Rebirth 99 to become a car giant

The characteristics of a taxi are that the space must be large enough, the price must be low enough, the maintenance cost must not be high, and the quality must be acceptable.

Cao Yang is naturally well aware of this market demand.

So when he cooperated with Yangcheng Trumpchi, he directly reminded the other party.

As an electric vehicle, with financial subsidies at all levels, the price will not be much more expensive than the current Elantra and other models.

Considering that the cost of using electric vehicles is much lower, the effect of promoting electric taxis on reducing vehicle exhaust emissions is still very obvious.

After all, people are on the road all day long, and the exhaust emissions of a taxi are as high as those of dozens of private cars.

Zhang Jiaqi, Zeng Guangda and others naturally settled this account carefully.

They still have high expectations for Yangcheng Trumpchi's electric taxis.

I originally thought that selling 10,000 vehicles a year would be considered a very good result.

But now I feel that 10,000 vehicles a year is too few, so I can be more bold.

30,000 to 50,000 vehicles a year?

In the shortest possible time, Yangcheng Trumpchi's electric vehicle products have become famous in China, which will be very beneficial no matter what they do in the future.

So this time, after Zhang Jiaqi talked with Cao Yang, the two sides reached an agreement, and he started to take action.

First, Yangcheng Automobile Group came forward to promote the introduction of regulations in various places in Lingnan Province, requiring that at least half of the newly added taxis must be electric vehicles, otherwise no quota will be given.

However, when Yangcheng Trumpchi made such a move, other manufacturers had no reaction, and BYD couldn't stand it anymore.

"Mr. Wang, Yangcheng Automobile Group has gone too far this time. Even if they want to monopolize the Yangcheng market, they actually want the taxi market in Shenzhen. Isn't this overstepping the bounds?"

As the head of BYD's sales department, Wu Huabing is under a lot of pressure now.

Although BYD's sales have been good in the past two years, the sales of Great Wall Motors, Chery Automobile, Geely Automobile and Changan Automobile, as well as the Yangcheng Trumpchi next door, are not bad.

Under such circumstances, if one is not careful, BYD will have no hope of even entering the top ten in the car sales rankings.

Since last year, China has launched a series of policies to encourage the development of new energy vehicles.

BYD, which has always focused its future development on new energy vehicles, has naturally quickly started the development of electric taxis and other related new projects.

Yangcheng Automobile Group can see the benefits of electric taxis and the low threshold for promotion, and BYD naturally sees it too.

It's just that their speed is not as fast as Yangcheng Trumpchi, and it is expected that the product will not be released until next year.

But now Yangcheng Trumpchi has begun to come to grab the market.

Lingnan Province is already preparing to formally issue relevant notices and requirements to impose certain restrictions on new taxi models.

Simply looking at this policy, it is also a good thing for BYD.

But combined with Yangcheng Trumpchi's actions, the nature of this matter is different.

BYD's products hadn't even been released yet, so Yangcheng Trumpchi took over the market first.

If you want to fight for it in the future, the difficulty will be completely different.

After all, taxi companies do not want to have too many models, which is not conducive to management and maintenance.

Even if there are too many styles, there will be no way to take advantage of the number of units when negotiating price.

If you buy three or five units at one time and buy dozens of units at one time, there will definitely be a difference in price level.

Wu Hua Cake naturally understands these principles.

That's why he felt a little anxious.

"They are using conspiracy this time. Even if we have objections, we can't refute them directly."

"After all, other people's products do have advantages now. We can't come up with better products, and we can't even come up with products at the same time. It will be difficult to dominate this market."

Wang Fu was also a little worried, but he didn't completely blame Yangcheng Trumpchi.

Competition exists in every industry.

Yangcheng Trumpchi did not use any conspiracy, but promoted the introduction of some policies in an upright manner.

In this case, even if BYD has an opinion, it's hard to say anything.

Besides, in the long run, BYD is also a beneficiary of this policy.

"I'm worried that by then we won't even be able to hold on to the market in Shenzhen City, which will leave a bad impression on everyone."

"Which city's taxis are not mainly products of local car companies?"

"Yangcheng Trumpchi has turned against guests, which is very excessive."

For Wu Huabian, if the market in Shenzhen is lost, it will be even more difficult for BYD's electric taxis to gain market in other places in Lingnan Province.

This will even further affect BYD's order acquisition in other provinces and cities.

This is the key reason why Wu Hua Cake attaches so much importance to it.

"No matter how good Yangcheng Trumpchi's electric taxis are, it is not their core technology."

"What I'm most worried about is the future cars of Nanshan Group. They are expected to have products off the production line next year. By then, the competitiveness of these products will definitely be stronger than that of Yangcheng Trumpchi."

"Even in the future, Future Cars will be our biggest competitor in the domestic electric vehicle market, which is quite worrying."

In the domestic automobile industry, when it comes to the emphasis on technology research and development, Wang Fu only obeys Nanshan Group.

Other manufacturers, whether joint ventures or independent brands, have relatively limited investment in R\u0026D.

You invest very little in research and development, but you want to achieve various results. This is obviously impossible.

"I heard that the positioning of future cars will be relatively high-end, and all electric cars will cost hundreds of thousands. I estimate that the impact on us will be relatively limited."

"After all, Nanshan Group's Xingchen Motors and Jaguar Land Rover are taking high-end routes. It is impossible for future cars to come directly to compete with us. This is not a good thing for Nanshan Group."

Wu Huabing's point of view this time is obviously a little different from Wang Fu's.

In his opinion, the potential of future cars is very great, and the products then will probably be better than BYD's.

But what does that matter?

We are not competitors at the same level.

Even from the perspective of developing the electric vehicle market, we are still allies.

Work together to poach allies in the corners of traditional car companies.

"Right now we are not taking the mid- to low-end route, but who knows what choices cars will make in the future?"

"For Nanshan Group, they already have three high-end brands: Xingchen, Jaguar and Land Rover. It doesn't make much sense to add a future car."

Wang Fu sees things in the long term.

As the founder of BYD, he often begins to see the essence hidden under the surface when looking at problems.

Obviously, future cars will certainly put pressure on BYD in the future.

In particular, Wang Fu does not want BYD to always produce mid- to low-end models. He also wants to produce some cars worth hundreds of thousands, or even a car worth more than one million.

It's just that he hasn't told anyone these thoughts yet.

"Nanshan Group has deep technological accumulation in traditional fuel vehicles, and no domestic manufacturer is its rival."

"Nowadays, the layout of the electric vehicle market is also moving frequently."

"Whether it is setting up Future Auto on its own, cooperating with Yangcheng Trumpchi to produce electric taxis, or producing electric vehicles in Nanshan Hongqi in the future, these fully illustrate the importance Nanshan Group attaches to the electric vehicle industry."

"Whether it's batteries or motors, or motor controllers and chargers, Nanshan Group is involved."

"The future may be in the electric vehicle market, and Nanshan Group has the deepest technological accumulation."

"If we want to catch up, we probably have to plan not to make much profit for three to five years."

Wu Huabing quickly put forward some of his own opinions based on Wang Fu's opinions just now.

However, Wang Fu did not directly communicate with him in detail.

The time is not yet ripe!

…

Whether it is a cooperation project with Yangcheng Trumpchi or Future Auto's own project, Nanshan batteries and motors and other parts produced by Nanshan Auto Parts are very critical technologies.

Cao Yang has personally participated in the technology research and development of batteries and motors before, which is also an important reason why Nanshan Group can quickly master this technology.

Now these technologies have finally begun to be implemented on the production line, and parts have entered a state of small-scale mass production and delivery.

So Cao Yang naturally wanted to go to the scene in person.

Japanese companies often have a saying called "Three Presentisms".

This refers to the scene, the present object, and reality.

That is, everything starts from the scene, and practical countermeasures are taken according to the actual situation on the scene.

This is a pragmatic approach.

Cao Yang quite recognized this point.

Otherwise, it would be funny if I just slap my head in the office for everything.

Pat your head to make a decision, pound your table to execute, pat your chest to make a promise, pat your thigh to regret, pat your butt to leave...

Professional managers can do this, but bosses cannot.

"Mr. Cao, since the electric taxi on the Yangcheng Trumpchi is a platform that converts oil into electricity, the shape of the battery pack will be special, which will be more difficult and costly to produce."

"The situation will be different by the end of the year when we start small series production of battery packs for future cars."

Cao Yang wanted to inspect the production site, so Lin Cheng, the person in charge of the battery company, naturally acted as the commentator himself.

For a battery, the cost of the battery core only accounts for 75% of the cost of the entire battery pack, and the remaining cost is the cost of the module and battery pack.

For example, battery housing, auxiliary wiring harness, battery BMS, cooling system and other related parts.

It looks like there is only one battery pack, but actually there are quite a lot of components inside.

The greater the number of battery cells in a battery pack, the higher the requirements for the consistency of the battery cells.

Or to put it another way, a battery pack with a higher cruising range often has higher requirements for battery cells.

In a battery pack, sometimes if there is a problem with one cell, it will cause problems with the entire battery pack.

At that time, the maintenance cost will be very high.

Of course, maintenance costs are not the most critical issue.

There is a problem with the battery core, which directly affects the use. This is the biggest problem.

"The production capacity of the battery production line must be utilized as soon as possible. Whether it is producing batteries for Honor mobile phones, producing power banks by ourselves, or supplying various batteries to Yangcheng Trumpchi, Future Auto, and Xingchen Auto, we all need to have certain capabilities. amount to support.”

"Otherwise, it will be difficult to reduce costs and the production pace cannot be improved."

“Once the volume increases, we can continue to upgrade production technology by adding new production lines, and continuously achieve cost reduction.”

For electric vehicles, reducing battery costs is definitely a topic that cannot be avoided.

If a battery pack costs only tens of thousands of yuan, which is only a little more expensive than an engine, then the market prospects are huge.

Unfortunately it is very difficult to do this.

"Mr. Cao, according to our predictions, we can start production next year."

“When the battery industry reaches a certain stage, it becomes a winner-takes-all market.”

"We are now the largest power battery manufacturer in China. As long as we consolidate this advantage in the next few years, it will not be easy for other manufacturers to surpass us."

Lin Cheng is now very confident in Nanshan Battery.

Especially after adding several shareholders last year, the company has more funds on its books.

And there are more guarantees in developing customers.

He is very confident that Nanshan Battery will be able to compete with Nanshan Engine and Nanshan Gearbox in the future.

In this regard, Cao Yang did not express any different opinions.

After all, so far, the development of Nanshan Battery has been advancing according to the rhythm set by him, and there are no obvious problems.

"I heard that a battery company called CATL was established some time ago. It was established on the basis of the previous ATL."

"You should pay attention to the development of this company."

Cao Yang attaches great importance to the situation of power batteries, so Mi Ying's briefing report every morning will summarize yesterday's latest battery industry situation.

CATL was established some time earlier than in history, and the BMW customer was also taken away by Nanshan Battery.

It stands to reason that the pace of development will definitely be affected.

But Cao Yang still admired their boss Zeng's ability, so he reminded Lin Cheng.

Don't let the boat capsize in the gutter. It would be embarrassing if someone overtakes you even though you are already like this.

"CATL was established on the basis of the previous power battery department of ATL, but they actually do not have any supporting performance of power batteries. Compared with other battery manufacturers such as Guoxuan Hi-Tech and BYD, they have no obvious advantages."

"Of course, their accumulation of battery technology is relatively deep. I will arrange for people to keep an eye on their movements."

Although Lin Cheng does not believe that CATL will pose any threat to his company.

But now that Cao Yang has spoken, he must implement it.

After that, Cao Yang continued to follow Lin Cheng to visit the battery BMS production line.

As one of the core components in the battery pack, the BMS is the brain of the battery pack, responsible for charge and discharge management, monitoring of battery voltage and current, and other data. It is also the vehicle controller that captures battery pack power and other parameters from the battery pack. Important parts.

It can be said that whether the BMS is strong or not is directly related to the performance of the battery pack.

If your battery cell technology is very advanced, but the supporting BMS level is not good, then your advanced nature may not be able to be used.

Even because the BMS is not good, some control problems arise.

Therefore, Cao Yang attaches great importance to BMS, and specifically transferred the design and development function of this part from Nanshan Auto Parts back to Nanshan Battery at the group meeting, making it a part of the battery business.

When Nanshan Battery provides parts to customers in the future, it can provide complete battery packs, including BMS.

We can also provide battery modules for customers to buy back and assemble into battery packs themselves.

You can even provide only batteries and let customers buy them and use them however they like.

“The biggest difficulty with BMS is that there must be inconsistencies between different lithium batteries.”

"This inconsistency results in different batteries still operating at different temperatures, voltages, and currents in the same battery pack at the same time."

"If we continue to use a picture to describe it, it means that different batteries are in different positions on the picture."

"To ensure the safe and efficient operation of the battery pack, it means that the locations of many batteries must be within a narrow safety window at the same time. This makes management more difficult as the number of batteries increases."

"In order to solve this problem of lithium battery operation, a reliable BMS system is necessary to monitor and manage the battery pack so that the charge and discharge speed and temperature of different batteries tend to be balanced."

Although Lin Cheng studies batteries, BMS is not his best part.

However, the quality of BMS is related to the performance of the battery pack, so in the past two years, he has conducted in-depth research on the principles of BMS.

If you directly ask him to be responsible for the development of BMS, he may not necessarily do a very good job.

But if you are just responsible for the introduction, then there is no problem at all.

"BMS is the link between the battery and the vehicle. It handles a wide range of signals, including: battery cell, collision, CAN, charging, water pump, high voltage, insulation, etc."

"One over-discharge will cause permanent damage to the battery. In extreme cases, overheating or overcharging of the lithium battery can lead to thermal runaway, battery rupture or even explosion."

"Therefore, BMS must strictly control charging and discharging to avoid overcharging, over-discharging, and overheating."

"Our BMS is better than other manufacturers in the industry."

"This is also an important reason why our battery pack can achieve a range of 400 kilometers."

Lin Cheng explained while watching Cao Yang's reaction.

He knew that Cao Yang was more proficient than him in terms of BMS.

But there is no way. When visiting the production line, you can't introduce the characteristics of the production line provided by Nanshan Equipment, right?

You always have to talk about your own situation, so it is inevitable to introduce some performance.

"The main purpose of the battery management system is to ensure the design performance of the battery system and provide functions from three aspects: safety, durability, and power."

"In terms of safety, the BMS battery management system can protect battery cells from damage and prevent safety accidents."

"In terms of durability, the BMS battery management system can make the battery work in a reliable and safe area and extend the service life of the battery." "In terms of power, it can maintain the working condition of the battery to meet the vehicle requirements."

"Although our current BMS is already very competitive, the industry is developing very fast. We must always be more advanced than others to be successful."

"The performance of some domestic BMSs may be relatively average, but for BMSs developed by foreign companies such as Tesla, everyone should study them carefully to see if they have any merits."

"Tesla may become our competitor at some point."

Cao Yang pointedly summarized it beside him, and then made a request of his own.

Cao Yang naturally knows very well what will happen to Tesla in later generations.

Obviously the configuration of each car is not high, and even the interior and exterior decoration are very rubbish, but people can sell the cars very well.

In addition to doing well in intelligent networking and autonomous driving, it also has a certain relationship with battery management.

Although future cars may not necessarily follow the same path as others, it is almost inevitable that they will become competitors.

"No problem. In our BMS development team, there is a group that is responsible for benchmarking analysis of competing products. Then we will find a way to dismantle Tesla's BMS to see if there is anything worth learning from them. ."

Lin Cheng is very clear about his position in Nanshan Battery.

Although he was once considered a senior expert and professor in the battery industry, after coming to Nanshan Battery, he quickly completed the change in his role.

The world is huge, and sometimes the boss is the biggest.

If you don't understand your boss's ideas well, it will be difficult for you to get a promotion and a salary increase.

After that, Cao Yang went on to check on the condition of the motor, and Lin Cheng came directly with him.

After all, he and Dai Hanbiao were old acquaintances, and the motor and battery were directly related parts, so there was no problem in getting to know them.

"Mr. Cao, compared with the traditional parts layout, the cost of our three-in-one motor product has been reduced by at least 30%, and the weight has been reduced by more than 20%."

"In the future, we are also planning to inherit the functions of OBC and DCDC into the motor, and create a four-in-one, five-in-one, or even six-in-one motor product."

The electric vehicle motor is also a new technology component for Nanshan Auto Parts.

Dai Hanbiao could also feel that Cao Yang attached great importance to this area, so he also personally watched the development of this business.

Now that he has followed Cao Yang around the production line, no matter what Cao Yang asks him, he can answer it.

This is not easy.

"Let's start with the three-in-one motor in a short period of time, and then do the other things slowly later."

“The most important thing is that the performance of our motors must be good enough, the parameters attractive enough, and we must not fall behind in terms of warranty.”

There are many domestic manufacturers that produce ordinary motors. This part has been around for more than a hundred years, so the threshold is not that high.

But it’s not easy to do it well.

Obviously, Cao Yang hopes to complete the three-in-one motor.

"No problem. Although the three-in-one motor is a new product, the technology used in it is basically what we are currently using in other parts. Now we are just integrating the products."

When Dai Hanbiao said this, Cao Yang did not refute.

Whether it is a three-in-one motor, a six-in-one motor, or other types of motors in one, they are essentially changes in the combination of a product, and they do not really achieve a new upgrade in technology.

But for the automotive industry, which has a history of more than 100 years, this kind of progress is actually remarkable.

Nanshan Group has accumulated a lot of experience, and may bring another surprise to everyone when the time comes.