

Despite facing numerous lawsuits from suppliers and being listed as a "dishonest person subject to enforcement" domestically, it does not prevent him from continuously communicating the progress of the FF91 to the outside world and hyping up expectations for mass production.

At this critical juncture when everyone is pointing fingers.

Faraday Future suddenly released a message.

That is, Faraday Future will establish a joint venture with Evergrande and is in talks about a massive $20 billion financing cooperation.

Netizens who were expecting to see Jia Yueting make a fool of himself were completely dumbfounded!
Evergrande!!!

This golden signboard is quite convincing.

This big tree is known to almost everyone in the country.

It is hailed as the most successful real estate company in China.

Ask yourself—who wouldn't want to buy a house from Evergrande in recent years?
Even if it's a pre-sale property.

If you manage to snag one, consider yourself lucky—it's guaranteed to appreciate in value!

...

Jia Yueting's public announcement caused a stir, and Evergrande Group did not deny it.

The term "Evergrande Auto" quickly and dramatically rose to the top of the trending searches, even rivaling the recent trending topics on social media.

Suddenly, another voice emerged on the internet.

The collaboration between Evergrande and Faraday Future will undoubtedly produce the strongest domestically made car, surpassing all other car manufacturers, including Star.

Its popularity has been soaring, even causing dissatisfaction among some Starry Sky car enthusiasts.

However, Xingchen did not respond to this.

Jia Yueting was currently watching the trending topics on Chinese social media. He noticed that the person in question, whom he had deliberately stirred up, remained unusually quiet, not even sparing him a glance...

He was puzzled!
He is a member of his family who knows his own affairs.

Given the current situation, it's definitely impossible to return to China.

They can only make a living by spreading news and generating buzz.

He doesn't have the ability to build cars.

But he certainly has the ability to make money by manufacturing cars!
And it's huge!!
New energy vehicles are a great gimmick.

New energy + supercars…

That's absolutely brilliant!
But this is not enough.

This move with Evergrande represents the limit of what he can currently push forward, and the public announcement has reversed the views of many investment institutions.

Even many overseas investors who were initially indifferent to him have changed their attitudes.

The Evergrande brand is a valuable asset.

But Jia Yueting always felt that it was still not enough.

If we could add some more convincing elements, the story would be perfect.

Take, for example, the currently popular Star Auto.

Leading new energy vehicle manufacturer, domestic power battery leader...

Faraday Future is a new energy supercar manufacturer, so it has to have some new energy technology, even if it's just for show.

Xingchen Motors' battery and motor technology is among the top tier in China and even globally.

He's only produced the shell of a supercar, yet it's already attracted such a huge investment.

If we can bring down Xingchen Motors, we can add gimmicks like solid-state batteries and autonomous driving.

—Then why aren't we taking off?!
(End of this chapter)