Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 512 Joint Press Conference

May 18th, Saturday afternoon.

Qianshan International Conference Center, a special press conference is about to be held here.

A large number of invited reporters from various news media arrived at the conference center early. Many of them even arrived in the morning to make various preparations in the media center.

Industry insiders who were also invited arrived one after another around noon.

However, unlike previous press conferences held by Zhiyun Group which were all held indoors, today's press conference also had an outdoor venue.

This is obviously related to Hailan Automobile!
Because today's press conference is not only the launch of Zhiyun Group's new generation flagship robot, but also HaiLan Automobile's annual car launch. HaiLan Automobile will officially release the new generation of HaiLan SR3 supercar and improved models of multiple models at today's press conference.

As the launch of Hailan Automobile involves autonomous driving, every year's launch conference has an outdoor driving test segment, which requires a relatively large venue.

In this year's special joint press conference, in addition to paying attention to robots and cars, more people are paying attention to solid-state batteries.

Various rumors have gone viral, and many people have vowed that Xu Shenxue will release a commercial solid-state battery. However, in Zhiyun Group's routine press conference, its spokesperson did not deny this, and gave a statement of neither admitting nor denying.

This further confirms the authenticity of solid-state batteries.

This has attracted great attention from many industries.

The first to be affected is naturally the automotive industry. After all, the most core component in today's electric vehicles is the power battery. The cost and performance of the power battery are directly related to the battery life and price of an electric vehicle.

The impact is huge!
The current electric vehicle industry is also booming!

The electric vehicle industry is now developing extremely rapidly and even booming. The global annual sales have exceeded 4 million vehicles. The leading company, Hailan Automobile, has an annual global sales of 2 million vehicles, accounting for more than half of the global market share, far ahead of other automobile manufacturers.

Electric vehicles from BYD and several other traditional domestic automobile manufacturers, as well as new electric vehicle manufacturers, are also selling very well, with sales ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.

Especially BYD has been developing rapidly in the past two years. They have actively laid out in the mid- and low-end markets. In addition, after the electric vehicle market was ignited by Hailan Automobile, the overall environment is good. For example, there are many charging stations in the country.

These factors have stimulated BYD's market sales, which have now reached annual sales of more than 300,000 vehicles and are still maintaining rapid growth.

In addition to favorable macro factors, it is also related to the fact that they are taking the plug-in hybrid technology route. They have very strong technical accumulation in the field of plug-in hybrids, and plug-in hybrid technology can achieve a better balance between gasoline vehicles and pure electric vehicles. For daily short-distance travel, the pure electric mode can be used to save fuel, and for long-distance travel, the gasoline vehicle mode can be used without range anxiety.

This gives them a very good market development space.

The electric vehicles of some other domestic automobile brands have also developed relatively well. The EU series of BAIC is selling very well. Electric vehicles of SAIC, Geely and other manufacturers have also risen rapidly, with sales ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.

In addition, some domestic high-end models have begun to adopt the semi-solid-state batteries provided by Ningdai Battery. The comprehensive pure electric range has been greatly improved compared with the past. Some high-end models can achieve a pure electric range of 600 to 700 kilometers.

Major overseas automobile manufacturers are also actively developing electric vehicles. The electric vehicles of Tesla, BMW, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Renault and other car companies are developing quite well.

Tesla's development is particularly rapid, with annual sales reaching more than 300,000 vehicles. It is the world's second largest electric car manufacturer. This year, Tesla also released a version equipped with Ningdai Battery's semi-solid-state battery, and its pure electric range has reached 600 to 700 kilometers.

With the semi-solid batteries provided by Ningdai Battery, these car manufacturers only need to be willing to invest and put in more semi-solid batteries to achieve a pure electric range of 600 to 700 kilometers... Of course, the cost of doing so is extremely high, and the vehicle prices are generally relatively high.

Whether such a high price can be sold is a test of the strength of major car companies... After all, not all car companies are Hailan Automobile, and consumers think that models of 300,000 or 400,000 yuan are "quite cheap".

Putting aside the discussion of autonomous driving, let's just talk about the vehicle's endurance configuration. With the same endurance configuration, Hailan Automobile can easily sell for 400,000 yuan, and consumers also accept it. However, it is very difficult for other car companies to sell for 400,000 yuan, including Tesla, BMW and other models.

There is no way around it. HaiLan Automobile is naturally a high-end brand with high-tech attributes, and Xu Shenxue, the world's richest man, personally promotes the product. In addition, the black technology brought by autonomous driving and the technological revolution of smart electric vehicles that have been set off many times in the past few years have all made HaiLan Automobile enjoy a very good brand reputation worldwide.

Consumers think that Hailan Automobile is the most awesome high-tech automobile brand at the moment, so it is natural that it is expensive!
But for other car manufacturers, consumers can't help but ask: Why do you sell your cars so expensively?
Therefore, although semi-solid-state batteries are very good and Ningdai Battery has begun to supply them on a large scale this year, not all car models can afford them.

In fact, the battery with the largest shipment volume in Ningdai is the lithium iron phosphate battery. The technology of this lithium iron phosphate battery also comes from Hailan Battery. Its energy density can reach 200 watt-hours per kilogram, which is the world's top lithium iron phosphate battery.

Although the energy density is slightly lower than the current top-level ternary lithium battery of 250 watt-hours per kilogram, it is not too big, especially considering that lithium iron phosphate batteries have greater advantages in safety and low cost.

Therefore, the sales volume of lithium iron phosphate batteries from Ningdai Battery is very high at present. Almost all major car companies in the world that make electric vehicles will more or less consider using this battery from Ningdai Battery.

Semi-solid-state batteries began to be supplied to third-party companies this year, which has already caused quite a stir. However, now that Xu Shenxue is going to release solid-state batteries, the impact will be even greater.

Does the huge pure electric range brought by solid-state batteries mean that the range anxiety of pure electric vehicles will be completely eliminated?
In addition, with the ultra-high pure electric endurance brought by solid-state batteries, is there still value in the existence of a series of hybrid technology routes?
If the pure electric range of solid-state battery vehicles can reach 1,000 kilometers, or even 1,300 to 1,400 kilometers, then is there still a need for plug-in hybrid and extended-range technology routes, which exist mainly to alleviate range anxiety?

What's more important is that electric vehicles currently have a relatively low market share, accounting for about 4.5 percent of the global automobile market. The core factor is still affected by range anxiety and the lack of charging facilities.

If we have solid-state batteries, range anxiety will no longer exist, and even the problem of insufficient charging facilities can be alleviated.

This will inevitably greatly reduce consumers' concerns about purchasing electric vehicles, thereby increasing the overall market share of electric vehicles.

Does this mean that electric vehicles are about to make great strides, their market share will increase significantly, and fuel vehicles are about to enter their doomsday era?

These issues are looming in the eyes of major automobile manufacturers, making them extremely concerned and even anxious.

Because each of these problems is directly related to the marketing, profits, and even survival of these automobile manufacturers!
In addition to the automotive industry's serious attention to Xu Shenxue's upcoming solid-state battery, people from many other industries also attended the press conference.

For example, in the robotics industry… It is worth noting that Zhiyun Group’s robots are also big users of batteries. Although their overall usage is far less than that of the electric vehicle industry, it is still quite large. The most important thing is that batteries will also greatly affect the endurance of robots.

If Zhiyun's robots use solid-state batteries, their battery life will be doubled. Smart robots with longer battery life will have a wider range of applications, and consumers will be more willing to spend money to buy them.

Although there is still only one product from Zhiyun Group in the current robot market, forming a de facto monopoly market with no competition, many large high-tech companies and research institutions around the world are developing robots.

Foreign large high-tech companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, and Tesla have invested heavily in the research and development of robots in the past two years. Although they have not yet produced finished products, it does not prevent them from enjoying a bright future...

Some foreign high-tech companies have also invested heavily in research and development in the field of robotics.

Although the research and development of robots is very difficult, this is the future!

Faced with the huge potential of robots in the future, which may even reach a market worth more than one trillion US dollars, no large high-tech company will give up easily.

No matter how difficult it is, they will find a way to do it.

This can be seen from the fact that the number of APO graphics cards they purchase each year is increasing year by year!
What is the core of intelligent robots? Artificial intelligence!

Artificial intelligence requires training, and if you want to train artificial intelligence, APO graphics cards are indispensable.

Finally, such a situation arose: when major enterprises placed large orders, but the advanced 3D packaging capacity of APO graphics cards was limited and in serious shortage of supply, the APO4600 graphics card with a hardware cost of more than 5000 yuan was sold at an extremely high price of or yuan; the APO graphics card with a hardware cost of more than yuan was sold at a sky-high price of yuan!

Zhiyun Group has made a lot of money just by selling APO graphics cards, and the profit is increasing every year.

The core soul of the robot is artificial intelligence, but the body is also very important, and the power battery part in the body is the core of the core!

Because this is directly related to the robot's endurance!
Because many companies that are developing robots are now paying close attention to solid-state batteries... These companies that are developing robots certainly cannot produce top-level intelligent robot products like Zhiyun robots, but they still have some confidence in making a stupid robot.

If you can’t do high-end, then do mid-to-low-end!
If you can’t make a humanoid robot, then make a robot dog or some other type of robot.

No matter how powerful Zhiyun Group’s machines are, it is impossible for them to take up all the market share. At least, Zhiyun will definitely not be able to take over the defense robot market in most countries, especially in Europe and the United States.

If you dare to use Zhiyun robots to fight, when necessary, these Zhiyun robots will rebel against you in minutes... You don't even have to guess or think about this, you can know it with your eyes closed.

So no matter what, there is always a lot of room for survival in the robot market for companies from various countries, especially American companies.

In addition to the automotive and robotics industries, which are paying more attention to solid-state batteries, other industries that have demand for batteries are also paying close attention to solid-state batteries.

For example, all kinds of smart terminal industries, mobile phones, tablets, etc. can use solid-state batteries.

So many people from these industries also came.

Amid the anticipation of many people, the joint press conference of Zhiyun and Hailan Automobile finally officially began in the afternoon of that day.

But this opening is a little different from the usual opening of a press conference.

A large group of reporters and guests were not inside the venue, but gathered at the entrance!

Under the gaze of the crowd and the filming of a large number of cameras, several sea-blue cars slowly drove into the entrance of the venue.

Leading the way was a pure black supercar with a distinct sea blue sports car style. It was the flagship product of Sea Blue Automobile, the Sea Blue SR3, which would be released today... a super electric sports car used to shape the brand and demonstrate the company's black technology strength in all aspects.

The pure black and sea blue SR3 with a strong sci-fi appearance instantly attracted everyone's attention as soon as it appeared.

This car looks so cool! It seems like a futuristic vehicle that has come back from the future. It doesn't seem real.

This is also the core design concept of Hailan Automobile's body and interior: science fiction is the core design element!

Almost every model of Hailan Automobile has a strong science fiction style, and for this reason it is willing to sacrifice many other aspects of its characteristics, such as wind resistance, which is less considered.

In order to look good and create a shocking appearance, Hailan car designers often do something flashy or even hinder the performance of the vehicle.

It’s all about looking good and shocking!

Let’s not talk about the performance of a car, but it must look good. This is the core design concept of the exterior and interior of Hailan Automobile.

In addition, in order to reflect the technological elements, they will also do a lot of messy, even fancy things... The hidden hand design of the car door was created by these Hai Lan engineers. It was criticized by many people at the time, but although this thing is not easy to use, it looks good and is fancy enough!
Of course, this hidden door handle design did not last long. The following year, Hailan Automobile cancelled this design and instead adopted a concave door handle.

Because in a series of subsequent safety tests conducted by HaiLan Automobile, it was discovered that this thing had serious safety hazards: if an accident occurred and the drive motor of the handlebar was powered off or malfunctioned, the door could not be opened from the outside for rescue.

Although such an accident did not occur that year, after discovering this problem during testing, Hailan Automobile's designers decisively abandoned this design and adopted concave door handles, which not only retained the mechanical door handles but also visually hid the handles on the doors, keeping the overall exterior of the door smooth.

In addition, the company provided free replacements to owners of the first generation of Hailan SEC, and spent a lot of money on recalls...

But even if it spends money on recall changes, Hailan Automobile does not want this scenario to happen one day: after a vehicle accident, people in the car are injured and lose their ability to move, and people outside the car want to rescue them, but find that they can't find the door handles, and can only watch the people in the car being burned to death!
Building a high-end brand is not easy, and safety is something that must be taken seriously!
Who are the users who buy your Hailan cars? They are all high net worth customers, and these people care more about safety.

Therefore, once any safety hazard occurs, Hailan Automobile will immediately recall, replace or repair the vehicle.

With HaiLan Automobile taking the lead in doing this, subsequent electric vehicles basically dare not use hidden handlebars... HaiLan Automobile said that this is unsafe and even recalled and replaced the vehicles.

How dare you do this? What? Do you think you are more awesome than Hailan Automobile?

In addition, some car owners of the first two generations of Hailan cars reported that they could not find the mechanical structure to open the door... Hailan cars have used electric doors since the first generation. There is no door handle at the traditional door opening position, only an electric door switch.

Although the mechanical door opening design is retained, the switch of the mechanical door opening structure is placed in the upper part of the door storage space just for the beauty of the interior design.

Many people, who are used to driving traditional vehicles, find it difficult to find this mechanical switch for a while.

After the test engineers of Hailan Automobile discovered this hidden danger, they specially found a large number of people who had never driven or ridden in a Hailan car to drive a Hailan car. The result was shocking: 80% of the people could not find the mechanical door opening switch within five minutes.

Many people have reported that this broken switch is hidden too secretly.

This is another huge safety hazard... In an emergency, you can't just take the instruction manual to find the switch for the mechanical door opening, right?

Therefore, starting from the third generation of Hailan cars, Hailan car designers honestly reintegrated the mechanical door handles into the position of traditional door handles, and directly integrated them with the electric door handles.

A push button switch is an electric switch, while a direct manual pull is a mechanical switch.

At the critical moment, the mechanical door opening structure that looks like an antique and has no technical content is still the most reliable!
For this reason, Hailan Automobile conducted a global recall and replaced the new design for free, wasting a lot of money.

This makes many other car manufacturers who followed the trend of Hailan Automobile vomit blood... It was you, Hailan Automobile, who developed hidden handles and electric door switches in the car and hid the mechanical switches... but in the end, it was you who abandoned these two designs and conducted a global recall.

Are you kidding us?
Should I follow or not?
In the early stages, HaiLan Automobile produced a lot of messy things in order to attract attention. Many of these things were not good things. They were just made simply to look good or to show off the so-called high technology.

As time goes by, these immature things on the Hailan car have been abandoned one after another... Of course, there are still a lot of fancy things.

Science fiction elements are still the core design elements of Hailan Automobile.

This point is most fully reflected in the new generation of Hailan SR3 supercar!

As the Sea Blue SR3 entered the venue, other Sea Blue models followed behind!

Almost all of Hailan Automobile's existing models have been launched.

The large executive luxury sedan Hailan SLC, the large luxury SUV model Hailan SEV, and the four-door or two-door coupe Hailan SEC, all three are high-end luxury models with high prices.

However, due to their high prices, the sales of these three high-end luxury models are relatively low. Among them, the best-selling Hailan SEV currently has an annual sales volume of only 70,000 to 80,000 units.

These three models, especially the Hailan SEV and Hailan SEC, are no longer as crazy as they used to be... When autonomous driving first appeared, these two models were must-have cars for all kinds of wealthy people, especially those who claimed to be chasing technological trends.

Unfortunately, the good times didn’t last long, and after its debut and peak, its sales continued to decline… The reason was that it was too expensive!

How to put it, many people who can afford and are willing to accept electric cars have already bought them, and the rest are those who cannot afford or are unwilling to accept electric cars.

The main sales of HaiLan Automobile have long been transferred to the mid-size sedan HaiLan SLMC and the mid-size SUV HaiLan MEV. These two models are very strong in the global market and have very high sales. Among them, the annual sales of HaiLan SLMC exceeded 500,000 units very early on and are still rising.

In addition, the Hailan MEV also sells very well. This SUV model priced in the 30s and 40s is not only very popular in China, but also in various overseas countries. Even in the United States, this car can still maintain a considerable sales volume.

Although the United States imposes a 100% tariff on Chinese automobiles, led by Hailan Automobile, there are still people willing to bear this high tariff and buy Hailan Automobile.

After all, there is no substitute for Hailan Auto's autonomous driving. If you want to play L4 level autonomous driving, or even L3 level autonomous driving, you can only choose Hailan Auto, no matter how high its tariff is...

There are many countries around the world that impose high tariffs on Chinese cars, but HaiLan Automobile has stubbornly defied the high automobile tariffs of various countries and has forced its way into the automobile markets of various countries!

It relies on brand appeal and strong high-tech capabilities!

So what if there is a 100% tariff? You still have to buy from me...

Finally, there is the key entry-level model Hailan YEV, which was just launched on a large scale last year but became a hit as soon as it was launched. It has been the main force in Hailan Automobile's sales growth in the past year and helped Hailan Automobile break through the two million sales mark.

This B-class sedan priced at over RMB 200,000 has become the best-selling model of Hailan Automobile. It has become extremely popular both at home and abroad. It sells very well in China, in ASEAN, and even in Europe and South America.

Its basic models and some adapted models specially launched for different regions, such as tropical models, cold zone models, desert models, etc., if all models are added up, the annual sales of this series have reached 700,000 to 800,000 units, ranking sixth among the world's best-selling models.

While other models of Hailan Automobile have seen sales decline or stagnation due to price factors and limited market space, Hailan YEV has single-handedly supported the sales growth, revenue and profit growth of Hailan Automobile.

Quite strong!

Of course, in addition to this model, HaiLan SLMC and HaiLan MEV are also very key models.

The sales volume of these three models directly affects HaiLan Auto’s overall annual sales, revenue and profits.

Among them, many reporters found that this year's Sea Blue SLMC is different in appearance, and is quite different from the previous generations of Sea Blue SLMC.

The previous generations of the Sea Blue SLMC have basically not changed. They all look the same, with only some modifications in minor details. However, most people really can't tell the difference in appearance between the 16th and 18th models of the Sea Blue SLMC.

However, this year's 19-model sea blue SLMC has undergone relatively large modifications in the appearance of the body. The overall look is more sci-fi, the lines are smoother, and there are some changes in the front and rear design of the body.

This is also a big surprise for many car bloggers. At least they have a story to write.

The appearance of Hailan Automobile models has changed little. The appearance of many models has not been changed for several years. For example, the appearance of the Hailan SEV large SUV has not changed much so far...

The only one with more changes is the SEC sports car series of Hailan Automobile, which includes four-door coupes, two-door hardtop sports cars, two-door convertible sports cars, and the appearances are also varied... But the Hailan SEC has always been a toy for the rich, and ordinary people can't afford it!
Not many people read the reports on Hailan SEC!

People are most concerned about the three models with the highest sales: HaiLan SLMC, HaiLan MEV and HaiLan YEV!

This year, among these three models, at least the Hailan SLMC has undergone significant changes!

When a large number of automotive media reporters were busy taking pictures of this year's new sea-blue SLMC, someone soon discovered something was wrong!
The driver in this car seems a little weird!

It's hard to explain specifically, but it gave people a bit of a strange feeling. When the reporters were filming, they zoomed in to capture the drivers' faces and found that none of the drivers looked away and had any expression on their faces.

However, what followed was a scene that they would never forget in their lives.

As a row of various sea-blue cars arrived at the entrance of the venue, as the doors opened, the drivers inside the cars got out one after another!
Then people discovered that these drivers looked exactly the same, as if they were carved from the same mold!

It is absolutely impossible for more than a dozen people to look exactly the same. There must be something fishy going on.

Of course, there were many smart people present. When they saw these people who looked exactly the same, and considering that today's press conference was a joint press conference for robots and cars, they immediately thought that these must be robots, just covered with silicone skin, wearing wigs, and clothes.

Then more problems came.

These cars are not driven automatically, nor are they driven by drivers, but are driven by a group of robots?
When will this Zhiyun robot be able to drive?

(End of this chapter)