this man is not calm

Chapter 527 Electrification?
Jin Shang originally planned for Jiang Long to settle down in Beijing with his family so that he could better focus on his work after settling down in his private life.

However, these things can't be forced. He's in his early forties, with elderly parents to care for and young children to raise. His children are either in high school or university, which is a crucial time in their lives that will determine their future. It would be unwise to hastily transfer schools.

In addition, his wife was also reluctant to quit her job and devote herself entirely to her husband and children.

Being a full-time housewife is not an easy job.

While he was understanding, Jin Shang didn't intend to replace him or force a confrontation. Instead, he offered a high salary and ample benefits, which was a fair assessment of Jiang Long's contributions and hard work.

After offering a few words of encouragement, I told him to continue following up on the financing agreement and to finalize it as soon as possible to put his mind at ease.

During his free time, Jin Shang took a break and was about to go out for a stroll to get some fresh air when Hong Renquan, who had rushed back, intercepted him.

"Uncle Hong, although I said that you would help with some small matters and act as an advisor while you are taking care of me in my old age, do you have to be so proactive?"

The semi-retired senior staff member had long since passed the handover period and had relinquished many of the affairs of Beihai Shipping. However, he still actively played a coordinating role in projects jointly launched with sister companies.

Sometimes Kim Sang felt a little guilty. Even though he had taken away his power, he still let him continue to contribute and not let go of his last bit of value.

Hong Renquan laughed dismissively:

"I can't stay idle, so I'll run around whenever I have free time. People are willing to give me face and listen to this old man's ramblings, which is already pretty good."

Retirement without taking a break wasn't due to any requirement from Kim Sang-ho or the company, but rather because Hong In-cheon wasn't used to suddenly having nothing to do.

It's fun to just talk without taking responsibility or having any scruples, but it gets boring after a while.

Without responsibility, there is no power; the two are corresponding. Currently, people listen to him, not because Hong Renquan is so powerful, but because Jin Shang respects him, and his old subordinates are willing to give him face.

Hong Renquan, who had just returned from the university-enterprise joint laboratory, was carrying a large stack of documents, ready to hand them over to his boss for review. Jin Shang asked Huang Yiyi to make several copies, and then urgently set up a small conference room to gather the relevant people for a small meeting.

Half an hour later, after explaining the key information in the PPT file, Jin Shang nodded knowingly and said:
"The overall performance of the Jinxi Office software has improved; inserting large files is no longer as laggy as before. The software development team's optimization is indeed very effective..."

This wasn't the topic for today. After praising the technology center and acknowledging its achievements, Jin Shang got to the point:

"The results are in. The challenges of diesel engine downsizing, power optimization, and emissions seem to have solutions in the short term, but only for the first three generations... at most the first four generations of mandatory standards. The window of opportunity we have is less than ten years, at most fifteen years..."

Jinshang is serious about building cars. Combining the company's power, energy, machinery, chemical and shipbuilding sectors, as well as university laboratories, they have invested 80 million yuan, and expect to have more than 200 million yuan in funding in the next two years. They have barely come up with a preliminary strategic assessment result.

In the huge market of private cars (family cars), it is almost impossible to find any other alternative fuels that could disrupt gasoline cars.

Diesel is not an option, and ethanol, methanol, natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, and ammonia are even less suitable. At best, they can serve as a supplementary alternative in certain regions or as an optional path for energy conservation and carbon reduction in the commercial sector.

"Not even diesel?"

Qi Zhaoyun frowned and asked in a low voice,

"Many of the company's strategic projects revolve around it."

"It's not that diesel fuel is bad, but rather that the inherent nitrogen oxide emissions from diesel engines are difficult to resolve properly."

Adding urea or a three-way catalytic converter will not only significantly increase the cost of use and the failure rate, but also make maintenance and repair costs unacceptable.

This is a devastating blow to diesel vehicles, whose main selling point is their affordability and high quality.

Jin Shang still vividly remembers that more than a decade later, the massive diesel emissions scandal in Europe and the United States shattered the once-thriving diesel car market, which had a market share of nearly 40 percent.

The West is in chaos, and the domestic private car market has no place for diesel vehicles. Even in the commercial vehicle sector, before the National IV emission standard, diesel vehicles did have a strong presence. Their advantages of being inexpensive, durable, easy to maintain, stable, fuel-efficient, and powerful made them quite dominant in long-distance freight, commercial vehicles, off-road vehicles, and multi-purpose vehicles.

Unfortunately, with increasingly stringent carbon emission standards, the inconvenient urea neutralization and the three-way catalytic converter kits that cost tens or hundreds of thousands of yuan and are prone to failure are practically killing car owners.

The days when any roadside repair shop could fix minor car problems are long gone. People no longer know how to repair cars, dare not repair them, or can't afford to repair them. They often have to replace the entire set of equipment and send their cars back to the factory, with six-figure costs being the norm. Who can stand that?

"There's no need to be overly pessimistic. Our most important task right now is to leverage our relatively mature diesel engine technology to quickly enter the automotive market within the next ten years or so. The prospects for diesel in private cars... and even commercial vehicles are rather bleak, but that doesn't mean diesel engines are completely hopeless. Let's establish our brand first. Besides, didn't they list some feasible technical solutions?"

Kim Sang still expressed his opinion optimistically.

Compression ignition diesel engines do not necessarily have to burn diesel fuel. They can also combine the advantages of gasoline engines to develop unique technologies, such as SPCCI and HCCI, which are "black technologies" with unclear applications.

To be honest, this technology, like the rotary engine, was a fleeting, groundbreaking "race" in its past. Unfortunately, it didn't stand out in market competition. After struggling for two or three decades, it didn't see a turnaround. Instead, it witnessed the electric vehicle boom triggered by the rapid advancement of lithium battery technology, and then, along with gasoline cars, it fell into the quagmire of technological progress, survival of the fittest, and stagnation. Of course, the fact that the technology itself was outdated doesn't mean that gasoline cars were truly useless.

For example, the high-energy plasma ignition technology and the pre-combustion chamber high-temperature gas jet ignition technology introduced in this PPT.

The former is well-suited for alternative fuels that are difficult to ignite or burn slowly, and has significant advantages in marine machinery, coal-fired power generation, and low-carbon fuel substitution.

A traditional gas turbine (internal combustion engine, coal-fired generator) costs several million yuan to ignite, and even if it is not running at full power, it cannot be shut down. If it gets cold, it is troublesome to heat it up again.

Plasma ignition technology is well-suited for these applications, offering great flexibility, easy start-up and shutdown, and the potential to be integrated into ammonia-fired power generation technologies that replace coal.

While profitability may not be expected in the short term, there is definitely a market for it in the long term. Beihai Shipping has tried its hand at ship energy equipment and large machinery, and the performance is acceptable. Although the stability needs to be improved, its many advantages can also be seen.

It seems a bit difficult to miniaturize it and install it in a vehicle.

The latter technology is more mature. Pre-combustion chamber technology has been used in the marine industry for a long time. In short, there is a small pre-combustion chamber at the top of the cylinder. A small amount of highly reactive fuel such as diesel is injected into it. After compression ignition (or spark plug ignition), it is injected into the main combustion chamber through the small hole of the pre-combustion chamber, igniting natural gas (methanol, liquefied petroleum gas or gasoline, etc.) and pushing the piston to do work.

To put it simply, this is a new technology specifically designed for dual-fuel (alternative fuel) use. It was originally developed as an adaptive improvement for ocean-going freighters to meet the emission standards of some ports (countries and regions).

Some domestic and foreign car companies have miniaturized it and used it in cars. In the past, a classic Maserati model used a pre-combustion chamber engine. This technology was once very popular in the racing (F1) field, but because of its complexity and high cost, it was only used in a few luxury cars.

The attendees occasionally whispered among themselves, offering their opinions. Hong Renquan explained very clearly:

"The development of the oil refining and automotive industries over the past century has revolved around gasoline and diesel. The difficulty of overturning the entire industrial system is immense; it's not something that can be achieved simply by developing one or two new vehicle models, new engines, or clean energy sources. Diesel is a strategic resource and will certainly have a place in non-civilian sectors—it's just a matter of quantity. Gasoline… is essentially a petrochemical byproduct, and historically, for a long time, it was directly emitted as waste gas. In today's society, apart from burning it in cars, there are almost no other more economical and practical uses for it…"

There is also aviation kerosene. Over the course of more than a hundred years, these three have been able to stand out and dominate the market, which naturally means they have irreplaceable advantages.

Seeing that the discussion was nearly complete, Jin Shang concluded:
"Therefore, we develop various alternative fuels, such as methanol, ethanol, biodiesel, natural gas, and liquefied petroleum gas, to broaden the depth of the industry, explore low-carbon and environmentally friendly paths, and incidentally build a technological moat. Ideally, when users think of our Jinxi Culture, the word 'high-tech' should come to mind. Internal combustion engines, including gasoline and diesel engines, and the liquid fuels they use—whether gasoline, diesel, natural gas, methanol, or liquid ammonia—cannot be completely eliminated now or in the future; it's just a matter of market share. A large portion will have to give way to low-carbon and environmentally friendly new energy sources. Rather than fighting for market share in the mature markets of traditional automakers, it's better to 'overtake on a curve' and seize the opportunity to accelerate our progress with electric vehicles and fuel cells..."

"In other words, internal combustion engines and alternative fuels represent the present, while lithium batteries and fuel cells represent the future. The general direction is to transition from primary energy sources like coal, oil, and natural gas to secondary energy sources like electricity! This also aligns with the development direction of our IT industry. Whether it's base stations, data centers, decentralized virtual tokens, edge computing, etc., aside from hardware requirements, they all require ample and inexpensive electricity..."

Qi Zhaoyun put down the documents and summarized as if he had just realized something.
"If that's the case, then the general direction of the group's headquarters should revolve around this change, which is also advocated by the state and can receive a lot of support."

"That's very well said," Jin Shang couldn't help but glance at Qi Zhaoyun a few more times.

To have such insight, one must not only be diligent at work, but also have done a lot of research in private; otherwise, it would be impossible to have such perspectives.

While intelligence is one aspect, the key lies in keen insight, the ability to summarize and generalize, and the profound wisdom to see through appearances to the essence.

"This is a highly capable individual, ambitious and proactive, on par with Wei Shuangping!"

Sure enough, those who were able to get in were either foolish brutes or brave and wise outlaws who had gone astray.

"In terms of alternative fuels, methanol and natural gas are definitely the main directions to be promoted. Because marine fuel has paved the way, the technological direction is clear. After miniaturization, there are already application examples in freight trucks, buses, large agricultural machinery, MPVs and SUVs. As for how to focus, it depends on the advantages and support policies of each region. It would be even better if it could be combined with electrification and hybridization."

For example, in colder northern regions, lithium iron phosphate is not very practical, and even the better-performing ternary lithium is not ideal. The company's focus is on promoting lithium titanate, which is safe, stable, and has a long lifespan.

To reiterate, Ms. Dong's strong promotion of Yinlong (Gree New Energy, which mainly promotes lithium titanate batteries) was not wrong. It was just unfortunate that it ran into the wave of rapid development of electrification. Under the overwhelming trend of lithium iron phosphate and ternary lithium batteries in civilian vehicles, it had little presence. Even so, lithium titanate battery new energy vehicles still firmly occupy a large market share in commercial vehicles, buses, large machinery, and some vehicles with strict requirements for stability, safety and lifespan.

In particular, its ability to retain most of its power performance even at temperatures close to minus forty degrees Celsius has forced Jinshang to allocate a significant amount of resources to its promotion in Northeast China, North China, and the Jiaodong Peninsula.

Electrification is the general trend, but by the end of the 20th century, it will be impossible for it to stand on its own. It must cooperate with other traditional fuel vehicles in order to survive.

The range-extended electric taxis and the urban (suburban) delivery model (mainly using 4.5T cargo trucks), which have been operating stably for more than half a year, have won the trust of many users and drivers.

Against the backdrop of energy conservation, emission reduction, fuel saving, and cost reduction, its advantages are indeed very obvious.

Of course, under the premise of group-based operation of the company, the problems of high maintenance costs, failure rate, slow charging speed, power loss and stalling, and poor battery consistency are not yet obvious.

For various reasons, Jinshang has been very cautious in launching electric vehicles on a large scale, carefully testing the market reaction under the guise of "expanding the scope of trials" and paving the way for the next generation of upgrades.

At the end of the meeting, Jin Shang made overall arrangements and asked Qi Zhaoyun to supervise their implementation.

"Finally, the Women's World Cup in the middle of the year will be a test. I have basically reached an agreement with the organizing committee. Promoting green and low-carbon travel and garden city features in the competition area is a highlight. We will provide official vehicles. We must be vigilant. If we do it well, it will greatly promote future promotion."

(End of this chapter)