Chapter 208: This is not a surprise, it is a joke

When Keleqi regained consciousness, what he saw were several familiar faces.

"Mr. Keleqi, you are awake."

His subordinate asked with concern from the side.

Several others also turned their heads to glance at him; some offered concerned greetings, some remained silent, and others were on their phones.

Keleqi blinked his eyes, looked around, saw the familiar environment of the luxury private room, and his consciousness gradually returned to clarity, slowly recalling what had happened before he fainted.

"Mr. Keleqi, you just fainted for a few minutes. I have already called an ambulance; it should arrive soon, so please do not move for now."

His subordinate continued to say.

Keleqi, however, ignored his own body and grabbed the subordinate's wrist, subconsciously using all his strength, to the point that the young and strong subordinate felt obvious pain.

He stared fixedly at the subordinate, as if a drowning person had seen a straw to save their life, and asked with eyes full of hope:

"There is no such thing as an upgraded version of the Thor Battery; it must be that I remembered wrong, or you were joking on purpose, right?"

In our view, that is something only poor companies in backward regions would do.

"Tell me! Isn't that right?!"

Keleqi waved his hand, signaling the blond young man to step down. The latter nodded to show he understood, then exited the private room and pulled the door shut heavily.

The most critical point is that taking the path of extreme cost-effectiveness means the profit margins are very thin. In the future, one could only earn a bit of hard-earned money, and it is estimated that one would have to find ways to cut worker benefits and shrink various expenses to make the company's profits as high as possible.

Keleqi turned his head to look at that person and muttered, "Then why was there no news before? We didn't even hold a press conference for this?"

"If you cannot make up your minds, then go back and wait for the board of directors to make a decision, and we will discuss it together again. The Zeus Battery belongs to everyone, and everyone's strategic planning should be synchronized; that is the only way to benefit everyone's development."

Originally, if our eight major car companies hadn't been tossing about and had obediently cooperated with Tianqi Group like other car companies, following Tianqi Group to drink some soup, perhaps we couldn't have recreated our past glory, but at least we could have survived steadily.

If everything were as we envisioned, the funding problem could be easily solved.

But with the existence of labor unions, we would likely have a lot of trouble cutting wages and benefits.

Everyone wore a look of hesitation.

Others also turned their heads to look over one after another.

"Unless we focus on the high-end market."

Just like how people in Long Country used to chase after famous brands like Junma and Feichi; with the same configuration, even spending an extra one or two hundred thousand didn't matter.

"You go out first. If the ambulance comes, let them wait; I will check later."

"Moreover, as long as we ensure the new energy company is operating normally, we can still apply for policy support."

Saying this, Niusike turned around, preparing to leave.

It is not that no one thought of this point.

Furthermore, such a failed investment is also extremely bad news for the stock market, which will certainly cause the stock price to plummet further.

Unless...

His voice was already hoarse, and there were specks of blood on his collar and chest, coupled with a twisted, somewhat ferocious expression, making him seem to carry an aura of wanting to devour someone.

"Should tomorrow's press conference still be held?"

Instead, it exhausted all vitality.

Right now, the news about Thor I might not have spread yet. Once the company shareholders know that we previously invested so much money, yet only developed a backward product, they will surely be furious, and my position might not even be secure.

It's just that this method of competition does not mean just one or a few car models taking the path of extreme cost-effectiveness, but rather that the entire company must comprehensively pursue a high-end strategy.

Keleqi and the others all knew in their hearts that once the focus is placed on the high-end market and the path of extreme cost-effectiveness is taken, it will further deepen the users' existing impression. Changing users' perception later to return to the high-end market will be as difficult as ascending to heaven!

But what about now?

"We have already reached the point of life and death, yet we are still putting on airs, still thinking it is the situation of technological leadership from the past?"

We had excitedly made appointments with the media beforehand, saying we were going to hold a grand press conference to set off a new trend across the world.

That person looked at Keleqi hesitantly before speaking softly:

Keleqi and the other executives turned their heads to look, only to see that the person speaking was none other than the founder and CEO of Lates, Niusike.

Besides our eight major car companies, will anyone else consider using the Zeus Battery?

The blond young man was stunned by his appearance for a moment, and for a time, he didn't know how to speak.

Although the advent of the Zeus Battery broke the Thor Battery's market monopoly, it is of great significance to various countries and major car companies.

At this moment, a voice came from the crowd.

Now the mainstream of the world is Long Country cars, and the high-end technology is the Thor Battery; so what if one spends a few tens of thousands more?

Yet we eight major car companies are making a big splash releasing the obviously much more backward Zeus Battery?

In these years, we have grown accustomed to the days of being high and mighty, making money; we only needed to tell stories and show off our brand, and those people in backward regions would wave large amounts of cash, chasing after our products with faces full of excitement and longing.

Hearing this, the others looked at each other.

"My opinion is to lower our posture and pursue a high-end strategy, survive first, and then plan for the future. As for you all, go back and discuss it yourselves."

Niusike snorted disdainfully.

"After all, the Zeus Battery is only completely backward in performance parameters and other aspects; in essence, it is still a solid-state battery. Its core safety and high/low-temperature stability are not much different from the Thor Battery, so it is not impossible to compete with it."

But once it enters the mid-to-low-end market, a gap of twenty or thirty thousand Long Coins, in the absence of core technology and brand power, does not seem very important in the eyes of many people.

The capital chain of the Junma company is already showing signs of trouble; now they are just hoping that the release of the Zeus Battery can make the company's stock price rebound, make the shareholders optimistic, and continuing to increase capital is not impossible.

Even though we have been gradually retreating in front of Long Country cars for more than a year, we never thought about lowering profits too much, relying only on cost-effectiveness to make money.

"After all, those who specifically hold press conferences are basically products that subvert the industry. Although Thor I is powerful, it is only an upgrade based on the Thor Battery; for Tianqi Group, this product might not be considered very important."

"... We just felt that the upgraded version of the Thor Battery wasn't worth holding a special press conference for."

But all this tossing about of ours.

Tianqi Energy nonchalantly posted an announcement on its official website, announcing the launch of the Thor I, which is far more powerful than the Zeus Battery.

It is simply a laughingstock to the whole world!

One of them sighed heavily and said: "It's true, Tianqi Energy Company has indeed released an upgraded version of the Thor Battery; they have named it the Thor I battery."

Worth it!

At the mere thought of those things, Keleqi only felt the future prospects were bleak.

What other bad surprises could there be?

Even for us four major automakers, if we use Zeus Battery, we will have no competitiveness in the market; not only will that not help the promotion of Zeus Battery, but it will instead drag down the automotive industry.

But if no one uses it, what does it matter how great the significance of the developed Zeus Battery is?

Because by then, everyone will have a perception in their hearts—Zeus Battery is low-end, while Thor Battery is high-end.

"Perhaps..."

"Indecisive!"

"The low-end market values cost-performance ratio most; as long as our price is low enough, we can cover up many deficiencies in performance and let us survive very well in the local low-end market."

Entry-level cars priced around 100,000 Long Coins are fine; users mainly value cost-performance ratio, and as long as the overall performance difference isn't too great, price is the deciding factor.

Just like a white-collar worker who thinks they are high and mighty; even if they become unemployed and down-and-out, they won't do the manual labor jobs they once looked down upon.

These words spoke the thoughts in everyone's hearts.

Keleqi suddenly shouted:

"I have said all there is to say, farewell!"

And what about the twelve power battery factories that have just been built? Are we supposed to spend money in vain to maintain them?

They even deliberately kept it a mystery, holding the conference only in the name of Junma Automobile, preparing to wait until the media arrived for everyone to appear together, giving the whole world a surprise and giving Tianqi Energy a shock.

"That can also bring us assistance."

With the problem of the capital chain, compounded by this series of blows, it is even possible for Junma Automobile, with its history of over a hundred years, to go bankrupt from this point on.

If the massive funds invested by our four major automakers to develop Zeus Battery cannot recover their costs, we may face the outcome of bankruptcy.

Qiaoxufen's eyes were blank, he subconsciously loosened his grip, and his whole body, like a deflated ball, leaned powerlessly against the back of the chair.

"Compressing costs to such an extreme, plus the gap in import tariffs, allows our car costs to suppress other automakers locally."

The blond young man was silent for a while.

One of them was full of unwillingness: "Unacceptable! Is it possible that we can only be like those Asians..."

This kind of gap made him feel completely desperate.

"For the same low-end car, a Long Country car costs 110,000, but if ours only costs 80,000, even if the battery isn't as good as theirs, so what?"

Otherwise, if the financial report data doesn't look good, it is a disaster in itself for our few major automakers.

Niusike looked at everyone and continued: "As things stand, we have no way back; we can only go to the extreme on the low-end route to possibly find a way to survive."

Niusike paused his feet.

At this time, another person suddenly asked:

The others were also stunned for a moment.

The four major automakers had almost exhausted their foundations to barely develop an outdated product, only to be completely crushed in front of Qiaoxu No. 1.

But it just so happens that problems have arisen now.

But in the capital market, no one cares about its illusory significance; they only care about whether it can bring actual benefits.

Users in other countries are the same.

"It will still be popular."

The Qiaoxu No. 1 that struck him to the point of vomiting blood is indeed not worth mentioning to Tianqi Group.

"The new energy company was established by our joint venture; although it is also a separate company, we can first ignore its profitability and supply our four major automakers at cost price."