Chapter 1103 Difficulties

When Feng Yiping arrived at Tesla, there was one more person beside him. "Let me introduce you to Mr. White Cummins, the company's vice president for mergers and acquisitions."

This man, who was just 40 years old and graduated from Yale, had experience working in companies, law firms, venture capital, and investment banks. His most recent position was as a senior vice president of a well-known investment bank on Wall Street.

"Hello, everyone," Cummins bowed slightly in his seat and greeted the three people.

He is the first executive of Gain Capital with experience in investment banking, and his personal style is unique. He is different from Martin Eberhard, Mark Tarpenning, and ** Straubel, who are familiar with the grassroots of the company and are good at technology, and he is more high-profile than Buchanan, who is a senior political staff.

How to say it, there is always a difference between a businessman who plays with money and an ordinary businessman.

The three people didn't care. Cummins was only responsible for the merger and acquisition business and had no control over them. Moreover, they were not ordinary employees, but members of Tesla's board of directors.

"Okay, everyone, you have worked hard for several months. Let me hear the latest progress and results," Feng Yiping said with a smile as he opened his notebook.

"Feng, we have to say that the progress is not very smooth," Eberhard said. "At present, the only system that has made significant progress is the power system."

Pure electric vehicles are generally composed of three systems: electric drive system, power system and auxiliary system.

The electric drive system, as the name suggests, is used to efficiently convert the electrical energy stored in the battery into the kinetic energy of the wheels, including electronic controllers, power converters, motors, mechanical transmission devices and wheels.

The power system, whose main function is to provide driving power to the motor, monitor the use of power and control the charger to charge the battery, includes power supply, energy management system and charger.

The rest of the parts can be classified as auxiliary systems, which are mainly used to improve the maneuverability, ride comfort and safety of the car.

To be honest, Feng Yiping was mentally prepared for the result Eberhard said.

Tesla in the original time and space, with the efforts of Eberhard and Musk, went through a full decade before launching the model S series that shocked the industry. He did not expect to make comprehensive progress in just a few months. After all, technology research and development is different from commercial operations. There is no room for empty talk. Without accumulation, there is no satellite.

"We all know that the progress of the power system is mainly due to your suggestions, Feng," Straus said, "We actually have no innovation."

"I got the inspiration from Google, it's just a coincidence," Feng Yiping still said what he said when he made his suggestion last time. Anyway, he doesn't care about the credit, he just hopes to use this incident to establish a professional and knowledgeable image in the minds of these three shareholders, which can be regarded as eliminating some future troubles in advance.

Musk is very ruthless. If Feng Yiping is just a financial investor, his position in Tesla in the future will not be too stable.

"What is the current status of the research and development of the other two systems? How many subsystems have completed theoretical design, and how many subsystems have started engineering trial production?"

"The core of the drive system, the electric motor, is still undergoing various demonstrations. Musk is right. It needs to have high speed, high power, long life, and small size..." Hubbard said, shaking his head, "This is indeed our biggest obstacle in the future."

Feng Yiping knew very little about these specific core components. After all, when people mentioned Tesla later, what they talked about most was its battery management system. There was little information disclosed about traditional components such as motors.

"Is it because our current staff is not capable enough, or is this problem a problem for the world's best motor companies?" Feng Yiping asked.

"Both," Eberhard looked at the other two members of the team, "We would like to suggest to you that for the sake of cost and efficiency, can we also consider cooperating with other professional companies and scientific research institutions for such components?"

"No problem," Feng Yiping said without thinking.

If you want to complete such a project entirely by yourself, even if it is not unrealistic, it is a very stupid and narrow-minded behavior.

If I remember correctly, before launching the Model S, Tesla had cooperated with traditional car companies, such as Mercedes-Benz and GM, and the latter two also invested in Tesla.

"Of course, the premise is that you can,"

"You must be able to design a scientific, rigorous and professional patent protection system," said Eberhard.

"Yes," Feng Yiping glanced at him, lowered his head and thought for a while, "In view of the current reality, I have some ideas about the distribution of work. Martin, you are fully responsible for external cooperation matters,"

"Strau, since the power system has made the fastest progress, in order to achieve balanced development, I hope you can put more energy into the promotion of the other two systems. I also have some specific goals, such as the battery system has been basically finalized. With this foundation, then, can the relevant design of the chassis be carried out?"

People who understand cars know how important the chassis is to a car series.

"Mark, you will be mainly responsible for the power system next. Although the current progress is good, there are also many problems, such as charging problems and the most important problem of battery life,"

"About this," Mark said, "Feng, do you think it is necessary to use Panasonic's lithium battery for comparative experiments?"

"Since the performance of our own lithium battery is comparable to that of Panasonic's, and some data are even more outstanding, I think there is no need to find another battery supplier,"

Not to mention that Feng Yiping established the lithium battery department to prepare for electric vehicles, just because Tesla later built its own factory to produce batteries, it is known that the supply of this part should be controlled by itself.

You know, for a pure electric vehicle, the battery cost accounts for at least 30% of the cost of the whole vehicle. If the procurement cost of this part drops even by one point, the impact on the company's total cost will be huge.

"Oh, okay, I just hope to make the comprehensive performance of the battery more outstanding," Mark explained.

"You don't have to worry about this. The lithium battery company has increased its investment in research and development. We dare to guarantee that under the premise of fixed costs, our battery performance will improve every year,"

"Strau, tell the person in charge of body design that I have several immature plans for exterior design,"

I used so much clay, but I still couldn't make the model I remembered.

Feng Yiping knew that it was not realistic to rely on himself to restore the design of Tesla's two models without changing anything. He decided to hand over some prototypes he had made and the relevant data he remembered to the relevant team and let them complete the rest of the work.

"Do you have a plan in this regard?" Straus was surprised.

"Well, two models, but they have not been completed. Let them see if there is any need to complete them," Feng Yiping said modestly.

…………

During their discussion, Cummins did not speak all the time, but just looked at everyone from time to time, and then wrote something down, and he didn't know what he was writing.

This was the first time he attended a meeting with Feng Yiping. This meeting made him understand Feng Yiping more three-dimensionally and objectively. This was not just a person who had made achievements in business theory, but also seemed to have dabbled in related technologies.

At least the three technical experts today were convinced by him. It was because of him that the power supply part had made the current progress?

Unexpectedly, he also knew a lot of professional knowledge in electric vehicles.

And the appearance design of the car?

"Cummins, what do you think of today's meeting?" Feng Yiping asked him on the way back to NEXTDOOR.

This is naturally a test.

"I know nothing about the profession," said Cummins, "but for an automobile company, in addition to our own technology, the integration of the future supply chain is a very critical issue. In this regard, I do have some opinions."

"Tell me about it,"

"Because most of the work is still in the initial stage, I would like to talk about my views on the power system that has made progress so far,"

"It is good to use our group's own lithium batteries. The power system is the key to the development of our pure electric vehicles. However, if our own lithium battery company has a single sales channel or only relies on future electric vehicles, then there may be a problem,"

"The price of our batteries may not be as good as those of competing products, which will increase the cost of the whole vehicle and affect the sales of the whole vehicle. Of course, from the current data, the group's lithium battery company in China has good sales, but there is still a gap compared with Panasonic's sales," said Cummins.

The issue he said is very critical. Important components are produced and sold by themselves. Many domestic state-owned enterprises used to do this. By analogy, an electric car factory will have a lithium battery workshop, but most of them have failed.

The main reason is that all the components are self-produced and sold. Due to the lack of competition, the cost is high and the quality cannot be guaranteed.

"Yes, this is a very realistic problem. However, our sales volume with Panasonic is shrinking year by year. Jiasheng Lithium Battery has become the largest lithium battery brand in China in a short period of time."

"Moreover, even in terms of current production and sales, our price is still relatively advantageous compared with Panasonic. Of course, we are also actively expanding sales channels. I believe that before the end of the year, we will open up a new and large market. Therefore, you don’t have to worry too much about cost and price."

"I believe in your arrangement, Feng. I am talking about another issue. Since lithium batteries are so critical and the demand in the future is so huge, do we need to integrate related industries upward? For example, lithium and cobalt required for lithium batteries?" Cummins said.

Feng Yiping glanced at him. These guys are indeed not just eating dry rice.

Before he could express his opinion, his mobile phone rang. "Feng, Amazon is here again. They are talking about acquisition again," Mike said on the phone.

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