He just happened to remember the relationship between the kiwi fruit and the bear factory while chatting about business, so he mentioned it to Robin Li.
Robin Li felt surprised and interesting because this was the first time someone asked him for help for a female star. Normally, people who interacted with him would not be willing to owe him a favor for such a thing.
This favor doesn't seem to be that big of a deal.
In short, Robin Li did not refuse, and called Dr. Gong Yu in front of Lin Yi and briefly explained a few words.
Dr. Gong Yu naturally agreed wholeheartedly, so the visit came about.
After receiving the news from Gu Caiwei, Lin Yi knew that Dr. Gong had finished the work, so he also expressed his gratitude to him.
This matter is over, it's very simple.
So what has Lin Yi been busy with recently, and why did he wander into Robin Li again?
His car was built.
According to Lin Yi's request, he doesn't need a concept car that can be used for PPT bragging, but only a mass-produced car that can really come off the production line.
As the project leader, Shao Yu, with a team mainly recruited by himself, spent a year finally building a car.
In fact, Robin Li was a little disgusted when he first saw this thing.
"Isn't it too... ordinary?"
Robin still spoke in a very reserved manner. Lin Yi guessed that he originally wanted to say he was ugly, but he automatically changed it out of politeness.
Not only does it look very mediocre, but so does its name. Lin Yi hastily called it "Wanli No. 1".
Lin Yi didn't care at all and boasted:
"What you want is this effect. Let me tell you the truth, Robin. Given your background, your aesthetic taste cannot represent the average domestic consumer."
"Of course, I don't forcefully praise the appearance of this car, because appearance was a very low priority consideration when we were developing this car."
"I know that in the current market, especially young people, when buying a car, they place great emphasis on appearance. If the car looks ugly, half of the car will fail in advance."
"So we have no intention of selling the car to them."
"Do you still remember that I said that the biggest advantage of Wanli Travel in building cars is that our first customers will definitely be online ride-hailing drivers."
"For them, a car is first and foremost a productivity tool, not a prop to fill the stage when socializing, or a symbol to express one's own personality."
"So, the biggest feature of this car is its economy. We have put a lot of thought into the purchase cost, use cost, maintenance cost and even depreciation cost, which far exceed the appearance of the car."
"And to tell you the truth, the appearance was designed in such a mature, ordinary, and conventional style because of cost considerations."
Robin Li questioned: "If you compare production costs, can you compare with those traditional brands? Their scale is far larger than yours."
"Not to mention anything else, you have to spend a lot of money to build a new automobile factory, and the annual depreciation and amortization are much higher than others."
Lin Yi smiled and said: "This is a misunderstanding."
"Those traditional brands you mentioned, where they are large in scale, are all oil trucks, so I and many so-called new forces will bet on electric cars."
"So far, there are only a handful of manufacturers that can ship trams on a large scale, and the remaining new forces are not much faster than me."
Lin Yi mentioned only two families.
One company is Tesla in the United States, and basically all new forces are targeting it. It can be said to be the benchmark in the new energy vehicle industry.
There is another domestic manufacturer named B, but it is far from turning around, and its brand image and reputation are far from the previous one.
Lin Yi still remembers that when he was in high school, there was a teacher in the school who would be laughed at by his classmates for driving that brand of car.
Robin Li is aware of these things, but he has no intention of going into details because this is Lin Yi's car-building project, not his.
"Then you came to see me today to see the real car. You shouldn't just let me know your progress, right?"
After laying the groundwork for a long time, now that it has come to this point, Lin Yi no longer talks about it.
"I invited you here. I really have something I want to discuss with you, or I hope to gain your understanding."
"As you can see, the first car we took out was a cost-first choice, so the application of new technologies was relatively restrained."
“The self-driving team we previously worked with was responsible for the intelligent modules of Wanli Travel. We believe that its applicability to this car is very small.”
"The main users of this car are full-time drivers. Driving is their way of making a living. They should not value the level of intelligence."
"Another reason is that I have a detailed understanding of the current team's technical progress and believe that the difference in intelligence level under current conditions cannot reach the level of strong feelings that can affect consumers' purchasing choices."
Robin Li was not in a hurry, because Lin Yi was not a reckless person and he should have an overall plan.
"At the beginning, you proposed it yourself, saying that we would use Wanli Travel's car-making platform to implement our autonomous driving team."
Lin Yi immediately explained: "This promise is still valid."
"We have considered it before and conducted internal discussions and demonstrations, and decided to further subdivide and deepen the car-making strategy."
"The car you see now, Wanli No. 1, is mainly targeted at the online ride-hailing market, but sooner or later we have to face ordinary consumers."
"We thought that the two markets are actually quite different. In order not to interfere with each other, they can be split into two separate brands, or series."
"The vehicle intelligence technology we jointly developed can be put on another series of our models, which is temporarily called Pengcheng 1 internally."
"My vision for Wanli No. 1 is to first familiarize myself with electric vehicles, and then implement the entire process from research and development to production to sales."
"My expectation for Pengcheng 1 is that it can use the best technology to achieve the technological, futuristic and fashionable feel of the tram, among which the level of intelligence can be launched as a highlight."
"My positioning of the second car, Pengcheng 1, is to compete with Tesla's Magic Bean 3."
“The reason why we don’t build more expensive cars is not because we are afraid that we won’t be able to sell them, but I think the company’s technology accumulation is not yet up to that level.”
"When you have enough stuff to show off your skills, it's not too late to create a luxury brand to show off."
Robin Li did not fully agree with Lin Yi's development ideas, but he could not directly interfere with Wanli Travel's car-making choices.
Now that Lin Yi has made his own overall considerations, let time test whether he is correct.
So Robin Li finally expressed his support.
Of course, although Xiong Factory has in-depth cooperation with Wanli Travel, it will not put all its eggs in this basket.
After Robin Li was done with it, Lin Yi took his mediocre "Wanli No. 1" to visit Ma Jack, naturally for the promise he made in Wuzhen.
Two words: Make money!
At this point, Lin Yi's car-making career is about to enter the next step: