22: Chapter 22 Car Companies' Eyes Are Red with Sour Tears

As the words fell, Zhang Huanli's pupils constricted sharply, and he stood up straight from his chair!

"Say that again!"

"Over 146,000 units!"

Zhang Huanli sucked in a sharp breath. After a long while, he slowly sat back down in his chair.

As the person in charge of Toyota's sales in China for many years, he understood better than anyone what Hongqi's production costs were.

After all, in this industry, one only needed to glance at the configurations and materials to make a fairly accurate guess.

Although he originally thought it wouldn't be very profitable—after all, the production cost alone was nearly 40,000, and adding labor, depreciation, and store costs would surely bring it to over 40,000.

Selling for 45,000?

Was it doing charity?

But when Zhang Huanli learned about the other components of the xiaolong s21, as well as the subsequent sales strategy, he could only sigh and call it a stroke of commercial genius!

Apart from the battery pack, the other configurations on the xiaolong s21 were as cheap as could be!

Coupled with online ordering, it directly eliminated labor and storefront costs.

As for promotion?

Wasn't Zhonglin Automotive's free advertising enough?

This compressed the cost of each car to nearly 40,000!

In other words, for every car Hongqi sold, they could net a profit of 5,000!

It might be a small amount, but they couldn't resist the sheer volume!

This coincided with the marketing strategy adopted by their Toyota.

And it was precisely because of this that their Toyota had been able to remain the hegemon for so many years.

However, didn't his production lines and technical data require costs?

Where did he get so much money?

Zhang Huanli frowned, unable to figure it out.

Soon, he gave up.

Regardless of where the money came from, they had already built it!

And, it was selling very well!

146,000 in sales, even if it was 4,000 per unit...

Over 5 billion!

Damn it!

If you added up Toyota's entire annual revenue, wouldn't it be about the same?

At this moment, Zhang Huanli was suddenly jealous. He felt so bitter that his teeth ached!

Even if you snatched a money-printing machine and ran it for a month, you wouldn't be able to print that much money, right?

This shock—who could withstand it?

Twenty-five days, less than a month.

"Now, immediately notify all senior executives at headquarters. Meeting, emergency meeting!"

"This cold hard cash cannot just be taken by Wang Xiuming alone!"

He had never imagined that new energy vehicles could have such a huge profit margin!

Wasn't it just a plastic shell paired with a battery pack from an electric scooter?

Couldn't anyone do the same?

As long as I build it and start a price war.

I don't believe Hongqi can hold up!

You make 5,000 per car, we make 3,000!

If we don't make money, we can even lose money!

Let's see if Hongqi can handle it!

Such thoughts arose in the minds of many car company bosses.

It was just that many people weren't as crazy as Zhang Huanli.

Especially those car companies that specialized in high-end vehicles; at this moment, they went straight mad.

Twenty-five days, 5 billion!

Damn, even emptying the bank's cash reserves might not yield that much!

Almost all the car company bosses, upon learning this news, turned into red-eyed rabbits.

They had never imagined before that when the price of a new energy vehicle was this low, it could have such high profits.

It was simply absurd!

It was at this moment that all the car companies reached an uncanny consensus.

They all convened senior management meetings.

Grab the money!

This was the only thought in their minds.

Wang Xiuming was unaware of the situation happening at these car companies.

Even if he really knew, there was nothing he could do.

It wasn't like he could hold a knife to their necks and force them to build new energy vehicles, right?

This was just the nature of things. Once a new market was opened up, capital would be like a shark smelling blood—fierce and brutal.

As for Wang Xiuming, he was still at his own factory, watching the finished xiaolong s21s being shipped out.

After a full month of non-stop production, the first batch of 50,000 cars was successfully shipped.

Although a portion of the profits had to be paid to major logistics companies.

More was saved on labor and dealerships.

This was equivalent to direct-to-consumer sales.

All the profits went directly to the manufacturer.

"Mr. Wang, shouldn't our Hongqi Group start setting up offline dealerships?"

Old Jia asked from the side. Now, Hongqi wasn't like before, when they were struggling for scraps and couldn't sell cars, so they didn't need storefronts.

Ever since the xiaolong s21 became a hit online, the marketing department's phones were almost blown up.

Every day, countless people were inquiring, wanting to become Hongqi's offline dealers.

The number was simply too high.

But unfortunately, this kind of matter, which affected the whole situation, could only be decided by Wang Xiuming.

Dealers, 4S stores.

This was something every car company had to go through.

Hongqi naturally had them before, but they were gradually closed down as Hongqi declined.

Now, Hongqi had to expand its sales outlets once again.

This was equivalent to Hongqi's sales network.

Currently, Hongqi only had the xiaolong s21 and the Dongfeng 21a.

But what about later?

As the variety of cars gradually increased, the requirements for after-sales service would only get higher.

Then there must be 4S stores!

The vehicle's after-sales issues must be guaranteed!

This would greatly affect the brand quality of Hongqi.

"Then just announce it. Hongqi plans to rebuild its sales network and is looking for dealers all over the country!"

With the first batch of xiaolong s21s sold, there would inevitably be some quality issues.

This matter was imminent.

Old Jia also understood the importance of this matter and immediately had the marketing department notify all the dealers who had previously expressed interest in cooperating with Hongqi.

And they released the news that Hongqi was looking for dealers to set up 4S stores.

...

Cao Jianyan was somewhat well-known in the Qingcheng automotive industry.

In his early years, he was just an apprentice at an auto repair shop.

Later, he managed to make something of himself and caught the eye of the auto repair shop owner's only daughter.

After that, he went from strength to strength, opening over a dozen auto repair shops.

The annual profits were also gratifying.

But these alone could no longer satisfy Cao Jianyan.

He wanted more.

However, the city he was in and the market space for auto repair shops were already too small.

So, he set his sights on car dealerships.

Unfortunately, in Qingcheng, there were already dealers for major car companies.

Even if he wanted to be one, someone had to step down.

Coupled with some government protection and various overt and covert means, Cao Jianyan was directly excluded.

But now, an opportunity was placed before Cao Jianyan.

By chance, from a friend, Cao Jianyan learned that Hongqi was looking for dealers nationwide.

However, at the time, Cao Jianyan didn't take it to heart.

Hongqi, right? A company about to go bankrupt and be liquidated—who didn't know that?

Was he supposed to drink the northwest wind after becoming a dealer?