71: Yangtze River Battery

In the end, Chen Chen named this battery the Yangtze River Battery, though there was an even better name—the Thor Battery.

Chen Chen felt that this battery was merely an improvement, and using such a powerful name on it would be a bit of a waste.

When his own electric vehicle batteries went online, he would definitely use the name Thor.

Red Star Electric Cars with Thor batteries—just tell me, isn't that awesome!

As for what Lei Jun might think, what does that have to do with me?

Unfortunately, no matter how much this battery was improved, it was still a pouch cell and couldn't be applied to new energy vehicles.

Everyone knows the dangers of pouch cells; if put in an electric car, if one battery pack has an issue...

The scene would definitely be comparable to TNT!

For new energy vehicles, steel-cased batteries are still a must!

With Chen Chen's current cognitive abilities, the optimal solution is solid-state batteries.

With solid-state batteries, a car could travel over a thousand kilometers on a single charge and then be fully recharged in a short time; only then would the market choose new energy vehicles without needing a government push.

"Sigh! Why couldn't I have transmigrated a few days later, so I could see the structure of solid-state batteries?"

"At least I could have given these Engineers some direction."

Chen Chen couldn't stop feeling frustrated in his heart.

When he transmigrated, Douyin was full of news saying solid-state batteries were about to enter mass production, but he never got to see it happen before he left.

As for the technical principles and internal structure, he was completely ignorant.

He only knew that the internal electrolyte was replaced with a solid, so that after long-term use, even if lithium dendrites formed and pierced the separator, no fire or explosion would occur.

Because the electrolyte is solid.

"Xiao Zhang, the development of batteries is extremely important for Red Star."

"Manager Lu is still coordinating some Engineers. I plan to allocate this entire floor to you, and at the same time, separate fast charging from batteries to establish a dedicated battery research group for you."

"Thank you, President Chen. Having the batteries and fast charging in one lab is indeed a bit crowded right now. I was planning to submit a report to CEO Lu in the next few days."

Chen Chen turned to Lu Weiqi beside him and said:

"CEO Lu, you'll be responsible for following up on this. I'm already communicating with the government about the site issue. We still have some vacancies in the industrial park, so I plan to apply to build two more experimental buildings."

"Alright, President Chen, I will follow up on this."

The battery patent had already been approved. Since there were no major conflicts with other companies, the Legal Department's biggest use right now was applying for patents.

This time, the battery technology applications weren't just for Chinese patents, but for global patents as well.

And then there was the full-screen display.

A series of design patents had also been applied for.

Things like waterdrop notches, and left, right, or center-aligned punch-hole screens.

Notch screens and pill-shaped screens as well.

Chen Chen looked forward to seeing what other manufacturers would look like when they wanted to make various types of front-facing cameras after his full-screen phone hit the market.

In his previous life, he had been attacked by Xiaomi's Legal Department. Now that Red Star had its own Legal Department, they would have a contest and see if Xiaomi's Legal Department was more powerful or if his Red Star Legal Department was superior!

After Yang Tuo officially joined Red Star, Yu Chengbei slammed the table in his office for the first time.

Huawei had finally almost finished negotiations with Yang Tuo, but they never expected Red Star to snatch him away.

"Are you all useless?! How could he be poached by Red Star right under your noses?"

"We went back and forth for months! Which of the conditions he asked for did I not agree to?!"

Looking at the fuming Yu Chengbei, Shen Jiang, the manager who had been in constant contact with Yang Tuo, felt a bit aggrieved.

He wanted to manage the brand—agreed.

He wanted full responsibility for Huawei's marketing—also agreed.

The salary offered was also at the top of the industry.

One could say he was full of sincerity.

But Yang Tuo still chose Red Star; what could he do?

"President Yu, it is indeed true that we didn't do our job well. I admit my mistake."

There was no helping it; a higher rank crushes those below. He was just a small manager, while the other was the head of Huawei's terminals—no, now the head of the reorganized Huawei mobile phone business. He just had to listen while being scolded.

"Now, immediately, right this second, go find another top-tier brand marketing lead."

Shen Jiang practically scrambled out of Yu Chengbei's office. This boss usually looked chubby and smiled at everyone, but he didn't expect him to be so terrifying when he lost his temper.

And he wanted him to find another top-tier brand marketing master—where was he supposed to find one!

It was now August, and the third quarter was half over, but Huawei's sales for the first two quarters of the year were not ideal.

They completely failed to meet Yu Chengbei's expectations.

Due to issues with the K2V3 processor in the overseas market, a large batch had been recalled, causing irreversible damage to the Huawei brand.

In the first two quarters, Huawei's global shipments were only a bit over 27 million units, and that was even counting the low-end models made in cooperation with carriers, even models costing only one or two hundred yuan.

Shipments of models over 2,000 yuan barely reached 7 million. On the other hand, the Brand X1, which cost just over a thousand yuan and was called the U8890 internationally, performed very strikingly in the international market.

Compared to the Hongmi Note and shining note domestically, its sales definitely couldn't compete; after being on sale for a month, only 600,000 units had been sold in China.

However, in just one month in the international market, over 1.3 million units had been shipped. The company expected global shipments of this machine to reach the ten-million level.

But even so, total shipments for the entire year wouldn't reach 50 million units.

The reason it could perform so well in the international market was that the thousand-yuan phones made by foreign companies were simply a mess.

Moreover, companies like Red Star and Xiaomi hadn't gone overseas yet and were only performing well in the domestic market. Huawei was the only manufacturer among these few that shipped globally.

As for ZTE and TCL, in Yu Chengbei's view, they weren't worth mentioning. They also had global shipments in the tens of millions, but what kind of products were their main shipments?

They even had feature phones in the mix.

Such manufacturers would eventually disappear into the long river of history and were not worth worrying about.

The only one to be wary of was Red Star. If Red Star went overseas, their products would have very strong product competitiveness in foreign markets as well.

They would be a major rival for Huawei.

But it was too early to say that. Even if Red Star wanted to go overseas, they didn't even have a distribution channel. How could they compare to Huawei?

"Sigh."

Yu Chengbei let out a deep sigh.

Building Huawei's high-end brand was a long and difficult road!

And now they had lost a marketing master like Yang Tuo.

It was even more difficult now.

Furthermore, why wasn't Huawei invited to this Internet Conference?

The Internet and communications you use all have Huawei's shadow, yet they invited Red Star but not Huawei.

"Our Huawei is a technology and manufacturing company. Hmph, I wouldn't even be happy if they classified us as an Internet company."

"If they don't invite us, then they don't invite us."

"I, Old Yu, don't care for it."