Super Copy of Great Power Technology

Most of the members of the investigation team came from other domestic auto companies, and many of them were company executives. In their view, this humanoid robot is a magic weapon for reducing costs, increasing efficiency, and improving car quality. As long as the price is right, they will place an order without hesitation.

"We at Ruida Group do have a humanoid robot production and sales business, but we currently only have two models on sale. One is a housekeeping robot that can only do some housework such as cleaning, cooking, and taking care of the elderly and children, which definitely does not meet your requirements. The other is a space-specific robot that can stay and work for a long time in space where there is no air, no gravity, and the temperature is extremely low. This robot is fully functional and reasonably designed, and can almost replace human astronauts to complete all work. It can certainly be used to produce cars, but this robot is too expensive, at least tens of millions per unit, and I don't think any car company would be willing to buy it and put it on the production line."

After Zhong Ruixiang's words, everyone in the investigation team was disappointed. An executive from Ideal Auto was still unwilling to give up and continued to ask: "Mr. Zhong, where did this humanoid robot that your factory is using now come from? Such a good product, why don't you mass-produce it and sell it to the outside world?"

"The robots we use are specially customized by the robot research and development team of Ruida Research Institute. They also thought about mass-producing this robot and selling it on the market, but it was stuck when reporting it to the relevant departments for review. The reason given is that such advanced humanoid robots, if popularized on a large scale, are likely to occupy limited jobs and cause a large number of industrial workers to be laid off." Zhong Ruixiang shrugged helplessly, looking helpless. Who doesn't like to make money? Isn't it forbidden by the higher-ups?

Think about it, it is true. You know, capital is profit-seeking. If there are such advanced and easy-to-use humanoid robots for sale on the market, who would hire a large number of workers to work in factories? Management is troublesome, wages are high, and you have to ask for leave for a headache, fever, wedding or funeral. How can robots that work hard and tirelessly be useful?

After the topic of robots was revealed, the investigation team walked along the viewing corridor and continued to go deeper into the workshop. Just now, the cars were still in the state of scattered parts, and it was hard to tell whether the production efficiency was high or low. Now everyone came to the end of the production line, and brand-new Ruida SUV cars were densely packed on the production line, moving back without stopping. At the exit of the assembly workshop, a new car rolled off the production line almost every ten seconds, and then, under the control of the automatic driving system, drove out of the assembly workshop and went to other workshops for subsequent testing.

"I just checked my watch and found that about one car rolls off the production line every fifteen seconds. Wow, this production efficiency is incredible. The production capacity of one workshop is almost as high as that of our entire factory."

"Yes, this car production speed is absolutely the best in China, and it is also among the top three in the world. More importantly, there are only a few workers in the entire workshop. All car production work is completed by equipment and robots. It is really enviable."

"No wonder Ruida Automobile has such high sales volume but rarely has delayed delivery. It turns out that it has such a terrifying production capacity as its foundation."

"Mr. Zhong, these three automobile production lines were also designed by your company, right? The automobile production lines that our factory customized from Germany and the island countries have a pretty good production speed, about two and a half minutes to produce a car, but it is far behind the production speed of these three production lines."

"Yes, these production lines were indeed independently designed and assembled by our company's technical team according to the production requirements of specific models. The equipment used on the production lines is also mainly domestically produced, and some are self-developed equipment. After the production lines were built, they underwent dozens of major modifications and hundreds of small optimizations, which led to the production efficiency you see now."

"No doubt about it, your Reda Company is awesome!"

"Yes, after seeing your Ruida Automobile's production workshop, I realized that domestic automated unmanned factories have already achieved this level. It really opened my eyes."

After visiting the entire workshop, everyone in the investigation team, including the two vice presidents, was full of admiration and compliments. They just wanted to build a good relationship with Ruida Automobile Company. Maybe one day, they could buy humanoid robots or several patent licenses from Ruida Automobile. Even if they couldn't buy robots, they could invite a few technical experts to bring them back to help optimize their company's automobile production line and improve production efficiency.

The only exception is Ma Haochen from a state-owned car company. He still stubbornly insists on his own opinion, "In the production cost of a car, labor costs only account for a few dollars, less than 10%. Even if your Ruida Automobile Company uses robots to replace all workers, it cannot prove that your entry-level models are not sold at a loss."

Otherwise, why do we say that prejudice is a mountain? Once formed, it is difficult to remove it from people's minds. Many members of the investigation team also agreed with Ma Haochen's point of view. After all, several entry-level models of Ruida Automobile are sold too cheaply. Ruida's entry-level sedans and SUVs with a range of 500 kilometers and standard automatic driving functions have a landing price of less than yuan, which is somewhat unreasonable. If the same configuration of the vehicle is replaced by their company to produce, yuan will not even cover the production cost.

Zhong Ruixiang did not rush to defend himself, but shrugged his shoulders and said with a relaxed look: "Since you have such questions, please continue to visit. I believe that after you have seen the entire design and production process of our Ruida Automobile, checked the parts purchase price list and cost accounting table, you will understand how low the production cost of our Ruida Automobile is. To be honest, if our Ruida Automobile Company lets go and cuts prices to grab the market, all domestic automobile companies, whether state-owned, private, or joint ventures, will not be able to compete."

Zhong Ruixiang, who is always kind, said something domineering, and then took the investigation team to the next workshop to check the production process of the power battery pack, one of the three major parts of electric vehicles. After hearing this, the expressions of the investigation team were different. Some were disdainful, some were curious, some were questioning, some were afraid, and some were thoughtful. It was really a thousand faces and a thousand faces, and it was wonderful. Everyone looked at each other, and then took a few steps to keep up with Zhong Ruixiang. They were also very curious about how many subversive things Ruida Automobile, a new car-making force that has just been established for a few years, has hidden.

After leading everyone into the battery pack assembly workshop, Zhong Ruixiang picked up a large single battery from the conveyor belt, weighed it in his hand, and introduced: "This is a sodium-ion graphene battery produced by our Ruida Automobile's subsidiary factory. Although it is only the size of a palm, it can store half a kilowatt-hour of electricity, and its energy density has exceeded that of traditional ternary lithium batteries. In terms of safety, cycle life and fast charging capability, it even crushes traditional lithium batteries. Most importantly, the purchase price of this battery is very low, only about one-fifth of the ternary lithium battery of the same capacity."

"Hiss, I've heard that Mr. Qiao Ruida of your Ruida Group has developed a sodium-ion battery that can replace lithium-ion batteries to a certain extent and be used in new energy vehicles. But I've never seen the real thing, and today I finally opened my eyes." "Why is the purchase price of this sodium-ion battery so low, even cheaper than lead-acid batteries?"

"I know the answer to this question. It is said that sodium batteries use very cheap sodium salts as raw materials to replace expensive lithium salts to produce batteries, which greatly reduces the production cost of batteries. The first generation of sodium batteries, limited by technology, had very low energy density, a long discharge voltage, and extremely poor performance. They did not even leave the laboratory. It was not until Mr. Qiao took action, updated the production technology of sodium batteries, added graphene materials, and greatly improved the energy density and performance of sodium batteries that sodium batteries left the laboratory and entered the mass production stage."

"Last year, after seeing reports about sodium-ion batteries, our company wanted to purchase a batch of sodium batteries for testing, but we were never able to find any on the market. In the end, we had no choice but to buy a car produced by your company, Ruida, and disassemble it, and only then did we get the sodium battery samples. From the test results at the time, the energy density of sodium batteries was roughly equivalent to that of lithium iron phosphate batteries, and the charging and discharging performance was not ideal, so they could only be used in entry-level cars. Now, a year has passed, have sodium batteries evolved to this level?"

Zhong Ruixiang nodded and said, "Well, a year is a long time for us. During this year, our R&D personnel have updated and optimized the sodium-ion graphene battery many times, and the mass-produced products have been updated and iterated twice. The sodium battery you see now is already the third-generation product. In terms of product performance, it is no longer the same species as the first-generation sodium battery."

"We, the Ruida Group, have mastered a large number of core patents for sodium batteries and have built a number of battery factories in coastal areas. Even the raw materials graphene and sodium chloride used in our sodium battery production are produced by our subsidiaries. It can be said that our Ruida Group has mastered almost all the upstream and downstream links of sodium battery production. This is how we can keep the internal procurement price of sodium batteries so low."

"Are you selling your sodium batteries to the outside world? We at SAIC are also planning to enter the field of new energy vehicle research and development. If the sodium batteries you produce are priced appropriately, I can purchase a batch for the purpose of developing new cars." An elderly man from SAIC asked.

"Of course we sell them to the outside world. The main raw materials for producing sodium batteries are sodium chloride and graphite, which are almost endless on the earth. The production equipment is not difficult to make, and there is no difficulty in increasing production capacity. However, the external sales price of sodium batteries is more expensive, and it is definitely not as cheap as our internal procurement price. If you at SAIC can accept it, let's add each other as WeChat friends, and after the investigation is completed, we can discuss the sodium battery procurement issue in detail." Zhong Ruixiang is mainly responsible for car sales. Selling cars is selling, and selling sodium batteries is also selling. As long as he can bring profits to the company, he doesn't mind being a sodium battery salesman.

"Mr. Zhong, let's add each other as friends. Our Ideal Auto also needs a lot of such high-quality and low-cost sodium batteries."

"Yes, yes, Mr. Zhong, you can't be partial to one and ignore the other. Everyone should add them as friends. When Ruida Group develops good products in the future, don't forget our Changan Automobile."

Zhong Ruixiang took out his mobile phone and added more than a dozen CEOs or executives of car companies as his friends. He was so smiling that his eyes were almost gone. He seemed to see a large number of sodium battery orders flying in like snowflakes. He also achieved his full performance and received a lot of bonuses and commissions.

After leaving the battery pack assembly workshop, the group visited the brushless motor production workshop, electronic control, car machine production workshop, chassis production workshop, stamping workshop, new car R&D laboratory, test track and other places. Various new technologies, new products, and new processing methods emerged one after another. At the beginning, the investigation team was surprised to see some interesting new things, but later, they saw too many new things and were shocked to the point of numbness.

As for Ma Haochen, who had always been stubborn, his face became darker and darker under the constant attacks. By the end, his face was as black as the bottom of a pot. His mouth, which had always been unforgiving, also shut up obediently. After visiting all the way, everyone could see that Ruida Automobile Company had mastered a large number of core automotive technologies and applied for a large number of patents. It had formed its own technical system in the three major parts of electric vehicles, intelligent driving systems, and driving safety systems. At least in the field of electric vehicle production, it had formed a technical barrier. In terms of cost control, it was far ahead of a number of domestic and foreign automakers.

As for the so-called malicious price cuts reported by a state-owned automobile company, which hurt others at its own expense and disrupted the market order, these are simply nonsense.

The last stop of the investigation was arranged in the accounting department. When the investigation team received the production cost accounting sheets of several popular models of Ruida Automobile from the female clerk and circulated them among each other, almost every member of the team was shocked and exclaimed continuously.

"The production cost of Ruida's entry-level sedan is less than 60,000 yuan. How is this done? It's incredible!"

"The production cost of Ruida SUV is also not high, only a little over 4 yuan. No wonder Ruida S store dares to lower the selling price to less than yuan, and the dealers are happy to cooperate. It turns out that the profit they get is not low at all."

"Fortunately, Ruida Automobile was righteous and did not maliciously cut prices to hurt others, otherwise all of us car companies would have died."

"No, the gap is too big. If we don't do something, we will be eliminated. When I go back, I will call on employees to learn from Ruida Automobile, adjust the production line, improve the degree of automation, reduce costs and increase efficiency, develop new technologies and new models, and strive to keep up with Ruida Automobile." (End of this chapter)