My Age of Investment

   Chapter 1470 Dapeng Spreads His Wings

"Daren, the development progress of the SmartEV project must be accelerated, because the board of directors has urged me many times, and they even suspect that I have made a secret deal with you in private, why the Model S has already begun to be delivered, and SmartEV has not seen one yet!

   Damn! This is definitely a tarnish on my personal honor and a distrust of Tesla's capabilities.

  My friend, we should do something to fight back against these short-sighted people, what do you think? "

Xia Jingxing chuckled, Cai Che was a bit interesting, and he was scolding Huai with his fingers. On the surface, he was scolding the board of directors of Daimler, but he was actually putting pressure on him and Tesla, hoping to deliver the smart EV orders as soon as possible. Thousands of powertrains.

   Originally, Zetsche was not in such a hurry. After all, in his opinion, Tesla is just a small company with limited R&D and manufacturing capabilities, so the delivery should be slower.

   But in the past two weeks, with the hot sale of Model S, a storm of pure electric vehicles has been launched in the market. The old Turkish man who saw this scene could no longer sit still and had to use this method to urge Xia Jingxing to fulfill his contract as soon as possible.

In fact, Xia Jingxing still has a good impression of Daimler and Zetsche, because this company not only gave a powertrain order of 40 million US dollars when Tesla was in the most difficult time, but also invested 75 million US dollars in Tesla. USD, which currently holds a 4.84% stake in Tesla, is one of the largest institutional shareholders.

"Mr. Zetsche, here I want to apologize to you first. In the past year, most of Tesla's energy has been devoted to reviving the Fremont factory, which has led to the push of the SmartEV project. push.

   But we have now integrated all the resources of this factory and cultivated a team of capable auto workers.

   Starting next month, the first batch of powertrain achievements will be transported across the Atlantic to the Berlin factory, and it is believed that German consumers will soon be able to drive SmartEVs on Kurfürstendamm. "

   "Fantastic! This is the best news I've heard this year. Thank you, Darren. When SmartEV goes offline, I'll definitely invite you to Berlin to watch the ceremony."

   "Okay, I'm also looking forward to what kind of sparks will come from Daimler's superb car-making craftsmanship and Tesla's electric vehicle technical solutions."

   Having said that, Xia Jingxing is actually not optimistic about the development of SmartEV. If SmartEV really sells well, there will be no subsequent EQ series.

  SmartEV is more of a test product. Daimler is not ready to make a big splash in the pure electric vehicle market, and some old car-building concepts have not changed.

   But all this does not prevent Xia Jingxing from touting Zetsche and Daimler a few words, I believe that with the shareholder wind of "Daimler's use of Tesla's technical solutions", Tesla's stock price can go up a few more points.

   Soon the two talked about the topic of listing.

   "Daren, how much do you expect Tesla's first-day market value to reach?"

   "The roadshow has just started this month, so it's hard to give an exact number."

   "Hey, I heard that Tesla has recently received more than 10,000 car orders."

   "How can there be so many, the media likes such irresponsible and random reports."

   "Isn't this good news for Tesla?"

   "I do hope that the stock price can be lower and reserve some room for growth, otherwise it will be very troublesome if the growth is weak in the future."

   "Well, you are the majority shareholder and chairman, and Daimler will respect your opinion."

  …

  Xia Jingxing hung up the phone and cursed the old fox secretly, he could almost guess what Cai Che was thinking.

Although it is the honeymoon period of cooperation between Tesla and Daimler, if Daimler decides to invade the pure electric vehicle industry in a big way, it will part ways with Tesla sooner or later, then for Daimler, Tesla's share price will naturally The higher the better, the more cash out who doesn't like it.

   Of course, Xia Jingxing never expected Daimler to cooperate with Tesla in a stubborn manner. The two sides were using each other.

  Daimler borrowed Tesla's technology to test pure electric vehicles at a very low cost. Once it is found to be feasible, it will leave Tesla to engage in independent research and development;

   Tesla, on the other hand, borrowed Daimler’s brand and reputation to tell stories in the capital market and raise more funds during the listing process.

  SmartEV!

Xia Jingxing tapped lightly on the table with his fingers, this car reminded him, should he build a Wuling Hongguang MINI first to test the water in the domestic market? It has the technology and industrial blessing of Fuxing Automobile and the entire Fuxing Industry, except that the brand is better than Smart Almost, other things are not necessarily worse than Smart.

   But he soon gave up this idea. At present, the domestic electric vehicle industry has just started, and the cost cannot be reduced temporarily. The biggest killer of Wuling Hongguang MINI - the price advantage is not fully reflected.

  The meal needs to be eaten in one bite, and the cost reduction of the electric vehicle industry can only be achieved step by step. The price of the first car to be launched by Fuxing Automobile may be a figure that is difficult for ordinary people to reach.

   With that money, wouldn’t it be good for me to buy a BMW Benz? It is estimated that many people have this kind of thinking, the market needs to be nurtured, and users also need to be educated.

   Just when Xia Jingxing was pondering the price and market of the Fuxing car, the phone that he casually dropped on the table rang again. He picked it up and saw that it was from Akio Toyoda.

After    connected the phone, Akio Toyoda first congratulated the Model S on the phone, and then, like Zetsche, urged thousands of powertrain orders for the RAV4.

Like Daimler, Toyota is also a Tesla shareholder. 3.23% stake, and the prerequisite for the stake is that Tesla agrees to cooperate in the development of RAV4.

After so many years of contact, Xia Jingxing felt that Akio Toyoda was even more annoying than Ze Che, at least Ze Che could say something nice, while Akio Toyoda would only point fingers, and the Japanese also seemed very conservative when it came to building pure electric vehicles. , did not listen to the opinions of Tesla engineers at all, and always felt that Toyota was right.

Later, Xia Jingxing simply ordered the following people, no matter what the technical experts of Toyota asked, just follow their requirements. Anyway, whether the RAV4 will live or die in the future has little to do with Tesla. At most, I think Tesla has cheated them That's it.

   After dismissing Akio Toyoda, Xia Jingxing turned off his mobile phone and began to close his eyes to rest.

   Without resting for a few minutes, Straubel suddenly knocked on the door and walked in.

   "Daren, good news! The order data has finally exceeded 10,000! The pre-launch target has been completed ahead of schedule, and the first batch of 500 Model Ss has been delivered to customers."

   Hearing this news, Xia Jingxing's spirit was instantly lifted, and he asked with a look of joy, "Is the cumulative order exceeding 10,000? Or is this month's order exceeding 10,000?"

  Straubel smiled awkwardly: "Naturally, the cumulative order has exceeded 10,000!"

   The smile on Xia Jingxing's face faded a bit immediately, he waved Straubel to sit down, and said, "That's not bad, I remember that as of last month, the cumulative order was only 5,000, right?"

"Accurately speaking, it was 5,123 vehicles. Later, due to the car accident, 564 vehicles were unsubscribed. This month's new orders were 5,826 vehicles, and the total number of orders accumulated together was 10,385 vehicles. There are 9,855 vehicles that need to be produced urgently. deliver.

  According to the current production capacity of 500 vehicles per month in the Fremont plant, it will not be delivered until the year after, that is, January 2012. "

  Xia Jingxing touched the back of his head. Originally, it was just the media making noises, but as a result, the rumors came true, and Tesla’s orders were really lined up for the next year.

   "Daren, the top priority is to expand production capacity. The problem of insufficient production capacity has seriously affected Tesla's development.

  If the production capacity of the factory can be doubled, I am sure to deliver 12,000 cars next year.

  The market has gone crazy now, and people in every state in the United States are asking for high-priced Tesla cars or orders.

  I don't know how long this enthusiasm for car buying can be maintained, but we must seize the time to make up for our shortcomings. "

  Xia Jingxing nodded lightly. Although the delivery volume was not as good as a fraction of the auto giant's monthly sales, it was about to crowd out Tesla's poor production line.

   This kind of food that you can see but can't swallow all in one bite is unpleasant!

   "How much money is left in the company account now?"

  Straubel replied without hesitation: "Last year, the equity financing and loans raised a total of 625 million US dollars, and now half of it has been spent, and there are about 310 million US dollars left.

   In addition, more than 10,000 car purchase orders have contributed more than 200 million US dollars in cash flow to us, and 500 cars that have been delivered have received a final payment of 30 million US dollars. "

   "$540 million left."

   After silently calculating this number in his heart, Xia Jingxing said, "Our original plan was still too conservative."

  Straubel couldn't help but smile bitterly: "We didn't expect the Model S to be such a big sensation after delivery. Only 500 Model S were delivered, but it felt like there were thousands of them on the Internet."

  Xia Jingxing laughed. It is estimated that Rolls-Royce and Ferrari have a deep understanding of this aspect. They are obviously luxury goods, but they have become street cars in China, and there are even one for everyone on the Internet.

   There is no doubt that Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter have played a role in promoting ModelS’s popularity on the Internet. As long as ModelS is discovered, the exposure rate of tweets, videos, and pictures will be increased immediately.

   "You immediately reset a development plan to quadruple the car production capacity of the Fremont plant and increase the monthly production capacity to 2,000 cars next year."

Straubel hesitated for a moment and reminded: "Daren, will it be too risky to do this? Our cumulative orders for more than a year have just exceeded 10,000. After the production capacity has been increased to 12,000 next year, plus this year's 7 The monthly production capacity of 3,500 vehicles is enough to cover all existing orders.”

   "Will Tesla not sell cars in the second half of this year and next year?

  We have to keep shortening the lead time!

   The initial Roadster delivery cycle was delayed for more than two years, and when it came to Model S, the delivery cycle was shortened to one year and a few months.

   Next, we want to shorten the car lead time to six months, three months, one month or even less.

   This is what a pure electric vehicle giant should look like. After all, there is a limit to the patience of consumers. Tesla can’t live up to users again and again.

   And this is also a way of competition for Tesla, through faster delivery, to obtain more cash flow, and then to build more cars, reduce costs, and squeeze the market of competitors. "

  Straubel silently calculated in his heart and came up with a figure of 17,645.

   That is to say, in the next six quarters, the average quarterly sales volume will reach about 3,000 units in order to fully absorb the surge in production capacity next year.

   This made him feel a little pressured. After all, Tesla's topic of this month is impossible to have every month, every quarter.

   That is to say, in the future, there is not much luck in selling cars, and you have to rely on real skills to sell cars one by one.

  Thinking of this, Straubel began to ask.

   "Daren, I need to build more TeslaStore offline stores to reach a wider audience with our sales network.

  At the same time, the layout of the international market should also be officially put on the agenda, and we have hardly developed the overseas market at present.

  This is a big market that needs to be developed, and its potential far exceeds that of the domestic market in the United States.

  If Tesla wants to become an auto giant like Daimler and Toyota, it is impossible to stay in the US market and must extend our industrial tentacles. "

  Xia Jingxing smiled and said, "These are all very good suggestions, and I have no reason not to support them."

  Straubel smiled, "Then there is no problem! I accept the task!"

"Daren, there is one more thing to report to you. Nikola and Fisker have recently used the pure electric vehicle storm fueled by the Model S to frantically grab our popularity and increase the exposure of their own cars. Rate."

   "Is there such a thing?"

  Xia Jingxing frowned slightly, he was the only one who prostituted others for nothing on weekdays, when would it be someone else’s turn to prostitute him?

   "It's true, if you don't believe it, you can open Twitter to see."

   Hearing this, Xia Jingxing turned on his mobile phone, clicked on the Twitter app to enter the page, and then started searching for the accounts of Musk and Fisker as described by Straubel.

   Soon he found the tweets posted by the two.

   "Nikola One, as a pure electric sports car with excellent performance, has already delivered more than 1,000 vehicles, and its quality and reputation have won the favor of a large number of users who love pure electric vehicles.

   At present, Nikola has sufficient production capacity, and the current car can be mentioned in one month at the earliest. The delivery speed has always been an important operational indicator that Nikola insists on. "

  Xia Jingxing noticed that there are still a bunch of Musk's followers under the comment who are brainless touting, all of which are replies such as "buy Nikola", "fast delivery", "value for money" and so on.

   Seeing this scene, Xia Jingxing wanted to ridicule two sentences, but he was halfway through typing, and finally gave up.

   Because if he made a comment, he provoked a scolding battle between the two companies, which might be exactly what Musk wanted.

  The current Musk is just a little guy who is trying his best to touch Tesla. He has absolutely no need to pay attention to this touch king.

   Putting down his phone, Xia Jingxing asked, "Has Nikola delivered more than 1,000 cars?"

  Straubel nodded and replied: "It should be the real data. They have been delivering cars since last year, and they have only reached 1,000 cars now. The numbers are not too outrageous."

  Xia Jingxing was silent and thought about it in his heart.

  The Tesla of this life has developed much faster than the previous life because of him as the navigator and provided huge financial support, and has almost reached the level of development of the previous Tesla around 2012.

   Nikola's current level of development is only equivalent to the level of Tesla in 2007 to 2008, and it is at least two years behind Tesla in this life.

  Tesla's leading performance is not easy to sit back and relax, because as long as one neglects and takes a wrong step, it is likely to be tied or even surpassed by Nikola.

  Xia Jingxing did not say anything, and continued to silently check the tweets posted by Henrik Fisk.

   This former Aston Martin chief designer is also very interesting, and he is even more shameless when he gets hot.

   "First of all, I would like to congratulate ModelS for its brilliant achievements. As a former member of the ModelS project, I am also honored.

The Karma car, also designed by me, is a luxury hybrid car with the advantages of both gasoline and electric cars. This car will be delivered to the first batch of cars in the near future, and I look forward to sharing it with the Model S sports. "

Seeing this, Xia Jingxing sneered. Henrik Fisk used to be Tesla's design consultant, but this man was actually a big parallel importer. It looks like a mess.

   However, the development stage of Fisker Motors is still relatively rudimentary. It has been operating for several years, and only a prototype car has been released. The gap between Tesla and Tesla is still ten Nikola.

   Xia Jingxing was also too lazy to reply to such a company of the level of a clown, even if he scolded them, it would give them face.

   "Daren~"

A middle-aged white man with messy hair suddenly pushed open the door of Xia Jingxing's office, rushed in and saw Xia Jingxing and Straubel who were talking, stunned for a moment and said, "Sorry! Daren, I'll come back to you later. "

  Xia Jingxing stopped the man who was about to turn around and leave, "Franz, don't leave in a hurry, what's the matter?"

  Tesla's chief designer Franz glanced at Straubel and said, "Daren, I have come up with a mature design for ModelX, do you want to take a look?"

  Xia Jingxing and Straubel looked at each other and both smiled, the former said, "Why are you hesitating, hurry up and show it?"

   Franz nodded, quickly took out a USB flash drive from his clothes pocket, and connected it to the computer on the desk.

On the large computer screen, a group of design drawings were presented. It was only the first picture of "Dapeng Spreading its Wings", which surprised Xia Jingxing and Straubel. The unique way of opening the door seemed to have inserted a pair into the car. The wings are nicknamed "gull wing doors".

   (end of this chapter)