Chapter 304: Anxious April

Words : 1886 Updated : Oct 3rd, 2025

"Bro, we’re all fueled up." "Let’s head back to the office first." Lu Liang gave a grunt of acknowledgment, put away his phone, and noticed that NIO and Li Xiang’s WeChat groups both had over 99+ messages. Nobody wanted to wait any longer, just like last year when Douyin exploded in popularity and ushered in the era of influencers, prompting smartphone manufacturers to launch photo-centric phones left and right. With gas prices breaking the seven-yuan mark, it was an excellent time for EV development. Unlike phones, which were replaced every few years, people didn’t change their cars that often—keeping them at least three to five years, if not five to eight. No one wanted to let BYD or Tesla hog the limelight, and didn’t care if they could mass-produce or not; they’d announce their plans first to give consumers options and buy themselves a little more time. For example, if a consumer was considering buying a Mao Dou 3, and suddenly heard that the NIO ES8 and Xiao Peng G3 were about to enter production, they might hesitate and decide to wait and compare cost-performance before making a decision. It was foreseeable that the new energy market would become bustling in April. As soon as Lu Liang returned to the office, he received a call from Hu Weiwei. Wuling was hoping for another authorization from them. The sales of the Hongguang Mini had given Wuling a taste of success, and hungry for more, they planned to launch the Wuling Kaijie and venture into the SUV flagship segment. With fuel cars, there’s the worry of engines and gearboxes lagging behind the times, but for EVs, everyone was starting from scratch; there was no reason why others could sell at high prices but Wuling could not. The Wuling Kaijie aimed to compete with the BYD Song, and this time, they intended to sell it for over 100,000 yuan, shedding their low-end label and going after the mid-range market. "Wuling has really come a long way." Lu Liang clicked his tongue in surprise and said with a smile, "Agreed, we’ll handle all pre-sale and after-sale services for free." He was looking forward to the launch of the Li Xiang One and the NIO ES8; as long as he had enough data support, the development speed of autonomous driving technology would increase even more. In April, the new energy market was a battleground, The battle was tense; as one company finished, another would take the stage. Even Hengchi, which had nothing but a name, forced its way to the table under the First Rich’s strategy of throwing money around. Old Xu made a hefty investment of tens of billions, planning to complete the journey from ’zero to one’ in the field of new energy vehicles within two years. Explosive news followed one after the other. Before the market could digest Hengtai’s investment of tens of billions to enter the new energy market, or even before the reservation channel for the NIO ES8 was opened, Weima, invested by Baidu, sneaked ahead by launching their first mass-produced model, the EX5, and opened reservations. "Our Weima always adheres to the ’technology for all’ concept, focusing on the mainstream segment market of 150,000 to 250,000 yuan..." Tesla was a foreign player, and outsiders were believed to chant sutras better. They couldn’t compete with them, nor did they have the confidence to win. But with BYD Song, they did have the confidence to contend for the mid-range SUV market. The Weima EX5 was priced between 149,800 and 199,800 yuan, aiming squarely at the BYD Song. Weima might not match BYD’s integration of the three electric systems, but with Baidu’s support in electronic control systems, they were far ahead of the market. According to the founder Shen Hun, in the battery domain, they utilized Ningde Era’s lithium iron phosphate batteries, on par with the BYD Song. For electric motors, they featured the latest type of permanent magnet synchronous motors with performance power 60% better than the BYD Song. In electronic control, with Baidu’s widely recognized technology, it wasn’t an overstatement to say they were unmatched in the country for the current period. Not to mention the interior and design, which need no introduction. BYD was notoriously heavy on the plastic feel of their interiors and had lackluster design. In comparison, the Weima EX5 comprehensively crushed the BYD Song. Upon hearing the news, Li Bing didn’t just swear in the group chat; he also ranted on Weibo, "Fuck Weima." NIO and Weima were both based in Modu. Before NIO planned to open their reservation channel on April 5th, Li Bing had personally contacted Shen Hun. He inquired politely whether Weima had any upcoming moves, suggesting that if they did, they should coordinate to space out their actions by a few days to avoid clashing and ensure maximum positive publicity. At the time, Shen Hun profusely assured him that Weima had no plans in early April, only to turn around and stab him in the back. Even though the ES8 and EX5 were in different price brackets, with the price of a Mao Dou 3 in between, their announcement of a starting price at 428,000 yuan the following day—when Weima just announced a starting price of 149,800 yuan for the EX5—was clearly a move to grill them over the flames. Sёarᴄh the ηovelFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Li Bing hurriedly sought out Lu Liang, hoping he would attend the press conference the next day to piggyback off his popularity and prevent the buzz around the ES8 from dying down. "What time?" Lu Liang asked, unable to hold back a chuckle. A starting price of 428,000 yuan was indeed steep, the kind that came with leased batteries at that; choosing the option to purchase a battery would skyrocket the price directly to 579,000 yuan. Li Bing was well aware of the high price, In fact, he did it on purpose. Since NIO’s battery swap stations weren’t widespread yet, they set a high price initially to secure the high-end brand image, aiming to go public in the US as soon as possible. Once listed and funded, they planned to aggressively build more stations and gradually lower prices to seize the market. The market was new, everyone was feeling their way through, and it wasn’t certain that NIO’s strategy wasn’t the right one, which is why the investors let Li Bing proceed in this manner. "Be at the National Sports Center by 1:30 PM tomorrow; it’s best to arrive half an hour early." Li Bing’s brows relaxed into a wide, happy smile. With Lu Liang present, there was no need to worry about lacking exposure; and just in case he took a sudden fancy, he might even predict a hundred billion US dollar valuation for NIO. That would be insanely awesome. "See you tomorrow." The corners of Lu Liang’s mouth lifted in a mischievous grin, thinking Li Bing’s ideas weren’t bold at all. [NIO’s market value on November 1, 2021, was 98.3 billion US dollars.] Not quite a hundred billion, but infinitely close. "The year 2021! Four years from now." As time passed, Lu Liang received more and more messages. Although fragmented, their sheer volume provided him with an outline of what the future market would look like. If it weren’t for his presence, the domestic new energy market was supposed to pick up momentum between the years 2020 and 2021. That’s why there was Ningde’s one trillion market value, Tesla’s 1200 billion US dollars, and NIO’s 98.3 billion US dollars. At the current time point, that might be moved up, depending on when Ningde’s market value broke one trillion. Although not entirely accurate, It could still serve as a reference standard. The next afternoon, just after one, Lu Liang arrived at the National Sports Center half an hour early. As soon as he appeared, reporters raised their cameras and lenses to aim squarely at him, a sight he had grown accustomed to. Yet, he still wasn’t used to being overshadowed in his own presence; behind him, a commotion arose, and a tide of cameras suddenly shifted, aiming at someone behind him. Curiously he looked back, his face reflecting sudden realization; he stopped and waited for a moment before asking with a smile, "Why didn’t Mr. Liu come?" Milk Tea Girl, born in ’93, had bore Qiangzi a daughter last year, securing her seat as JD’s lady boss and often representing Qiangdong at various events, a true protagonist in uplifting fiction. By comparison, Lu Liang, born in ’85, was an old guy who had stepped out from behind the scenes and whose mysterious aura had vanished. "Mr. Lu, hello. Qiangdong had to go on a business trip to Shenzhen and couldn’t make it back today," Milk Tea Girl said cheerily, her demeanor graceful. "Mr. Zhang, please." "Mr. Lu, after you." Both, under the staff’s arrangement, entered the conference hall for the release event, their seats divided by only an aisle. "Mr. Lei, it’s been a long time." The release conference was boring, with some time left before the official start. On Lu Liang’s left was Milk Tea Girl and on his right was Lei Jun; chatting to pass the time with a married woman wasn’t quite appropriate. He could only exchange a few off-hand remarks with Mr. Lei, who responded with a smile, "Mr. Lu, it really has been a long time since we last met in Beijing." He added, "I’ve heard your recent trip to Tokyo was very fruitful." "Not bad," Lu Liang replied with a smile. The larger a corporation got, the fewer secrets it could keep, and who knows where the news came from—that Mitsui Sumitomo’s investment department had gone long on Brent Crude Oil and had raked in over a billion US dollars overnight. At that same time, Lu Liang was in Tokyo, warmly hosted by Mitsui Sumitomo. And coincidentally, on the first of the month, Tianxing Private Equity updated its net worth, deducting Tesla’s gains, and it seemed they had made a few more billion US dollars. One coincidence is happenstance, two can barely be called coincidental, but three? Surely, that’s no coincidence. Such impressive record naturally was attributed to Lu Liang, and the private equity investors no longer brought up redemptions. Lu Liang glanced at the stage and, shifting the subject, asked, "Who’s that female host?" For this release event, not only did Li Bing personally attend, but he had also hired a female host to emcee. She seemed professional, and yet not, and Lu Liang vaguely felt that her relation to Li Bing was a little odd. Mr. Lei, speechless, had not yet spoken when Milk Tea Girl chuckled from the side, "Mr. Lu, you’re right. Miss Wang is Mr. Li’s wife and also a host for the China Central Television." Lu Liang had an epiphany but didn’t delve further into conversation. He really disliked the look of Li Bing’s wife; not only did she resemble Chinese-American women, but her behavior and manners did too. Big open-mouthed, teeth-showing exaggerated smiles—none of it seemed genuine, but rather contrived, which put him off. But after all, she was someone else’s wife.

Chapter 304: Anxious April

Comments (0)