Chapter 292 Sparks and Lightning All the Way [Subscription Request]

The driverless Volkswagen Phaeton drove smoothly to the outskirts of Beijing. After the initial sigh, Xiao Ma Ge asked curiously, "How much do you plan to sell the Spark 7 that you released in autumn and winter? It beats the iPhone 8 and Galaxy A7 in all aspects, and it really ranks among the high-end phones."

Apple 8 has not actually been released yet, but it has this development rhythm to promote product concepts and configurations.

Wang Chengguang smiled and said, "How about pricing it at 5888? If we sell it in the mainland at this price, we will have a net profit of more than 1000 yuan for each unit. We have been losing money for so many years, it's time to make up for it."

It is not right to say that we have been making losses for eight years. In 2014, we were able to produce and sell most of the spare parts and components ourselves, and we were not cheated too much by outsiders. We have been making a small profit since then.

It's nothing more than that the current Zhengzhou mobile phone factory has 40 regular workers, and the minimum base salary is based on the annual average wage in Zhengzhou. The five social insurances and one housing fund for 40 people will eat up all the profits.

This doesn’t matter to Wang Chengguang and Xiao Ma Ge. They don’t expect to recover in the short term. Even Lei Jun…

Lei Jun didn't care. When he sold 10% of the shares to Pony Ma, he had made back several times the original investment of US$9000 million and still held 27.5% of the shares.

Lao Lei’s dream of going public has been delayed again and again.

现在是2017年了，大企鹅市值破了3万亿港币、星火微博市值1.8万亿、星火微信也是2014年上市市值1.6万亿港币。

Wang Chengguang's 35% stake in Weibo and WeChat is worth HK$11900 trillion, which is equivalent to more than US$1500 billion. Last year, he was ranked third on the world's richest list with a net worth of US$742 billion, thanks to his huge investments and various fancy plans.

Lei Jun excitedly asked, "5888 has such a huge profit? This technology is completely epoch-making? Should the Zhengzhou mobile phone factory continue to expand?"

According to the various standards described in Wang Chengguang's post, even if you give Samsung or Foxconn a 3-nanometer process lithography machine, it will probably cost more than 8000 yuan to develop it bit by bit.

The 40 workers at the Zhengzhou mobile phone factory work in three shifts, with subsidies for food, accommodation, electricity, etc., each person receives a monthly salary of 5000 yuan, with one day off per day and various holiday benefits, and the system is still an eight-hour day, with a minimum monthly salary of 20 billion yuan.

Not to mention Zhengzhou, it is also one of the most sought-after technology companies in the whole country. One of the reasons is that its standards are far behind those of big companies such as Xinghuo, Weibo, WeChat and Big Penguin.

The mobile phone factory produces 300 million mobile phones per month, with an annual production capacity of only 3600 million units, and it will exceed million units in three years.

However, every time the factory expanded, Zhengzhou Xinghuo Mobile Phone Factory attracted countless workers from all over the world to line up, because for Weibo, WeChat and Big Penguin, only students from 985 or 211 prestigious universities could apply for the positions.

It’s different at the Zhengzhou Mobile Phone Factory. As long as you’ve graduated from junior high school and have a few years of compulsory education and are diligent, you can be trained and officially hired.

Since the mobile phone factory was launched in 09, it has been the manufacturing company with the lowest rate of voluntary resignations, excluding workers who have been fired.

In the past 8 years, among the hundreds of thousands of teams, the total number of voluntary resignations is only more than 1000. Of course, dismissals are not included...

Wang Chengguang nodded, "Expand to 50 people, and strive to produce 400 million or 500 million mobile phones per month. Spark 7 will be launched in autumn and winter. We will dominate Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and even enter the island country. There is a great hope."

…………

They talked all the way. When the Phaeton drove to a road point for drunk driving inspection and lined up in the motorcade, Brother Ma pushed the frame of his glasses on his nose and said, "The three of us have been drinking. If the traffic police come, they won't think that Lao Lei secretly moved to the passenger seat, right?"

Lei Bush, "..."

Wang Chengguang took out a few candy-like things from his pocket and said, "Eat these. I guarantee that all traces of alcohol will be eliminated within one minute."

For him, who has mastered divine cooking skills and is a top-notch Chinese medicine practitioner, this is just a small gadget that he can easily make. It can completely eliminate all alcohol in one minute.

After all, he sometimes attends some social dinners, and with his physique he can drink a thousand cups without getting drunk, but when it comes to drunk driving... he can use his privileges, but there is no need to do so.

Lei Bushi took it in his hand and ate it in amazement, "There is such a good thing? Mr. Wang, why didn't you send me some earlier?"

After a while, the traffic police came over and the driver's window automatically lowered.

The traffic police instinctively wanted to ask why there was no one in the driver's seat. He was startled when he saw Lei Bushi's face, and then he looked at the back of the car and was shocked, "Mr. Wang, Mr. Ma, Mr. Lei? What are you doing?"

Lei Jun himself is very high-profile, whether he is holding various press conferences, the Spark mobile phone launch conference, etc., as well as daily Weibo updates, including the Weishi short video platform within WeChat, with tens of millions of fans and frequent interactions.

Wang Chengguang is low-key... but he has been the richest Chinese for many years. The Weibo updates he posted yesterday were enough to shock the global technology community. For ordinary citizens, the epoch-making new smartphone is enough to get mobile phone users talking about it.

In other words, the Xinghuo mobile phone has sold more than 8 million units in the mainland in the past 2 years. How many people are Xinghuo mobile phone owners? It is normal for the traffic police to recognize them.

Wang Chengguang smiled and took out a document. "There are approval documents for the AI ​​smart driving road test. Please take a look."

The traffic policeman hurried over to the rear window to take the document. After he looked at the paper document and saw that it was indeed stamped by the ministry, he respectfully returned it and asked curiously, "Please come in, Mr. Wang!"

Checking the Phaeton meant that all the cars ahead had passed. Wang Chengguang said "drive" to his phone, and the smart Xiaoxing issued a voice command. The car started automatically and everything was stable.

Only several traffic policemen were left looking at each other in bewilderment.

This is what happened in the first few days after the vehicle was put on the road. It easily caused an explosive topic among the traffic police, but after a while everyone got used to it.

…………

In December 2017, the Spark 12 smartphone, an upgraded version with huge production capacity, was launched on the market at a retail price of 7 yuan and within two months, it easily achieved sales of tens of millions of units.

Even though this version is much more expensive than the previous Spark series phones, it still can't stop consumers' enthusiasm!

It's expensive for a reason. Whether it's 16GB RAM or 512GB ROM, it's ahead of other high-end phones from Apple and Samsung in all aspects. How many good things can be stored in 512GB of mobile phone storage? ?
Moreover, after experiencing and using the new phone, countless consumers who have purchased Spark 7 have posted photos of the phone on Weibo and WeChat Moments, promoting its various advantages. It can be fully charged in just a few minutes, and you can play games for more than ten hours on a full charge without worrying about running out of power.

A full charge can last for three to five days under normal operation. This is a smartphone, not a Nokia feature phone. The power consumption of normal operation is much better than that of Apple and Samsung. This is because Wang Chengguang was brushing up on various battery technology capabilities, and he cooperated with the new solid-state battery promoted by Xiaohuo! !

The original Spark series did not have offensive battery technology, but the impact mecha required a groundbreaking new battery, so it had to be promoted. Originally, the new energy vehicle battery technology was promoted first, and the mobile phone battery was easily cracked.

Putting aside the powerful battery technology, Spark 7 also outperforms high-end devices of the same category in terms of screen resolution, durability and heat dissipation.

It can only be said that more than 7% of the users who have purchased it can clearly feel that Spark is like suddenly bringing smartphones into a new era, and almost solving most of the shortcomings and defects of various smartphones.

Harbin, Heilongjiang Province in early December.

As heavy snow fell from the sky, Wang Chengguang walked out of a hotel. He looked at the weather and said to Yang Shumiao, Cheng Xiaosang, Nancy and others around him, "Let's go. Take a good look at the black market with your new cars these few days. If you encounter any trouble, call the police or ask the company for help in time."

Several pretty girls nodded excitedly, said some nice words, and then walked down the steps under the awning to the ground parking lot.

Mr. He, the general manager of Volkswagen China, who was standing beside Wang Chengguang, was full of emotion. "Mr. Wang, this is... really touching. I never dreamed that you would overcome so many technical barriers of solid-state batteries in private. Compared with traditional lithium-ion batteries, this is epoch-making."

As we all know, new energy has many advantages. Charging is cheaper than gasoline cars, there is not much pollution, etc., which is why the country has vigorously supported it. However, the disadvantages are also obvious. For example, in the era of lithium-ion batteries, once it encounters low temperatures, no matter whether the car company advertises a range of 200 kilometers or 300 kilometers, it will be cut in half in an instant...

You don't even dare to turn on the air conditioner, and charging outdoors may not work due to the low temperature. Charging is also slow at normal temperatures, and it is difficult to queue up. There are also various safety hazards caused by usage consumption, such as fire.

But Wang Chengguang has been working on Spark Auto for about half a year. Now the factories of Spark Auto in Shanghai and Zhengzhou are still under construction and they are still recruiting workers.

Spark Auto received a 10% technical investment from Volkswagen Group, with the Volkswagen team bringing engineers to help. SAIC also received a 15% stake, also from the technical team.

With the technical investment from major car companies, the first batch of Spark cars launched now, except for the power system and energy architecture, were conquered by Wang Chengguang and Xiaohuo together, and they took the lead in research and development and production. Everything else in the entire car was sponsored and helped to be put together by the two Volkswagen factories.

Now Wang Chengguang has encouraged more than a dozen beautiful internet celebrities or stars to drive more than a dozen cars around Harbin in the cold weather to show the low-temperature advantages of the new cars. This started in May. He contacted the officials of Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, and began to manufacture charging piles and other equipment in public areas.

The purpose is to demonstrate the quality strength of the new Spark Automobile under the heavy snow and extremely cold temperatures this winter!
They are all big internet celebrities and stars of all sizes. They will attract attention when they appear in public. Combined with the new Spark black technology, they are really showy.

Wang Chengguang smiled at Mr. He and handed him a cigarette. "I only provided the batteries, motors, and powertrain systems. The first batch of Spark cars was produced by our three major factories. If Mr. He is interested, why don't you show them off in person on the black market?"

"More than 100 charging pile plazas have been built in outdoor public areas in the past six months. In the past few years, there have been millions of new energy vehicles and hybrid vehicles sold in the mainland. Harbin is definitely not short of owners."

Mr. He was amused. "You suddenly entered the automotive industry. It's really a bolt from the blue. OK, I'll drive one out to show off my superiority. The solid-state battery can easily reach 1500 kilometers in range. You can run it for one or two days and only need to charge it once. It can be charged in 10 minutes."

"This is really..."

As early as 2010, Toyota launched an experimental solid-state battery car with a range of 1000 kilometers, but there has been no major move until now because the cost is too damn high.

Compared with the lithium-ion liquid batteries that emerged in 1991 and have already dominated many fields such as mobile phones, laptops, electric vehicles and automobiles, solid-state batteries have long been the research and development direction of the scientific research community, but they cannot be commercialized on a large scale due to the lack of cost reduction and various technical difficulties.

Car companies like Volkswagen will certainly not give up on this field and have invested heavily in it.

Now I am watching the Spark suddenly appear, bringing out the things I dreamed of! Low cost, super long battery life, not afraid of cold or high temperature, super fast charging, safer and more reliable...

In the current car manufacturing field of Xinghuo, there is only such a motor, battery and power transmission system, which is still a bolt from the blue! Super shocking!

…………

A day later, at an outdoor public charging site in Harbin, where there were 20 charging stations, several new energy vehicle owners, wrapped in coats, thick hats, etc., were joking or showing off something to each other.

Cheng Xiaosang, driving a car with the Xinghuo logo, rushed into the square and arrived in front of a charging station. He got out and started charging the Xinghuo car.

Because Cheng Xiaosang's clothes were rather thin and fashionable, he shivered violently when he got off the car. He stamped his feet and breathed for a while, then took out a coat from the car and put it on before he got busy with the operation.

A nearby new energy vehicle owner was first amazed by Cheng Xiaosang's appearance. After being stunned for more than ten seconds, he asked suspiciously, "Beauty, did you turn on the air conditioner in your car?"

Just now, when she stamped her feet and breathed out, she also moved closer to the car to soak up the remaining warmth of the heater inside.

Cheng Xiaosang showed a smile with eight teeth, "Look at what you said, it's so cold, more than ten degrees below zero, how can you drive without turning on the air conditioner?"

A certain car owner almost popped his eyes out. "The battery life is short to begin with, and you turned on the air conditioner? How much power does that consume? I've regretted it a long time ago. I shouldn't have listened to the manufacturer's boasting and bought this crappy car, saying it could run more than 300 kilometers on a full charge. Now it can't even run 150 kilometers at a time."

"Moreover, within a year, the full capacity of the battery has dropped a lot. It takes several hours to charge it, and it gives me a headache. You look familiar, so listen to my advice and switch back to a gasoline car as soon as possible."

Cheng Xiaosang smiled brighter and looked much better. "No, this is my first time in Harbin. I drove over 500 kilometers and visited many places. This is my first time charging."

A certain man was instantly confused, "Don't think you can fool me just because you are pretty. What kind of car is this? Tesla... Hey, why is the logo of the car a Spark?"

The Spark Group is so big that not only its online logo has been deeply rooted in people's hearts along with its giant companies, but its more than 200 million mobile phones in the mainland are also sweeping the world.

But the car logo is the Spark logo? ? Many people saw it for the first time. And they have never heard of it, at least the Spark Group did not promote it much.

Cheng Xiaosang didn't say much, and set the charging rhythm, ten minutes... As more and more car owners gathered around, her car was almost fully charged in ten minutes. She turned on the air conditioner, played some music, and drove away, just like chopping electric wires with a kitchen knife, with sparks and lightning all the way.

A dozen car owners who had been charging for more than two or three hours were left in collective silence.

(End of this chapter)