Giant of the times - Chapter 495

c486 Pre-sale, test the waters

If Toyota Motor Company mocks Li Zetian like this, Li Zetian will naturally not let them go.

“Didn’t you say that I would encounter a disaster in the automobile industry? Well, let’s just wait and see!” Li Zetian said angrily, with a fierce murderous look in his eyes.

In Li Zetian’s opinion, the combination of Rolls-Royce + BMW + Daimler-Chrysler + Tesla + Bosch is already a mess. As long as it works well, it dares to overthrow Toyota!

It’s time for the world’s largest car company to give up its position…

Li Zetian counted the car brands he owned in his mind. He was so overwhelmed that he was shocked to see them all: BMW, Mini, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Veyron (self-built), Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Maybach, McLaren, Mercedes-Benz, Smart, Freightliner, Plymouth, Sterling, Western Star, Thomas Bilt Bus, Setra, Mitsubishi Fuso, Hunter, Tesla and many more.

Seeing that I now own so many car brands, in one word, it’s great! ! !

…

On March 6, Li Zetian was preparing to return to the United States. The company’s subsequent resource integration and optimization and a series of other matters were left to the company’s managers. After he arrived in the United States, in addition to providing necessary help, he also focused on Tesla Motors. development of the company.

When Li Zetian returns this time, he is determined to make Tesla the Apple of the automotive industry! ! !

On the morning of the 7th, Li Zetian returned to Los Angeles, stayed at home for a few days, and then went to Tesla Motors.

Tesla Motors is headquartered in Palo Alto, south of the San Francisco Bay Area in California’s Silicon Valley, and the famous Stanford University is also located in Palo Alto.

It takes just over an hour to fly from Los Angeles to Palo Alto.

When Li Zetian came to Tesla Motors, Li Zetian happened to meet Peter Houston, CEO of Cronos Energy. He came to discuss cooperation with Tesla Motors and provide help with battery technology and battery production. .

Li Zetian greeted him and went to Martin Eberhard’s office together.

Martin Eberhard is the founder of Tesla Motors, also known as the “Father of Tesla”. However, little is known about his previous life, and he was almost overshadowed by Musk’s limelight.

Speaking of which, Martin Eberhard is really pitiful. Musk wanted to be the real leader of Tesla, but as the saying goes, one mountain cannot accommodate two tigers, Musk began to exclude Eberhard in all aspects, and finally In January 2008, Musk dismissed Eberhard as CEO due to delays in product development progress and cost overruns. After that, Eberhard, the father of Tesla, had to announce his departure from Tesla and was unable to witness the first The rollout of a Tesla electric car.

Later, Musk became the CEO, won Bai Fumei, and reached the pinnacle of his life. In his previous life, many people thought Musk was the father of Tesla.

Some people couldn’t help but sigh: “Tesla lost to Edison and brought us alternating current; Eberhard lost to Musk and brought us Tesla…”

Even though Tesla in his previous life was developing very well, Li Zetian still felt that driving away the founder of the company would not be conducive to the development of the company.

…

“Eberhard, how many employees are there in the company now?” Li Zetian frowned slightly and walked all the way from the company door. He felt that Tesla had very few employees.

“Eighty-five people,” Eberhard replied.

“85 people are too few. We need to recruit people immediately. We must speed up the development of Tesla electric vehicles!” Li Zetian said.

“Okay!” Eberhard nodded in response. Tesla was acquired by BMW, and with Li Zetian, a wealthy boss, Tesla Motors no longer has to tighten its belt to live.

Li Zetian then asked a lot about things related to Tesla’s car research and development. Tesla’s independently developed battery control system is unique. It can combine many batteries into a battery pack to provide strong endurance for electric vehicles. Even if it is short-circuited, it will not Fire and damage to individual batteries will not affect others. This was no surprise to Peter Houston, the CEO of Cronos Energy who was present!

But at the same time, Tesla also encountered great difficulties and even bottlenecks in the research and development process!

Martin Eberhard frowned and said: “As a supercar comparable to Porsche and Ferrari, Tesla Roadster has very high requirements for high-performance acceleration. However, at this time, ordinary electric vehicles are not equipped with multi-stage gearboxes. The situation obviously cannot meet the needs of the Roadster, because the power output efficiency of the asynchronous motor is low at low speeds, so the introduction of a two-stage gearbox is logical. But the problem is, how to coordinate between the high-voltage and high-power electronic control system and the gearbox There is no precedent in the industry for systematic research and development!”

The engine, gearbox and chassis are the three core parts of a car!

Obviously, the technology and craftsmanship involved in the gearbox are very high and are definitely not something Tesla Motors can design, let alone a two-stage gearbox.

Li Zetian thought for a while and said: “Although the world’s three largest transmission suppliers are ZF, Aisin and JKT, Mercedes-Benz has also insisted on its own research and development in the field of transmissions, and the technology will not be too different from them. If Tesla Motors cannot solve the problem, you can ask the parent company for help!”

Li Zetian paused and said: “It can be seen that Tesla Motors has unique advanced technology in battery control, but in other aspects, there is still a big gap with traditional automobile giants. Therefore, Tesla Motors still needs to Enter into closer cooperation with Rolls-Royce, BMW and DaimlerChrysler!”

“Yes, Mr. Li!!!” Eberhard was overjoyed. Sure enough, it was easy to enjoy the shade against a big tree. With the support of a big company, it would be much easier to develop Tesla.

“Well,” Li Zetian nodded, and added: “Also, the cost of Tesla Roadster must be reduced as much as possible! Only in this way can we truly open up the market and compete with traditional cars! In addition, the development of autonomous vehicle technology must also be put on the agenda. , but it can be regarded as a long-term project, accumulating technology first. Don’t worry, the development of unmanned vehicles does not start from scratch, Cronos Industries will provide artificial intelligence technical support!”

After speaking, Li Zetian patted Eberhard on the shoulder and said: “Toyota Motor Company said that I can’t build a car, so I will build a car that is popular all over the world! Eberhard, I hope, Tesla You can become Apple in the automotive industry! Don’t let me down!!!”

“Okay, Mr. Li, don’t worry, I will live up to your trust!” Eberhard nodded decisively.

Li Zetian laughed when he heard this: “Very good, Tesla Motors will be left to you from now on. Of course, I will always pay attention to the development of Tesla Motors.”

…

Tesla Motors began to recruit people on a large scale, and also transferred some people from Rolls-Royce, BMW, and DaimlerChrysler. In the past ten days, the number of employees at Tesla Motors has increased from 85 to more than 500.

The industry and the American media couldn’t help but be shocked by the expansion speed of Tesla Motors, and there was even heated discussion on the Internet.

“Chronos·Li is so interested in pure electric vehicles. Is it possible that pure electric vehicles are about to become popular?”

“Pure electric vehicles have zero emissions and no pollution. They are indeed very promising!”

“The main problems of pure electric vehicles are vehicle endurance and charging. If these two problems are not solved, the sales of pure electric vehicles will definitely be limited…”

“Is Chronos Li feeling swollen?”

“…”

There are those on the Internet who agree and agree, and there are also those who question and oppose it.

But regardless, Tesla Motors is on fire, attracting interest and attention. Among them, people in the technology circle are particularly interested in Tesla Roadster. On March 24, Tesla Roadster went on pre-sale on Tesla’s official website to see how consumers react.

At the same time, Li Zetian updated a message on Facebook and Weibo: “The pure electric vehicle Tesla Roadster can be reserved in advance on the Tesla Motors official website. Friends who like it can reserve it immediately, first come first served! Thank you for your support!”

The news immediately spread across the Internet.

Not long after, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Jeff Bezos, Tian Shuai, Zhang Han, Wei Xiuping, Jack Ma, Ma Huateng, Robin Li and many other technology tycoons placed orders.

When everyone saw that the users who ordered Tesla cars were all these talented people, they were all dumbfounded.

“Damn it! So many big guys want to use Tesla cars, why the hell am I hesitating! Driving this car out is so honorable!!!”

“Chronos·Li is so awesome, he responds to everything at once!”

“Well, I suspect there is an ulterior PY transaction behind it~~~”

“The correct explanation upstairs tells the truth!”

“That netizen who said PY trading, your express delivery has arrived!!”

“…”

Before everyone could wake up, suddenly, Hollywood superstars, directors, and producers ordered Tesla Roadster on Tesla’s official website, causing another stir.

Netizens were collectively stunned.

“Damn it, has Hollywood collectively kneeled down?”

“Isn’t it so exaggerated? It’s too obvious that you want to please Chronos Li!”

“Awesome! I won’t even stand up to the wall, so I just obey Chronos Li.”

“…”

An apartment in Hollywood.

“Julie, you need to reserve a Tesla Roadster.” The agent said.

“Why?”

“You will know if you look online. Hollywood stars are now going to the Tesla Motors official website to reserve Tesla Roadster in order to embrace Chronos Li’s lap. If you don’t go, you may be in trouble in the future. The key is, do you want to go further in the future? Development, today’s incident must not be an opportunity for your competitors to retaliate against you.”

“How could this happen?” Julie asked in surprise, taking out her iPhone from her bag.

The agent said: “First of all, there is a collective upsurge in the technology circle. I estimate that 80% of this is Chronos Li’s instruction. The same goes for Hollywood stars. You know, no one dares not to give Chronos Li face!”

“How much does one cost?”

“100,000.”

“Oh, then hurry up and order one for me!”

“OK!”

…

As big names in the technology industry and Hollywood stars began to pre-order Tesla cars, users with some money around the world also joined in. Within two days, 20,000 Tesla Roadster units were pre-sold.

Automakers are collectively confused…

It’s unfair to still act like this!