Chapter 496: Chapter 225: One Thousand Yuan per Hour

Li Yang knew Ye Bingcheng had arrived, and also knew that He Lewei was in the workshop.

After all, that guy He Lewei messaged him every day.

But he wasn’t planning to go over now; he could just call them for a meal later.

So far, Extreme Shadow Cars hadn’t encountered any trouble, relying on the strong domestic industrial system. They could purchase any component, with some being better quality and others more average.

The so-called lack of technology essentially boiled down to a lack of money.

It’s 2016, not 2006. In the domestic market, it’s mostly about cost-effectiveness.

For example, when it comes to audio systems, there’s not much of a difference between Harman Kardon, Edifier, and Bowers & Wilkins, but the latter two have extremely high cost-effectiveness.

A set of Harman Kardon sound systems, when put in a luxury car, starts at a value of ten thousand bucks.

Extreme Shadow Cars has a total of two series: the Extreme series and the Shadow series.

The Shadow series exists only in planning. Currently, it’s the first car of the Extreme series, a mid-to-large coupe.

Nearly all configurations are top quality domestic components. Putting aside other costs, the cost of one car is close to 300,000.

If you include R&D costs, marketing costs, etc., even selling 100,000 cars, the cost would still hover around 500,000.

In the modern industrial system, making cars isn’t hard; making money by making cars is the hardest part.

Li Yang’s only advantage is his new mindset, which treats the car as an electronic product.

It’s not very apparent right now because, in the traditional fuel car field, there’s no more technology to update; everyone’s focused on engines.

Investing billions or even tens of billions in R&D to increase engine thermal efficiency by 1%.

For example, Geely invests a lot of money in this area every year, increasing thermal efficiency from 40% to 46%. It took six years and cost over 30 billion.

And the most thermally efficient internal combustion engine globally holds the world record created in a lab but cannot be mass-produced.

The most thermally efficient mass-producible internal combustion engine reaches only 49%.

In fuel cars, the energy loss is huge, averaging less than 30%.

Yet, a simple hybrid technology can reach a thermal efficiency of 45%, with virtually no loss in output.

This is also why electric cars can accelerate faster than fuel cars, easily breaking the 5-second barrier in 0-100 km/h acceleration.

For fuel cars to have such power output, they’d need to start at a million-level price.

Li Yang owns two sports cars, both with twelve cylinders and massive power, but their 0-100 km/h acceleration still takes over four seconds, whereas the first coupe of the Extreme series already reached 3.9 seconds in lab tests.

Even the extreme 0-100 km/h acceleration recently announced by Tesla Model S is only 4.5 seconds.

This isn’t hard to achieve; just increase the motor’s output power.

Of course, you also need strict control of the car’s power layout; otherwise, speed offers no benefits.

Doing it right requires plenty of experiments, and every experiment costs money.

This year, Extreme Shadow Cars recruited many engineers during graduation season, aiming to stock up on talent in areas like aerodynamics and smart algorithms.

With Ye Bingcheng’s help securing loans, they won’t be short of money before the year ends, though they’ll be in debt by more than a billion or two.

As Ye Bingcheng inspected the workshop, Li Yang also went to the testing ground and personally drove the car made by his company.

Without mass production capability, it’s technically just a concept car.

Li Yang got into the mindset of a car owner and took it for a spin.

He didn’t dare to drive too fast, keeping it around 40 km/h, as no one knew what might happen at higher speeds.

Since he spent the money, there’d naturally be someone else to test it for him.

The driving experience was quite impressive. He glanced at the power parameters, which were notably strong.

The general manager of Extreme Shadow Cars was Feng Xinli, nearly fifty years old, with a demeanor revealing worldly experience.

Even though Li Yang just came to test the car, he insisted on being by his side, even replacing someone else, to explain all the parameters and functions to Li Yang.

He was a veteran in the automotive industry, older than Li Yang’s father, but he carried no such awareness.

A nearly ten-million annual salary was something he never dared to imagine before.

In fact, in the domestic automotive circle, there were fewer than ten individuals with a higher annual salary.

Some mocked him privately for lacking backbone.

After all, Extreme Shadow Cars seemed like a whimsical venture, saying they’d start building cars out of the blue with no preparation, starting everything from scratch.

Anyone with ambition in the automotive industry wouldn’t choose to work at Extreme Shadow Cars.

Feng Xinli laughed; who needs backbone when there’s money, right?

If Extreme Shadow Cars lasted two years, he could retire.

This past year was indeed tiring, even with a team brought over, due to the lack of foundation, requiring him to handle many things personally.

Cars are the pinnacle of industrial achievements. Even assembling a random car with its over 20,000 parts is a skilled job, let alone selecting components from the market, setting custom parameters, and preparing for mass production.

When he saw Li Yang get out of the car, he immediately approached and said, "President Li, are you satisfied with the car? If there are any areas that need improvement, you must point them out, as I’m getting older, and my learning ability is not as strong. I might have misunderstood some of your advanced thinking."

Li Yang hastily replied, "President Feng, you’re a senior in the automotive industry. My suggestions are at best icing on the cake, not really useful."

"No, no, no, President Li, you’ve shown me what a car truly is. To put it bluntly, once our car launches, I can’t wait to drive it immediately. Looking at the cars on the market, bluntly speaking, they’re hardly better than industrial garbage. All thanks to your advanced thinking, President Li. I have a feeling that once our new car hits the market, it will disrupt the automotive industry!"