On the plane, Li Mu planned the overall path of the electric vehicle project for Elon Musk.
In the first step, Li Mu and he jointly invested 50 million US dollars in a ratio of 7:3 to establish a new energy vehicle company. Part of the 50 million US dollars was used to acquire the R&D team he was following, and the company and the results were to be brought together. The team won all the patents, and the rest was used as R&D funds for the team;
The next key public relations direction of this team is the related technology of lithium battery packs, followed by drive motor technology, and thirdly peripheral supporting technologies;
Second, Elon Musk needs to set up a professional team responsible for automobile research and development. While designing the framework, chassis, safety and aerodynamics of new energy vehicles, he will also have an in-depth understanding of several domestic private automobile companies in China to provide Prepare for subsequent acquisitions;
There are two options for acquisitions. One is to directly acquire domestic automobile companies, and the other is to acquire the production lines of automobile companies. The former requires a relatively large amount of funds. If there are sufficient funds by then, it will be no problem. If the funds are not so generous, then choose Many domestic car companies are not having an easy time when acquiring production lines. When production capacity cannot be fully utilized, it is not impossible to squeeze several production lines and free up one production line to monetize. For Li Mu's new energy vehicle project , having a low-end production line is much better than starting everything from scratch;
Third, Li Mu specifically asked Elon Musk to give up his blind pursuit of excellence when running new energy vehicle projects, and not to build new energy vehicles with a unit price of US$100,000 from the very beginning. In the first two or three years, besides selling it to pretentious criminals in the Internet industry, who else could it be sold to
Elon Musk cannot understand the "simplistic" concept of building a car with four wheels and a sofa. He believes that cars, like launch vehicles, are the crystallization of modern industrial achievements. To build a good car, there are too many factors. There are too many areas that require efforts, so he said to Li Mu: "Mr. Li, I hope that our future new energy vehicle will be an excellent, outstanding or even epoch-making product. It may even be able to start a car in 3.5 seconds." Accelerating from 0 to 60 miles, it has strong power, quiet driving, intelligent control and full of futuristic feeling... "
Li Mu asked him: "Do you know which car company is the most profitable in the world?"
"I know." Elon Musk said, "Toyota."
Li Mu nodded and asked him: "Why is Toyota the most profitable? In this year's corporate rankings, its operating income is lower than GM and Ford, but its net profit is dozens of times that of GM. Ford's net profit is even negative. Although Volkswagen It’s very profitable, but the profit margin and net profit are both lower than Toyota, why do you think this is?”
Elon Musk smiled slightly and said: "Mr. Li, the operation of Toyota's entire group is more flexible, smoother and more efficient than other automobile companies. It captures market demand very accurately, and its products are highly suitable for consumers. "
Li Mu asked him back: "Do you think that if you want to build a $100,000 electric car, you can accurately capture the market demand? Is it highly compatible with consumers?"
"this… "
Elon Musk was a little speechless, but in his heart he was still unwilling to accept Li Mu's statement. He understood what Li Mu meant, which was nothing more than to lower his stature and lower the threshold, and then sell low-threshold new energy vehicles to the world. , this may indeed allow new energy vehicles to have a wider audience, but it still lacks the earth-shattering impact. If the product produced is not good enough, it will lose a lot of motivation.
Li Mu also saw his mood and said calmly: "I don't object to your idea of building a top-notch new energy sports car. You can definitely let this team move towards this goal in the future. After all, we have higher-level technical accumulation." It's always good, we can be backward compatible at any time, but you can't pin the future of your company on a product that's not grounded enough, so when it comes to the choice of main models, you have to lower your positioning and put more production capacity into Used to manufacture cheaper goods in bulk.”
Elon Musk nodded and said, "Okay, Mr. Li, I understand what you mean."
Li Mu knew that he understood what he meant, but he didn't know if he recognized his point of view. But whatever, let him set up his stall first. If in the future he insists on taking the same path that Tesla has taken all his life, then he will Absolutely not allowed.
Later, Li Mu changed the topic and reminded him: "Since you have decided to do new energy, you have to take care of many things in advance, otherwise you will easily be choked by others in the future."
Elon Musk subconsciously asked: "What do you mean?"
"Battery." Li Mu said, "I don't know how well the team you mentioned can develop battery packs and battery management technology. I only know that the capacity of an 18650 battery is only two to three thousand milliamps. If you want to have If it has a battery life of several hundred kilometers, then I’m afraid it will require at least several thousand batteries like this, right?”
Elon Musk nodded and said: "Yes, Mr. Li, under normal circumstances, we need at least 7,000 batteries to ensure a battery life of 400 kilometers."
Li Mu sighed: "When you sell a car, others will sell 7,000 batteries. If they earn you 1 dollar per battery, then if you sell a car, you will help the battery manufacturer earn 7,000 dollars." , it is still unknown whether we can earn 7,000 US dollars from selling a car that we have worked so hard for. If most of the net profits are intercepted by them in the future, then we will lose all initiative. You must be prepared for this issue. , don’t be choked by upstream raw material supply companies when the time comes.”
Elon Musk said: "Many companies have 18650 battery technology, but there is a slight gap in product performance and quality control. This market cannot form a monopoly, so I think we will still have a negotiating advantage in front of battery companies in the future. of."
Li Mu secretly shook his head after hearing this.
Although Elon Musk is known as the real-life Iron Man of Silicon Valley, this guy is indeed not rigorous enough in his work. Although his vision is long-term, there are also a lot of frightening loopholes and oversights.
Failure to consider the issue of production capacity in advance was a major flaw for Tesla in its previous life. Battery costs accounted for a high proportion of the cost of the entire vehicle, which was a major Achilles heel for Tesla. It would take many years before thinking about expanding production capacity. It was too late to develop batteries and build super battery factories on our own. At that time, new energy vehicles were springing up all over the world. Major automobile companies announced that they would stop the production of fuel vehicles in the near future, and governments of various countries also expressed their opinions. In the future, the sales of fuel vehicles in the country will be banned. At that time, trying to expand production capacity and develop and produce batteries will have greatly delayed itself and wasted the advantage of starting early.
Li Mu lamented in his heart that Elon Musk did not foresee that batteries would become a core pain point in new energy projects. This really made Li Mu a little disappointed. When new energy vehicles spread all over the world in more than ten years, let alone batteries. Prices are rising, and even the prices of lithium and cobalt, the key raw materials for lithium batteries, will skyrocket.
Lithium used for power is hundreds of thousands per ton, and cobalt is hundreds of thousands per ton. Especially cobalt, the proportion used in lithium batteries is not much lower than that of lithium, and cobalt is much scarcer than lithium. China is so big. According to data published by the West, my country's cobalt reserves account for only 1% of the world's total. When the new energy era comes in the future, whoever masters cobalt will be the father of the entire new energy industry.
Thinking of this, Li Mu thought that it would take at least a few years for the rapid development of lithium batteries, and the cobalt and lithium related industries should now be in a trough or flat period. If it can take a few years to lay out the global cobalt mines, For lithium mines and supporting production and smelting, when the new energy era arrives, the market value of these industries will increase at least ten times or even dozens of times. This in itself is a profitable business with extremely high profit margins.
More importantly, with these core resources, Li Mu can strangle the battery industry from the upstream of the electric vehicle battery industry downwards. In the future, if these companies dare to show off, they will immediately plunder their profits from the source and force them to Submit, and even be able to lay out the lithium battery production industry by then, and penetrate the upstream and downstream of the battery industry.
Once we can connect upstream and downstream and form a closed loop that is not affected by the end of the market, when the raw materials for lithium batteries surge, we will not only be able to ensure greater flexibility in the cost of our new energy vehicles, but we can also directly rely on our own control of upstream resources. Under the control of other lithium battery manufacturers, we can maximize the market growth brought about by the explosion of the new energy industry. The layout of this area can at least bring dozens of times of benefits, both from an economic perspective and Well worth it from a strategic perspective.
So, after the plane landed and the arranged motorcade took Li Mu and his party to the hotel on Harvard campus, Li Mu quickly called Li Ziwei to his room and said to her: "Ziwei, I have an important task for you. During this time, Please do it seriously."
Li Ziwei said hurriedly: "Mr. Li, please tell me."
Li Muchao: "Through a shell company that has no direct contact with us, I asked a well-known international business investigation company to help me investigate the current market situation of the lithium battery industry, as well as the mining of various key raw materials for lithium batteries behind it. , production and processing situation, I want to detail the proven reserves of each element in various countries around the world, the difficulty of mining, the current mining situation, and also the whereabouts of these minerals after they are mined, such as which countries they go to, Which companies process and refine it, and which companies sell it to?”
Li Ziwei quickly recorded it with a pen, nodded and said, "I have written it all down, Mr. Li, is there anything else?"
Li Mu thought for a while and said: "We should pay special attention to lithium and cobalt mines. I want to know the market trends of these two ores around the world, and who is mainly in the hands of these two ore industries, and whether they have won them." Possibly, and if so, approximately how much funding is needed!”
(End of chapter)