From knock-off old-man's electric vehicles to industrial giant

Chapter 263 Vaillant Battery Launch
The new energy vehicle market is booming at the end of the month.

NIO held a press conference in Kyoto, costing 100 million yuan, to launch its first battery-swapping vehicle in China, the NIO ES8, with the slogan "3 minutes of battery swapping, 300 kilometers of range".

Representatives from the internet industry and major automakers were also invited to attend, and media outlets even photographed Xu Yi, the head of Xingchen Automotive, sitting in the guest section.

The starting price of the ES8 after subsidies is set at 37.5 yuan, while the high-end price even exceeds 45 yuan.

This price inevitably led passersby to compare it with the Starry Night L7.

In terms of configuration, the two cars are quite similar, both with air suspension and fully equipped seats, while the ES8 doesn't even have a rear TV or refrigerator. At the press conference, Li Bin emphasized the correctness of the all-aluminum body and the replacement of the electrical wiring.

Its slogan of "lifetime warranty and lifetime free battery replacement" has attracted many people!
Compared to gasoline-powered cars, electric cars are already much cheaper.

Some brands are now even subsidizing consumers for electricity costs.

--hiss!

Doesn't that mean driving is free?!
Although the number of battery swapping stations is currently small, their "rich and powerful" approach has indeed attracted a number of people.

As long as the car manufacturers don't go bankrupt, it's a perfect scenario of endless battery swapping!

NIO completed its Series C financing this year, backed by investors such as Tencent, Baidu, and JD.com, which implicitly serves as a form of credit endorsement.

After the press conference, Li Bin also announced the order volume to the media, with more than 2500 orders received in 24 hours.

Some people online have compared it to the Starry Night L7.

The difference between 10000 and 2500 on the first day is too obvious. In the six-seater new energy vehicle market, Xingchen is already the uncrowned king.

However, some argue that NIO's average price is higher, and strictly speaking, the two companies are not in the same competitive field.

Similar controversies continue to circulate online.

In addition, the BAIC EU400 and Weltmeister EX5 were also launched around the same time, targeting the 15-25 yuan family car market after subsidies.

Xu Yi politely declined invitations to the launch events for these two cars.

The main problem is that there's really nothing to see, there's no business connection, and we're not familiar with each other.

Oh, right.

During this period, WM Motor Chairman Shen Hui did express his willingness to cooperate, stating that he intends to create another high-end pure electric vehicle next year and inquired about the procurement of Polestar batteries.

His enthusiasm was so great that it seemed he was about to take his team on a plane to visit me right after hanging up the phone.

Xu Yi's expression changed upon hearing this, and he quickly declined, citing his busy schedule and tight production capacity.

It's not that he discriminates against this car company, nor that the orders for the WM EX5 weren't good enough... but rather that just a few days after WM's high-profile launch, another big scandal broke out in the industry.

Geely publicly announced that it will investigate the departure of 40 senior managers and technical personnel to join WM Motor, and will also file a lawsuit against the malicious theft of its patented technology.

Poaching talent from each other is common practice in the automotive industry.
Even Xingchen Automotive's vehicle engineering and chassis departments have employees moving between various companies, including Geely and BYD Semiconductor...

Overall, it was quite friendly.

Everyone has their own ambitions. Many key R&D personnel and grassroots employees left because Xingchen offered too much, with good benefits and compensation.

The procedures were complete, and there was nothing wrong with them in terms of law and reason.

Several manufacturers even considered poaching Xingchen's R&D personnel!

But it's strange. The difficulty in poaching them exceeded their expectations. Those involved in core technology research and development were incredibly determined, while even ordinary entry-level R&D staff often required several times the salary before they showed any signs of wavering!

It's like they've decided to make Xingchen Group their final destination!

……

Let's get back to WM Motor.

This time, Geely is really furious.

The lawsuit is not unfounded.

The EX5 that Weltmeister unveiled at its press conference is not just similar to the Geely GX7 next door... it's practically identical.

Despite WM Motor's repeated claims that the car was entirely developed in-house, industry insiders have already made the truth clear.

Very weird.

Not only did they poach someone else's team, but they also made the chassis and exterior designs almost identical to the originals. What's the difference between this and dancing in front of the real person while wearing Pinru's clothes?
Xingchen naturally doesn't want to have in-depth cooperation with car companies that may be embroiled in legal disputes. It would be interesting if they couldn't make the final payment for the batteries and just ran away.

12 month 28 day.

The listing process for Weineng Battery has reached its final stage. Xu Yi held a final round of talks with various investors to confirm the pre-listing preparations and the final stock offering price.

After two rounds of financing, Weineng Battery has expanded its battery production capacity from less than 3 GWh at the beginning to 15 GWh today, making it the second largest power battery manufacturer in China.

The reason for going public is simple: to continue raising funds to expand and build factories. To maintain growth and meet capacity demands, Weineng Battery plans to complete the construction of a new 20GWh production base in Luzhou next year. In addition, annual R&D expenditure will be increased by 15 billion yuan to supplement working capital...

The various financial investment institutions present were all well-known, including Hillhouse Capital, Sequoia Capital, Shunwei Capital, Shenzhen Capital Group, and Shandong-based Luxin Venture Capital... all of them are hard-core investors focused on the new energy industry.

The public generally has a positive view of the future prospects of Vaillant batteries.

Although Vaillant Battery has not partnered with BMW like CATL and achieved widespread success in the international supply chain, it still has no shortage of customers. It has achieved the top position in China for lithium iron phosphate batteries, possessing sufficient technological strength and stable revenue and gross profit.

No one can predict how large the scale of expansion will be in the future.

After all, with the promise of semi-solid-state and solid-state batteries already being touted, how could the investors present not be tempted?!

If this technology were to actually be realized, Vaillant Battery would not only be one of the top domestic manufacturers, but could completely defeat Panasonic and LG, and even reach the top of the international market.

Even excluding solid-state batteries, given the current growth rate of the new energy market, Vaillant's production capacity will reach 50GWh-100GWh in the next year or two.

No matter how you look at it, it's a deal that makes a killing.

……

On December 30, Vaillant Battery officially held a press conference to announce its listing plan. The company decided to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and released its initial public offering prospectus. It plans to raise 6 billion yuan, with an issue price of 25.14 yuan per share and an estimated market value of over 55 billion yuan.

For internet companies that are worth hundreds of billions of dollars, this may not seem like a high figure, but for the domestic manufacturing industry, it is already a behemoth.

The news attracted widespread attention and discussion after it was published, with major portal websites vying to report on it.

An article titled "Vaillant Battery to Become the Global Leader in Power Batteries" has attracted attention from all sectors.

This article states that although mainstream battery manufacturers such as CATL and Panasonic have released 811 ternary lithium batteries with high energy density, they cannot achieve absolute safety and low cost control. Meanwhile, the inherent defects of lithium iron phosphate batteries are being overcome by Polestar batteries at an extremely rapid pace. Moreover, they do not rely on heavy metal supplies, and in the future, lithium iron phosphate batteries will account for at least 60% of the domestic and international market.

(End of this chapter)