Reborn: Billionaire in College

Since Jiuzhou Auto made a stunning debut at the Shanghai Auto Show, new domestic auto-making forces have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain in just 15 months.

Represented by NIO, Xpeng, LeTV, and Ideal, there are also some car companies such as WM Motor, Singularity, and Youxia, whose names Chen Pingjiang has never even heard of.

As for traditional car companies, BYD and BAIC New Energy have also begun to transform towards new tracks.

According to Chen Pingjiang's statistics, there are probably no less than 20 to 30 such companies across the country.

These companies started a wave of innovation in the domestic new energy vehicle market around 2015, promoting the combination of electrification and intelligence.

"Everything in China is a rush, whether it's group buying or online ride-hailing. Founders are thinking about it, and investors are looking for reliable returns on their investments. Everyone is like sharks smelling blood." Yin Yunxiang smiled and shook his head: "In the early stage, everyone was scrambling to stake out territory. When the market entered the stock era, a bloody fight began. Only those who survived long enough will have the last laugh."

As an old automobile man, he is somewhat confused by the situation of the domestic automobile industry in recent years.

When he was young, those who dared to build cars in China had to have real ability, but now anyone dares to get in.

Chen Pingjiang nodded in agreement: "It's like this in China, and it's actually like this abroad, but it's not as intense. If I have to say, some of these companies were fooled by us. The explosive popularity of Jiuzhou S1 gave them a lot of illusions."

Chen Pingjiang had never heard of the so-called new car-making forces such as WM Motor, Singularity, and Youxia in the future. It was obvious that they died halfway due to various problems.

"The support from major countries is also strong." Yin Yunxiang said: "Not to mention the high subsidies provided by the central and local governments for new energy vehicles, the exemption of purchase tax is particularly attractive to ordinary people. Especially in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, the free license plates and unlimited traffic are simply nuclear bombs."

This is absolutely true.

Shanghai license plates are so expensive, and Beijing license plates are subject to lottery and traffic restrictions. Now that the new license plates are out, they ignore the rules and restrictions.

Yin Yunxiang changed the subject: "But frankly speaking, consumers' car purchases are mainly driven by license plates and subsidies, and they have low trust in product performance and technological maturity. First-tier cities have become the main battlefield due to purchase restrictions, and demand in second- and third-tier cities has not yet been activated. All of this shows that new energy vehicles are just getting on the road."

In the field of new energy vehicles, this is an era where many heroes emerge.

BYD and BAIC New Energy compete for market share, while JAC and other automakers are penetrating the low-end market through low-price strategies.

The new forces do not yet pose a threat.

Companies such as NIO and Xpeng are still in the research and development stage, and market attention mainly comes from the capital level rather than the products.

Foreign brands are ready to go.

Tesla plans to build a factory in China, and models such as BMW i3 and Volkswagen e-Golf have begun to test the waters.

But in this New Year, none of them are the protagonists, the protagonist can only be Jiuzhou Auto.

"Mr. Chen, have you read my proposal last time?" After the casual chat, Yin Yunxiang stated the purpose of this trip.

Chen Pingjiang nodded calmly and stared at him for two seconds with a scrutinizing look: "I want to know what you think. Aren't you afraid that Mr. Wang will have some ideas?"

"Haha, Mr. Wang's ideas are certainly important, but Jiuzhou Auto also wants to run faster. To be honest, Orange Technology is our company's role model and goal to catch up with. We want to go abroad and sell cars all over the world. If we want to develop, building our own factory is particularly important."

"Although Mr. Wang is a shareholder of the company, you are the chairman after all, and I only need to report to you." For this old state-owned enterprise man, it is not difficult to decide who is the real leader and who he needs to listen to.

"Let's take a step back. Even if Mr. Wang has an idea, there's nothing we can do about it."

Yin Yunxiang spread his hands.

Chen Pingjiang fell into deep thought. He had thought about abandoning BYD's OEM business and building his own factory, but he did not expect it to come so soon.

How to communicate with Wang Chuanfu is a problem. Chen Pingjiang does not want to cause unpleasantness and ruin the honeymoon period between the two.

Yin Yunxiang's report clearly pointed out several problems with OEM, some of which would probably make Wang Chuanfu shake his head.

Jiuzhou Automobile is positioned as a high-end brand, but the words "high-end" and "OEM" are naturally contradictory in the label.

To be honest, although BYD’s car-making capabilities have gradually improved in the past two years, its reputation is still not good.

In the eyes of Chinese people, it is synonymous with cheap and low-end. In the forum of Autohome, car owners often mention this point. Their tone is full of doubts about the reliability of "BYD manufacturing".

Users’ lack of trust in OEM factories will directly affect the brand’s ability to command a premium.

This is like some big-breed people in China often say, "The reason why Apple phones are so expensive is because they are Apple. Yours is just a domestically made phone, so why dare you sell it so expensively? Are you trying to take advantage of me?"

Jiuzhou Auto has received wide acclaim this year, but the reason behind its failure is because of the face of its boss Chen Pingjiang.

Firstly, Jiuzhou Auto is equated with Chen Pingjiang, and users choose to buy Jiuzhou S1 out of trust in Chen Pingjiang.

There are naturally many benefits. The most significant one is that relying on Chen Pingjiang's influence, Jiuzhou S1 got a fantastic start in pre-sale.

There are naturally pros and cons.

The disadvantage is that no matter whether it is Jiuzhou S1 or Chen Pingjiang, once one of them collapses, it will quickly affect the other one.

Mature companies should not be put in this predicament.

Secondly, the hot sales of Kyushu S1 are mainly due to its ahead-of-its-time interior and exterior design, as well as its smart cockpit and interactive system.

It’s not the user’s recognition of the brand!

Under the OEM model, car companies have weak control over the production process and are unable to respond quickly when quality problems occur frequently. After all, this is Jiuzhou Auto’s first product, and problems are inevitable during consumer use, and how to solve them is a hassle.

What made Yin Yunxiang even more worried was that he had communicated with BYD more than once about the issue of production capacity, but the results were not very good.

BYD's production capacity is often used to meet its own needs first, and the rest will be allocated to Jiuzhou Automobile. BYD will not build a new factory just for Jiuzhou.

Once a problem occurs, even if the production capacity is good, the delivery cycle will be extended again and the risk of user loss will increase rapidly.

Until now, although it is confirmed that a large number of customers will receive the cars by the end of the year, where will the more than 4 units be produced? Unless BYD's entire production capacity is allocated, it will take at least until April or May next year.

Could it be that after the press conference is held and Jiuzhou S1 is launched, they will start selling futures cars?
It’s not that Wang Chuanfu doesn’t want to cooperate, but he also has his own standards in his heart.

BYD is his industry, and he only owns 40% of Jiuzhou Automobile!

Finally, under the OEM model, production costs cannot be reduced at all.

In order to meet the manufacturing needs of Jiuzhou S1, BYD's new production line was upgraded and renovated half by each family, which invisibly pushed up the cost.

Yin Yunxiang continued: "Building a factory by yourself can improve quality control through standardized processes and intelligent production lines, and can also directly manage the supply chain and reduce the number of intermediate links."

"Finally!" Yin Yunxiang laughed, "Although the subsidies for car manufacturing are less than before, there are still subsidies. We always outsource the manufacturing to BYD, but we don't get any benefits, which makes us feel a little unhappy. Building our own factory is in line with the policy orientation. I believe that as long as we spread the word, many cities will rush to provide us with land and tax support."

That’s all for the sake of talking about it.

Building our own production capacity is indeed a good thing. How could Chen Pingjiang not know this?
"Hey! I know everything you said. I will bring it up when I go to Shenzhen on a business trip in a few days. But even if we build our own factory, the first generation of S1 will still be manufactured by BYD, so you still have to maintain a good relationship with them."

Chen Pingjiang felt that he was destined to be a worrier.

The main purpose of this business trip was to negotiate with Wang Chuanfu about the production capacity issue of Jiuzhou S1.

A press conference will be held at the end of the year to announce the launch.

This company still owes a lot of debt - more than 80,000 cars.

It was promised at the beginning that large customers would be able to receive their cars within the year. How to explain this to them when the time comes is a big problem.

After all, consumers have paid so much money and waited for so long, either out of their trust in Chen Pingjiang or their love for Jiuzhou S1, and now they are told they have to wait even longer.

Even though Chen Pingjiang is very popular among the public, he is prepared to be hated by his fans. (End of this chapter)