Reborn since 1993

Chapter 1343 A Spark
The loudspeaker attracted the attention of many people on the street, and a crowd gathered around. However, most of them were just onlookers, and few actually tried it out, let alone bought it.

Zhao Ze wasn't in a hurry about this. He had a lot of experience in ground promotion and knew that you couldn't rush things. If you wanted to take money from someone's pocket, you had to make them willing. If you rushed to grab it, you would only lose more than you gained.

The noise from the street prompted a woman to come out of a motorcycle shop. She glanced at the Chitu electric bicycle stall and hurriedly ran back inside.

"Master, something terrible has happened! Someone is trying to steal our business!"

Wang Hai, who was tinkering with repairing a motorcycle in the motorcycle shop, heard his wife's words and a surge of blood rushed to his heart. He grabbed a handy tool and prepared to rush out.

But soon, Wang Hai felt something was wrong. The motorcycle industry was not easy to run these days, and his motorcycle shop, which was run by a husband and wife team, was barely making ends meet.

The price of motorcycles in China is really high. Foreign brands are a bit better. Japanese and Korean motorcycles have brand advantages, so their prices are still relatively stable in China.

However, since the Asian financial crisis, domestically produced motorcycles have suffered a setback in Southeast Asia and have completely lost sales overseas. As a result, a number of domestic motorcycle manufacturers have started to intensify their price wars.

Motorcycle manufacturers are engaged in a price war, which is a real hardship for motorcycle sellers like Wang Hai. Prices change three times a day; a motorcycle might be bought in the morning and the price dropped by the afternoon, resulting in a loss when it's sold.

Moreover, it's common for motorcycle manufacturers to pressure dealers to take on more inventory in order to move their stock. Wang Hai still has about ten motorcycles in his warehouse that haven't been sold yet.

Most importantly, due to the price war, the quality of domestically produced motorcycles is really questionable. Wang Hai's motorcycle shop is almost turning into a repair shop.

After all, if someone buys a motorcycle from him and there's a problem, they'll definitely come to him for repairs. If he doesn't fix it, his reputation will be ruined.

As for foreign brand motorcycles, they are of better quality, but they are also expensive. The starting price of an imported motorcycle is 16,000 yuan, which is not something Wang Hai can afford, nor is it something that people in this town can easily afford.

On this street, there is only Wang Hai's motorcycle shop, but in the town, there are several dealers of different motorcycle brands. The competition between these motorcycle shops is so fierce that they're practically fighting tooth and nail.

This is why Wang Hai's blood rushed to his head the moment he heard someone was competing with him for business. This street can only support one motorcycle shop at most. If another one comes, everyone will starve!
But upon closer reflection, Wang Hai, holding the hammer, sensed something was amiss and asked his wife, "Did you see which motorcycle brand it was?"

"It seems to be... called something like the Red Hare electric bicycle!"

"Red Hare?"

"Electric bicycle?"

A brand he'd never even heard of, coupled with a motorcycle that never stopped, left Wang Hai somewhat bewildered. In the twisted and turn-like world of domestic motorcycles, how could there be such reckless and fearless individuals daring to enter this market?
After throwing down the hammer, Wang Hai walked out of the shop and headed towards Zhao Ze's stall, where he saw an electric bicycle that was completely different from the motorcycles he saw before.

Looking at the vehicle in front of him, which had no engine and was completely unlike a motorcycle, but rather resembled a bicycle, Wang Hai couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Wang Hai couldn't help but curse under his breath at his own women. They were giving false information. If they had rushed out and started a fight for no reason, that would have been a disaster.

But then, Wang Hai couldn't help but look at the Chitu electric bicycle with curiosity, especially its price of 2599 yuan, which was more than a thousand yuan cheaper than the cheapest no-name brand motorcycle.

There are now a huge variety of motorcycle brands in China. Just in Jinan and Shandong alone, there are three to five motorcycle factories, not to mention those in other provinces.

Even the cheapest motorcycles are priced at over four or five thousand yuan. It's not that motorcycle manufacturers don't want to lower prices, but that dealers can't afford it. With transportation costs, warehousing costs, and labor costs added up, it's impossible for motorcycles to be priced below four or five thousand yuan.

More importantly, dealers dare not sell motorcycles priced below four or five thousand yuan. Other motorcycles are prone to problems and need repairs every few days, but dealers are unsure what will happen to users riding motorcycles priced at two or three thousand yuan on the road. If something really happens, they will be in trouble.

So when Wang Hai saw the price of the Chitu 2599, his first thought was that electric bicycles had a huge price advantage compared to motorcycles.

Wang Hai followed the crowd, looking at the stall selling Chitu electric bicycles in front of him. After examining it carefully for a while, Wang Hai, who had been dealing with machinery for many years, couldn't help but feel that the electric bicycles were indeed "beautiful".

In terms of coolness, style, and mechanical aesthetics, motorcycles completely outclass electric bicycles. Not to mention now, even thirty years from now, countless men will probably still be obsessed with motorcycles, even if they can no longer be driven on the road.

The electric bicycle in front of us is much more agile in design than the motorcycle. Its streamlined design is much more stylish than the monotonous bicycle.

Unlike heavy motorcycles, Wang Hai could tell that the Chitu electric bicycle was clearly unisex, and women could obviously ride it too.

The Chitu 1st generation electric bicycle was launched in three colors: white, gray, and red. Wang Hai clearly noticed that the women in the surrounding crowd were frequently glancing at the red Chitu. As someone who sold bicycles, he understood all too well what those glances meant.

"This car was jointly developed by Chitu Company, Dongling High-Tech, and Hanxi Joint Laboratory, and it's a high-tech product!"

"Have you heard of Hasee computers, Hasee mobile phones, and Feiyan MP3 players? Chitu is from the same company!"

Upon hearing Zhao Ze's boastful words, the crowd erupted in a considerable uproar.

After so many years of promotion, hype, user experience, and spontaneous communication, Shenzhou has become a well-known brand in China, a recognized "big brand," and a synonym for high-tech products.

On the other hand, if Shenzhou hasn't had this kind of influence and appeal after all these years, then it's simply too embarrassing to talk about, as if all those years have been wasted.

Upon hearing that Chitu was from the same company as Shenzhou, everyone present unconsciously began to look at Chitu with higher regard. "This bike can be ridden by both men and women. As long as you're traveling within a 10-kilometer radius, whether it's going to work, shopping, taking your kids to school, or visiting relatives, you can ride it!"

For normal travel within 10 kilometers, you only need to charge your phone once every three to five days, and each charge costs only 50 cents!

"If you can ride a motorcycle or bicycle, you can start riding an electric bicycle right away. If you can't ride, no problem, I guarantee I'll teach you in two minutes on the spot!"

Zhao Ze's mouth was dry and his voice was slightly hoarse, but he still didn't stop, "Everyone can try riding it!"

Seeing that there were many onlookers but no one actually tried it, Zhao Ze started to pull out all the stops, "Whoever is the first to test ride it, I, on behalf of Chitu Electric Bicycle Company, will give them a plate of eggs as a greeting gift!"

Upon hearing this, the voices of those around him immediately rose a few decibels, and someone couldn't help but ask, "Are you serious?"

Without saying a word, Zhao Ze opened the trunk and took out a plate of eggs from under a cloth. There were obviously other things under the cloth as well.

As a ground sales representative, Zhao Ze knew all too well how to break into the market: giving away eggs was a universally effective tactic in China. Whether it was for supermarket openings, events, or even religious activities to attract followers, eggs were always given away.

But don't think that this trick only works domestically. Looking at the whole world, giving away eggs is a powerful weapon.

In my past life, there was an egg shortage in some foreign regions, which led to the smuggling of eggs by the contraband dealers next door, who no longer dealt in contraband. Eggs cost five dollars in Mexico, but they sold for ten dollars next door, doubling the profit.

The key is that this stuff is sold in large quantities. Whether it's contraband dealers or Americans, they can all act as scalpers. After all, if there's a shortage of this stuff, it'll be tens of thousands of tons...

Seeing Zhao Zezhen take out the eggs, the first person to step forward was a small old man in his fifties. He put his bicycle aside and chose a gray Chitu electric bicycle.

Zhao Ze taught him how to start and brake, and the old man slowly started moving. He was a little clumsy at first, but he got used to it after a few meters.

Watching the old man ride further and further away, Zhao Ze wasn't worried about him running away. The car's battery had less than 10% charge left, and it would break down in less than two kilometers. He wasn't worried that the old man wouldn't come back.

Zhao Ze has been doing on-the-ground promotion for so many years, he's seen it all, these are all lessons learned from experience!
After riding for about ten meters, the old man rode back, then reluctantly got off the bike. He really enjoyed riding this electric bicycle. Or rather, after riding this thing, compared to a regular bicycle, he knew which one was truly superior!
After the first one, more and more people started to test ride the electric bicycles. Unlike motorcycles, which are mostly ridden by men, quite a few women were actually testing the electric bicycles.

Half a day passed, and although there were many people test driving the car and the crowd of onlookers changed several times, no one actually bought a car yet.

Then a man in a suit walked over with a woman. People who recognized the man called out to him, "Director Ma." Zhao Ze then heard that the Director Ma in front of him was the manager of the town's credit union.

"Director Ma, please test drive the car. A Chitu car is absolutely reliable!"

Director Ma circled the vehicle once, still wearing a somewhat arrogant expression, but he was clearly quite interested in the Chitu electric bicycle.

The woman following behind Director Ma first got her hands on a red Chitu electric bicycle.

Seeing his wife get the hang of it and quickly become proficient at riding, Director Ma's eyes flickered. He had motorcycles and cars at home, but his wife didn't know how to drive.

I usually travel by bicycle, so when I saw the Chitu electric bicycle, I was naturally tempted.

"Is this car really made by the same company as Shenzhou?"

While his wife was test driving the car, Director Ma inquired about Zhao Ze's situation.

"Chitu Company was built in Jinan with an investment of one billion RMB. Director Ma, you should have seen the news. How could that be false?"

Upon hearing Zhao Ze's words, Director Ma vaguely recalled that he had indeed seen the news about Chitu.

In fact, some things had happened before because of Chitu. Some fools tried to take advantage of Chitu Company, but not only did the local bully suffer, but even Quancheng launched a security campaign and dealt with a large number of scoundrels.

"But what if something goes wrong with this car..."

"If any quality issues arise within half a month due to the vehicle, Chitu will offer a no-questions-asked return or replacement!"

"The vehicle comes with a one-year warranty. Any problems that arise within one year will be repaired free of charge by Chitu after-sales service."

The frame has a two-year warranty, while the motor, charger, and battery all have a one-year warranty.

"Chitu is currently establishing and recruiting retail stores and franchisees in Jinan. I guarantee that a Chitu store will appear in this town by the end of this month at the latest!"

Before Director Ma could finish speaking, Zhao Ze rattled off the after-sales service and maintenance details for the Chitu truck.

(End of this chapter)