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

Chapter 6 Engineering Prototype Rolls Off the Production Line
After discussing cooperation during the day, a drinking session is inevitable in the evening.

Xu Yi didn't refuse. In business, this is an essential lubricant. If it's a drinking party with the boss, there will be three rounds of drinks after the meal.

After drinking around and finishing their social obligations, they lured Lao Fu into a boutique foot massage parlor.

"Go, arrange a few of the best, young technicians for me, put them on my card."

"Good boss."

……

Several smartly dressed, uniformly professional young technicians walked in, exuding youthful energy.

Both the service and the techniques were worlds apart from the quality of the vegetarian dishes that were priced like meat years later.

Xu Yi's head was throbbing, but he wasn't in the mood to appreciate it at the moment.

He was still thinking about where else he could reduce costs.

Don't be fooled by the fact that making electric vehicles for the elderly doesn't require much technology.

Achieving the best configuration within a limited budget is no easy task.

He has already done his best in supplying parts. If he wants to optimize costs without compromising quality, he probably has no choice but to work on integrated stamping and welding.

This can be considered a clever design element in the overall vehicle design.

Cost reduction and efficiency improvement cannot be achieved solely by addressing component costs. Supply chain prices are ultimately finite, especially for small factories like theirs that lack the capital of major brands and have little bargaining power.

When major brands partner with supply chains, they can not only secure the lowest prices, but also proactively adapt the supply chain to their specific needs, ensuring that the supply chain's production processes and manufacturing models are perfectly aligned with their own.

By further optimizing the already depressed prices, once the volume increases, there will be people willing to do it even if the profit margin is as low as 1%.

Xu Yi plans to optimize the process from the production side.

If the structure of the body and chassis components can be simplified, and more welded parts can be concentrated on one-piece stamped parts, it will undoubtedly reduce labor and greatly improve production efficiency.

However, more effort needs to be put into research and development, and the mold opening and verification cycle will be longer.

We can definitely discuss this with the R&D department in the next couple of days to simplify the stamping structure. It's not actually that difficult; it's just that no one has ever put this kind of design into a low-speed electric vehicle before.

As for further exploiting labor, Xu Yi hadn't considered it.

While this method is effective quickly, it will ultimately backfire on production, and product quality cannot be guaranteed.

Just thinking about it.

Xu Yi suddenly noticed something was amiss and looked up.

"Wait, don't go any lower..."

"My head feels a bit swollen right now, could you massage my temples?"

The technician, who was about to make her move, blushed and skillfully turned around, placing her small hands between his neck and head to knead him.

"Boss, it's because you're young, promising, and handsome that I couldn't resist you~~"

"You can talk, what number are you?"

"I am Boss No. 88."

"Okay, please top up my membership by 10,000 yuan later."

"Boss, I love you~!!"

……

Another month has passed.

Inside the Xingchen R&D factory, in the engineering vehicle assembly workshop.

can be seen.

Several R&D engineers, led by Wang Jingming, are busy at work.

The large space was filled with four or five four-wheeled vehicles of different sizes.

These are all common types of electric vehicles for the elderly currently on the market.

Some look like minivans, while others are more rounded like beetles, and still others are narrow in the front and wide in the back, with only a single seat in the front row, making them quite oddly shaped.

That's right.

They bought all of these.

Since we are going to enter the elderly entertainment market, we naturally need to do some market research.

The R&D department purchased some of the best-selling elderly mobility scooter models on the market and disassembled and analyzed their materials.

The doors, frames, and internal chassis structures of several old-age electric vehicles were disassembled into most of their parts.

Unlike cars on the market, these "old man's cars" have a different manufacturing process.

In the end, after looking at it all...

Can only be described in one word.

It's a terrible sight!!
"It's unbearable to look at. The chassis is just two steel bars welded on, without even the most basic leveling and load-bearing structure. At most, the chassis will deform after half a year, and the tires will veer off course..." "And it's chicken shit welding!"

"At its core, it's still a three-wheeled vehicle. The most critical issue is that the sheet metal is too thin. The A-pillar is only 2mm thick, so it's basically gone after a collision or compression. There are also no airbags."

"Wow, this thing actually sells so well?!"

……

I thought.

These "old man's cars" priced at around 10,000 to 15,000 yuan on the market at least have some merit in actual use.

However, after some disassembly...

All the people in the R&D department could do was shake their heads.

black!
It's so damn dark!!

Take this old man's car, which sells for 13,000 yuan, for example.

The vehicle is almost entirely made of plastic. The chassis is the same as that of a three-wheeled electric vehicle. The glass and hood are covered with inferior, low-grade plastic parts. The steel pipes used for the frame and chassis are as thin as paper.

In their view, the actual cost of the vehicle is at most around six thousand, while the actual range is less than sixty kilometers.

In terms of quality alone, this is utterly shameless!
But according to their research, the source factories for this product ship at least several hundred to several thousand units every month, and this is just one of the factories.

This is very scary.

To know.

Currently, the best-selling domestic cars in the 150,000 yuan price range, with monthly sales exceeding 10,000 units, only have a gross profit of a little over 10,000 yuan per vehicle.

A little analysis reveals that this is a vast blue ocean!

"After all, the cost is limited. Our size is larger, and the sheet metal is about twice as thick as those old man's electric vehicle manufacturers, which is the limit."

Wang Jingming said.

Cheng Li, a slightly younger-looking R&D engineer standing to the side, nodded in agreement.

"With material costs at stake, the thickness of the sheet metal cannot be increased. However, the front and rear anti-collision beams, the A-pillars, the B-pillars on the sides, and the crossbeams on the roof have all been reinforced. The overall strength of the vehicle is definitely several times stronger than those old-age cars."

"Torsional stiffness can also be improved significantly..."

how to say.

It's probably a professional habit.

After all, they are a team that seriously engages in automotive engineering and development.

It's like a professional airplane builder suddenly being pulled into making model airplanes.

You're forcing people who specialize in making aerospace steel to make a batch of ballpoint pen steel balls.

...

Their long-standing professional ethics and habits make it difficult for them to accept a very low minimum standard.

The quality of this batch of best-selling "elderly recreational vehicles".

In their view, there is absolutely no bottom line.

Or rather, it has already been breached!
It's the kind of thing that's unbearable to look at.

If they were asked to design something that's "completely a mess," they might as well just smash their heads against a block of tofu and die.

then.

It was in this kind of internal R&D atmosphere that things began.

The first engineering prototype has finally rolled off the production line.

……

Five days passed.

When Xu Yi received the notification, he arrived at the research and development workshop.

What appeared before him was a brand-new engineering prototype vehicle, the entire vehicle had just been painted, and even the interior of the rear seats had not yet been installed.

Its unique design goes without saying.

At first glance, it's absolutely eye-catching!
The frog-eye headlights, taut and elegant lines, sloping roof, and brand-new paint even exude a subtle sense of luxury.

But upon closer inspection, something seemed amiss.

You say it's a Porsche, but the size doesn't seem quite right.

You can't say it's not, but it has a highly realistic resemblance in many ways!
After carefully reading it, Xu Yi formed his own opinion.

骚！
That's so outrageous!!
There isn't such a "senior citizen's car" on the market yet.

(End of this chapter)