Chapter 881 I Join

It was discovered that Tesla’s trademark had been registered by Feng Yiping a long time ago, which hit Martin Eberhard again. At least, Feng Yiping’s words that he had been paying attention to this field for a long time were really not just talking casually.

He thought he had discovered a blue sea, but it turned out that there were already people in the sea, and they were not engaged in primitive fishery development, but were building offshore platforms to prepare for oil extraction. Such a helpless discovery made him feel very frustrated.

Therefore, whether he should cooperate with Feng Yiping, in fact, there is no suspense in this meeting. What he thinks most these two days is how to cooperate with Feng Yiping in order to obtain greater benefits in the future.

While he was still struggling, a Dassault Falcon 9 landed at the Norman Mineta San Jose Airport. After receiving a call from his good friend Straubel, Elon Musk flew the next day to Silicon Valley.

He was a square-headed, serious-looking, well-built fellow, though, in spite of his prime, he looked a little stooped.

Stepping out of the cabin door, Musk saw Straubel standing in front of a convertible accompanied by a young Oriental, who was smiling and nodding to himself.

That smile, unlike a successful businessman's social smile, is very sincere, very pure, without any impurities, and looks as warm and clear as the sunshine in California.

Musk had great expectations for this meeting for no reason.

He also smiled and took a few steps down the gangway, "Hello, fuck." He warmly hugged his old friend who had a common language, and before Straw introduced him, he stretched out his hand to Feng Yiping, "You must be Feng, Nice to meet you!"

"Me too, Mr. Musk!" This guy's hands are so strong.

"Please call me Elon,"

"Elon, you are welcome to come to Silicon Valley. If there is no other arrangement, why don't you and ** go to my company?"

"Okay, I don't have any other plans besides meeting you this time. If it wasn't for the fact that the company had something to deal with yesterday, after listening to **'s introduction, I wanted to come to Silicon Valley last night,"

"I'm very honored, but I'm under a lot of pressure for you to say this, let me say it first, if you find that some of my opinions don't satisfy you, I hope you don't take your anger out on me," Feng Yiping joked.

He didn’t know much about Musk before, but after being reborn, he knew a lot about Musk because he was always thinking about Tesla. In terms of personality, he is also very egotistical, and his temper is not much better than that of Jobs. people.

On the outside, it is serious, with a straight face more often than a smile. For example, facing Feng Yiping's joke at this time, he said very seriously, "As far as your academic and business achievements are concerned, there are There are many places worthy of our exploration,"

According to domestic terms, Feng Yiping immediately labeled him as "speaking straight".

"How's the business going?" Straw asked.

"It's just the beginning together, and there are thousands of threads,"

He established SpaceX last year and invested 100 million U.S. dollars for it. That is, he sold PayPal to eBay last year, and he spent more than half of the after-tax income of about 180 million U.S. dollars.

For a young man who has only made achievements in the Internet field before, entering such a world of physics, and it is still a field where many cutting-edge technologies in the world are concentrated, the world is generally not optimistic. They all think that his decision is extremely incredible. and irrational.

But in the face of these criticisms, he instead proposed that his company's goal is to reduce the cost of rocket launches to 1/10 of the current commercial space launch market price as soon as possible, and proposed that in the next century, he will use the rockets developed by his company to fly to Mars. migrant.

Well, he will always say some big things, for example, regarding electric vehicles, he has said many times on different occasions that in 2014 at the latest, his own super battery will support Tesla to produce affordable electric vehicles.

However, before Feng Yiping was reborn, the affordable electric car he promised was still missing.

However, as the first person to eat crabs, you really need arrogance and unyielding strength, otherwise, irrelevant external pressure will overwhelm you. Feng Yiping also appreciates this in him.

Optimism is optimism, confidence is confidence, but how can the pressure not be great? This is why Musk named his company's future spacecraft after the mythical "dragon" from the very beginning.

"Elon, I believe you will succeed," Feng Yiping said.

Of course, in front of such a guy, he would definitely not say some unnutritious compliments, "I have to say, this is not a pioneering industry, and there have been many successful experiences, and I absolutely believe that you lead A commercial company will definitely be more efficient and innovative than those institutions with state funding. Apart from those government agencies, the first individual in the world with space launch capabilities must be you,"

"Thank you, Feng," Musk said sincerely. Even Iron Man actually needs the encouragement and affirmation of others.

Feng Yiping did not show them around his company, but took them directly to his office and told the secretary, "Don't let anyone disturb us,"

After only taking a sip of coffee, Musk couldn't wait to ask, "You are preparing to build an electric company, so how do you position the electric car you want to produce?"

"Based on the current conditions and estimated future development, I think that in the short term, for example, within ten years from now, the production cost of pure electric vehicles should always be relatively high, and there will certainly not be much impact. reduce,"

"And such environmentally friendly high-tech products are more in line with the life philosophy of some high-income people. Therefore, the pure electric vehicles I am planning, at least at the beginning, are not aimed at those middle-class people who are sensitive to prices, but don't care about prices. Environmentally friendly life philosophy, and high-income people who want to use the latest technology, "

Even if he didn't know much about Tesla's development plan, he will naturally have a scientific and reasonable plan after thinking about the product's market positioning for so long.

Musk nodded, and then felt that this question seemed redundant. Since people like Feng Yiping have already planned to set up a company, how could there be no answer to such a basic question.

"So, what do you think is the biggest problem to be solved?" he continued.

"The most critical issue is that our products must dispel consumers' mileage anxiety. This is the biggest difference between electric vehicles and traditional fuel vehicles,"

"The most critical thing is the battery technology," Musk agreed.

"Battery technology should also include charging technology," Feng Yiping added.

"Yes, this is the key." When he was at the University of Pennsylvania, Musk designed an electric transportation system. However, the battery technology at the time made his idea look very unrealistic.

"When do you expect to launch your product at the latest?"

"I don't have a timetable for this," Feng Yiping spread his hands. "As for this company, I want to start researching everything from scratch and lay the foundation first, just like your Space Exploration Technology Company."

"Use as much of our own components as possible instead of outsourcing, and apply our own patents as much as possible instead of following other people's technology. Specifically, from chassis to interior to body manufacturing, we have everything Research from scratch,"

Musk disagrees with this point, "I heard from ** that ACP, which you are a shareholder, has already had a very successful attempt. Why not use the existing platform and technology to develop on the basis of Tzero? This is not the case. Can you see benefits sooner?"

"ACP has indeed produced some research results in electric vehicle technology, but to be honest, I am not satisfied with Tzero. This is not the ideal electric vehicle in my mind. There is a lot of room for improvement from the platform to the technology. "

"Of course, we can learn from many of ACP's current technologies, but I still hope that we can develop our own without compromising,"

"For example, Tzero is currently using a lotus chassis. Not only is the supply limited, but when we install a lot of lithium batteries, the chassis must be re-adjusted for load balancing. It's better to develop a more suitable one."

"Also, Tzero is still equipped with a deceleration system. I hope that the electric car we launched can replace this system with a motor with a high conversion rate, and use as few components as possible in traditional cars,"

"In the design of the car body, I also hope to apply more lightweight materials, such as aluminum, under the premise of ensuring safety, which in turn will increase the cruising range of the vehicle,"

To be honest, Feng Yiping was very unimpressed with the Roadster sports car launched by Tesla in 2007. It was actually a very compromised product, but the financial situation of Tesla and Musk at that time was still very bad. A product to boost confidence and attract attention.

After the Roadster was launched, it was really unpopular. Many professionals criticized it as the worst technology product of the year, which forced Musk and Tesla to announce that this car will only be sold in a limited number of 2,500 units worldwide.

If it is really popular and can bring a lot of cash flow and profits to the company, will the only product be restricted?

"If this is done, the time and money invested will be greatly increased," said Straw, who heard Feng Yiping talk about his plan for the first time.

"There is a saying in China, it is not afraid of being late for a good meal, sharpening a knife is not a mistake for woodcutters,"

"Elon, I think that arrangement, in the long run, is definitely the most scientific,"

"I'm also a big believer in first principles,"

This first principle is the first principle that Musk mentioned on many occasions later. This principle comes from the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. He expressed it in his book, "In every systematic exploration, The first principle of existence is a most fundamental proposition or assumption that cannot be omitted or deleted, nor can it be violated,"

We can understand it so simply that this first principle is roughly equivalent to the axioms in mathematics.

Musk admires this principle very much, and has widely applied it to daily management. Feng Yiping mentioned a concept he very much agrees with, of course he was very happy, and a smile appeared on his face again.

"We should be thinking about problems using first-principles thinking, not comparative thinking," he said.

"Yes, I agree very much," Feng Yiping said, "follow others, the best result can only be a small iterative development, this is not my vision for the electric car I expect, I look forward to producing it The electric car is an epoch-making product that can shake, at least shake the entire auto industry, and change the pattern of this industry today,"

These should be the most heroic words Feng Yiping has ever said.

"So, I also insist on looking at this problem from the perspective of first principles, that is, to peel off the appearance of things layer by layer, to see the essence inside, and then go up from the essence layer by layer,"

Seeing Feng Yiping talking about the application of first principles in front of him, Musk felt like he had met a bosom friend. However, he is a very rational person and will not be emotional. "Specifically?"

Feng Yiping didn't blame him that these questions sounded like a school test, which just showed that he was very interested in cooperating with him.

"To make a simple analogy, battery packs will always account for a large part of the high cost of electric vehicles. From the current point of view, the market price of these batteries is at least more than 1,000 US dollars per kWh," because it produces lithium batteries by itself. Feng Yiping has such data at his fingertips.

"If we think from a first-principle perspective, what materials are battery packs made of? What are the market prices for these materials? You will find that the composition of batteries, including carbon, nickel, aluminum and some polymers, including nanoscale polymers, if we buy these raw materials from the metal exchange, and then produce, you will find, man, it may cost less than 120 dollars per kilowatt-hour,"

"So, according to my plan, the various costs of the initial investment will be greatly increased, but in the end, this is actually the most cost-effective option,"

"Besides, regarding the manufacture of electric vehicles, not to mention technology, we have no chance to use off-the-shelf accessories in the selection of various accessories, and I don't want to produce a compromised product just to use off-the-shelf accessories. , it would be better to start everything from scratch, "

Listening to Feng Yiping's detailed explanation, Musk's eyes became brighter and brighter. This is a genius, he thought.

Essentially speaking, the electric car Feng Yiping wants to build is actually similar to the rocket he is planning to build now, and there are many accessories that he really wants to use off-the-shelf.

So his plan for SpaceX is actually starting from scratch. He hopes that the end will be like this: a large amount of raw materials such as steel are transported into one end of the workshop, and finally, the assembled rocket comes out from the other end.

…………

After drinking cup after cup of coffee, the three of them talked more and more speculatively. Even when the sky was getting dark, the secretary quietly came in and turned on the light, but they didn't notice.

After several hours of explanations, Feng Yiping successfully got the other two to accept his future plan for the electric car company. Regarding the use of ACP's existing achievements and the use of Lotus's chassis to produce a car as soon as possible, he never said anything again. mentioned.

Musk, who was relatively indifferent when he joined the company, his eyes became brighter, his facial expressions became more vivid, and he talked more and more. At the end of the discussion with Feng Yiping, he became more energetic and talked with him. Talking to someone about your spaceflight vision is no different.

Finally, when Feng Yiping's stomach groaned indecently for the third time, the three of them stopped, "I'm sorry, I have a strong digestion ability," Feng Yiping smiled.

"Hehe, because Feng you are the youngest," Musk also smiled, and the next moment, he held Feng Yiping's hand, "I'll join!"

Straw also smiled, and also extended a hand to reach out, "I will join too!"

ps: A group has been established, 454, 231, 228, everyone is welcome to come and give more valuable opinions. I look forward to having the opportunity to communicate with you!