Rebirth 99 to become a car giant

When the Future Car S9 was launched, it was one morning in the United States and everyone was busy going to work.

However, by the time the press conference was over and Tesla China had initially sorted out the S9 information, it was already 11 o'clock in the middle of the night.

Of course, it happened to be eleven o'clock in the morning in the United States, so it was just right for the meeting.

As the general manager of Tesla China, Zhu Yifan is used to often having meetings with the headquarters in the middle of the night, and this is especially true at a special time like today.

"Masco, everyone has seen the styling of the future S9 before, and it is definitely very competitive."

"The key is that their performance in assisted driving and smart cockpit is very outstanding, and their configurations in all aspects are much higher than our Model S."

"The sales price in China is slightly lower than ours. The starting price is only 699,900 yuan, which is almost 50,000 yuan lower than us."

“The next step is that this car will be launched globally soon, and the sales price will definitely be similar to that in China, and it will not be more expensive than us.

"As a result, our Model S has encountered the biggest challenge since its launch."

Zhu Yifan anxiously reported on the future S9 situation.

On the other end of the video conference, Masco's face was also rather heavy.

Because Tesla's stock price has fallen sharply this morning, opening 5.2% lower at the opening, and once fell 11.3% before the opening.

Such a sharp decline is very rare since Tesla went public.

Even the news that some Tesla models caught fire after collisions only caused small fluctuations in the stock price.

It is very rare for such a decline to exceed double digits.

Capital often has the best information.

When Future Auto's S9 appeared at the Yangcheng Auto Show, it had some impact on Tesla.

However, at that time there was only the appearance and not much information was released, so everyone just maintained a high degree of attention and did not know what the final impact would be.

Yesterday, Future Auto's S9 launch event was live broadcast on the Internet.

In this case, the thoughtful capital naturally arranged personnel to keep an eye on every move of the S9.

When the various configurations of the S9 were continuously announced, many people had bad expectations.

Tesla's main focus is that its cars are relatively intelligent and its performance in autonomous driving is world-leading.

As for configuration, it has never been their strong point.

Even in order to reduce costs, Musko had people cancel configurations as long as they were not very necessary.

This can maximize the cost competitiveness of Tesla's models.

And relying on the ultimate performance, even if the configuration is a bit inferior, consumers still recognize it.

Just like the later Model 3, in addition to the performance related to intelligent driving, other configurations are better than any domestic electric car priced at more than 100,000 yuan.

But they can sell it at a price of more than 200,000 yuan, and the price is much better than yours.

Now that the core competitiveness of Tesla's survival is facing the challenge of S9, it is no wonder that it will have a huge impact on the stock price.

Even Masco himself is aware of this problem.

"Find a way to buy a few S9s as soon as possible to confirm whether their smart driving performance is really as good as what was said at the press conference."

"Also L2.9, which means they are infinitely close to the level of L3 autonomous driving."

"This kind of propaganda rhetoric has a very obvious style of Nanshan Automobile Group."

Tesla doesn't like to develop its own products based on a certain model.

What they want to do is be leaders in the industry and develop something unique of their own.

But after the S9 appeared, the situation naturally changed.

Know thyself, ever-victorious.

Without clarifying the situation of S9, Musko now doesn’t know how to formulate countermeasures.

After all, the performance related to autonomous driving really cannot be improved in a day or two.

This involves a complete system, and all related parts require technical upgrades to achieve it.

"According to the plans announced by Future Auto, they are now in the pre-sale stage. The first batch of S9 will not be officially delivered until after the Spring Festival."

"However, before the Spring Festival, a small batch of vehicles should be delivered to 4S stores to serve as display vehicles."

"During this process, some media should also have the opportunity to participate in the S9 test drive activities."

"I will arrange for personnel to follow up on this matter personally and obtain relevant information as soon as possible."

"However, the S9 uses Nanshan Semiconductor's most advanced NS8155 smart cockpit chip. The autonomous driving chip is also estimated to use 14nm process technology, which is absolutely leading in the industry."

"Coupled with the fact that the assisted driving functions of Nanshan Automobile Group's products in the past have been very good, I estimate that the S9's performance in this aspect will not be worse than the Model S."

"The company may need to start thinking about upgrading the Model S."

Zhu Yifan knew that this was not what everyone wanted to hear, but he still wanted to say it.

Without upgrading, Tesla will lose its competitiveness.

Although it will not fall, it is difficult to become a leader in the industry.

Many times, although the ranking difference between the first and second companies in the industry is only one, their influence in all aspects is hugely different.

For example, many people may have heard the name of the Olympic champion, but most people will not know the name of the silver medalist.

Another example is that in the Internet industry, the number one chat software is Penguin. Who is number two?

Zhu Yifan hopes Tesla can become the number one in the electric vehicle industry.

However, it is not that easy to achieve this goal.

"Zhu, we have organized personnel to develop a new generation of autonomous driving chips, and like Nanshan Semiconductor, they are developed based on the 14nm process."

"It is expected that development will be completed in another three months, and then we will contact chip foundry companies such as Samsung or TSMC."

"At that time, their 14-nanometer chip production line should be about to be put into production, and they can be OEM for us."

"But even at this rate, it is estimated that our new generation of chips will not be officially installed on vehicles until the end of this year or the first half of next year."

As the head of Tesla's R\u0026D, Max is also under a lot of pressure at this time.

Unlike other car companies, Tesla develops many core parts in-house.

Even if some parts are purchased from outside at the beginning, they have to be developed by ourselves later.

For example, some core chips, as well as key parts of electric vehicles such as motors and electronic controls.

Even the batteries are developed by a joint venture formed by Tesla and Panasonic.

This approach of taking the core component technology into one's own hands can naturally better promote the development of the entire vehicle, but the pressure on research and development is also relatively high.

"It will be available on the market by the end of this year, which is relatively fast."

"But what I'm worried about is that after Nanshan Semiconductor's NS8155 is mass-produced, many electric vehicle companies in China will start to consider using it."

"By then, not only will we not be the first electric vehicle company to use 14nm process chip technology, we may not even be the third or fourth company."

Zhu Yifan's words immediately silenced a group of people.

Although this situation is something that no one wants to see, it is very likely to happen.

Even according to the information they learned, BMW and Volkswagen are considering using the latest generation chips such as Nanshan Semiconductor's NS8155.

As for the electric vehicle companies in China, more and more are taking action.

Even if the assisted driving function finally developed by others, the actual experience is not as good as Tesla, but it cannot stand up to their promotional advantages.

After all, the computing power is there. You have to say that your performance is better than others even if your computing power is low.

This possibility is not impossible, but it is obviously difficult for consumers to believe it.

Zhu Yifan, Max, and Masco all know this very well.

"Our Model X will be launched soon, and the new Model 3 is also under development."

"At that time, we can rely on our comparative advantages in performance and ever-lowering product prices to achieve a comprehensive balance."

"At least in the U.S. market, we can play this way."

"As for the Chinese market, even General Motors and Ford have been driven out. We have been struggling to develop there. If the situation does not ease, I think we can give up temporarily."

Max broke the silence of the meeting.

The American market is Tesla's basic market, and sales in China are basically negligible now.

When we first entered the market, we only sold a few hundred vehicles a month.

However, since the United States comprehensively suppressed Nanshan-based companies, not only the sales of GM and Changan Ford have plummeted, but Tesla's sales have also dropped significantly.

Nowadays, Tesla’s flagship store in Shanghai may not be able to sell a single car in a day.

It can be said that this store is more of a showroom than a sales store.

In this case, it is not unacceptable to temporarily abandon the Chinese market.

Masco naturally knows this too.

But this was definitely not the right thing for him to say.

Until there is a better way, this is obviously a method that is actually acceptable.

And he hopes that relevant capital will also recognize this.

The emergence of the future car S9 will not have a particularly big impact on Tesla's basic market.

After all, there is no way for future car products to be sold in the United States.

In the end, this report ended a bit anticlimactically.

And Tesla is obviously not the only one who is also worried about the launch of S9.

"He Ling, Mr. Cao hopes to make the S9 a hot model in the future, so all aspects of publicity must be done well."

"Some of the soft articles of Future Auto have been prepared for us. We just need to publish them step by step."

"But these publicity work cannot be completed in these two days. It needs to be regarded as a continuous work and promoted as the most important task in the next six months."

Yu Yu's consciousness is still very high. She naturally went to participate in the new car launch event of Future Auto today.

He even took the opportunity to communicate with Cao Yang.

Although the press conference is over now, Yu Yu leads his team back to the car home, preparing to work all night long.

On the one hand, we want to publish all kinds of news as quickly as possible, and on the other hand, we want to control public opinion and comments on the Internet.

Once there is content that is detrimental to the future S9, it can be dealt with as quickly as possible.

S9 has just been launched tonight, and the news tonight is definitely the most confusing.

This is the time when things are most likely to go wrong.

Yu Yu knew very well the status of this car in Cao Yang's heart, so he naturally didn't want any problems with it.

"Mr. Yu, all publicity work is now underway as planned."

"The advantages of S9 are so obvious, and the price is also very sincere."

"Although it is impossible to become the car sales champion, there is absolutely no problem in becoming the sales champion of mid- to high-end electric vehicles."

"Especially one month later, after the S9 is launched in Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and other countries, the sales volume will be even more worth looking forward to."

He Ling is absolutely full of confidence in S9 now.

Produced by Nanshan, it must be a high-quality product.

After so many years, this sentence has never become invalid.

The S9 is a model designed by Cao Yang himself. It has a stunning appearance and is hard to find fault with.

Its various configurations are comparable to top-end luxury sedans such as the Mercedes-Benz S and BMW 7 Series, and are leading in almost all aspects.

What others have, I have.

What I have, others may not have.

If the average car company behaves like this, it may not pose any threat to Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

But future cars are different, and Nanshan Automobile Group is different.

Their car models are inherently high-end and have been recognized by consumers.

Under this circumstance, the emergence of S9 will definitely have a relatively large impact on the luxury sedan market.

"If there are no accidents, it will naturally be like this."

"But since Mr. Cao has positioned the S9 as a hot model for future cars, he wants to use it as a business card to promote it."

"Then we must avoid any possible accidents to the greatest extent possible."

"At the same time, we must also fully identify the behavior of some car companies that are trying to capitalize on hot topics."

"Any article that damages the image of S9 must minimize its display volume."

"In this regard, we have also launched joint operations with Weibo, and we are all fighting a cooperative battle."

Although it was already late at night, Yu Yu was not sleepy at all.

They, Internet professionals, are used to working in the middle of the night.

Although you don't have to do so much every day, staying up late every now and then is considered relatively normal.

Thanks to the efforts of companies such as Autohome, Future Auto, and Weibo, the popularity of the Future S9 is bound to remain high.

As long as anyone opens the Internet, they can more or less see articles related to the future S9.

There are many related discussions in each penguin group.

It will break out of the market as soon as it is launched, and the future S9 has already done it.

"McTy, do you think the launch of Future Auto's S9 will have an impact on the sales of our 7 Series?"

The whole Internet is full of news about the future S9. Aimoha is not blind, so he naturally knows about this situation.

In the North American market, sales of the Tesla Model S, which competes with the BMW 7 Series and Mercedes-Benz S-Class, have increased.

Various media have reported on the news that Model S sales exceeded the BMW 7 Series and Mercedes-Benz S-Class.

In particular, the capital-controlled media that have invested in Tesla spare no effort to promote Tesla.

This is also an important reason why Tesla's stock has continued to rise last year.

Now the Chinese market is facing a similar situation. To say that Aimoha is not worried at all would be false.

Although the sales changes of the BMW 7 Series have not had a big impact on BMW China's overall market share, this is BMW's flagship model and represents BMW's appearance.

Being pushed to the ground and rubbed so quickly was obviously not a situation Aimoha wanted to see.

"I don't think there's anything to worry about. The Chinese market is still different from the American market."

"The consumers who buy from us are generally successful business people."

"The performance of the future S9 will be very outstanding, but it is an electric car after all."

"In China, the atmosphere for driving electric vehicles in high-end business situations has not yet formed."

"So even if the future S9 has outstanding performance and good configurations in all aspects, I think it will attract more young people with money to buy it."

"After all, these consumers like to try new technologies and are not so loyal to traditional luxury brands."

As the sales director of BMW China, Mike has a high degree of understanding of Chinese consumers.

For so many years, McTee's position has not changed. This is because BMW hopes to deeply explore the Chinese market and does not want to bring an unfavorable situation to sales after personnel changes.

McTee has become accustomed to life in China and has no objection to working in China.

He even expressed on different occasions that he wanted to work in China until retirement.

"It's good that it doesn't have any impact. Otherwise, if the news about the S9 is overwhelming now, I'm really worried that the sales of the 7 Series will decline sharply."

Amoha breathed a sigh of relief.

The relationship between BMW China and Nanshan Automobile Group is getting closer and closer, and he definitely does not want the competition between the two to become more intense.

This will affect the next step of cooperation between the two parties, which is not what Aimoha wants to see.

In the Chinese automobile market, if you want to do well, you cannot have a bad relationship with Nanshan Automobile Group.

Aimoha already has a deep understanding of this.

"China's luxury car market continues to grow, and the S9 will seize more of the new markets."

"But in the European market, I think the situation may be more interesting."

"Sdel S is seizing the market. Tesla has always wanted to step on our 7 Series and move up, but now someone has finally stepped forward to take care of them."

McTee doesn't have any good impressions of Tesla.

In the past, when Tesla produced sports cars, it had little influence in the industry and no one took it seriously.

But after the Model S was launched, in order to continuously reflect its sense of luxury, Tesla adopted a plan that was similar to the BMW 7 Series and the Mercedes-Benz S-Class.

Thanks to some special advantages of electric vehicles themselves, the BMW 7 Series is definitely not as good as others in terms of acceleration performance to 100 kilometers and autonomous driving.

So Tesla works hard to promote these things.

But some consumers in the United States are really willing to believe these propaganda.

Therefore, Model S sales in the United States have been very good in the past year.

They also began to formally enter the global market last year, and are preparing to make a big splash in Europe and China.

However, the Chinese market has undergone major changes since October last year. It is estimated that it is impossible for Tesla to make a big difference in China.

Then the European market has become the most important market for Tesla besides North America.

The emergence of the S9 in the future will definitely put huge pressure on Tesla in the European market.

On this point, both McTee and Amoha are relatively certain.

…

"Mr. Cao, our current large order has exceeded 20,000 vehicles. Everything is better than we imagined."

"I guess Tesla, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Porsche and Bentley will all feel nervous."

The next morning, Zeng Tingting returned to the office and immediately confirmed the latest booking status, and then immediately went to report the good news to Cao Yang.

Yesterday's launch of Future S9 was undoubtedly very successful.

Its performance and configuration are all leading in all aspects, which has put huge pressure on many car companies.

Although this is a high-end luxury sedan, it does not have much competition with many mainstream car companies.

But everyone still felt the chill.

Consumers will make various comparisons when buying a car.

It is also an assisted driving, and if your functions are too different from others, you will be easily disliked by others.

As for the problem of various screen freezes in the car, everyone has had similar problems in the past, and consumers may just hold their noses and admit it.

Now that there are products that can prevent lag, this problem is immediately amplified.

Some other situations are similar.

"Since we want to build the S9 as a hot model, it will inevitably be studied by many car companies under a magnifying glass."

"Although sales are very important, there must be no problems with quality, otherwise it will easily have a huge backlash."

Cao Yang didn't want to be extremely happy and sad.

Although the quality of Nanshan Automobile Group's products has always been very good.

But after all, electric vehicles use a lot of new technologies.

As long as it is a new technology, there will naturally be a higher probability of some problems.

There is almost no way to completely avoid this.

It’s not that Cao Yang can’t accept any problems, he just doesn’t want a certain problem to become a big problem that limits the development of S9.

Zeng Tingting is also very clear about this.

"In order to ensure quality, even if we have a large backlog of orders, we ramp up our production capacity relatively slowly in the early stages of mass production."

"The purpose is to allow workers enough time to become familiar with various installation processes, so that parts supply workers can slowly adapt to the production rhythm."

"Our quality personnel will also conduct comprehensive quality confirmation on the S9 in the early stages of mass production to ensure that there are no problems with the products delivered to consumers."

Zeng Tingting took quality issues very seriously even if Cao Yang didn't remind her.

Now that Cao Yang has specifically mentioned this topic, he pays more attention to it.

Why was the reputation of China’s independent brands not so good in the past?

After so many years of changes, we are slowly catching up.

The main reason is quality!

When there are no problems with quality, quality may not be a critical factor.

But when everyone’s quality levels vary greatly, it’s very serious.

"A quality problem may only be 1% or one thousandth defective to us, but to consumers it is 100% defective."

"You should communicate well with Mr. Rao about this aspect of your work, and don't let others take advantage of you."

In the future, the S9 will lead the entire industry in terms of performance and technology, which is definitely something that will be hated.

Most car companies probably would not dare to deliberately launch the future S9 in the Chinese market, but if the S9 fails to live up to its expectations, the situation will be completely different.

The horse stumbles, and this cannot happen to future cars.