Chapter 1708 Copy Ford's Bottom Line

For Li Mu, if you want to be in the auto industry, it is absolutely impossible to be just a Tesla.

Even if new energy vehicles are the general trend, there is still a long way to go before this general trend is spread globally.

Even in China, if you want to truly achieve car sales, the ratio of new energy vehicles to fuel vehicles is 55%, and it is estimated that it will be after 2020, or even after 2030.

Before that, most of the automobile market will still be occupied by traditional fuel vehicles.

Moreover, what Li Mu likes to do is the deep integration of resources. This integration is not to integrate Jaguar, Land Rover or Volvo into Tesla and become a better Tesla, but to integrate Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo and special Sla integrates with each other and integrates into a better Tesla, a better Jaguar, a better Land Rover and a better Volvo.

Take Tesla's dominance in electric drives, Jaguar's dominance in luxury sedans, sports cars, of course, before they slump too hard; take Volvo's dominance in family passenger cars and Take out the advantages in safe driving, and then take out Land Rover's ability in four-wheel drive and all-terrain adaptation.

Although Volvo's product line is very complete, it has always been relatively niche. It is impossible for him to sell Toyota if he is exhausted. However, if Volvo is paired with Tesla and takes the hybrid route, it may be able to achieve hybridization. Overtaking on a corner directly overtakes Toyota, which is the strongest hybrid at this stage.

Although the sales of hybrid vehicles and new energy vehicles were not large in the early stage, they still had a strong influence on the social elite. In the United States, a special sense of moral superiority prevails in elite gathering places like Silicon Valley.

For example, those big bosses of Internet companies, who are worth hundreds of millions of dollars and live in mansions with tens of millions of dollars, have to drive a Toyota Prius with tens of thousands of dollars. Why? It's because they need this moral superiority.

When they go out in a Prius with tens of thousands of dollars, they have a strong, "I'm protecting the planet" sense of superiority, and then they can stand on high and look critically at those who drive ordinary fuel. Cars, and even ordinary people with large-displacement gasoline-powered cars.

That's why the Toyota Prius is highly sought after among the elites in North America. Corporate CEOs, executives, university professors, and fund founders all own a Prius.

In the future, pure electric Tesla and hybrid Volvo may become the new favorites of these elites.

Immediately, Li Mu asked Davidson: "I want to ask you to help me with something, can you make an appointment to chat with Ford executives, I am interested in Volvo and Jaguar Land Rover in their hands, if they are interested in making a move, I might consider taking it."

After speaking, Li Mu said again: "By the way, if you have other resources on automobiles, please introduce them to me."

Davidson asked in surprise: "You want to buy Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover?"

Li Mu snorted and said, "If the price is right, it's not impossible to buy them all."

Davidson said: "But these three brands are now losing money, and the losses are quite serious. To be honest, you have no relevant experience in the automotive field, and there is no professional team to help you get global suppliers and sales. Net, it is impossible to make a profit in the short term, and it is likely to be a huge loss in the end.”

Li Mu said with a smile: "It doesn't matter, we will start the IPO-related work in a while. Once it goes public, at least tens of billions of dollars will be raised, and a tenth of it will be enough to win these brands. , as for the loss, it doesn't matter, it's just a game."

After speaking, Li Mu said again: "Maybe next year I will get a rally team, and in another two years, I will get an F1 team."

Chen Ze dreamed of getting a team, but he didn't dare to expect to start F1. Now he is getting a group of kart drivers, training every day at the racing circuit in Shunyi.

In his plan, it is already his biggest dream to get a Formula 3 team in the future.

As for cultivating a real F1 driver for China, this is basically something that Chen Ze never dared to dream of. The requirements for Formula One drivers are extremely demanding. Since I got into the kart at the age of 20, I will continue to burn money and burn money, all the way to the age of 20. Not only must I have enough money to burn it, but I must also have enough talent, otherwise I will not be able to survive.

To a certain extent, it is more difficult to train F1 drivers than to train a first-line player. At least football is not a money-burning sport. If you have enough talent, one football is enough.

There are so many teenagers in Brazil who play football on the streets, and many of them eventually become first-line players or even the world's top players, but I have never heard of anyone who can turn himself into an F1 racer by driving three-wheelers in the slums.

Therefore, Li Mu's thinking is different from that of Chen Ze.

Chen Ze wanted to train a Chinese F1 driver, and Li Mu wanted to build a Chinese F1 team.

For example, I bought Volvo, Jaguar, and Land Rover this year, and then went to China to create a new brand. The new brand is very simple. It is enough to directly integrate the technologies of these three brands. It doesn’t matter if the domestic team is not well integrated. Spending a lot of money to dig the top teams, Germans, Japanese or Swedes, Italians, isn't it just money? Muye Technology has money.

When the new brand is established, it will directly spend money on the team, whether it is rallying, British touring car racing, or formula, as long as it can be done with money, it will be done with money.

First spend money to buy ready-made F3 chassis and engine suppliers, build up the Formula 3 team, and then spend money to buy top F1 technology and team talents in Europe, and hire overseas drivers, even if the entire team even drivers. It doesn't matter if the logistics are all foreigners, because its headquarters is in Huaxia, and the ownership of the team and the brand is in Huaxia.

Only in this way can we introduce the true essence of this sport into China, and let the Chinese people realize that we have this thing, and it is in our own home, which is far better than cultivating one or two talents across the country. It is much better to then send it overseas.

In other words, if there is a high-level football league in China, then it is more appropriate to send domestic players to the five major leagues than in the domestic league, because the improvement of the general environment is always much stronger than the improvement of individuals.

If Huaxia really trains an F1 driver and there is no domestic team, the driver can only compete in F1 in other countries' teams and in other countries' shirts. If it is not absolutely outstanding, it has been hanging on the tail, and its presence is so weak that it is slag, and it is difficult to arouse the real enthusiasm of the domestic people for this sport.

However, if a team is introduced into Huaxia, it is equivalent to moving in a whole system. It doesn’t matter if you don’t mind yourself. First, you will spend money to hire foreigners to do it. Huaxia's team of engineers has been cultivated, and by that time, the entire domestic auto industry will be improved.

Once the system is in place and the overall strength comes up, good drivers will inevitably be discovered and cultivated one after another.

Davidson couldn't understand Li Mu's taste.

If it’s a hobby, then it’s okay to start a football club. After all, a football club can’t spend too much money, and it doesn’t involve any industrial chain, supply chain, or sales chain.

There is a big difference between cars and football clubs. It seems that a car brand is very beautiful, but except for the top brands that can make money, the rest are basically very hard.

More than half of the car brands are loss-making or slightly profitable. It is quite normal to invest hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars in such a business, and it is really normal to lose tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars a year. There are also billion-dollar cars. For a brand, after a year of hard work, the net profit is only a few hundred thousand dollars. Whether the former or the latter, for the holder, it is a hot potato, a huge asset that cannot survive.

Ford is a standard example. In difficult times, several brands under its control are in a mess. Jaguar can lose hundreds of millions of dollars in a quarter and several hundred million in a year.

Volvo and Land Rover have good times and bad times. Bad means losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and good means losing tens of millions a year.

Moreover, the loss of large-scale industries is similar to that of an aircraft that has lost its power. The weight of hundreds of tons fell from the height of tens of thousands of meters. It is easier to save it.

The production line of any car brand cannot be too small. The cost of land, construction and maintenance of workshops, maintenance, renewal and depreciation of equipment are all large.

To operate a production line, there must be at least thousands of workers, and the labor cost alone is an astronomical figure;

It also requires a high-cost R&D team, management team, and sales team, which is not at all lower than the production line workers;

Not only that, if you want to build a car, you have to purchase various parts from hundreds of suppliers around the world, and the dollar has grown wings and flew from factories to all parts of the world.

Once the huge production line is opened, it is equivalent to throwing bundles of dollars into it all the time. Money is thrown in, and cars are built. The cars are shipped all over the world, and the money is exchanged for the production line. This is a great cycle that spans the globe.

But what if the car can't be sold? The cost has been invested, but the products that come out cannot be exchanged for money, or can not be exchanged for enough money. A month of continuous investment of 100 million US dollars, in addition to a bunch of stock cars, only 50 million US dollars are returned. This is five. With a shortfall of ten million dollars, if you want to maintain the production line, you can only pour another fifty million into it.

At this time, the car cannot be sold on the road. Whether it is in the hands of the manufacturer or the dealer, there are more and more cars in stock, and the pressure on funds is increasing. In the end, there is no way to sell it at a lower price. Otherwise, the dealer may not be able to carry it first. Going back online.

As an auto company with a valuation of more than one billion or even billions of dollars, it is almost powerless to face losses of hundreds of millions of dollars every year, but the production line cannot be stopped. Once the production line is stopped, the dealers and workers will immediately As a result, the entire brand will be paralyzed in an instant, and this car company with a valuation of billions or even billions of dollars will immediately become worthless.

At such a time, the only way for car companies that can’t stand it is to find a large car group to sell themselves while it’s still cold. Large car groups often feel that they have a large size, a wide range of channels, and a relatively strong ability to make money. Qiang, thinking that he can bring the brand back to life, decided to buy the bottom.

It's just that Ford was unlucky, and he was halfway up the mountainside for several dips.

However, Davis did not know that Ford not only cut the bottom halfway up the mountain, but also cut the meat at the bottom of the mountain.

Volvo, Jaguar, and Land Rover are all Ford's "bottom-hunting works". In the end, they lost a lot of money. They had no choice but to sell them at a low price. As a result, others copied the real bottom.

Now, what Li Mu wants to do is to copy Ford's bottom line in advance.