Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 525 Xi Wanqing's Troubles
There are many enterprises in Guangcheng under Liuhe Investment and Xiannvshan Holding System. Xu Shenxue's inspection this time was relatively comprehensive. He visited many enterprises and spent more time.

After all, Guangzhou is also a first-tier city and is close to Shenzhen. Although university resources are not abundant, there are many workers pouring in from all over the country.

Therefore, this place has also become an important area for Xu Shenxue's career layout, with many R&D centers and manufacturing bases.

Not only in Guangzhou, in fact, Xu Shenxue has many companies in the two first-tier cities of Shanghai and Beijing.

Both Zhiyun Group and Xiannvshan Holdings have established large-scale R&D centers in these first-tier cities to carry out various R&D activities.

In addition to the Guangcheng Zhiyun Technology Park, Guangcheng also has the R&D and production bases of several important subsidiaries of Xiannvshan Holdings.

In addition, Hailan Automobile also established a new production base in Guangcheng.

The automobile industry chain in Guangcheng is quite good, with relatively strong accumulation, so it is reasonable for Hailan Automobile to set up a production base here.

The most important of these is the solid-state battery factory established by Hailan Automobile locally.

When he arrived at the solid-state battery factory, what Xu Shenxue saw was a busy construction site with a large number of engineering equipment working on the site. The factory building on the other side had been completed, and large machinery and workers were busy installing the equipment.

"This is one of our solid-state battery production bases. We have currently set up solid-state battery production bases in three locations, namely in Guancheng, Ancheng, and this Guangcheng base!"

"In our planned solid-state battery production capacity, the total capacity in the first phase is expected to initially meet the demand for two million electric vehicles, aiming to"

"The planned production capacity of the Guancheng base is relatively large, and it is expected to meet the solid-state battery demand for one million vehicles. However, due to the large scale of the plan, the construction period is relatively long, and it will not be put into production until next summer."

"The production base in Ancheng is expected to be able to meet the solid-state battery demand for 500,000 vehicles. This base will also be put into production around next autumn. The Guangcheng base has also planned a production capacity of 500,000 vehicles, but in order to meet the battery demand of the robot business launched this winter, it will be built in phases. The first phase of the project will be produced in small batches this winter.

"This winter, our solid-state battery production base in Guangcheng will be the first to conduct small-scale trial production, which is expected to meet the power battery needs of a series of robotics businesses!"

"By next summer, our Guancheng solid-state battery base will enter the large-scale production stage, which is expected to be able to meet the needs of 500,000 vehicles, and the production capacity will be gradually increased in the future."

"In the fall of next year, the Ancheng base will also be put into production, with an initial production capacity of 200,000 vehicles to meet the production needs of Hailan Automobile in central and northern China."

"The second phase of production capacity of the Guangcheng base will be put into production next winter, with an initial production capacity of about 150,000 vehicles."

"We optimistically estimate that by next winter, our total solid-state battery production capacity will reach a relatively ideal level. In addition to giving priority to supplying the solid-state battery demand for the expected three million robots, we will also be able to supply an additional 800,000 Hailan cars!"

The solid-state batteries produced by HaiLan Battery, a subsidiary of HaiLan Automobile, are actually not supplied to their cars first, but to the intelligent robots under Zhiyun Group!

The first batch of solid-state batteries produced on a trial basis at the Guangcheng Solid-State Battery Base this winter will be supplied first to the robotics business.

Because robots have a more urgent need for solid-state batteries, the overall improvement in performance is more obvious.

Of course, this is also related to the fact that robots do not require that much solid-state batteries.

Due to weight and size limitations, robots cannot use as many batteries as cars.

The batteries used by Hailan cars weigh 400 to 500 kilograms, while the batteries of the long-range versions of some models can even weigh 700 to 800 kilograms.

However, the battery weight of the Zhiyun household robot, the flagship long-endurance version is only 30 kilograms... After all, the weight of the entire robot is only about 60 to 70 kilograms.

Half of the weight is the weight of the batteries, and it is difficult to cram in more batteries.

This is also one of the reasons why the robot project attaches so much importance to solid-state batteries and is so urgent: due to the weight and volume limitations of robots, it is impossible to cram in too many batteries, so the demand for battery density is even stronger.

As for Xu Shenxue, considering the limited initial production capacity of solid-state batteries, he must give priority to meeting the needs of the robotics business, and the automotive business will have to take a back seat.

After all, the solid-state batteries used in a Hailan car are enough for Zhiyun Group to produce more than ten robots.

The output value generated by robots using solid-state batteries is much higher than that of Hailan cars!
The Zhiyun robot, which uses 30 kilograms of solid-state batteries, can be priced at three or four hundred thousand yuan.

The Hailan car, which is priced the same, uses four to five hundred kilograms of solid-state batteries.

Of course, also because the robots use a small number of solid-state batteries, it will not actually have much impact on the production capacity of Hailan Automobile, which uses solid-state batteries.

It's nothing more than the difference between producing one million Hai Lan cars with solid-state batteries and producing 800,000 Hai Lan cars with solid-state batteries.

Taking into account the high cost of solid-state batteries, the resulting increase in the price of the solid-state battery version of the Hailan car, it is not certain that 800,000 solid-state battery version of the Hailan car will be sold next year.

Although solid-state batteries will be adopted on a large scale next year, Hailan Automobile will still sell semi-solid-state battery versions of Hailan cars.

Not to mention semi-solid-state batteries, Aila Automobile is even still selling cars equipped with lithium iron phosphate batteries, but it does not use the Aila brand. Instead, it has created the 'Aila' brand, targeting the mid- and low-end markets.

Not everyone can afford new products with the most advanced technology, relatively high costs and high prices...Mature products with mature technology, relatively low costs and relatively low prices will still have a very large market demand.

Especially large industrial consumer goods like cars!
This is very different from smart terminal products such as mobile phones!
When it comes to mobile phones, both low-end and high-end products sell well, but the sales of mid-range products are not so good.

However, although low-end products are easy to sell, they are not profitable. The profits of Xiaolan and Weiku phones, which are owned by Weiku and focus on the mid-to-low-end market, are not even a fraction of those of Zhiyun phones.

In the mobile phone and even the entire smart terminal industry chain, the real money-makers are high-end products, which basically take away 70% or even more of the profits of the entire industry...

This is also the reason why Zhiyun Group, which specializes in high-end products, has such high revenue and profits in its smart terminal business.

After all, "high-end" mobile phones like the Zhiyun S series can be bought by ordinary people with a monthly salary of several thousand yuan... Zhiyun mobile phones are said to be a high-end brand, but in fact they are mainstream products for the masses: you can see the latest flagship models of the Zhiyun MAX series in luxury cars, on subways, on buses, in the CBD centers and luxury villa areas of first-tier cities, in small fourth- and fifth-tier cities, and even in rural areas in remote mountainous areas.

How should I put it? In some places, just by looking at the phones people are holding, you can’t tell who is here to play and who is being played with... because they are all holding Zhiyun S series phones!

This is a very "fair" product. The super-rich with a net worth of hundreds of billions and the cattle and horses with a net worth of tens of thousands use the same mobile phone!
But... cars are different.

An ordinary person can buy a Zhiyun S18Max Pro in installments, but he/she cannot buy a Hailan SLMC in installments... he/she cannot afford it.

So even though HaiLan Automobile has many advanced technologies and top-notch performance, the company was unable to sell its two models, HaiLan SEV and SEC, after selling hundreds of thousands of them.

As a result, the cheaper Hailan SLMC and Hailan MEV were launched, which brought about a substantial sales increase, but when the sales reached more than one million vehicles, the sales stopped increasing.

To this end, Hailan Automobile launched the cheaper Hailan YEV, priced at more than 200,000 yuan, which maintained the continued rapid growth in sales and achieved the current sales of more than 2 million vehicles.

However, after the sales volume reached more than two million, it was found that it was very difficult to increase sales again.

Thus, the sub-brand plan came about. The low-end and mid-range brand Ella was first launched overseas, and the company also considered launching a domestic version of the Ella brand in China.

This is a process of gradually reducing prices in exchange for sales.

The reason is very simple, there are too few rich people in this world!
The same is true when it comes to the initial application stage of solid-state batteries. The cost of solid-state batteries in the early stages is relatively high, and the price of Hailan cars equipped with solid-state batteries will also be relatively high. Although solid-state batteries have many advantages... most mainstream groups just can't afford them.

According to HaiLan Auto's internal expectations, when solid-state batteries are launched on a large scale next year, it will be a success if 800,000 vehicles can be sold. Other mid- and low-end models will continue to use semi-solid-state batteries, and even the Ella sub-brand will continue to use lithium iron phosphate batteries.

Of course, this situation will not continue forever. With the large-scale mass production of solid-state batteries, the research and development costs and production line costs will be gradually diluted, and the cost of solid-state batteries will gradually decrease. At that time, they will gradually be used in more mid- and low-end models.

The robotics business does not have this problem. The amount of power batteries used is small and accounts for a low proportion of the total cost, so even if the selling price increases, it will not increase much.

Zhiyun Group's C series robot, which has the largest shipment volume, assumes that other costs remain unchanged, and the price of the new model with semi-solid-state batteries is 150,000 yuan, then the price of the solid-state battery version is estimated to be around 160,000 to 170,000 yuan...

By then, most consumers will choose the solid-state battery version without hesitation, after all, the battery life is doubled. But in fact, Zhiyun Group will reduce other hardware costs in the new C series and B series robots to be released this winter, and then switch to solid-state batteries, and finally make the price the same as the price released last winter, with a slight increase at most.

Many people are worried that the price of the new C-series robots will increase significantly due to the use of solid-state batteries, but this will not happen...that is Hailan Automobile's business.

After all, the bulk of the cost of a robot is not the hardware, but the software with artificial intelligence as the core!

Among the hardware costs, which account for a small part of the total cost, the cost of power batteries only accounts for a small part of it. More hardware costs are concentrated on various high-performance chips and sensors... A solid-state battery weighing more than ten or twenty kilograms is only that expensive.

The cost of the robot computing center with EYQ5 chip and ZY38 chip as the core is much more expensive than batteries!

As for things like chips and sensors, their costs drop rapidly as shipments increase.

A few years ago, a 128-line LiDAR cost tens of thousands of yuan, but now, the 128-line LiDAR sold by Ocean Blue Laser is only four or five thousand yuan... The price has dropped by about ten times in just a few years, so that a large number of domestic electric vehicles now use LiDAR.

The EYQ5 chip and the ZY38 chip were put into mass production last winter. They were first used in virtual devices, and then in flagship robots and the new Hailan car. With the substantial increase in production and sales, the cost has been greatly diluted.

This winter, these two chips will be used in B-series robots priced at three or four hundred thousand yuan. The cost will be significantly reduced, and this cost reduction will be enough to offset the increase in solid-state battery costs.

As for the entry-level C series with a price of around RMB 5, it will not even use EYQ38 chips and ZY4 chips, but will continue to use EYQ34 chips and ZY chips... These two chips are mature products of the ten-nanometer process, and their costs have already dropped significantly.

Therefore, subsequent new robot products will use solid-state batteries and have longer battery life, but the price will not increase!
Robotics and HaiLan Automobile will adopt solid-state batteries on a large scale next year. This is a common strategy of Zhiyun Group and HaiLan Automobile, and it is also something that Xu Shenxue is very concerned about.

After personally visiting the construction status of the Guangcheng solid-state battery production base under Hailan Battery, Xu Shenxue was quite satisfied with the construction progress. There would be no problem in starting trial production in December!

Xu Shenxue can still rest assured about the country's infrastructure capabilities. As long as enough money is paid, those construction companies will be able to work for you day and night, working as if rainy days were sunny and nights were daytime.

It would not be a problem to set up a battery production base within a year.

Not to mention the battery base, even the entire automobile manufacturing base would take more than a year to build.

It took only one and a half years from project approval to production for Hailan Automobile's automobile assembly base in Ancheng. Apart from the project site selection and several months of preliminary preparations, the construction of the production base took only one year.

This is a huge manufacturing base with an annual output of hundreds of thousands of vehicles, and it was built in just over a year, which shocked many foreign automotive industry peers.

Of course, the prerequisite is that the money must be paid in full and not in arrears!

But Xu Shenxue is not short of money.

After seeing the construction progress of the Guangcheng manufacturing base of HaiLan Battery, a subsidiary of HaiLan Automobile, Xu Shenxue visited several other subsidiaries in the next few days.

Xu Shenxue was not very tired during the inspection, but the accompanying personnel were quite tired... After all, when Xu Shenxue went out to inspect the situation of his companies, he only needed to give an order and then take a car to check it out, but the staff under him had a lot of things to do.

Especially Xi Wanqing in the office of Director Xu of Liuhe Investment, she has been very busy these days... During the day, she has to go out with Director Xu, meet with staff from various destination companies, and answer all kinds of questions from Xu Shenxue at any time.

After returning to the hotel after the daytime inspection, Mr. Xu rested himself, but Xi Wanqing and the others still had to meet with other management and local management, and arrange various matters over the phone, so they were busy until very late before they could go to bed.

After seven or eight consecutive days of inspection, Xu Shenxue was fine, but Xi Wanqing felt very tired... Damn, it's not easy to follow a workaholic boss!
Although the salary and benefits are good, the prospects are bright, and I interact with all kinds of big-name people on a daily basis, which broadens my horizons...but the pressure is also really great, and the work intensity is really high!

After another day of inspection, Xi Wanqing returned to the hotel and held a meeting that lasted for more than an hour. Then she dragged her tired body back to the hotel room. She lay down on the bed without even changing her clothes.

Don’t want to move anymore!

I lay there for a long time before I came to my senses. I picked up my personal mobile phone to check the messages, and then I saw the message from my mother, asking her how her work was going, how her life was going, and whether she had made any new friends.

As soon as she saw these words, especially the key word "new friends", Xi Wanqing knew what her mother wanted to ask!

The last time she went home for the Dragon Boat Festival, her mother talked to her about something important in her life. Although her mother was also an educated person and spoke in a roundabout way and in a calm tone, her meaning was exactly that.

"I know you are ambitious and want to do something big. I also know that you are important and busy on weekdays, but don't forget to live your life after work!"

“Life is not all about work!”

"After the Chinese New Year, you will be 28 years old, which is the right age!"

"If you meet someone you like, you have to be decisive!"

"It doesn't matter if you don't find someone suitable for the moment. Just go out more and meet new people. You will eventually meet someone you like."

But her mother was a decent person after all. At least she didn't arrange a blind date for her. She just encouraged her to get to know more people and to take decisive action if she met someone she liked... The problem was, she hadn't met anyone she liked!

From childhood to adulthood, she has often been pursued by boys because of her extraordinary looks. Even when she was in middle school, many male classmates liked her, and there were even more after she entered college!

Xi Wanqing even knew that many of her male classmates regarded her as their perfect match, but she ignored them all.

When she was in high school, she knew that her life was different from those of her high school classmates, because she was admitted to Peking University and Tsinghua University in her second year of high school, while others were still working hard to get into ordinary universities.

When she entered university, there were many top students of the same level, but she was so absorbed in her studies that she had no time to pay attention to the boys around her.

Plus, her peers all seemed childish to her...

So she rejected everyone who came to her, and after so many rejections, her classmates basically knew that she didn't have the intention anymore... So, many people said that she had high standards and was an iceberg beauty, but she didn't care about such gossip.

After graduation and joining Liuhe Investment, she still devoted herself to her work, wanting to achieve success in the position of assistant to the director and use it as a springboard to reach new heights in her life.

At this time, there are many outstanding elite men around me. The problem is that each of them is a potential competitor...

There are only so many opportunities to get promoted in Liuhe Investment. If Xi Wanqing doesn't step on them when she has the chance, she's considered to have a normal outlook. How could she fall in love with them...

Dating with your competitor is nonsense!

Similarly, those unmarried colleagues who were able to come to Liuhe Investment and catch her eye were all top elites, and they were not short of money or women. Even though Xi Wanqing was very beautiful, those men would not have an office romance with her.

Many people didn't even regard her as a woman, but treated Xi Wanqing as a competitor!

In this kind of high-end workplace, there is no distinction between men and women!
Besides, having an office romance with Xi Wanqing is too risky. If things go wrong, your career might be ruined... No one would be so stupid.

After studying hard for more than ten or twenty years and squeezing out countless competitors, I finally got into Liuhe Investment. No one came here for an office romance, but for the world stage.

Xi Wanqing and they are actually the same kind of people in essence.

So, Xi Wanqing's life affairs were just delayed... and after working for a long time and having more contact with Xu Shenxue, she would inevitably be influenced by Xu Shenxue again!
Every day, there is a good-looking, high-ranking, and world-renowned Xu Shenxue hanging around in front of her. If you ask Xi Wanqing to look at other men, she will always subconsciously compare other men with Xu Shenxue...

This comparison is the end!

I basically don't look down on other men!

So, this annoys her.

(End of this chapter)