Chapter 221 The Mexican Approach

Mu Xin lay on the sofa for an entire afternoon, running through the list of Detroit stamping suppliers in his mind, going over the manufacturing tax exemption clauses in Ohio, and then realized a very basic problem.

He did not have BYD's contact information.

To be precise, he didn't have any channels in China to directly contact BYD's decision-making level.

When he left China, he was just an ordinary student, not a wealthy second-generation, not someone in the venture capital circle, and he didn't know any automotive industry executives, let alone the head of BYD's overseas KD project division.

In the United States, he had used the system to acquire a Power Company, a Water Plant, a Hotel, and theme parks, but these industries were worlds apart from the automotive manufacturing industry over in China.

There was an unbridgeable chasm between his connections back home and the balance on his bank card; the numbers in his account grew every day, but the people he knew remained ordinary folks.

When John walked in, Mu Xin was lying there with his phone resting on his chest.

"Mr. Mu, what... are you busy with?"

"Looking for a phone number, the phone number for the decision-makers of the overseas KD project at BYD's headquarters in Shenzhen..." Mu Xin said listlessly.

John leaned against the doorframe and thought for a moment: "Have you considered going through the Mexico route?"

"The Mexico route isn't safe, and Jessica said it can't be scaled up," Mu Xin said with a bitter smile.

"I'm not talking about sales channels," John walked in and sat on the sofa. "I'm talking about those people at the Mexican border who help Americans buy BYD cars. They don't necessarily just help you buy cars; they surely have the contact information for the dealers."

"BYD has an officially authorized dealer network in Mexico, with stores in Monterrey, Mexico City, and Guadalajara."

"The owners of these stores are local Mexican automotive dealer groups. They are BYD's most direct partners in the Mexican market, and they have the phone numbers of BYD's regional sales managers in Mexico."

"Do you know the dealers in Mexico?" Mu Xin asked, realizing that what John said was indeed a viable path.

"No," John said, "but I know some people who know them."

The people John knew were the ones who used to work in distribution under Patrick Connolly.

After the Connolly Family completely withdrew from Ohio, the secondary distributors and logistics coordinators under him lost their only supplier.

Some had been arrested during Cohen's federal task force crackdown, some had switched to other trades, and others would do any kind of business.

...

Early the next morning, John flew to McAllen, Texas. This border city, located less than 300 miles northeast of Monterrey, Mexico, was one of the busiest land border crossings on the US-Mexico border.

Downtown McAllen didn't have many high-rise buildings. The streets were filled with tire shops, used car dealerships, and small logistics dispatch centers converted from warehouses, and the air was always filled with a layer of dust blown in from the direction of Mexico.

The person John met in McAllen was named Jose Estrada, who previously worked under the Connolly Family, responsible for the westernmost of the three transport lines from the Texas border to Ohio—the same line where those Mexican pathfinders had been intercepted earlier.

On the night Diego Acosta was intercepted by Mu Xin, Jose had been waiting to receive the goods at a motel about forty miles away from the scene.

Jose had heard the entire process of Diego's interception through their encrypted channel, so he was not at all unfamiliar with John.

John asked to meet with Jose, and Jose readily agreed. They met at a Mexican restaurant called "El Toro."

"What are the old guys from Connolly's doing now?" John asked straight away as he sat down.

"Those who are still alive are just trying to find a way to survive," Jose replied with some helplessness.

"After Patrick withdrew, all the lines to Ohio were cut off. What I do now has nothing to do with contraband; I help people buy cars in Monterrey and then transport them here to Texas."

"BYD stores in Mexico have been selling like crazy in the last few months; one out of every three cars is bought by an American."

"My job is to help American buyers find cars in Monterrey, help them drive them across the border, and then hand them over to their designated pickup person. I charge 1,500 per car."

"Is your supply channel just buying cars from Monterrey dealers?" John asked.

"There are two authorized BYD dealers in Monterrey. One is next to an industrial park about a dozen miles north of the city center, and the other is on the main road near the university in downtown Monterrey."

"Both stores belong to the same dealer group, AutoMéxico Premier. This group represents about seven or eight car brands in Mexico, and BYD is their only agent for new energy vehicles."

"The store sales managers have dealt with me many times. They know that the people buying the cars aren't locals, and they also know where these cars will end up, but they don't care," Jose said with a shrug.

"Can you contact the store sales managers?" John continued to ask.

"Not just the sales managers," Jose took a sip of Coke. "Last time they held a media event similar to an open house at the store in the northern district of Monterrey, AutoMéxico's Operations Director attended in person."

"His name is Fernando Celaya, and he is responsible for the dealer operations of the entire BYD brand in northern Mexico. This person is directly under BYD's National Sales Director for Mexico."

"If you don't just want to buy cars but want to establish a commercial relationship with BYD's channels in Mexico, Fernando Celaya should be the highest-ranking person you can currently reach," Jose introduced patiently.

That afternoon, John obtained Fernando Celaya's business phone number.

At John's request, Jose scheduled a business meeting under the guise of being a procurement representative for a Chinese investor who already had an automobile assembly plant in Ohio.

"What kind of investor?" Jose asked, looking up at John before sending the message.

"Just say his name is Mu Xin, a Chinese businessman who has a Power Company and a Water Plant in Ohio, USA. He wants to meet with the top person in charge of BYD in Mexico to discuss procurement."

"Tell him we have our own factory, we have cash, and we have local US business registration records. We don't need loans, we don't need partners; we just need BYD to be willing to sell him the core three-electric systems for commercial vehicle models," John said.

The next evening, Jose sent a message saying the meeting had been scheduled, but it wasn't with Fernando Celaya himself. After reviewing Mu Xin's background information, Fernando had forwarded his request to the Business Development Director of BYD's Mexican subsidiary.

This director was named Carlos Herrera, who was mainly responsible for corporate business at BYD's Mexican subsidiary. After reviewing Mu Xin's information, Herrera expressed a willingness to arrange an online video conference.

John flew back to Oxford Town on the third day. After hearing this news, Mu Xin only asked one question: "Can Herrera make the final decision?"