Rebirth 99 to become a car giant

A butterfly in the Amazon rainforest in South America may occasionally flap its wings and cause a tornado in Texas two weeks later.

Buffett's investment in BYD seems to be a matter of BYD and has nothing to do with other companies.

But the actual situation is completely different.

Not to mention that Great Wall Motors, which had a relatively firm attitude in the past, has begun to consider hybrid vehicles. Nanshan Hongqi, which originally had nothing to do with this matter, also plans to launch two FHEV models in the future.

On this point, after Zhu Zhengfeng and Cao Yang communicated, the two decided on the general direction.

As for how to implement the general direction, further discussion is needed by the people below.

"Mr. Cao, I think it is feasible to use an FHEV system similar to Toyota's on mid- and low-end models and use our own developed HY-KERS hybrid system on high-end models."

"However, Toyota's hybrid system currently uses nickel-metal hydride batteries. I think this direction is not consistent with the future direction of battery development."

Rao Yongxiang, Dai Hanbiao, Lin Cheng and others came to Cao Yang's office to discuss the hybrid system.

"The design of nickel-metal hydride batteries is derived from nickel-cadmium batteries, but great progress has been made in improving the memory effect of nickel-cadmium batteries."

"The important change is to replace the cadmium originally used in the negative electrode with a hydrogen storage alloy."

"So nickel-metal hydride batteries are said to be a typical representative of material innovation."

"The pollution caused by nickel-metal hydride batteries is much smaller than that of nickel-cadmium batteries containing cadmium. Therefore, nickel-cadmium batteries have been gradually replaced by nickel-metal hydride batteries."

"In addition, nickel-metal hydride batteries are low-priced, highly versatile, have high current, and are environmentally friendly and stable."

"But compared with lithium batteries, they are heavier, have shorter battery life, and are not resistant to overcharging."

"In the short term, nickel-metal hydride batteries may be more suitable, but in the long run, lithium batteries are definitely more promising."

"Our Nanshan Battery is currently mainly researching lithium batteries, so I also think that the company's hybrid system, no matter what type it is, should consider using lithium batteries."

Lin Cheng's attitude is also relatively clear.

NiMH batteries are good and competitive at this stage.

But there are better batteries, and Nanshan Group has mastered the technology in this area, so it will naturally be used.

Even if the hybrid systems supplied to Nanshan Hongqi or even other independent brand car companies are based on Toyota's systems, there is no need to copy them.

Just refer to the general principles and design the specific parts yourself.

"There is no doubt about the advancement of lithium batteries, and using lithium batteries is also good for our publicity."

"However, the safety performance of lithium batteries is not as good as that of nickel-metal hydride batteries, and we also need to consider the impact of this aspect."

Zeng Tingting also prefers to use batteries with more advanced technology.

However, she also put forward some requirements for the R\u0026D department.

"Since everyone thinks that lithium batteries are most suitable for FHEV batteries, and we are already using lithium batteries in the starry sky, then everyone should develop in this direction."

“However, in terms of the implementation of specific plans, I think certain distinctions can be made.”

"Xingchen Motors uses ternary lithium lithium batteries, and other customers such as Nanshan Hongqi use lithium iron phosphate batteries."

"On the one hand, the cost of lithium iron phosphate is lower, the technology is more mature, and it is more suitable for mass production."

"On the other hand, it can be considered as preparation in two aspects, preparing for the simultaneous use of two technical solutions of ternary lithium and lithium iron phosphate in electric vehicles in the future."

"In addition, some scientific research institutions have also published papers and proposed the concept of sodium-ion batteries. I think Nanshan Battery can also work hard in this area to see if sodium-ion batteries have more advantages."

After listening to everyone's opinions, Cao Yang directly gave a conclusion.

Lithium iron phosphate batteries and ternary lithium batteries are both battery technologies that have been proven in later generations.

As long as Nanshan Battery firmly develops its efforts in these two fields, it will not be so easy for other companies to surpass Nanshan Battery.

In addition, if we start laying out sodium-ion batteries now, when the prices of lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide rise in the future, directly launching sodium-ion batteries will definitely bring huge damage to other companies.

Especially for mid-range models, if the price difference is tens of thousands of yuan, the impact will be quite large.

On the contrary, with Xingchen Auto, there is no need to worry too much about the cost.

If you use a low-cost solution, it may affect your brand power.

"Mr. Cao, judging from the current situation, even for ternary lithium batteries, there are several technical solutions."

"Depending on the cobalt content, there may be NCM333 and NCM523, and even NCM811 in the laboratory state."

"With different cobalt content, the performance of the battery will be significantly different, and the cost will also be significantly different."

At this time, it was naturally time for Lin Cheng, the general manager of Nanshan Battery, to show his professionalism.

Although Cao Yang only set three technical research directions, he wants to tell everyone that these three directions can also be broken down into many smaller directions.

By then Nanshan Battery will still require a lot of manpower and material resources.

And in the short term, it will be difficult for Nanshan TV to make a profit.

Lin Cheng can be considered as giving everyone a vaccination.

"Indeed, the battery situation is more complicated, and various solutions need to be verified."

"Nanshan Battery can conduct research on different NCM ratios."

"Of course, at the beginning, we can focus on NCM333, a solution with relatively low technical difficulty."

"When the time comes, there will be one generation for production, one for research and development, and one for pre-research. We will conduct research on several technical routes at the same time."

"Even semi-solid-state batteries and solid-state batteries can be considered in the future, and the research tasks are very heavy."

Batteries are the most popular parts of new energy vehicles, and their impact on the entire industry is also huge.

Cao Yang naturally has a very deep understanding of this.

Otherwise, the battery would not be separated from Nanshan Auto Parts and a separate company would be established.

"Mr. Cao, there is an electric car company called Tesla in the United States. They have delivered 7 electric cars on a small scale in February this year."

"It is said that large-scale deliveries to consumers will begin in October this year."

"Can our group also consider setting up an electric vehicle company to specialize in new energy?"

Zeng Tingting's question immediately diverted everyone's attention.

Establishing a new electric vehicle company?

This topic is huge.

However, there are already electric vehicle companies in the United States, so it doesn’t seem impossible?

"I have also heard of the Tesla that Minister Zeng mentioned. Their first car was a sports car called Roadster."

"They are not just established now, but have been established for several years, but they have never delivered a production car."

"Even last year, there was a serious crisis."

"As a supercar comparable to Porsche and Ferrari, Tesla's Roadster has very high requirements for high-performance acceleration."

"At this time, ordinary electric vehicles without a multi-stage gearbox obviously cannot meet the needs of the Roadster."

“Because asynchronous motors have low power output efficiency at low speeds, it is logical to introduce a two-stage gearbox.”

"But the problem is, there is no precedent in the industry on how to conduct systematic research and development between high-voltage and high-power electronic control systems and gearbox coordination."

"In addition, the charging speed and battery safety of electric vehicles are also a topic that everyone is worried about."

"I think the conditions for establishing an electric vehicle company are not yet mature in a short period of time."

"We should first thoroughly study the relevant basic components. Then it will be a matter of course to establish an electric vehicle company."

"Otherwise, once our electric vehicle company is established, it will attract the attention of many car companies like a target."

"At that time, it is likely that other car companies will also increase investment in research and development in this area, which is not necessarily a good thing for the future development of our electric vehicle industry."

As the vice president in charge of research and development of Xingchen Automobile, Rao Yongxiang is obviously quite clear about the situation in the industry.

Electric vehicles represent the future, which he also recognizes.

But this future obviously won’t come so soon.

Whether it is technical reserves or consumer acceptance, there is still a long way to go before the large-scale popularization of electric vehicles.

"The establishment of a new electric vehicle company can be slowed down for a while, but the preparations for the establishment of an electric vehicle company cannot be slowed down for a moment."

"By then we will have Nanshan Hongqi for mid-range models, independent electric vehicle brands for mid-range and high-end models, and Xingchen Motors for high-end models, forming a comprehensive industrial layout."

"These companies will need to use electric vehicle technology. Batteries, motors, chargers and other parts need to be researched and developed in advance."

"Starting from FHEV, to PHEV, and finally to BEV, many of the technologies here have certain similarities."

"As long as we can make FHEV well, we can also make PHEV well soon."

"Most of the PHEV technologies are also common to BEV models."

Combining the opinions of senior executives, Cao Yang gave his own judgment.

Tesla’s real power will not be until seven or eight years later, or even after 2020.

Now due to the emergence of Nanshan Group, this time may be appropriately advanced, but it is only 2008, and there is really no need to rush directly to electric vehicles in one go.

Nanshan Group has invested a lot of resources in fuel vehicles, so it can make a lot of money first.

Soon, after an internal consensus was formed, the relevant business units began to take action.

At this time, a major event happened in the international financial market.

"Mr. Cao, Lehman Brothers is bankrupt!"

Zhang Fugui's call caused Cao Yang to shift his attention from within the Nanshan Group to the outside.

On September 15, 2008, the American investment bank Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, becoming the largest investment bank bankruptcy case in American history and triggering a global financial crisis.

The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers marked the full outbreak of the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States and had a profound negative impact on the global economy.

The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers has its profound background.

In the 2000s, the U.S. real estate market experienced a rapid boom that resulted in substantial increases in real estate prices.

Against this background, the subprime mortgage market in the United States also developed rapidly, and a large number of subprime mortgage loans were issued to borrowers with bad credit.

However, as the housing market bubble burst, default rates on these subprime mortgages rose rapidly, leading to mounting losses for investment banks such as Lehman Brothers.

Before Lehman Brothers collapsed, the U.S. government had bailed out several other large financial institutions, including Bear Stearns and Bank of America.

However, the U.S. government ultimately refused to bail out Lehman Brothers, which was considered the direct cause of Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy.

The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers led to the collapse of financial market confidence and triggered a global financial crisis.

Nanshan Investment has been deploying in the financial market for several years, and now it is finally time to close the network.

While the crisis was spreading and the situation in all aspects was still relatively chaotic, the funds invested by Nanshan could flow out of the United States smoothly and be placed in safe accounts.

Later, taking advantage of the financial crisis, it acquired a number of chip-related companies, allowing Nanshan Semiconductor to officially debut to the outside world.

"The bankruptcy of Lehman should lead to a period of turmoil in the U.S. financial markets."

"We strive to withdraw all funds from the United States within the next month, sell the stocks that should be sold, and do not make new investments."

"Then wait for further arrangements from the group."

These things had been thought of before, and now after receiving contact from Zhang Fugui, Cao Yang immediately gave clear instructions.

Although from the perspective of the general environment, there will still be many investment opportunities until the end of this year, Nanshan’s investment portfolio is a bit big.

If you act too frequently, you may become a scapegoat.

That would be more miserable.

This is obviously not a situation Cao Yang wants to see.

"No problem, the current profit situation is much better than originally imagined."

"If you keep struggling, to be honest, I'm a little worried."

Zhang Fugui is also a little panicked now.

He felt as if he had witnessed a piece of history and even participated in it himself.

This feeling is very special.

"After all the funds are processed, you can take your team back to China and have a good rest. Don't go abroad for the time being."

After Cao Yang arranged things for Zhang Fugui, he immediately asked Mi Ying to notify relevant personnel at Nanshan Semiconductor to come over for a meeting.

Next, Nanshan Group will start the buy-buy-buy mode.

"Lao Zhang, here is the opportunity for Nanshan Semiconductor to show its talents."

"I asked you to do the research before to see which semiconductor companies are likely to be acquired and are suitable for acquisition. Do you have any conclusions now?"

Zhang Jing was a talent recruited by Nanshan Group in the early years to serve as the general manager of Nanshan Semiconductor.

In the past few years, it has been relatively low-key, and its presence within the Nanshan Group is not very strong.

But Cao Yang has always attached great importance to it.

"Mr. Cao, judging from the current situation, the most suitable place to start is the storage industry."

"Since last year, the memory industry has experienced overcapacity. Whether it is Samsung Electronics, Micron, Elpida, or Qimonda, they have all experienced overcapacity."

"Under such circumstances, Samsung Electronics bucked the trend and expanded production capacity, causing memory prices to fall further."

"In the first quarter of this year, many people felt that memory prices could slowly move towards a price recovery."

"But in fact, the price of memory has been falling this year, and now it has dropped by half compared to the beginning of the year."

"With this price, no memory manufacturer can make money."

"So I think the most suitable business for Nanshan Semiconductor to acquire in the international market should be the memory business."

"but……"

Zhang Jing was thinking about how to organize his words so that things would not become so embarrassing.

"But what?"

Cao Yang did not know much about the semiconductor industry before, but he still had some basic common sense.

In addition, if necessary, some advanced technologies can be directly introduced to Nanshan Group, so he is not particularly worried that Nanshan Semiconductor will encounter any unsolvable problems in the development process.

There are always more methods than problems.

Even a photolithography machine is not something that cannot be solved.

"Mr. Cao, any large semiconductor company has a special status within the corresponding country."

"Needless to say, companies like Intel, AMD and Texas Instruments are unlikely to be acquired at any cost."

"Other semiconductor companies such as Infineon, STMicroelectronics and NXP are in a similar situation."

“Even smaller companies such as Renesas Electronics, ON Semiconductor, Micron, and Elpida are not easy to acquire.”

"So my suggestion is to start with memory and acquire some factories and patents from companies such as Micron or Elpida and Qimonda."

"Then on this basis, combined with our own talent and technology reserves, we began to recruit talents from all over the world to develop Nanshan Semiconductor's technology."

"The current semiconductor industry is not very prosperous, and many companies are considering layoffs."

"As long as we are willing to spend money, poaching people is not a big problem, especially poaching ordinary engineers, which is not very difficult."

"Of course, for example, if some small companies are not so eye-catching, it is still possible to acquire some small material manufacturers and equipment manufacturers in the semiconductor industry chain."

"It just doesn't seem like a good deal that way."

Zhang Jing explained while observing Cao Yang's reaction.

The development of Nanshan Group in the country can be said to be smooth, with turnover and profits repeatedly setting new highs.

Therefore, Cao Yang's prestige within the company is also increasing day by day.

Zhang Jing was also worried that Cao Yang would not listen to his suggestions.

After all, according to Zhang Jing's suggestion, this plan seems a bit copycat and not generous enough.

There is no sense of buying and selling.

However, after hearing this, Cao Yang felt that Zhang Jing's proposal was very practical.

Nanshan Investment is rich now, but if it wants to build its own chip factory, a few billion US dollars is actually not much, or even tens of billions of US dollars is not much.

Rather than wasting it on various acquisitions, it is better to just spend part of the funds to acquire some factories, personnel, and technology, and then poach people like crazy to start vigorously developing Nanshan Semiconductor's own chip industry.

With enough talent, you can buy equipment just by spending money. In fact, in 2008, the threshold of the semiconductor industry was not as high as in later generations.

"You are right. To develop Nanshan Semiconductor, in the final analysis, it is a matter of equipment and talents."

"As long as there are sufficient talents, it is not impossible to directly purchase equipment and invest in related factories such as wafer factories and packaging factories."

"Now that Lehman is bankrupt, this will definitely make the impact of the subprime mortgage crisis even greater and turn it into a financial crisis."

"Many companies in Europe and the United States will be greatly affected by this crisis."

“Whether it’s buying equipment or recruiting people at this time, the difficulty is at its lowest in history.”

"Lao Zhang, please discuss with the Human Resources Department and Finance Department to formulate a talent recruitment plan."

"For talents who are recommended to Nanshan Semiconductor, we can consider giving certain rewards to the recommenders."

"Especially for technical talents from Korea and Japan, they are more adaptable to the working environment in China, so we can give priority to poaching these people."

“At the same time, incentives can be different for the different levels of talent being recruited.”

"The semiconductor industry seems very big, but the industry is actually very small."

"Friends, colleagues, classmates, and brothers, on the basis of the existing Nanshan Semiconductor employees, we can connect the employees of the world's major semiconductor manufacturers."

Since Zhang Jing thinks that poaching people is the best plan, Cao Yang will naturally not disagree.

At that time, the first batch of equipment will be purchased from outside, and when the production is expanded later, Nanshan Equipment will be directly asked to "copy" or "upgrade" these equipment.

In terms of materials, we can also work hard step by step, and strive to achieve localization of the entire industry chain within ten years, giving everyone an unexpected surprise.

Of course, the semiconductor industry does not need to be so high-profile.

It's not too late to be high-profile until the results actually come out.

"It's easy to make this rule, but..."

After Zhang Jing hesitated for a few seconds, he continued: "The salaries of talents in the semiconductor industry have always been relatively high."

"Especially overseas, the annual income of these people is anywhere from 7 to 8 million RMB, or even 1 to 2 million RMB."

"It is not surprising that some high-end talents can earn several million yuan or even tens of millions of yuan in annual salary."

"If this amount is placed on a team of dozens of people, the impact will not be big."

"But if we are going to enter this industry on a large scale, we will need at least a R\u0026D team of more than 1,000 people."

"The labor cost will be very huge at that time."

When Zhang Jing said this, Cao Yang naturally understood what he meant.

If the semiconductor industry wants to develop, it must burn money.

Is Nanshan Group ready to burn money?

Is Nanshan Semiconductor willing to spend such a high price to poach people everywhere?