What's wrong with me being a rich man?

Chapter 558 Trend (4k)

When the head of the Silicon Carbon Group arrived at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai, his partners, who were already waiting for him, gathered around.

With Kyushu's initial success in the market, Silicon Carbon Group has naturally gained the most attention, while supplier companies such as Huichuan, Jingjin, Baosteel, LKK, CATL, and BOE have also received more attention.

Companies like Huichuan and BOE, which previously had little involvement in the automotive business, have achieved remarkable results in their cooperation with Silicon Carbon Group, which is a testament to Lingang's research, cooperation, and optimization in this area.

Furthermore, what has recently drawn more media attention is the increasing number of domestic suppliers appearing in the silicon carbon group's supply chain.

This is a change that differs from the development of domestic fuel manufacturers. This is because these suppliers provide key components for new energy vehicles. While Kyushu still uses products from global T1 suppliers such as Bosch, the ratio of internal to external supply chains is different.

Why is China so vigorously supporting new energy? It's precisely for this reason: industrial restructuring will lead to changes in the dominance of the industrial chain and an increase in the value of domestic manufacturing.

Companies like silicon carbide have kept key positions at their critical suppliers in China.

Yu Xing's exchange with Li Hui was brief and did not attract much attention.

When he arrived at the Silicon Carbon Group's booth, the reporters who had been loitering there quickly surrounded him.

"President Yu, what are your thoughts on the positive response from Kyushu?"

"Mr. Yu, will the sales rankings of Silicon Carbon Group continue to be published like this indefinitely?"

Will Kyushu really launch a five-seater model next year?

"Mr. Yu, why do you think Kyushu sells so well?"

The sales of Carbon Silicon Kyushu are highly impressive among domestic brands. Although it is still far from comparable to the top-tier brands BBA, its booth is one of the most bustling at the auto show. Before Yu Xing even arrived, there was already a long queue for the static experience of the two display vehicles.

Facing a large group of reporters, Yu Xing told a little joke: "Jiuzhou's sales are indeed quite good. The main reason is that our employees are good at handling customers' bargaining."

Reporters were suspicious, expecting a calm answer to such a question, but the answer was quite strange.

Yu Xing continued, "We always haggle when we buy things, especially big-ticket items like cars. Customers often come to our directly operated stores to negotiate prices, suggesting we sell at a low profit margin, asking us to quote the lowest price, even the cost price... and then..."

He reenacted the dialogue scene on the spot.

Customer: 28.68 is still too expensive. You are a new domestic brand, so you must show us your sincerity before we dare to buy. What is your cost price? Just add a little to the cost price and sell it.

Employee: Cost price 32.

client:……

Yu Xing's performance drew laughter. It's no secret that the Silicon Carbon Group hopes to use economies of scale to reduce costs; he has explained this at press conferences and online forums.

Most importantly, this option is actually quite possible given the current trend.

After the reporter finished laughing, he still hoped that Mr. Yu could share some more honest thoughts.

“I’ve actually talked to Silicon Carbon Group a lot about what they think and how they do it. If I had to say something more, I feel that…” Yu Xing’s gaze fell on He Xiaopeng and Li Bin, who were walking towards him. He paused and continued, “From an entrepreneur’s perspective, I feel that daring to use these costs to build cars is probably a breakthrough point.”

“Before the Silicon Carbon Group officially started, I spent about six months researching the supply chain in China. At that time, some suppliers already had the capability, while others were still uncertain, such as Baosteel’s high-strength steel and Lijing’s die-casting machine. We established this ‘daring’ after comprehensive consideration.”

"Once we've established the confidence to make products at this price point, the next step is to figure out how to produce good products from these high-cost materials."

"There are two clear principles within silicon carbon: first, when it comes to the trade-off between safety and cost, we choose safety; second, when it comes to cost and user needs, we choose the user."

“Even so, I recently saw some car owners on Douyin sharing their experiences using Kyushu, and there are still shortcomings. For example, there is the issue of screen glare. We have actually done a lot of testing, but we did not expect that in some places at certain times, sunlight would still shine on the screen and reflect onto the driver's seat, which surprised us.”

"Of course, such problems are relatively easy to handle, but they also remind us to continue to maintain a sense of awe when building cars."

Yu Xing's eloquent speech aroused even more interest from the reporters.

"Mr. Yu, do you usually check car owners' experiences with their vehicles? Really?" a reporter asked.

"Of course it's true. I don't just look at car owners, I also look at reviews." Yu Xing said seriously, and then took out his phone to show his Douyin usage records on the spot.

Reporters' cameras panned down, revealing Yu Xing's Douyin (TikTok) posts. More than half of the saved posts were feedback on Carbon Silicon Kyushu, while others were short videos involving business, and a few even featured legs visible from the cover.

Yu Xing quickly swiped the screen upwards.

The reporters all exclaimed "Oh!" in unison.

“I sometimes test Douyin’s recommendation algorithm.” Yu Xing said without changing his expression. “Generally speaking, I welcome everyone to share their actual driving experience with Jiuzhou. Recently, some car owners have reported that our steering wheel is relatively light. There will be a multi-mode upgrade at the beginning of next month, and we can make adjustments in this regard.”

The reporter asked, "Multi-mode upgrade? Does that mean going to a 4S store for the upgrade?"

Yu Xing explained, "It's an online upgrade, which means we remotely upgrade the vehicles. This is a feature that distinguishes us from gasoline vehicles. We hope that the vehicles can remain as good as new with frequent use, so that car owners can experience more of our research and development in subsequent use."

Many people are skeptical, but some have studied Tesla overseas and know that electric vehicles do indeed have this technology.

"Mr. Yu, I heard that Tesla might cooperate with us in China. What's your view on the competition between you two?" The reporter then asked a question related to Tesla.

Yu Xing smiled and said, "Both silicon carbon and Tesla are new energy vehicles. There will indeed be competition within the new energy sector, but in my opinion, the main competition between new energy vehicles and gasoline vehicles is still. I really hope that different products on the market will bring the advantages of using new energy vehicles to consumers. Whether it is Tesla, silicon carbon, or NIO founded by Mr. Li Bin, or XPeng invested by Mr. He Xiaopeng, they are all under the big concept of new energy."

He Xiaopeng and Li Bin, who were on the periphery, were caught off guard when President Yu suddenly mentioned them and turned to face the camera.

They greeted each other with smiles, both appearing rather shy for a moment. Fortunately, the reporter wasn't particularly interested in them, focusing instead on Mr. Yu, who stood before Carbon Silicon Kyushu.

Since Yu Xing came to participate in the auto show, he also showed great patience with the media reporters.

Unlike the formality of the press conference, this interview allowed him to explain the company's internal logic in detail about Kyushu, including the subsequent optimization direction of integrated die casting, and how to balance maintenance costs and usage safety. These can all be discussed in detail.

Some media outlets will likely gloss over this, but others will inevitably present this kind of specialized content. Yu Xing talked for a long time before finally managing to quell the media's interest in interviewing him. Some reporters even wanted to schedule exclusive interviews, but he politely declined them for the time being.

There were indeed exclusive interviews, and not only that, there were also records from the inside out.

Since the Silicon Carbon Group released its sales figures, CCTV reporters have been coming and going, forming a small documentary team specifically to cover the domestic new energy vehicle industry. Some of them even came today to film footage from the auto show.

Yu Xing asked the reporter who was filming him, and the reporter said that he estimated the video would be edited and released at the end of the year, and then it would be on the news.

"Mr. He, Mr. Li." After dealing with the media, Yu Xing noticed that He Xiaopeng and Li Bin were still waiting, so he took the initiative to come over and greet them.

Li Bin smiled warmly: "President Yu, I still have to congratulate Kyushu on its great sales."

Yu Xing said with a smile, "I don't know if this counts as a big sale, or if the orders are overwhelming."

Li Bin confirmed, "President Yu, this order is absolutely going to be a huge hit."

He added, "I feel that based on orders like those from Kyushu, we might be able to disregard the 20 yuan threshold and directly compare all types of SUVs in the future."

Yu Xing still smiled: "It's a bit difficult. Production capacity is also limited. Although we are expanding production, even if we work ourselves to the bone and operate at full capacity, we still can't be among the top three in all types of SUVs."

Li Bin was just being polite, but when he heard that President Yu seemed to have really thought about it, he suddenly felt... no wonder he is the head of the silicon carbon industry.

“President Yu, Kyushu has made a very good start in the new energy sector.” Li Bin said earnestly, “Kyushu has proven that new energy can be developed from high to low, and high-end products can directly meet consumer needs. I think what you just said was particularly good. It involves cost and user needs, so let’s choose the user.”

He said seriously, "I even think that we can focus on user needs regardless of cost."

Yu Xing let out an "uh" and laughed, "Users' needs still have limits. This disregard for cost... how should I put it, it's pretty impressive."

Does focusing on user needs regardless of cost constitute differentiated competition?
It definitely counts.

It will inevitably be strenuous.

Yu Xing respects the different approaches to new energy. The market can be segmented in many ways, and different approaches are acceptable as long as they can appeal to users.

If problems arise and all else fails, you can switch to a different account from Shanfeng.

Seeing that President Yu's comments were half praise and half criticism, Li Bin happily listened as if they were all positive.

"Mr. Yu, when will silicon carbon batteries start making pure electric vehicles?" He Xiaopeng asked, and then shared his thoughts, "I think the energy density of ternary lithium batteries is developing very quickly, and pure electric vehicles in the next few years will be able to meet the needs of some users."

"Pure electric vehicles have been included in our considerations, but we haven't been able to determine a suitable time yet," Yu Xing replied.

He Xiaopeng was inevitably somewhat disappointed. He still believed that pure electric vehicles would be the final answer, while range-extended electric vehicles were just an intermediate step.

The sales figures of the Carbon Silicon Group's Jiuzhou are indeed amazing, to the point that Mr. Yu is now being hailed by many media outlets as the number one person in new energy vehicles, even surpassing BYD, which has been working on hybrid vehicles for several years. However, to achieve such an honor with the positioning of range-extended vehicles...

It's not that it's impossible, but personally, I hope that Mr. Yu can launch more "orthodox" products in the new energy field.

“I believe the demand for range-extended vehicles will be huge and will last for quite some time. If Kyushu’s success can continue, we will be able to turn a profit as soon as possible,” Yu Xing said. “Such profitable models are also good for the entire industry chain. Both upstream and downstream can develop rapidly. We need to make pure electric vehicles, but we need to make a blockbuster model. We need to think carefully about this.”

He Xiaopeng hadn't considered this from the perspective of the industrial chain, but now that he heard what President Yu said, he has some new thoughts.

Seeing that a successful new energy entrepreneur like Mr. Yu was so generous in sharing his ideas, Li Bin finally couldn't help but mention his own project, "vehicle-battery separation." He had mentioned it briefly before, but now he was certain that he would take this path.

Before Yu Xing could speak, He Xiaopeng frowned and refuted Li Bin's line of thinking, arguing that it would be difficult for a single company's battery standards to be extended to other car companies, since they are all competitors and it is impossible for them to adopt the same standards, and the development speed of battery technology will inevitably be fast.

The two engaged in a heated exchange.

At this moment, Li Xiang, the president of Autohome, came over and introduced himself.

Yu Xing naturally knows Li Xiang, the founder of Li Auto, which has achieved great success with its range-extended electric vehicle strategy. Li Xiang is now the president of the listed company Autohome.

Li Xiang exchanged a few words with President Yu, and then listened with curiosity to the debate between He Xiaopeng and Li Bin.

Neither of them could convince the other, so they simply let General Manager Yu, who had already achieved results, give his evaluation.

He Xiaopeng asked directly, "Mr. Yu, which of our two ideas do you think is more likely to succeed in the market?"

Yu Xing succinctly stated: "NIO."

Li Bin smiled instantly, He Xiaopeng was extremely surprised, and Li Xiang was also curious to hear the reason.

“The car market is too big, and different users have very different needs. I voted for NIO by process of elimination,” Yu Xing said with a smile. “Because Mr. Li is fully committed to NIO, while Mr. He is not focused enough on XPeng Motors, so I can only eliminate you for now.”

He Xiaopeng had nothing to say.

He is still working on UC and is an investor in XPeng Motors.

Yu Xing turned to look at Li Xiang and asked, "Mr. Li, are you also interested in building cars?"

Li Xiang nodded slowly: "I think Mr. Yu's car is very good. It has captured the needs of family users. I am indeed considering how to attract other users. Mr. Yu, do you think there is a possibility of success for a high-performance sports car for the masses?"

Yu Xing looked at Li Xiang in surprise. This man was indeed good at grasping different market demands, but if you were so good at it, what were others supposed to do?
Then he laughed.

A reporter nearby sensed a unique quality in Mr. Yu's smile and quickly snapped a photo of the moment.

At the booth behind Jiuzhou Motors, a large number of visitors were attracted. Yu Xing, the head of the Silicon Carbon Group, was all smiles, while Li Xiang, Li Bin, and He Xiaopeng stood beside him, some looking serious and others looking confused.

(End of this chapter)