God knows how complicated the looks were on Lei Jun's face when he announced the establishment of a car project team at the company.
No, bro, that's why I joined your team—because you told me you were going to build a phone even better than the iPhone.
But what happened? After making color TVs, you made refrigerators, then washing machines, then dishwashers, and later even Xiaomi Home stores.
The houses are finished, and now they're even starting to build cars?
Brother, where is your goal? Where is your dream?
Earned 36 billion in two years?
Oh, that's fine then.
A few days later, Minister Wang secretly convened a meeting with several state-owned car companies, including FAW, SAIC, Dongfeng, Changan, and Xiaomi!
The CEOs of the four major state-owned car companies were all somewhat surprised to see Lei Jun.
This person isn't selling phones, so what's he doing here? Did he go to the wrong place?
Lei Jun greeted them with a smile, but the atmosphere was slightly awkward.
At that moment, Minister Wang entered.
"Is everyone here? Let's begin the meeting. The main topic of today's meeting is the development of the electric vehicle market by the four major state-owned automakers, starting today."
FAW's CEO, Qiu Dong, asked the question.
"Minister Wang, we have no experience with trams. Are we supposed to start developing them from scratch?"
The others nodded in agreement.
Minister Wang smiled and said upon hearing this.
"I know, that's why I invited Lei Jun from Xiaomi."
"ah?"
The four of them were stunned. He makes mobile phones, and he also knows how to make cars?
Seeing that everyone was looking over, Lei Jun followed up on Minister Wang's words.
"Dear CEOs, Xiaomi will also be entering the electric vehicle market next."
Minister Wang nodded and continued.
"That's right. Lin Chen, the vice president of Xiaomi Technology, is currently in the US and has already signed an agreement with Tesla. Over the next five years, all of Tesla's technologies, including the core three-electric system technology, will be used to train relevant personnel of Xiaomi Electric Vehicles."
Upon hearing this, how could the CEOs of the four major state-owned automobile companies not understand what they meant?
"Hahaha, Mr. Lei, please take care of me in the future."
"That's right, Mr. Lei. SAIC is also in Shanghai, and so is Xiaomi. We should keep in touch, hahaha."
Minister Wang waved his hand and continued.
"However, before that, we still need to keep this matter confidential. The four major state-owned enterprises should first complete the preliminary preparations, and then quickly seize the global market when the time is right!"
In the future, the government will also introduce policies to promote the development of the electric vehicle market.
Trams will be a shortcut for us to catch up with foreign automobile markets; I hope everyone will take this seriously!
The four state-owned automobile executives present are certainly aware of the current state of electric vehicle development worldwide.
Currently, Tesla is the only automaker in the world that focuses on researching electric vehicles, and it has been losing money for many years.
However, the entire car manufacturing industry is watching Tesla closely. There's no way around it; if Tesla really becomes widespread, it will put gasoline cars at a significant disadvantage. Just look at the daily operating costs: how much does gasoline cost? How much does electricity cost? A full tank of gas can charge a car 10 times!
Moreover, electric cars accelerate much faster than gasoline cars.
With its good performance and low operating costs, do ordinary people even need to choose it?
Fortunately, Tesla has performed well, selling very few cars over the years and maintaining exorbitant prices, thus having little impact on the gasoline car market.
But things are different now. If China takes over the electric vehicle market, it will inevitably drive prices down to extremely low levels in order to penetrate the market.
Moreover, China has a unique advantage: there are so few domestic gasoline car brands that they are almost negligible. Therefore, there will be no obstacles to developing electric vehicles, and the country may even provide support, which is impossible in other countries.
"Fine! Damn it, I've had enough of working for those European and American car manufacturers all these years!"
"Great! Now we finally have a track in the automotive industry where we can take the lead."
After discussing for a long time, the CEOs had almost figured out the future development path, but then they noticed Lei Jun sitting to the side just drinking water.
"Hey, Mr. Lei, why aren't you saying anything?"
"Hehe, bosses, I'm a complete novice when it comes to car manufacturing. I don't understand anything you're talking about."
The CEOs looked at each other and fell silent.
Damn, are we insiders going to have to rely on this outsider from now on?
Ugh, what's the point of even talking about this?
When Minister Wang saw that they had stopped talking, he spoke up.
"Let's end the meeting here for today, Mr. Lei. Please wait a moment, I have something to discuss with you."
After the four executives of state-owned car companies left, Minister Wang said to Lei Jun.
"Mr. Lei, I've already acquired the small factory called CATL that Lin Chen asked me to acquire. Currently, the company's shareholding structure is as follows: the state holds 30%, Xiaomi Technology holds 40%, and CATL founder Zeng Qun holds 30%."
"Okay, I'll talk to Lin Chen."
"Actually, I don't quite understand why Lin Chen is so insistent on having me take the lead in acquiring this company."
"Lin Chen told me that every major change in the electric vehicle market in the future will be a change in battery technology, so he felt that we must have our own battery manufacturers."
"I understand. Although this company is still small, its equity structure is very clean, unlike BYD, which already has foreign investment. It seems I will have to pay attention to the political background of a company from time to time in the future, hahaha."
Meanwhile, Musk, who was far away in California, was unaware of the meeting taking place in China.
He was at that moment discussing the development plan for the new motor with Tesla's engineers.
"Boss, are we really going to make such a low-end motor?"
"Yeah, boss, we already have such powerful motors, why would we make this primitive version?"
Musk sighed.
"Sigh, I don't want to do it either, but I have no choice. It's for Tesla to survive, it's for making money, you understand?"
"Okay, to be honest, a motor with these parameters is just a pile of dissertations in my eyes."
As Lin Chen said, for Tesla, which has advanced motor manufacturing technology, making this kind of entry-level motor is child's play.
The design was completed very quickly.
However, Musk faces a new challenge.
Should we modify the existing motor production line or build a new one?
If the existing motor production line is modified, it will have to be modified back if it wants to produce high-end motors. One production line cannot produce two types of motors at the same time.
The best solution would be to build a new motor production line, but his current funds are really tight.
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