Chapter 72: This Is Disrupting the Market

The people at the scene began to guess enthusiastically.

Netizens in the live stream were also frantically spamming the chat.

Several executives from Hengde Era also had their attention drawn by Su Xin's words and began to guess the supply price of the Thor Battery.

"With our mature production lines, combined with large orders to lower supply chain costs, and excellent yield rates, the final pure production cost is already close to 500 yuan per kilowatt-hour."

"Considering that we need to recoup huge R&D investments, ensure appropriate profits for subsequent R&D, and guarantee enough profit for shareholder dividends to provide good financial reports, pushing the supply price down to 700 yuan per kilowatt-hour is about the limit."

"In my opinion, for the mass production of a new technology like Solid-state Battery Technology, the production cost alone must be at least around 800 yuan per kilowatt-hour. If you consider the initial R&D investment, subsequent re-development, and enough profit for expansion, their pricing must reach at least 1,000 yuan or more."

"At such a price, it is nearly half as expensive as ours. Calculating based on 60 kilowatt-hours for a pure electric vehicle, the cost of the battery alone is 18,000 yuan more expensive than ours."

Another executive also spoke up:

"It's more than just that much more expensive."

"Don't forget, Solid-state Battery is a new technology, and people's basic impression of it is ultra-long range. Therefore, if Su Xin wants to make the Solid-state Battery an instant hit, he will definitely use the gimmick of long range and set the range to over 1,000 kilometers; otherwise, people's first impression will be that the so-called Solid-state Battery is nothing special."

"According to the more excellent energy consumption control systems currently on the market, a range of 1,000 kilometers requires at least a large 130 kilowatt-hour battery, and its cost is 26,000 yuan, which is nearly 40,000 yuan more expensive than ours."

"Such a price gap is enough to make the vast majority of people shrink back."

"That's right, all sales or demand ultimately depend on price. If the price is too high, no one will want even the best things."

"Conversely, as long as the price is right, even if it is not the most cutting-edge technology, it can still capture the market."

Seeing the enthusiastic reaction at the scene and the intense discussion in the live stream chat, Su Xin smiled.

"It seems everyone is indeed quite concerned about the price issue, so I won't keep you in suspense any longer. Please look at the big screen, everyone."

As Su Xin said this, he stepped aside to one side of the podium while pressing the remote control in his hand.

On the big screen, the question marks behind the words "Thor Battery" slowly became blurred, and the font slowly faded until it disappeared.

The next moment.

Several shining numbers suddenly appeared where the four question marks had been.

Seeing this string of numbers, the entire venue was instantly stunned.

Su Xin smiled and said: "You read that right, everyone. The supply price of the Leishen Solid-state Power Battery is 800 yuan per kilowatt-hour!"

"This price is less than 30% more expensive than the current mainstream Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery, and only a little over 10% more expensive than the Ternary Lithium Battery."

"Here, I officially announce that the Thor Battery is officially in mass production starting today. We welcome all domestic and foreign car manufacturers to come and discuss cooperation."

A roar of discussion erupted in the venue.

The live stream chat started spamming frantically again.

Although the vast majority of netizens are not professionals, they could tell from this price that it is only 10% more expensive than the Ternary Lithium Battery, which certainly won't be much more expensive in the terminal market, and this gave many people ideas.

Especially those middle-class potential customers with a car-buying budget of around 300,000 yuan.

Originally, after hearing Su Xin's previous statements, they thought the market positioning of the Thor Battery would be very high, and they would either need to increase their budget significantly to afford it or just give up.

But now.

The Thor Battery is only 10% more expensive than the Ternary Lithium Battery, so it's not much pressure for them. After all, new energy vehicles equipped with Ternary Lithium Batteries on the market today are not too expensive, and one can basically buy one with good performance for 300,000 yuan.

The several executives of Hengde Era were also completely dumbfounded at this moment.

One of them exclaimed:

"How is this possible? The Solid-state Battery Technology was just developed and just put into mass production. How could he possibly achieve a supply price of 800 yuan?"

"Is he planning to lose money to grab the market with a low price? But there's no need for this at all!"

"Even if the Thor Battery is mass-produced, the output won't be very high at the beginning. Even if it were priced at over 1,000 yuan, it would likely be in short supply. The mid-to-high-end market alone is enough for them to eat slowly, so why lower their own profits? Is he crazy?"

"He is completely disrupting the market!"

"This is unfair competition!"

At this time, Ceng Daqun took a deep breath and said with an ugly expression:

"When we were just discussing the pricing, we ignored the most important issue..."

The others fell silent one after another, listening as Ceng Daqun continued:

"That is the R&D cost."

"When we were considering costs just now, we were all accustomed to thinking from the perspective of ourselves or other companies, but we didn't notice that Tianqi Technology is different from ordinary companies."

"When we develop a new technology, the biggest cost is R&D, but the R&D cost for Tianqi Technology is very likely just Su Xin himself."

Hearing this, everyone was stunned.

Ceng Daqun looked solemn as he said:

"I just received intelligence from my secretary that Tianqi Technology acquired Wanhua Energy more than a month ago and renamed it Tianqi Energy."

"Everyone should have some impression of the company Wanhua Energy. It is just a second-tier power battery company in the country. Its technology is neither strong nor weak, and its output is decent, but it has absolutely no advantage in Solid-state Battery Technology. Why did it suddenly develop a full set of Solid-state Battery Technology after being acquired by Su Xin for just over a month?"

"There is only one possibility..."

"This technology was developed by Su Xin alone, and the R&D cost was just the one month he spent, or at the very least, he played a decisive role in it."

"This means that Su Xin has already wiped out a large part of the gap in R&D costs."

"At the same time, he doesn't need to consider cost issues for subsequent R&D investments."

"Yet these two items are exactly our and other companies' largest single costs. Without these two, Tianqi Technology... no, it should be Tianqi Energy, they naturally occupy a huge advantage in costs and can completely wipe out the gap in production costs."

"Once their supply chain is perfected and production stabilizes, their costs might even be lower than ours."

"At that time, it will be a true catastrophe for all of us power battery manufacturers."

The several executives felt their hands and feet go cold.

Previously, they still felt that they had a significant advantage in price and could survive through low-price differentiated competition.

But if the Thor Battery's cost is close to theirs, then they will have no competitiveness at all.

As long as Tianqi Energy continues to expand and increase production capacity, all power battery manufacturers, including Hengde Era, will be wiped out.

Business competition is just that cruel.

Even for a top-tier industry enterprise like Hengde Era, which possesses a market value of trillions, and even if they were once incomparably glorious and sought after by hundreds of millions of people.

Yet once they fall behind, they could be discarded like worn-out shoes by all clients or capital at any moment.