After chatting with Li Mu, Schwarzenegger couldn't wait to cooperate with Li Mu after taking office.
He expects California to undergo earth-shaking changes under his own rule, with GDP growth, fiscal deficit reduction, unemployment reduction, and increased revenue from foreign trade, finance, tourism and other aspects.
Before talking to Li Mu in detail, although he was very ambitious, he did not have strong confidence. But it was different now. He felt that everything was already close at hand.
Li Mu slept one night at Schwarzenegger's house, and the next day was his inauguration ceremony in Sacramento.
The inauguration ceremony was held at the Sacramento State Government. According to the media, this was the most watched governor’s inauguration in the United States in the past fifty years. More than a hundred Hollywood celebrities and California entrepreneurs attended the ceremony. It is said that even Microsoft, which is headquartered in Seattle, attended the ceremony. Founder Bill Gates was also present to congratulate him.
Some media even ran a headline, saying that this was the Oscars of California politics. For a time, the attention of people across the country was focused on the small city of Sacramento.
Unlike Schwarzenegger who went to the state government early in the morning to prepare for his inauguration, Li Mu had not left Schwarzenegger's villa in Sacramento until noon, as did Celine Dion and his wife who lived in the villa. .
Schwarzenegger's wife stayed specially to entertain the guests at home until the afternoon, and then went to the state government to attend the inauguration ceremony in the evening with Li Mu, Celine Dion and other guests.
There are very few people who know that Li Mu is in the Schwarzenegger family, and Elon Musk is one of them.
In fact, it was Li Mu who notified him in advance and asked him to come to Schwarzenegger's villa to find him in advance.
Li Mu wanted to know from him the current progress of Tesla.
In order to do online takeout in China, Li Mu also specifically asked Tesla's battery pack research and development team to come up with a lithium battery pack design suitable for electric vehicles. This demand has only limited impact on the true strength of this team. It is considered a dimensionality reduction application, so a complete design plan was quickly provided.
Although the concept of new energy is still many years away from being popularized globally, Li Mu still has great hopes and attention for Tesla. This is not because he can make money by selling electric cars in the future, but more importantly, He values the long-term accumulation in the development of new energy vehicles.
Companies like Tesla have been researching electric vehicles since the beginning of the 21st century, almost from scratch, first researching batteries, then battery management, then motors, electronic controls, kinetic energy recovery and autonomous driving. Only with such a strong accumulation can we take the lead in new energy vehicles.
Looking back at the car brands that entered the new energy field after 2015 because of subsidies, Tesla is like a top student who studied hard from kindergarten to a Ph. Semi-literate with a pheasant university degree.
Those companies in later generations can just take a frame, remove the fuel engine, gearbox, and fuel tank, put a bunch of lead-acid batteries in it, and install an ordinary motor, and basically sell it. In Li Mu's opinion, there is no core difference between the car and the electric car for the elderly.
The reason why he wants to invest in Tesla now is that he hopes to accumulate a complete set of technical solutions for new energy vehicles in advance, so that he can ensure that he leads the industry for at least five to ten years.
Toyota's advantage in hybrid power is unparalleled and has never been broken by other car companies. The big reason for this is not that Toyota's technology is difficult, but that Toyota has long established a path consisting of a large number of patents around hybrid technology. A super line of defense.
With Toyota holding a large number of hybrid technology patents, almost no company can develop a set of hybrid technology comparable to Toyota without touching Toyota's patent group.
What Li Mu wants to pursue with Tesla is also such patent barriers.
In his previous life, Elon Musk once successfully established such a patent barrier on Tesla, but he announced that he would make all patents public. Some people praised his generosity, but Li Mu felt that it should be Elon Musk. Sk had no choice but to do so.
Li Mu has always felt that Tesla's biggest failure is that it has been "making cars in the cloud" in the past few years. To put it bluntly, the so-called cloud-made cars cannot be built and can only be imagined.
Elon Musk does not understand the principle of hiding one's strength and biding one's time. The Chinese ancestors said that digging a hole deeply, accumulating food widely, and becoming king slowly are definitely warning words for Tesla.
Tesla has just dug a hole twice and has not saved a few grains of food before showing its determination to dominate. The concept product came out too early, and the follow-up to mass production was too slow. The gap in between, This gives fuel vehicle manufacturers time to compete with Tesla.
This is like two countries declaring war. They issued a declaration of war to the other party ten years ago. Ten years later, before the army has been assembled, the other party has already erected an iron wall waiting for you. Even if you don't go to fight him, he will come to fight. you.
At the beginning, Tesla stood on the opposite side of the entire traditional automobile industry. You can imagine how stressful and difficult it was.
Therefore, Li Mu feels that Elon Musk’s disclosure of Tesla’s patents in his previous life may not have been truly generous, but rather proactively dispersed pressure, attracted allies, and even tempted traditional car manufacturers to defect.
After all, the special situation of new energy vehicles meant that only by lowering the threshold for other companies to build new energy vehicles could the new energy field thrive. Various new energy vehicles continued to come out, and countries continued to pay attention to new energy. All new energy manufacturers Let’s promote and promote new energy together. No matter what happens, we can still build charging piles together.
Otherwise, if Tesla is the only new energy vehicle manufacturer on the market, it may not be able to solve the problem of building charging piles in first-tier cities in developed and developing countries even if it is given twenty years.
However, looking back at Tesla's approach in the previous life, it spawned a variety of junk new energy vehicles, causing a huge waste of resources, which may not be a good thing for the environment.
Therefore, Li Mu feels that if Tesla is controlled by himself, he will never disclose any patent to friends for use as long as it is within the protection period. He is confident enough to allow Tesla to dig deep holes and Accumulate grain widely.
Elon Musk didn't know that Li Mu had already made very long-term plans for the business he was most concerned about. When he came to Schwarzenegger's house to "report his work" to Li Mu, he was still promoting new energy vehicles to Li Mu. some basic concepts.
He told Li Mu that Tesla has made great breakthroughs in the management technology of lithium battery packs. Li Mu nodded and said, "Has the development of supporting high-speed charging technology begun?"
Elon Musk was stunned for a moment.
He looked at Li Mu's eyes, and Li Mu caught the message at a glance, which translated into almost eight words: "Oh, I'll go, you can do it..."
After being stunned for a moment, Elon Musk said seriously: "High-speed charging technology, our R&D team has considered this direction, but we have not yet started investing in vigorous research and development."
Li Mu asked him: "Then your future user positioning is the user's second car, and it is a second car that is difficult to leave the local area."
Elon Musk nodded and said: "Our cars will have a cruising range of about 400 kilometers after mass production. White-collar workers working in the city will generally have a daily commuting distance of no more than 50 kilometers. In this way, this The car can basically work normally for a week and be charged once a week. As long as a charging pile is installed at home, it is basically enough."
Li Mu asked him: "What is the maximum charging power of the charging pile you installed at home?"
Elon Musk said: “According to our current plan, once Tesla cars are mass-produced, they will first provide car owners with the installation service of normal-speed charging piles. The threshold for this set of charging technology is not high, and the power is 5-10 kilowatts per hour. About an hour.”
Li Mu nodded and said, "In this case, it will take about 8-15 hours to fully charge a Tesla sedan with a battery capacity between 80 and 100 kilowatts."
"That's right." Elon Musk said: "It can basically be fully charged in one night."
Li Mu asked him: "What if I want to go to Los Angeles from here? It is said that the distance is five to six hundred kilometers."
Elon Musk said: "It's easy, park your Tesla in your garage, get in your gas car and go out."
Li Mu asked him again: "If you position yourself behind fuel vehicles, how much room for development will you have in the future?"
Elon Musk said seriously: "Mr. Li, in fact, I understand what you said, and we have carefully considered it. In the long run, our development must be to replace rather than supplement fuel vehicles."
After saying that, Elon Musk added: "However, from the current point of view, it is too difficult for us to directly compete with traditional automobile companies, so we need to develop steadily bit by bit."
Li Mu looked at Elon Musk, suddenly a little confused.
Doesn’t this guy have the idea of using Tesla to impact the entire traditional fuel vehicle industry
In this way, he should be constantly adjusting his thoughts while doing it.
No wonder Tesla was pushed out before production capacity was solved.
Li Mu said: "The positioning you give Tesla cars now is like using a fighter jet without the assistance of a tanker."
"In other words, in theory, this car can have a range of 400 kilometers, so the user's maximum activity radius is 200 kilometers. Just like a fighter without tanker assistance, the combat radius is calculated in the same way. Exceeding this activity radius basically means that there is no You can't go back to where you started."
Elon Musk nodded and said: "That is the case at this stage, but our current target users do not have strong demand."
"Our users are positioned as an elite group with high income, high education, and high sense of social responsibility. Just like the Toyota Prius, fuel prices in the United States are so low, and Americans are generally used to large-displacement fuel vehicles. The fuel economy of the Prius really comes down to money. The impact is not big, so it is not liked by most people.”
"Most people don't like the Prius, but it is very attractive to those high-income but environmentally conscious elite groups. You can go to Silicon Valley, Stanford, Harvard, and MIT. Most IT workers and university professors are I like cars with small displacement and low fuel consumption, and have a high degree of recognition for hybrid cars like the Prius. If you take a look, you may think that Toyota has sold all Prius to American Internet companies and universities. "
“So our first-stage target users are the people who drive Prius. Their lives are simple, two points and one line, they have a strong sense of social responsibility, and they pursue energy conservation, emission reduction, and green travel. If we can provide them with a car with a range of three or four hours, A luxury pure electric car with a mileage of 100 kilometers will definitely be very attractive to them.”
Li Mu shook his head and said, "Elon, your eyes are too focused now, which is not good!"
(End of chapter)