Li Mu suddenly said "You idiot", which made Elon Musk stupid.
He didn't expect that Li Mu would respond and criticize him so fiercely. Every word in Li Mu's mouth was like a cannonball hitting his self-confidence. He thought that his self-confidence was strong enough, but until Li Mu's Only when the shells exploded did he realize how fragile his self-confidence was.
Li Mu did not immediately explain to Elon Musk why he scolded him, but fell into deep thought.
Through Elon Musk's overall plan for building cars, Li Mu understands a truth, that is: awesome people are by no means awesome everywhere. The more awesome people are in certain fields, the easier it is for them to succeed in certain fields. Extremely stupid mistakes have been made in some areas.
A hundred years ago, Ford knew that automobile manufacturing needed to form a highly versatile assembly line operation. The assembly line was not the focus here. The real focus was versatility, but Elon Musk did not know that.
Take Zippo as an example. If Zippo builds a production line for each lighter, it would also be an assembly line operation. However, is this considered advanced
Due to the extremely poor versatility of this kind of assembly line, as long as a certain product cannot be sold in the market, the production line supporting it will be scrapped. If Zippo adopts this kind of assembly line operation, it will not be long before it goes bankrupt.
The reason is that product replacement is fast, but technology replacement is slow!
There are so many styles of Zippo lighters, some of which are no longer popular after half a year. However, the design structure, manufacturing process and technology of Zippo lighters will not undergo major changes in decades, and will only develop slowly and steadily. Therefore, In this case, a versatile production line becomes the key.
For the same production line, if one style is popular in the market, it will be produced at full capacity. When another style is popular in the market, it will be produced at full capacity immediately. The products will be iterated quickly, but it will not have an impact on the platform. This is the key to development.
However, Elon Musk could think of building new energy vehicles, but he never thought of developing a highly versatile production platform for his new energy vehicle plan.
Moreover, Elon Musk did not even consider the importance of product iteration. There is only one model at each stage? This idea is too simple in the field of automobile manufacturing and does not conform to the basic logic of modern industry.
Li Mu carefully recalled that Tesla only had one Roadster in four years from 2008 to 2012;
In the three years from 2012 to 2015, there was only one Model-S;
Two cars in seven years is indeed a bit funny. Elon Musk should have realized his innocence at that time, so he slightly accelerated the launch of new models. Model-X was launched in 2015 and Model-3 was launched in 2016. , Tesla has built a total of these four models in more than ten years of development.
And the most embarrassing thing is that although Model-3 has received huge orders, it has been unable to increase the delivery speed due to a serious lack of production capacity. At that time, Tesla began to desperately increase production capacity and realize platformization, but it was already too late.
It seems that Elon Musk's biggest problem is not that he failed to build his own car manufacturing foundation at the beginning, but that he simply did not sort out his thinking model.
Half a day later, Li Mu picked up his Zippo, lit a cigarette, took a few puffs, and then while playing with the Zippo in his hand, he said to Elon Musk: "Elon, your biggest problem is that you are overconfident. So much so that it’s so stupid.”
After speaking, Li Mu added: "No businessman can defeat all the invincible players in the world with one product. Even God can't do it. Otherwise, everyone in the world should have a copy of the Bible."
Elon Musk wanted to explain himself. He said: "Mr. Li, I don't think our vision should be so big at the beginning. We founded Tesla not to let everyone in the world buy a Tesla." La, we can’t do it, so I think we should build an electric sports car with excellent performance to make the world aware of the unlimited potential of electric vehicles. This is something we can do with great certainty, after all, the team we acquired Already using batteries and motors, a car can go from 0-60 miles in four seconds.”
Li Mu shook his head slightly and said: "Taking a step back, God also knows that he cannot make everyone in the world become his believers, but he still sends his missionaries to every corner of the world, Elon, Do you know what truth is contained in this?"
Elon Musk looked at Li Mu with a confused look on his face. Because he was completely denied by Li Mu, he was in a daze and was mentally confused.
Seeing that he didn't respond, Li Mu continued: "The meaning behind this is that although you can't make everyone become your users, you still have to work hard in this direction. No matter whether you can conquer the world or not, You must first have the will to conquer the world, otherwise, your Tesla won’t even make it out of Silicon Valley!”
Elon Musk nodded: "I understand what you mean, Mr. Li."
Li Mu said flatly: "No, you didn't."
Having said that, Li Mu continued: "What I mean is that you must not only have the desire to conquer the world, but also have different means of conquering the world. If you want to conquer the world with one car model, it is different than if you want to conquer the world with a single military unit." What's the difference? The Mongolian cavalry couldn't conquer Japan, let alone Africa, Australia and the Americas, so you have to have multiple models to form a multi-dimensional combination, just like the trinity of sea, land and air."
Elon Musk put his left hand under his nose and frowned. After thinking for a moment, he asked Li Mu: "Mr. Li, is this the key to your emphasis on platformization?"
Li Mu nodded: "Tesla needs a highly versatile platform, or even more than one platform. For example, we need a platform suitable for long wheelbase, four-wheel drive models, which can be used to produce medium and large high-end cars. , can also be used to produce medium and large high-end SUVs and medium and large high-end MPVs. In addition, we may also need a platform suitable for mid-wheelbase, front-wheel drive and rear-wheel drive models, which can be used to produce our mid-range sedans , mid-range SUVs, and even performance cars.”
Speaking of this, Li Mu added: "Learn from Volkswagen. If Volkswagen only produced one model, it would be dead. That's why it has a series of similar models, which are nothing more than elongated, shortened, and raised." However, through the introduction of multi-dimensional models, Volkswagen can ensure its product coverage."
Elon Musk murmured to himself: "This means that we have to develop multiple models..."
Li Mu said helplessly: "You still don't understand the key to platformization. Real car manufacturers are not researching models, but core components and platforms. For example, we have now developed battery packs and motors with excellent performance. We We use the best battery packs and the best motors to form our high-end products, and then reduce the cost and performance of the battery packs and motors by 30% to form our mid-range products. If we reduce the cost and performance by more than 50%, With our low-end products, look at how many engines and gearboxes Volkswagen has in total. Most of the models use the same engine. The only difference is the tuning and the level of supporting assemblies."
Having said this, Li Mu added: "Let me give you a more specific example. If we develop a 100 kWh battery pack and a single motor with a power of 200 kW, then we use the 100 kWh battery pack , paired with two 200-kilowatt motors and a long-wheelbase chassis, so we have a high-end model, which we named Tesla S;
Then we reduced the battery pack to 70 kWh, paired it with two 120 kW motors and a mid-wheelbase chassis, and we had a mid-range model, which we named the Tesla E;
Based on the Tesla S, we raised the chassis height and vehicle height, and we have a high-end SUV model, which we named Tesla X;
Based on the Tesla E, we use a 100 kWh battery pack, match it with two 200 kW motors, and select the rear-wheel drive mode. We have a sports model, which we can name Tesla GT. ;
If there is demand in the market, we can put a 1,000-kilowatt-hour battery pack into the chassis of the bus and pair it with two 200-kilowatt motors, and we will have a new energy passenger model... "
Only then did Elon Musk understand why Li Mu called himself a fool. He said to Li Mu awkwardly: "Mr. Li, I understand what you mean. It's because my thinking mode is too narrow. I always feel that everyone's attitude toward cars Demand is just like the demand for Internet products. One YY product can cover almost all users. If Tesla achieves its ultimate goal, it can become popular around the world like YY. But I have overlooked one point. Car manufacturing and Internet products The difference is that most Internet products are free, while the automobile industry must fully consider the spending power of users from different classes, but I just want to build one.”
Li Mu nodded and said: "What I just said is based on the laws of modern industry. There are some things that I am not satisfied with you about. In addition, there is another point that I am also a little disappointed with."
Elon Musk hurriedly asked him: "Mr. Li, if you are still dissatisfied with anything, please point it out directly without being polite."
Li Mu nodded and said: "I support you in developing new energy, not to show our differences, nor to subvert the traditional automobile industry, but to convey the advantages of new energy to the world through successful cases of new energy: low cost , clean, environmentally friendly and renewable, making people aware of the advantages of clean energy, thereby gradually abandoning traditional cars and reducing pollution and emissions."
At this point, Li Mu changed the subject and said: "But, I just discovered that you actually don't think so in your heart. Although you want to make a new energy vehicle, all you want to do is build an awesome one." For new energy vehicles, what you want is to use new energy to make the car go faster. What you want is to have the world shocked by you, to have elite groups around the world flock to you, and to have people all over the world give thumbs up and praise you. Ron Musk has built a battery-powered super car, but apart from his personal reputation, what other universal value does this really benefit society? To put it bluntly, you are just showing off."
"If according to your idea, the unit price of the new energy vehicle you build is probably more than 100,000 US dollars, and such an expensive price can only be reduced to a plaything of a few wealthy people, then the reason why we have worked so hard to develop new energy vehicles is to What? Is it to tell the world that new energy is something only rich people can play with and has nothing to do with ordinary people?"
(End of chapter)