After Divorce, I Can Hear the Future
Chapter 584: New Car Price Announced

"Any friend interested in coming up to experience our smart cockpit?"

Lu Liang was improvising again; there was no audience interaction segment in the script.

He casually selected a few, including Lei Jun and two girls who seemed pleasant.

Lu Liang smiled and said, "After the presentation ends, if anyones interested, you can go to our parks track to try out our cars. Weve prepared seven test cars there."

Meanwhile, on one side of the stage, Tang Caide smiled and said, "The timing is just right."

Hu Weiwei was in a mixed state of amusement and exasperation, showing a look of mutual understanding: "Mr. Tang, you must be quite busy normally."

"Its not too bad."

Tang Caide smiled. Although Lu Liang was a source of pressure, her pressure was limited to him.

The pressure from social performance and funds never reached her; Lu Liang would handle everything well.

Moreover, she really liked the companys atmosphere. Tang Caide looked at Xiao Chen, who was enjoying life, which said it all.

Hu Weiwei nodded thoughtfully, reassessing Boss Lu, perhaps because she hadnt interacted with him much.

"Mr. Lei, how does it feel?" Lu Liang handed over a microphone, leaning on the car door, blocking Lei Jun inside.

"Very good, Im really looking forward to what the test drive feels like." Lei Jun smiled, a hint of seriousness in his eyes.

Like Lu Liang, before deciding to build cars, he practically collected all major new energy cars on the market.

NIO, Weima, Tesla, BYD, you name it, if it sold well, he had bought it.

Among them, NIO and Weima both used Tianxings car systems, just wrapped differently.

Back then, he was relieved, as Tianxings car system wasnt as excellent as rumored externally.

Because, like Tesla, it adopted pure vision technology, yet the algorithm wasnt as good as Teslas.

Until he saw a slight bulge at the top of Tianshu, the mark of a lidar, indicating this car had both visual and radar sensing systems, providing double the assurance and reliability.

"We also have a race-grade track, Mr. Lei, care to have a race later?"

Lu Liang always felt indoor presentations were missing something, like our head-up display and lift-off, which couldnt be properly shown.

Also, our touted 2.89 seconds from zero to one hundred is currently just a series of numbers, just a video, not as shocking as seeing it firsthand.

"Sure, but I dont drive often, and my skills arent great." Lei Jun said with a smile, interested.

Xiaomi Car just started, while Tianxing Automobile was already mass-producing, worrying about it now is pointless.

Might as well enjoy this super coupe, said to be built with two billion RMB.

"Just take a casual lap for fun."

Their conversation was not at all shielded from the microphone, and the content wasnt only heard throughout the venue but spread across the internet.

Some spectators gave the upcoming race a catchy name: Who is the King of Marketing?

"Ladies, hows it feeling?" Lu Liang greeted Lei Jun and walked over to the other two cars.

The two young girls eagerly turned the steering wheel, faces unable to hide their excitement: "The interior is so beautiful."

"The design looks great too." One of the girls, seemingly unable to drive, used the turn signal as a wiper.

Causing the whole audience to erupt in laughter, she blushed, quickly exiting the car, running back to her seat with her head down.

Lu Liang glared at the audience, jokingly said, "Cant you be more tolerant? Do I have to arrange a plant for you all to be satisfied?"

As the words fell, hands raised, voices shouted: "Mr. Lu, choose me, Im a professional test driver with twenty years of experience."

Lu Liang rolled his eyes, "I wont fall for your trap. Just line up for the test drive track later."

The audience booed, but contrary to the boos, the atmosphere became even more lively.

The front-row car executives all looked solemn, questioning if they were too stuck up.

New energy cars are a new thing; currently, the main consumption force in the market is young people.

Like Lu Liang, not about pleasing but having no pretense, this character seems very promising.

Moreover, reflecting back, the coupes target audience and the current market audience seem to highly align.

They exchanged glances,

Each could see the concern in the others eyes.

There was only one shared thought in their minds: better to sell at a high price, as high as possible.

Catering to the market audience is true, but young people have a common trait: they dont have much money.

Cars over four hundred thousand, they cant afford, five hundred thousand is even more out of reach, even thirty thousand makes them think twice.

Suddenly, Li Bing frowned, and noticing something amiss, Li Xiang softly asked, "Did you notice anything?"

Shen Hui from Weima and He Xiaopeng from Xiao Peng also pricked their ears to eavesdrop, Li Bing shook his head: "Hopefully, Im just overthinking."

Because when NIO went public, he was very close to Lu Liang, as well as to Tianxings parts suppliers.

He didnt know the exact unit purchase price, but he could roughly estimate that the cost price of the standard version of Tianshu wouldnt exceed 230,000 yuan.

This was a terrifying number, because the production capacity had not yet exploded, and once the volume increased, the unit price would only be lower.

After all, the advantage of having a self-built factory is that as long as the sales are good, the margin for error is high, and Lu Liang can set the price between 250,000 and 500,000 yuan.

If Lu Liang is determined to open up the market and make a name for Tianxing Automobile, its best to price it below 300,000 yuan.

For a car with such configuration and performance, once priced below 300,000 yuan, it would be like a ruthless massacre.

Tesla couldnt stop it either.

"Classmate, are you ready? Everyone is waiting for you."

There was another girl on stage, already engrossed in learning about the cars system, and it wasnt until Lu Liang reminded her that she snapped back to reality.

Although her face was red, unlike the girl before who ran off, she smiled awkwardly and said, "Mr. Lu, thank you for letting me experience it. Once the reservation channel opens, I will definitely order one."

"Really?" Lu Liang asked with a smile.

"Even pearls arent as genuine."

"Arent you worried it might be expensive?"

"Even if its expensive, I want to buy it."

The girl chuckled, "But I trust Mr. Lu wont set the price too high."

"Well, thats not certain." Lu Liang squinted his eyes and suddenly asked, "Whats your family name?"

"No need to be formal, my surname is Zhang, Zhang Yifan, Yi as in art, and Fan as in Van Gogh."

"Zhang Yifan? How about this, as long as you place a reservation, Ill give you a mysterious big gift package."

"Mr. Lu, can I ask what it contains now?"

"Nope."

"Alrighty, Mr. Lu, goodbye. Mr. Lei, Mr. Lei... Can I take a picture with you?"

The girl suddenly ran excitedly to Lei Juns side, completely ignoring the increasingly dark expression on Lu Liangs face.

This action prompted laughter from the audience, and online viewers were also amused: "Liangzi: Might as well feed the dog."

The girl realized her mistake and hurriedly explained, "Mr. Lu, because we surely have many precious group photos, but I havent taken one with Mr. Lei yet."

Lu Liang smiled and said, "Dont worry, Im not that petty. At most Ill just slightly reduce the gift package size."

"Dont be like that, please." The girl pleaded coquettishly, and Lu Liang chuckled, "Just kidding, nothing will be missing for you."

He glanced at Hu Weiwei on the left side of the stage, looking like she had lost all hope: "Seems like its time to move on to the next segment."

Hu Weiwei choked, almost bursting into tears, from being three minutes early to now being ten minutes overtime.

Her head hurt, buzzing with pain.

"Mr. Lu, can we announce the price now?"

Before Lei Jun stepped off stage, he played the role of representative for the audience, which was the question most concerned by numerous peers.

The Sky StarTianshu had technical competitiveness, now it depended on whether it had market competitiveness.

"Of course, please look at the big screen."

With a smile on his face, Lu Liang suddenly raised his arm, and the stage lights went out. Three sets of figures appeared on the big screen behind him: 298,900 yuan, 328,900 yuan, and 348,900 yuan.

They did not have the so-called de-contented standard version; the lowest was the Pro version, fully functional, just with a lower range.

"I wonder if everyone is satisfied with this price. Anyway, I am very satisfied, and our team really did their best."

Lu Liang had considered whether to set it above 300,000 yuan to maintain brand image and gain higher gross margins.

Because the upcoming competition would surely be intense, and sooner or later, it would evolve into a price war.

Their vehicle cost was roughly the same as what Li Bing estimated, at a factory price of 226,500 yuan before the sales volume grows.

A 32% gross margin may not seem low, but this was a new energy vehicle, and a coupe type which had a limited market audience.

If the early gross margin was too low, it would not be conducive to future price cuts, and raising prices was out of the question.

But a car over 100,000 yuan is a threshold, over 200,000 yuan is another, and over 300,000 yuan is an even bigger threshold.

Because a price of 300,000 yuan is on the boundary between mid-range and high-end cars, but if priced over 300,000 yuan, the sales might hardly surpass Tesla.

Lu Liang never thought of just equalling Tesla; he wanted to either surpass it, kill it, or fail and be eliminated himself.

So he vigorously advocated for this price, and if a price war ensues later on, he still has two trump cards, Tianxing Public Offering, and nationwide direct-sales stores.

The former exerts pressure from the financial market, and the latters direct-sale stores allow them to quickly recover funds and settle payments in the shortest time.

10% yield, but payment delayed for a year, vs. 3% yield, but payment settled in half a year, or even three months.

He believes they will make the right choice.