Rebirth 99 to become a car giant

The popularity of electric vehicles in 2009 was far from what it will be in 2023.

However, Nanshan Battery has become completely famous in China's automobile industry during this period.

As the general manager, Lin Cheng naturally had some new ideas to put forward.

"Mr. Cao, after years of R\u0026D accumulation, our 12V lithium iron phosphate battery system now has the technical conditions for mass production and installation in vehicles."

"As long as necessary, all Xingchen cars produced starting next year can use lithium iron phosphate batteries, completely solving the problems caused by lead-acid batteries to car owners."

Lin Cheng came over happily and reported the good news to Cao Yang.

During this time, Nanshan Battery has begun to exert its strength.

Lin Cheng's status within the Nanshan Group has naturally increased.

In the era of fuel vehicles, the power heart of the car is the engine. If you want the engine to work, you need an ignition device to wake up the engine and drive it to work.

This ignition device is the starting battery, also generally called the battery.

A storage battery is a battery that can provide a large amount of current in a short period of time and release a large amount of electrical energy.

During the car starting process, it drives the engine by providing a large instantaneous current.

At present, storage batteries made of lead-acid materials are the mainstream in automobiles, even luxury cars.

Since the invention of lead-acid batteries in 1859, over the past 100 years of the development of the automobile industry, relying on stable R\u0026D and manufacturing experience, lead-acid batteries have high reliability and relatively low cost, and have been widely used in vehicle production and manufacturing.

However, lead-acid batteries also have disadvantages that are always difficult to overcome.

On the one hand, the energy density of lead-acid batteries is low, and batteries of the same volume can provide less power. Moreover, during the process of charging and discharging, lead-acid batteries have a short service life and need to be replaced regularly.

On the other hand, batteries are easily damaged in harsh environments such as high and low temperatures, thus affecting their performance and service life.

This is why many vehicles are prone to emergencies such as failure to ignite, batteries suddenly running out of power and breaking down in cold winter environments.

Generally speaking, during the complete cycle of vehicle use, lead-acid batteries need to be replaced every three years or so, at a cost of 300 to 600 yuan.

In the event of an emergency where the vehicle breaks down due to a dead battery or damage, additional charges will apply.

Even if you don't use the car occasionally, if you leave it in the parking space and don't drive it, it won't start after a month.

For many people, this is really annoying.

As for spending money to replace it every few years, it's not that uncomfortable.

In order to reflect the difference of Xingchen Automobile, Cao Yang discussed with Lin Cheng the idea of ​​using lithium iron phosphate batteries to replace lead-acid batteries in the past two years.

Although it is not a particularly core or critical technology, it is indeed a technology rarely used by other car companies.

To this end, Lincheng also formed a special development team for testing.

After all, battery replacement may seem like replacing a battery, but it is not exactly the case.

Some software of the related electrical system also needs to be updated simultaneously, which requires joint development by Nanshan Battery and Nanshan Auto Parts.

Even the bracket for placing the battery needs to be redesigned and developed.

Now all the work is finally completed.

"After using lithium iron phosphate batteries, are there any obvious changes overall?"

Cao Yang put down the pen in his hand and listened to Lin Cheng's report with great interest.

Apart from mentioning this project, he did not actually participate in the research and development. Nanshan Battery was considered to have done it himself.

The entire Nanshan Group has slowly formed its own research and development capabilities.

"Lead-acid batteries generally weigh more than 10 kilograms, which increases the energy consumption of the vehicle and is contrary to the goal of lightweighting the vehicle."

"Lithium iron phosphate batteries have higher energy density and can currently weigh as little as 2 kilograms. They have the advantages of lightweight and miniaturization, which facilitates flexible layout of the vehicle and further reduces vehicle energy consumption."

"And the lithium iron phosphate battery has a cycle life of more than 3,000 times, which is equivalent to the life of the entire vehicle. It does not need to be replaced during the use of the vehicle. The entire life cycle can save customers one or two thousand yuan in vehicle maintenance costs."

"In addition to this, we have also made an additional development for hybrid and electric models."

"The traditional lead-acid battery only functions as an independent igniter, while the design of our lithium iron phosphate battery incorporates the igniter into the vehicle's intelligent control system, pioneering the intelligent management of the starting battery. .”

"We have equipped the starting battery with a BMS battery management system, which can detect battery indicators in real time and perform dynamic management."

"When the battery power is too low, another power battery in the car can charge it to prevent the vehicle from being unable to start due to battery loss."

"It can be said that although this technology is not that big of a technology, it can even be said to be a small technology, but it is a big breakthrough for passenger cars and solves another pain point in the industry."

“And if we broaden our horizons from user experience to the entire industry, lithium iron phosphate batteries serve as an alternative, breaking the more than 100-year history of using lead-acid batteries in automobile manufacturing and promoting the automotive industry to become lead-free.”

“This is also a way to save energy and protect the environment, and it can be used for publicity.”

Lin Cheng is obviously very satisfied with lithium iron phosphate batteries.

Although the cost will rise a bit, for Xingchen Motors, this cost increase of several hundred yuan is nothing at all.

On the contrary, the pain points of consumers have been solved, making Xingchen Automobile more attractive. This is an approach worthy of support and encouragement.

"This change is indeed worthy of publicity. Please tell Zeng Tingting later and let the sales department make good use of this information."

"Starting from January 1, 2010, all Xingchen vehicles will be equipped with lithium iron phosphate batteries. Jaguar Land Rover will also switch to lithium iron phosphate batteries starting from the second half of 2010."

"We can even ask Autohome to make a special topic to introduce the importance of this technological innovation to everyone in detail."

“In order to improve users’ car experience and make more contributions to environmental protection, we at Xingchen Automobile develop lithium iron phosphate battery technology regardless of cost and become the first manufacturer in the industry to use lithium iron phosphate batteries. This is a promising The approach of a responsible and effective company.”

Cao Yang knew the importance of publicity.

To continuously enhance the brand power of Xingchen Automobile, continuous publicity is needed.

It is also necessary to continuously introduce various black technologies to make consumers full of expectations for Xingchen Automobile.

Lithium iron phosphate battery, for the current automobile industry, it is not too much to describe it as black technology!

With Cao Yang's words, Nanshan Group quickly took action.

The official Weibo accounts of Xingchen Motors and Jaguar Land Rover have also announced that they will use lithium iron phosphate batteries to replace traditional lead-acid batteries next year.

Autohome's detailed analysis explains the importance of this change to car owners and society.

As a result, Nanshan Group's "black technology" quickly spread throughout the industry.

"Mr. Cao, if our BMW wants to use your lithium iron phosphate battery, how long will it take to complete the relevant technology development?"

BMW, which has been paying close attention to the news of Nanshan Group, naturally also saw relevant news.

Phillips discussed with Aimoha and then reported to the headquarters, and the result was that BMW China should try to use the lithium iron phosphate battery solution first.

If the effect is good, BMW's global models will use lithium iron phosphate batteries.

This is also a big list.

And it is also a large order exclusively supplied by Nanshan Battery, which is worthy of Cao Yang's attention.

"We have been developing the technology of lithium iron phosphate batteries for several years, and the basic development work has been completed."

"If BMW models are to be equipped with this product, they only need to do adaptive development with the relevant electrical devices, and it can be completed in a few months."

“Of course, it’s only based on the fact that you use Nanshan Battery’s standard products.”

"If a completely new design is required, it will take at least a year."

Cao Yang was not surprised at all by Phillips' call.

After adding a few hundred yuan, this kind of thing can greatly improve the user experience and solve a pain point. There is no reason why BMW should not be interested.

Even more car brands will take the initiative to find Nanshan Batteries in the future and look for relevant cooperation plans.

Of course, it is not ruled out that some manufacturers will seek cooperation with other battery manufacturers to jointly develop lithium iron phosphate battery solutions.

But no matter which company it is, there is definitely no way to surpass Nanshan Battery in terms of QCD.

After all, this kind of first-mover advantage is not so easy to surpass.

Especially in terms of cost, Nanshan Battery has formed a production capacity advantage.

It would be very difficult for other manufacturers to make batteries at a lower cost than Nanshan.

At least there is no hope in the short term.

If the difference between a battery is 700 yuan and 800 yuan, then some OEMs can ignore this gap.

But if there is a gap between 700 yuan and 1,500 yuan, or even a gap between 700 yuan and 2,000 yuan, then few OEMs can ignore it.

In addition, when Nanshan Battery developed lithium iron phosphate batteries, it also registered many related technology patents.

It is also more troublesome for other companies to circumvent these patents.

As the first person to take advantage of the technology, the number of registered patents is beyond comparison by latecomers.

This basically eliminates the interest of many overseas battery manufacturers to enter this market.

"In a few days, our technical staff will go to the Nanshan battery site for inspection and communication in person, and we will discuss how to use lithium iron phosphate batteries in BMW models as quickly as possible."

After hearing what Cao Yang said, Phillips quickly made up his mind.

This black technology must be used in BMW cars.

Even if they were hacked by Nanshan Battery, they would admit it.

Even after seeing Xingchen Motors and Jaguar Land Rover announce on Weibo that they will use lithium iron phosphate batteries to replace lead-acid batteries next year, netizens were full of likes and praises, and BMW couldn’t wait to announce its own models on its official Weibo. In the second half of next year, it will also be equipped with lithium iron phosphate battery technology.

This wave of hot spots can be regarded as being successfully caught by BMW.

BMW is an old rival of Mercedes-Benz. As soon as their official announcement came out, Mercedes-Benz naturally became anxious.

"Yang Ming, lithium iron phosphate batteries have suddenly become so popular now, as if this is such a high-tech technology. Do you think consumers really care about this technology?"

Mercedes-Benz has no R\u0026D department in China, and the technical department of Imperial Benz has no development capabilities.

Therefore, if the batteries of models produced in Imperial Mercedes-Benz are to be replaced with lithium iron phosphate batteries, then the headquarters must cooperate with relevant work.

Based on August's understanding of the people at the headquarters, it is estimated that this matter will not go so smoothly.

After all, everyone knows the arrogance and stubbornness of the "hillbillies" at the headquarters.

"In today's cars, the lead-acid battery needs to be replaced after a few years of use. The most important thing is that sometimes you don't know when it is broken and when it needs to be replaced. Temporary breakdowns are also common."

"Then at very low temperatures, lead-acid batteries sometimes fail."

"What makes some people even more dissatisfied is that if you don't drive for a period of time, you need to start the car regularly to charge the battery, which is very troublesome."

"But lithium iron phosphate batteries don't have these problems, which is really attractive to many people."

"Especially some female drivers, who don't know much about cars themselves, naturally want the car to be as easy to use as possible, and don't bother themselves."

Yang Ming is also an experienced driver himself, so he is naturally very clear about the pain points of consumers.

Obviously, the lithium iron phosphate battery developed by Nanshan Group is very suitable for him.

He even thinks that Mercedes-Benz should immediately start converting all lead-acid batteries into lithium iron phosphate batteries, which will only cost a few hundred yuan.

For a luxury car like Mercedes-Benz, the cost of a few hundred yuan is nothing at all.

"I see that many people on the Chinese Internet say the same thing, and even lithium iron phosphate batteries are a hot search on Weibo."

"But I think the people at the headquarters are already used to using lead-acid batteries, and all other car companies in the world are also using lead-acid batteries. I don't think they will change their minds easily so quickly."

August sighed, feeling a little dizzy.

The problems with lead-acid batteries would not be a problem at all if lithium iron phosphate batteries did not appear.

After all, everyone is using it, and all models face this problem.

That's no problem.

Things are different now. Xingchen Motors and Jaguar Land Rover have begun to use lithium iron phosphate batteries, and BMW has also officially announced that it will switch.

Under this situation, if Mercedes-Benz cars still don't make any changes, they may be disliked by some consumers.

This is completely to be expected.

"The companies under Nanshan Group can not only produce lithium iron phosphate batteries, but also produce most parts for automobiles."

"Those electrical appliances that need to be used with batteries can also be produced by Nanshan Group."

"If the headquarters does not agree to cooperate with us in switching batteries, can we consider cooperating with Nanshan Group and directly hand over all the batteries and related parts to Nanshan Group, and switch the whole thing together, so that there is no need for headquarters to I helped."

Yang Ming made a very bold suggestion.

This suggestion is, to a certain extent, playing around with the rules.

So August asked several questions as soon as he heard it, "It's theoretically feasible to do it this way, but there will be situations where the drawings and the actual objects are inconsistent. After all, our drawings are from researchers at the German headquarters." Drawn.”

"Now that they won't cooperate in modifying the drawings, and we have to replace parts, problems will arise."

For most joint venture car companies, the right to modify drawings lies with the R\u0026D side of the foreign shareholder.

The joint venture company plays more of a production factory role.

Even if you want to do many things, you will encounter many constraints.

However, since Yang Ming made this suggestion, he naturally had his own solution.

"If we do nothing, there will naturally be a discrepancy between the drawings and the actual objects."

"But we can ask the technical department of Imperial Benz to produce some tentative drawings of related parts."

"According to the company's work procedures, the technical department of the joint venture company has the right to issue tentative drawings."

"Of course, in theory, the tentative drawings cannot be used for more than half a year. Within this time, the German headquarters must be contacted to reflect the contents of the tentative drawings into the official drawings."

"But we can completely re-issue the tentative map every six months, or even just use the same tentative map."

When Yang Ming said this, August probably understood his plan.

This is to directly abandon the headquarters and switch lead-acid batteries to lithium iron phosphate batteries on domestic models in the Chinese market.

Considering the particularity of this approach, August did not dare to completely agree, but he could not think of a better way, so he said: "Then take out the domestically produced E-class models for a trial. If the market response is better later, There are no problems in operation, and we will develop other models.”

"At that time, we can also find a way to convince the designers at the headquarters to modify all models directly from the source to lithium iron phosphate batteries."

Carry out a pilot model first and see how effective it is before considering promoting it.

August has learned this method that China often uses.

Compared with the proactive actions of BMW and Mercedes-Benz, other independent brand car companies and joint venture car companies have moved a little slower.

The price increase for a part is several hundred dollars, which is quite considerable.

If there are no competitors using it, no one will want to start it.

After all, Xingchen Motors, Jaguar Land Rover and BMW are all luxury brands and can easily bear this cost increase.

But other domestic models are not.

Of course, among these car companies, one is quite special.

That is BYD.

"Lao Lu, we just set up a project to study lithium iron phosphate batteries last month, and Xingchen Automobile started mass production directly."

"Why do you think Nanshan Group always does everything faster than us?"

Wang Fu complained a little distressedly.

Wang Fu, who started out as a battery maker, has long been dissatisfied with the inefficiency of lead-acid batteries.

So this year he officially asked Lu Faxiang to set up a research group to study how to use lithium iron phosphate batteries to replace lead-acid batteries.

According to his plan, this project is expected to take two to three years to produce results.

Who knew that not long after this project was launched, someone would begin mass production of lithium iron phosphate batteries.

The feeling of a fist hitting the air is really uncomfortable.

“The entire automobile industry admires Mr. Cao’s vision.”

"Nanshan Group now has a large number of R\u0026D personnel. It is not surprising that they can arrange personnel in advance to study lithium iron phosphate batteries."

"In the whole of China, Nanshan Group's technical reserve level is definitely the highest, and we can't compare with them in this regard."

"However, this result of Nanshan Group can be regarded as proof of the correctness of the project arranged by Mr. Wang, allowing us to develop our own lithium iron phosphate battery faster."

"The market space in the future will be very huge, and it can fully accommodate our two battery manufacturers and Nanshan."

Lu Faxiang could only find some reasons to comfort himself at this time.

What else to do?

Are you looking for life and death there, or are you complaining like a resentful woman?

Obviously this is not a solution to the problem.

"You're right. I also admire Cao Yang's vision. The key is that his technical level is bottomless. No one knows where his talent is."

"Nanshan Group has become China's largest private industrial enterprise in just ten years and has mastered a bunch of core technologies."

"Lithium iron phosphate batteries will definitely be accepted by more OEMs in the future. We will try to get a few Nanshan battery samples to study and launch our lithium iron phosphate batteries as soon as possible."

"Then in addition to using it for our own models, we can also consider supplying it to other manufacturers."

At this time, BYD's various parts divisions mainly serve the company's internal services.

But Wang Fu felt that he could take advantage of the opportunity of lithium iron phosphate batteries to start letting BYD's parts companies go global.

Only enterprises that can withstand competition in the market are truly competitive enterprises.

Otherwise, if we simply rely on the support of the parent company, we will definitely lose our competitiveness in the end.

In this regard, Toyota and Honda are very typical representatives.

Toyota's companies such as Denso, Aisin and Toyoda Gosei are all competitive and can obtain orders from the market.

However, Honda's companies such as Keihin, Showa, Nissin, and Toyo Giken can only rely on orders from Honda to survive. They are completely uncompetitive in the market. In the end, they can only cooperate with Hitachi and merge several companies. Entered Hitachi.

This is also quite embarrassing.

Wang Fu can now realize that the company's parts companies need to compete and work hard in the market, which can be regarded as a good vision.

"Indeed, China alone has more than 10 million cars a year, which is more than 10 million batteries."

"If you include the whole world, that's tens of millions of batteries a year. Even if we share it with Nanshan Battery, we can support everyone."

Thinking of this, Lu Faxiang became motivated again!

BYD also wants to have this kind of black technology!

It must be possible!