novelsite Chapter 623 has a good name.
Chapter 623 has a good name.
Chapter 623 has a good name.
Industrial land available at only one-tenth the market price.
Long-term, low-interest loans of tens of billions of RMB with annual interest rates as low as 3.9%...
The preferential conditions that the Shanghai super factory obtained, which are the envy of domestic competitors, did not come without a price.
In addition to the requirement of localizing parts production, Tesla also needs to invest RMB 140 billion in capital at its Gigafactory over the next five years.
Furthermore, since 2023, it has been paying at least 22.3 billion RMB in taxes to Shanghai annually…
Originally, this was a win-win agreement.
Tesla has boosted local employment and the high-end new energy vehicle industry chain in Shanghai.
At the same time, it can also introduce a super catfish for domestic competitors, stimulating technological progress in China's new energy sector.
For Tesla, Shanghai serves as a window to access China's vast consumer market.
Furthermore, it can leverage China's strong industrial capabilities to accelerate production capacity expansion and rapidly seize global market share...
However, even Shanghai itself did not expect that right after signing this agreement, Suzhou, which is only one city away from them, would so coincidentally see the rise of a new energy behemoth!
Tesla believed that behind the opened window lay a boundless user base and a blue ocean of opportunity.
But to his surprise, as soon as he peeked out, another person appeared on the opposite side, looking exactly like him, staring greedily at the world outside the window...
Musk couldn't resist picking up the "daily sales report" he had just compiled.
Looking at the blue bars on the statistical report that were gradually decreasing, I felt my brow throbbing wildly.
The production capacity of both companies is concentrated in areas that are almost adjacent to each other, and both Idol's "Eight Beans Series" and Tesla's "Edamame Series" are advanced autonomous electric vehicles.
From the very beginning, the two companies' products were in natural competition, a true clash of titans!
As Aidou New Energy's autonomous driving technology continues to be validated among users, the "Badou Series" has become incredibly popular, and production and sales are exploding at an astonishing rate.
The first to be affected is Tesla's edamame series.
Not only have new orders plummeted, but even those who had already placed orders and were waiting in line to pick up their cars are now desperately canceling their orders.
L4 versus L3 autonomous driving... the market is clearly voting with its feet.
To make matters worse, their Shanghai mega-factory is only half-built.
This competitor has already taken the lead, relying on a more flexible distributed supply chain and assembly lines based on modular design, and is expanding rapidly across multiple locations, increasing production at an astonishing pace...
Both parties initiated the project at almost the same time, but now they only need to modify their old production line to produce tens of thousands of new models per month...
Thinking of this, Musk couldn't help but stand up and say.
"You can continue. I need the competitive impact analysis report for Ark One before I leave work today!"
He left the others to continue their discussion, while he drove to an empty factory building within the factory area.
At this point, the area was filled with hundreds of car parts of all sizes, neatly categorized and stacked in designated areas, each labeled with a number.
There were more than a dozen engineers on site taking photos and making records.
Not far away, you can still see several cars that have been dismantled and are now just half-frames, and there's even a car whose front end is completely crushed...
Yes, without exception, these are all among the first batch of "Eight Beans Series" models recently introduced to the Americas.
As the saying goes, "Know yourself and know your enemy," they are secretly disassembling and analyzing their competitors' car products...
"How's it going?" Musk asked one of the overweight, middle-aged engineers.
"Oh! Of course, boss. It's going very smoothly. These guys are easier to dismantle than we thought. The overall dismantling and analysis is almost 80% complete, and we should have a full analysis report by tomorrow."
The middle-aged engineer saw the visitor and pointed to the large and small piles of parts in front of him.
"However, I've worked in this industry for most of my life and I've never seen a car design like this before. It's like they're playing with building blocks. And in some places, they even used the classic mortise and tenon structure from ancient China."
The disassembly process was like playing with their Luban lock.
If it weren't for the fact that all the car design drawings were open-sourced on their official website, we would have been at a real loss for a while.
What's outrageous is that the opponent's structure and rigidity did not decrease as a result, and its performance in frontal impact tests was comparable to our Maodou series.
Musk frowned.
In terms of modular design, the Eight Beans series and the integrated die-casting design of their Edamame series each have their own advantages and disadvantages.
Their integrated die-casting design significantly accelerates overall production efficiency while minimizing the number of parts.
At the same time, it significantly improved the structural strength and overall rigidity of the vehicle body.
The downsides are that the product manufacturing process is concentrated, resulting in high subsequent maintenance costs, and the expensive die-casting molds limit the diversity of vehicle models.
Therefore, the Maodou series currently only offers three models: "Maodou S", "Maodou 3" and "Maodou X".
The modular design of the Eight Beans series is even more flexible and versatile.
Not only can production lines be distributed, but each factory or supplier can be responsible for a module, and finally, they can be assembled in a modular fashion.
This is equivalent to breaking down a complete car assembly line into multiple independent sub-assemblies.
Furthermore, each sub-production line can also utilize integrated die-casting technology to save costs and time.
Even the car models can be freely assembled and changed, with many of the modules being compatible with various car models.
This allows them to flexibly adjust product types and production capacity according to market demand, and even provide customized services based on customer needs.
This is also the main reason why Idol New Energy was able to launch eight models at once.
The biggest drawback of modularity is often the lack of body rigidity, making it easy for the car body to "fall apart in a collision".
However, the engineer now tells him that, through clever design, they've made their weaknesses comparable to their strengths...
If I remember correctly, they said at the press conference that these car designs were created with their AI assistance.
So... it was Pigsy who designed the Eight Beans?
And then he outshone the world's best car designers?
Indeed, the gap between humans and computers is truly enormous...
Even he finds it hard to imagine the speed at which AI is developing.
However, such an analysis undoubtedly made the situation even worse.
With no weaknesses and modular design, the production capacity of the Badou series can ramp up exceptionally quickly.
After all, the final assembly line doesn't require much technology, nor does it need massive resources or a large floor area.
As long as there are enough suppliers, they can rely on China's strong industrial base to quickly add several, or even a dozen, final assembly lines...
This is exactly the same approach used by the military-industrial complex during World War II.
If necessary, the entire nation can be mobilized: you produce the chassis, and I produce the turret.
Finally, tanks rolled off the assembly line like dumplings being dropped into boiling water, forming a despairing torrent of steel...
And now, he is experiencing that despair.
These "Eight Beans Series" products, which are being rushed off the production line, are not only consolidating their market share in China, but also snatching away future customers that should belong to them.
Moreover, it also relies on ports around Shanghai such as Yangshan, Zhoushan, Gaoqiao, Luojing, and Wusong.
At a rate of several thousand vehicles per month, small-batch exports began to Southeast Asia, Europe, and even the Americas.
This was supposed to be their sales strategy...
Idol New Energy has exhausted its path, so naturally, they have nowhere left to go!
Although so far it has not had a major impact on their main overseas markets.
But everyone understands that this is simply because most of the other party's production capacity was absorbed internally by China.
Once the other party's production capacity ramps up, these small-scale exports will become their stepping stones.
It's entirely possible to shift from the stage of tentative exports and exploring trade routes to a stage of large-scale dumping at any time...
The market is only so big, and the number of potential customers is limited.
Given this trend, if Tesla's technology cannot break through in a short period of time, then forget about competing for the Chinese market, it will be difficult for them to even hold onto their overseas markets in the future.
The performance-based agreement they signed with such confidence at the time could very well become a sword of Damocles hanging over their heads now…
After all, if the cars don't sell and the performance-based agreement isn't fulfilled, not only will the land be forcibly reclaimed, but the billions of RMB they've already invested in the super factory will also become a huge sunk cost!
"Sigh!" The man known as Iron Man sighed helplessly.
He didn't think his investment plan in the super factory was a strategic mistake; he just never expected that someone in the world could make such a leapfrog technological breakthrough.
Including the sudden emergence of Ark 1...
His company is named Tesla in honor of Nikola Tesla, the father of alternating current, a pioneer of science who was considered unscientific.
Now, it seems that the other side has a peerless prodigy comparable to Tesla... the Witcher!
Even the most outstanding and strategically visionary entrepreneurs can only lament their bad timing when faced with a player who plays by the rules so unpredictably…
If possible, he really wanted to visit this legendary figure in person.
Hmm... I'll also try to see if I can poach them by relying on my grand vision for the future.
However, this thought only flashed through his mind for a moment before he rejected it.
Such a talent, not to mention the possibility of him joining a foreign company, even if he were to successfully persuade them, China would probably immediately come after him with a vengeance...
He shook his head with a self-deprecating laugh.
Having composed himself, he now faces a difficult decision.
They can either continue to advance the super factory plan while increasing R&D investment, striving to close the technological gap between the two companies in the shortest possible time and regain market favor!
Either... abandon the super factory plan and cut your losses in time!
Losing hundreds of millions of dollars is certainly painful, but knowing that they can't compete, they still stubbornly crash into the other party's home turf.
It serves no purpose other than to continue widening their losses; it will only hasten their demise...
What troubled him even more was that all of this was just a coincidence in business competition.
Or was this a precise attack by Shanghai in collaboration with their idol's new energy strategy?
After all, he had just signed the bet, and then Idol New Energy rose to prominence. It was just like... what was that old Chinese saying again?
Oh, right... close the door and beat the dog!
As for the motive... could it be that his Starlink system has seriously threatened China's strategic security, so he deliberately dug a big pit to kill himself?
"By the way, boss, we also found this during the disassembly process."
Just as Musk was frowning in thought, the middle-aged engineer brought over another box.
Several small, blue-encapsulated components, each about the size of a fingernail, lay quietly inside.
The surface of the component is also engraved with the character "甲" in clerical script...
"what is this?"
"If nothing unexpected happens, it should be the optical chip 'A' that's been so popular in China recently."
In the other party's vehicles with advanced intelligent driving capabilities, this AI chip, which has never been seen before, is installed.
I think the reason why the other party's autonomous driving performance is so powerful is probably related to this new chip.
Musk picked up the box, looked at the iridescent patterns on the surface of the chips inside, and frowned.
Not only can they not compete with autonomous driving systems and car design, but they also have groundbreaking innovations in computing power...
How can we fight them now?
"I need to go see a friend. I'll take these chips with me first..."
"Good boss!"
……
after an hour.
Jason Huang, a man of Chinese descent, raised an eyebrow slightly as he looked at the pieces of armor Musk handed him.
"So, they've already applied it to advanced autonomous driving?"
It seems that the AI algorithm processing performance of this 'A' is even stronger than I imagined..."
"Oh! So you guys are also paying attention to it?"
"Of course, its appearance can be said to have destroyed more than a decade of our efforts in an instant..."
Invista is a name that gamers are certainly familiar with.
This company focuses on GPU research and development, and its RTX series gaming graphics cards can be said to dominate the market.
Moreover, it has been making early investments in AI chips in recent years, and its CUDA platform has attracted millions of developers, forming a strong technological ecosystem barrier that is almost insurmountable for other competitors.
Under normal circumstances, it will have a status similar to a "shovel supplier" in the upcoming AI gold rush era, becoming a top player that cannot be ignored worldwide.
However, the emergence of optical chips, with their ultra-low energy consumption and training costs alone, completely crushes all the advantages of traditional electronic chips!
A consensus has emerged among mainstream scholars that optical chips will inevitably replace traditional chips and become the computing power foundation of the AI era.
"The situation is already so dire, don't you have any countermeasures? If my intelligent driving system lags behind in terms of computing power, it will be even more impossible for it to surpass the opponent."
Jason Huang's eyes flickered for a moment before he finally spoke.
"Of course there are countermeasures. In fact, just two days ago, the other party published all the patents related to the optical chip 'A'."
The process isn't important; we're currently communicating with higher-ups and hope to obtain their patent license to produce our own optical chips.
"Oh? That's great!"
"I don't think so... Alas! Thanks to it, the technological ecosystem barriers we've painstakingly built are now useless."
Even our next-generation chip project, 'Black Well,' has been forced to abruptly halt; it's an amazing chip…
"Old technologies will always be replaced by new technologies; this process is unavoidable."
I need some capacity to experiment with new algorithms.
Oh, by the way... what are you going to call your optical chip?
"I haven't decided yet, but... what do you think of 'Black Light'?"
"Hmm...not a bad name!"
(End of this chapter)