The car giant started by marrying the daughter of the king

Chapter 292 Lead-acid batteries, Jiang Hui's long-term plan
"What's the deal?"

Qin Hao inexplicably felt a little empty in his heart.

Jiang Hui agreed so readily just now, could there be some trap waiting for him?
Things that Jiang Hui can't handle may not be trivial matters.

But I have already said it, so it is not appropriate to go back on my word immediately.

"I heard that the Beiping Battery Factory started to suffer losses last year, and the loss area has become even larger this year."

"At present, the domestic reform plan for poorly managed factories is to deal with various plans such as the factory director contracting system. I think it is possible to further consider some new plans based on some changes after the reform, so that the ministries and commissions have more options?"

Jiang Hui's move made Qin Hao feel relieved, with a hint of anticipation on his face. "Are you interested in the Beiping Battery Factory?"

"This factory has a very long history. It existed before the founding of the People's Republic of China."

"The factory was also prosperous in the past. Some of the old technicians in the factory were college graduates in the 1950s and 1960s."

"It's just that there have been too many local battery factories in recent years, and they have developed too fast. The products of Beiping Battery Factory can't keep up with the pace of the times. Especially because of the heavy historical burden, the production cost of Beiping Battery Factory remains high, so it will suffer losses."

“In terms of battery quality, it’s second to none.”

Although the Peking Battery Factory is not a factory that Qin Hao is directly in charge of, if there is a way to turn the situation of this factory around, his contribution will also be indispensable.

If all else fails, you can ask the leader in charge to do you a favor, which can play an important role at a critical moment.

That's why Qin Hao was so active in introducing the situation of the Peking Battery Factory to Jiang Hui.

"Yes, the Beiping Battery Factory has a glorious history and its products are of good quality. They even supplied some of the batteries for the BJ212 at the Capital Automobile Factory."

Jiang Hui mentioned the Peking Battery Factory to Qin Hao today, so naturally he had some understanding of this factory.

He is very clear about the future importance of the battery industry.

Although the Peking Battery Factory currently only produces lead-acid batteries and ordinary dry battery products, they still have broad application prospects now and in the future.

With these foundations, it will not be impossible to research lithium batteries in the future.

At present, the whole world has not yet developed lithium batteries well. If the Peking Battery Factory can be the first to develop lithium batteries in the future, it is not impossible to win a Nobel Prize.

In 2019, Goodenough, American chemist M. Stanley Whittingham, and Japanese chemist Yoshino Akira jointly won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their contributions to the development of lithium batteries.

The lithium batteries currently in the laboratory are of the first generation, developed by English scientist Whittingham.

However, because titanium sulfide is used as the positive electrode material, it is extremely easy to explode and has no practical application at all.

In America, Goodenough firmly believed that there were new alternative materials and studied them day and night for three or four years.

In 1980, 58-year-old Goodenough found a material to replace titanium sulfide, namely lithium cobalt oxide.

This makes lithium batteries more stable and reduces their weight by more than half.

However, there is still a long way to go before lithium batteries can be commercially produced.

Later, Japanese chemists developed graphite negative electrode materials that can be used in lithium batteries, which perfectly matched the positive electrode materials developed by Goodenough to develop a new type of lithium battery.

Companies such as Sony applied this type of battery to wireless electronic products such as portable cameras, laptops, and mobile phones, and it was widely commercialized, which truly opened the way for the development of lithium batteries.

However, the real development and growth of this road actually occurred after entering the 21st century.

There is still plenty of time left for the Peking Battery Factory.

Of course, with the achievements of chemists in the United States and Japan, it is actually very difficult for China to produce someone who wins the Nobel Prize for developing lithium batteries.

However, Jiang Hui felt that it was entirely possible to support the emergence of an academician.

He hasn't said these words to anyone yet.

"Their factory now has more than 100 employees, of which more than are technicians. It is considered to have a relatively high proportion of technicians among all factories."

“Because of this, the cost of the Beiping battery factory is even higher.”

"Plus, there were many people who retired in the past, so the related burden is a huge burden every year."

"If you have any good reform proposals to propose, I will report them to the leaders."

Qin Hao is still very confident in Jiang Hui's ideas.

"The country now attaches much more importance to attracting foreign investment than in previous years, and the resistance of all parties to foreign investment has also changed a lot."

"There are already hundreds of foreign-funded enterprises in Shenzhen, and the development momentum is very strong."

"There are many factories in China that are not operating very well. I think it is worth considering forming joint ventures with foreign capital or selling some factories that are not operating well."

Jiang Hui knew that his proposal would definitely lead to a lot of negative cases.

Foreign capital comes to China not to do charity. Those people are ruthless and do nothing.

It is not uncommon for some Chinese industries to be controlled or some assets to be embezzled through various methods such as joint ventures and acquisitions.

Jiang Hui will definitely explain this preventive work to Qin Hao when the time comes.

Although there is no way to completely eliminate this problem, it can at least reduce the number of such incidents to a certain extent. "You want BMW Technology to form a joint venture with the Beiping Battery Factory?"

Qin Hao's eyes suddenly lit up.

With the excellent example of Chaoyang Motorcycle Manufacturing Plant, Qin Hao believed that the Ministry of First Machine Industry would definitely not object to this joint venture plan.

In particular, the situation of the Peking Battery Factory is very unfavorable now. Faced with the rapid rise of other domestic battery factories such as the Nanping Battery Factory, it has no ability to resist at all.

Many people may not have any impression of Nanping Battery Factory, but if you mention Nanfu Battery, I guess everyone has heard of it.

The Nanping Battery Factory is the predecessor of Nanfu Company. It is a small battery factory located in a very remote mountain valley in Nanping, Fujian Province.

With the wind of reform, they have developed particularly rapidly.

Nanping Battery Factory is just one of the best ones, and there are many other battery factories in the country that are rising rapidly.

After all, the technical threshold for products like lead-acid batteries is not very high, and any small factory can produce them.

However, the performance of batteries produced by different factories varies greatly.

Many people do not have a strong ability to distinguish and basically just buy from whichever store is cheaper.

In addition, the batteries produced by some small workshops have no historical baggage at all, and the labor costs are frighteningly low.

It is no wonder that the Peking Battery Factory is unable to survive.

"No, BMW Technology intends to directly acquire the Beiping Battery Factory instead of forming a joint venture."

Jiang Hui attaches great importance to the development of the battery industry and certainly does not want to adopt a 50:50 joint venture model like the Chaoyang Motorcycle Factory, which would leave a lot of problems in the future.

So direct acquisition is the best option.

Of course, there were some obstacles in pushing BMW Technology to acquire a state-owned factory in 1982.

There are still relatively few cases of this kind in China, but in a few years, the situation will be completely different.

"Direct purchase?"

Qin Hao is very familiar with various policies and is also relatively familiar with the cooperation plans between the factories under the First Ministry of Machine Building and foreign-funded enterprises.

Now that Jiang Hui mentioned a direct acquisition, he immediately realized the difficulty.

Loss of state-owned assets.

Although this saying is not popular nowadays, this string has always been in the minds of many people.

In addition, workers in this era have iron rice bowls. If a company is directly acquired by foreign capital, whether the workers are willing and how to arrange for them will also be a big problem.

In addition, the valuations of various assets during the acquisition process will also become very sensitive.

Therefore, it is not so easy for BMW Technology to acquire the Peking Battery Factory.

Fortunately, BMW Technology is a Hong Kong-based company, and the leaders above are well aware of who its actual shareholders are.

In this case, the difficulty should be reduced.

"Yes, if BMW Technology can acquire the Beiping Battery Factory, then the new BMW models will also use the products of the Beiping Battery Factory."

“And we will also consider looking for more development opportunities for the Beiping Battery Factory in the future.”

“I think any concerns within the ministry can be raised.”

"If China wants to attract more foreign investment, then they will set up wholly-owned enterprises or acquire some local factories. This is almost inevitable."

"I think it is very valuable to take advantage of the opportunity of BMW Technology's acquisition of the Beiping Battery Factory to set a standard for this type of acquisition case."

Jiang Hui knew very well what the leaders of ministries like Qin Hao cared about most.

Not everyone is willing to take risks, but everyone is certainly interested in political achievements.

Just as Jiang Hui said, it is inevitable that foreign capital will acquire domestic factories in the future.

In this case, it would be a good political achievement to formulate a set of standardized processes and build a benchmark factory.

Qin Hao was naturally aware of this. "You ask BMW Technology to sort out the specific acquisition plan. I will study it carefully first, and then report to the leaders in the department."

Obviously, after realizing the benefits, Qin Hao immediately became positive about this matter.

"No problem. I'll bring their person in charge to report to you in a couple of days."

"BMW Technology will definitely take the concerns of the ministry into full consideration and will not make things difficult for the leaders."

For Jiang Hui, it is completely acceptable to spend a little more money to acquire the Peking Battery Factory.

Anyway, money is valuable now, and even spending an extra $10,000 can solve many problems.

And ten thousand dollars is obviously nothing for BMW Technology.

(End of this chapter)