Reborn 92's Business Tycoon

Chapter 579: Planning for electric vehicles

After bidding farewell to the Corning Town delegation, the car that took them to the airport was loaded with two large boxes containing two sets of tableware, from pots to bowls, that Corning had given as a gift.

In fact, Feng Yiping casually mentioned that he wanted to buy two sets of their tableware. While wanting to buy it was one thing, saying so was actually a compliment to Corning.

Unexpectedly, Joanna had been keeping it in mind. After he finished talking with Benjamin, he saw the two large boxes that had been packed. 'A little souvenir,' Joanna said with a smile.

Foreign companies also give souvenirs!

Feng Yiping didn't want to take advantage of this small favour – if he was going to take advantage of something, he would take advantage of something big, like the glass project that made him drool, but the other party firmly refused to accept it, so forget it, it's only a matter of a thousand or two US dollars.

To say that a century-old store like Corning is very different from those that have close ties to the government, such as military or oil giants, in terms of their style of doing business, they are much more approachable and gentle.

'Are you so happy that your girlfriend is waiting at home?' Feng Yiping asked Jacob, who was humming a tune.

'Yes,' said Jacob, taking the initiative, 'this is the first time Amy and I have been apart for such a long time,'

He also wanted to ask the young boss if he had been in touch with the girl from Georgetown University, because when he had dropped her off at school that time, it seemed that the two of them were still quite attached to each other, and there was a trend and foundation for developing from ** to multiple night stands.

However, in the end, he didn't mention it, as it was inappropriate for him to pry into his boss's personal affairs.

The last and most important item Feng Yiping inspected was of course the electric car.

However, at the moment, Tesla founder Martin Eberhard is still obsessed with other things and does not show much enthusiasm for electric vehicles.

And Iron Man Musk, who later became an industry pioneer like Steve Jobs, has some similar experiences to Jobs. In September, Mr Musk was also ousted by the company he founded.

To be fair, it was his own fault. The merger between his company and Raffaello Penta's Confinity to form PayPal was not a success, and the company was unstable. The board of directors had to replace the previous CEO and let Musk, who was already chairman, take on the role as well.

But while the internal conflicts in the company were not resolved, he went on a trip to Australia, with a very good reason: the Sydney Olympics were about to start!

Then, while he was away, Lavchen took the opportunity to gain the support of the board of directors and successfully relieved Musk of his duties.

So Mr. Iron Man, this is frustrating!

So who should I turn to?

It's simple, ask Martin Eberhard for guidance.

In fact, the electric car was not only hyped up as high-tech, but also promoted as a responsible, high-quality lifestyle.

Can you imagine, the earliest commercial electric vehicle was actually as early as 1897, as taxis, flexible shuttle in the streets of New York.

The year of our Xinhai Revolution, the New York Times advocated that 'electric vehicles are the ideal mode of transport,' and enumerated its advantages, clean, quiet, environmentally friendly.

And recently, is also the most controversial one, is the giant GM, launched in 96 EV-1.

However, although it could travel up to 100 miles on a single charge, its technology was still immature, the interior facilities were very poor, and the comfort was average, so not many people bought it.

Mobile phone sellers can talk about feelings and ideals, but car sellers, no matter how lofty your goals or how appealing your sentiments, cannot change the choice of many people.

For such a large item as a car, of course you want to talk about comfort and convenience, and sentiments and ideals and environmental protection are really not important.

To make matters worse, some states in the US happened to relax their requirements on vehicle emissions at this very time. So, from an economic point of view, GM finally discontinued production of the EV-1 last year.

However, according to the rules that apply worldwide, the giants of a certain industry are often also the training centres for that industry. GM is no exception, having trained many talents for its competitors, as well as many competitors for itself.

Prior to this, many designers who had participated in the design of GM's electric vehicles but believed that the company had succumbed to pressure from the oil giants, chose to say goodbye to GM.

Among them was Allan Kunming, who founded ACP in 1992. Martin Eberhard was influenced by him and became interested in electric vehicles. When he founded Tesla, he used ACP's technology.

Allan Kunming is a person with strong opinions and stubbornness. He is willing to research the technology of electric vehicles and design electric vehicles, but does not want to set up a company to produce electric vehicles. It is also for this reason that he has remained relatively unknown.

'Hello, Mr. Allen,' with Michael's help, Feng Yiping and the others rushed to San Dimas, Los Angeles, to meet with Allan Kunin.

'Hello, Feng,'

At this time, ACP had invested a lot but seen little return, and had also spent a lot of money on the experimental Tzero electric car. Although the current economic situation was tolerable, the future funding requirements for technology research were always uncertain.

Therefore, Alan is more enthusiastic about people who are introduced by acquaintances, who are said to have spare money and are interested in this field.

'Can you sign my book?' Feng Yiping is still at an age where it is not too shameful to be cute, so as soon as they met, he pretended to be his fan, 'I admire you!'

A person who has been in the news a lot recently, saying in person that he admires himself, still makes Alan feel a little happy.

He signed the notebook that Feng Yiping had brought out with a flourish, 'I just did something I wanted to do,'

'What I admire most is your persistence,' Feng Yiping said, 'Although I don't understand it, I am personally very interested in pure electric cars. This is a technology that affects the living environment of all people in the world,'

Alan was very happy to hear Feng Yiping's words, 'Come, I'll show you Tzero. This is my most satisfied design so far,'

In the workshop, there was a yellow low-slung electric car parked. 'This is the world's fastest electric car, accelerating from 0 to 60 km/h in just 3.6 seconds,' Alan said with beaming eyes.

'Wow, that's amazing,' Feng Yiping exclaimed sincerely.

In fact, he didn't like sports cars and really didn't care about the acceleration performance that many people pursued. He never understood, is there really that big a difference between 3.6 seconds and 36 seconds?

Alan gently stroked the low roof of the car, as if it were his newborn child. 'We use a leading acid lead battery that can be charged from any 120 or 240 volt outlet. When fully charged, it can travel 300 kilometres at 60 kilometres per hour,'

'which is more than enough for commuting in the city,' Mike said.

Yiping Feng is looking at the interior of the car. Well, strictly speaking, there is no interior at all. It is still a prototype. Apart from the CD player, all the other control systems are very primitive components. And it doesn't even have air conditioning!

I think if it were equipped with air conditioning, it would definitely have a significant impact on the mileage. But in a place where the average temperature in winter is 20 degrees, is it really a good idea to not have air conditioning?

'It's really not easy for you to achieve such results,' Feng Yiping said sincerely.

In the closed automotive industry, while under pressure from the oil giants, it is indeed not easy for a small company to achieve such results.

'Alan, you have such mature technology, why don't you consider setting up an automobile company?' Feng Yiping asked.

'For this car, we originally hoped to cooperate with an automobile company, and have them provide the chassis. But you know, we looked for it with all the automobile companies, but no one was willing. We were about to give up when we got support from Lotus Cars,'

looking at him, Feng Yiping felt that this was the perfect time to seamlessly connect to the popular saying that came later, 'I won't say anymore, because it will only make me cry,'

'Personally, I think this is a trend that no one can stop, so I firmly believe that this situation will definitely change in the near future,' Feng Yiping said.

It is true that giants such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW provided a lot of help during the birth of Tesla, because these traditional car manufacturers had also realised this unstoppable trend at the time.

'Haha, I agree with that, I just hope that day will come sooner,' Alan said with a smile.

Back in the office, Feng Yiping put forward his proposal directly, "Alan, I really appreciate your actions and I also have a good view of this market. At present, I am in a good financial situation, if you have any funding needs, I think we can cooperate, and I will not interfere with your research,'

Alan smiled, this is what he wanted to hear, "I will carefully consider your proposal,'

...

Mike returned to San Francisco, and Feng Yiping, who was visiting Los Angeles for the first time, of course wanted to go sightseeing. Looking at the huge Hollywood sign in the distance, he felt a little excited. Could he meet those big stars?

At that moment, his phone rang. He looked at the screen and saw that it was a call from a future Hollywood star.