Chapter 1329 The Crossroads of Destiny of the God Car (Autistic Cat Leader 810)

   A white plane landed steadily at Liucheng Bailian Airport. As soon as Xia Jingxing got off the plane, he was surrounded by a warm welcome team before he walked out of the airport.

   The governor of Gui Province, the prefect of Liucheng, and senior executives of Wuling Group came to greet him in person, which made Xia Jingxing a little flattered, and at the same time felt too high-profile.

   He came to Liucheng this time, just to visit Tesla's old enemy, a strong contender for the global electric car sales champion, China's Shenche Wuling Group, and to test the attitude of the government-run resource management committee of Gui Province, the minority shareholder behind it.

   The situation of SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Company is a bit complicated. The three forces of Magic Capital Automobile, GM and Liucheng Wuling (Guangxi Provincial Government-Association Committee) are intertwined, and each has its own demands.

   Among them, as the controlling shareholder holding 50.1% of the shares, Modu Auto’s attitude towards selling the company is particularly critical, and Xia Jingxing intends to settle it later.

   With his good relationship with Modu, and with Huaxin International's solution as a demonstration, it is not a big problem to settle Modu.

   But there is also a problem, where should the investment and tax be placed?

   Huaxin International did not move out of the capital after all, the meat was still rotten in the pot, and signed an investment memorandum with the government of the capital of 10 billion US dollars.

  Wuling is a bit of a problem, Liucheng definitely doesn't want it to move to Modu, and Modu is definitely not willing to hand over the engine of economic growth.

  Xia Jingxing hopes to talk with Liucheng first, find out the specific demands of Liucheng, and then prescribe the right medicine, while taking into account the feelings of the magic capital, and come up with a plan that combines the best of both worlds.

   As for General Motors Group, which holds 34% of its shares, it is currently in bankruptcy. It has taken US $50 billion in rescue funds from the US government, and the money should be settled.

   After chatting with the welcoming team for a while, Xia Jingxing, as a super wealthy businessman who came to investigate and invest, was arranged to ride in the same car with Governor Ma.

   Sitting in the car, Xia Jingxing did not look at the city scenery outside the window, but chatted with Governor Ma about the development of Gui Province.

  The governor of Ma is relatively young. He is only fifty-five years old and is a senior official of the frontier. He looks a bit promising, and he is very easy-going and talkative.

   It was mainly Governor Ma who spoke along the way, while Xia Jingxing quietly played the role of the listener.

   "Mr. Xia, since the founding of the People's Republic of China, you are the largest entrepreneur who has visited Guangxi Province.

   They all say you are Li Huangtai from the Mainland, but I don't think so. "

  Xia Jingxing was startled.

   Governor Ma laughed, "I think you have more vision than him. When he was in his twenties, he didn't have such high achievements as you, and he didn't have the courage to invest in our poor place."

   "You have passed the prize. The main province of Guangxi still lacks development. After ten years of development in the western region, it has only laid a certain foundation and has not yet ushered in the moment when a real large-scale industrial explosion has occurred.

  Liucheng, as the largest industrial city in Guangxi Province, owns the Wuling automobile brand, which is well-known all over the country and exported overseas. It has always been the envy of my hometown of Rongcheng. "

   Governor Ma laughed, who doesn't want others to praise their hometown.

  At the same time, as a native of Gui Province, he is also a shepherd of the side, and he has always hoped that his hometown can develop well.

   That's why when he heard Xia Jingxing's inspection, he ran to the airport to greet him with the honor of the governor. He finally came to the God of Wealth, but he couldn't let go.

   "Wuling is the city card of Liucheng, and the automobile industry is also an industry that we focus on building with the strength of the whole province.

   In order to obtain a joint venture opportunity, we transferred 75.9% of our shares to Modu Auto for free.

   It is precisely because of these concessions and sacrifices that many people did not understand at the time that Wuling became what it is today. "

  Xia Jingxing knew about this episode. Wuling’s predecessor was the Liucheng Power Machinery Factory under the 1st Five-Year Plan. It built many tractors in the 1960s and 1970s, and later became one of the top eight tractor factories in the country. This is Wuling’s first glory.

After the refurbishment, the tractor became unsalable, and the factory began to transform into sewing machines and looms (the production of masks is only a traditional craft), but the business was very bleak. When it was about to go bankrupt, the whole factory saved money and bought a Mitsubishi L100 mini-car, and started Test the waters for a miniature car.

   Later, the company introduced the technology of Mitsubishi, and formally established Wuling Motors Corporation. In 1998, the production and sales volume achieved the No. 1 in the mini-car industry in China.

   But the good times don't last long. Due to the low technical threshold of micro-cars, the whole country is working hard.

   Seeing that they were going to go back to the old road of tractors, the Liucheng government decided to introduce foreign capital, learn advanced technology and management experience from abroad, and provide Wuling with new vitality.

   At that time, General Motors of the United States was in the process of "channel sinking", planning the development of small cars, so it took a fancy to Wuling.

  Although both parties have joint venture intentions, the regulations in my country at that time were that "a foreign company can only cooperate with two domestic enterprises at most".

  GM had already cooperated with two Chinese companies, Moqi and Jinbei, and there was no quota for Wuling.

Just when everyone thought that Wuling's joint venture plan was going to fail, Liucheng and the Gui provincial government made a decision that no one thought of: Liucheng Wuling allocated 75.9% of the shares to Magic Capital Group for free, and established SAIC-Wuling Automobile. Co., Ltd.

  After paying a huge price, Wuling became a holding subsidiary of Magic Capital Automobile, and then the joint venture was completely opened up.

  After the 34% capital increase in GM, the shareholdings of Modu Auto and Wuling Group dropped to 50.1% and 15.9% respectively.

   Of course, Wuling made such a big sacrifice and also put forward a condition that the factory must stay in Liucheng.

   This is a very real condition, allowing Wuling to successfully complete the transformation once again, without annihilating at the beginning of the turbulent century.

  Xia Jingxing is more worried about this. It is impossible for all auto factories to be set up in Liucheng. There are great constraints, such as geography and city size, and the attraction of talents.

   "Inspector Ma, what do you think of new energy vehicles?"

  Xia Jingxing intends to touch the bottom of Governor Ma. If the other party does not support the development of new energy vehicles, or even rejects new energy vehicles, then he can only regretfully give up Wuling.

   "I don't know much about new energy vehicles, except that you seem to own an American electric vehicle company called Tesla.

   The price is very expensive, one can be worth dozens of Wuling. "

  Xia Jingxing smiled. It was rare to see such a frank civil servant who did not pretend to understand even though he did not understand.

   "Tesla is positioned as a high-end electric vehicle, but in order to achieve profitability, the scale of production and sales must be enlarged, which requires the price to be lowered, and will further drop to RMB 200,000 to 300,000 in the future."

   Governor Ma said with a smile: "The price is not cheap anymore, and the brand positioning is equivalent to luxury brands such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz."

  Xia Jingxing nodded lightly, and added: "This is just an opportunity for domestically produced cars. Our country's per capita income is not as good as that of the United States, and we cannot digest so many mid-to-high-end electric cars.

   But our country can focus on mid-to-low-end electric vehicles, and quantitative changes lead to qualitative changes.

   And this is also the only opportunity for the rise of Chinese automobiles to overtake the old auto industry powerhouse with new technology. "

   Governor Ma pondered for a moment, then said, "Do you want to make Wuling an electric vehicle brand?"

"right!"

   Inspector Ma frowned slightly, but soon Xia Jingxing's next sentence made his brows gradually loosen.

   "I know that it is not an easy task for a mature gasoline vehicle manufacturer to give up its existing market and technology.

   Therefore, the transformation can be carried out in multiple steps, and Wuling will not be required to immediately stop production and sales of gasoline vehicles.

  In the early stage of technology and market exploration, it is enough for Fuxing Automobile to complete. "

   Inspector Ma smiled lightly, "I understand, you are interested in Wuling Motor's car-making qualifications, right?"

   "It's not all right, we actually liked Wuling's popular brand in the sinking market."

   Governor Ma smiled and said nothing. He was seriously thinking about whether it would be good or bad for Wuling, Liucheng and Guangxi to bring in such a car manufacturer and super investor who "single-heartedly create new energy".

   "Wuling transformed from a machinery factory to a tractor factory, from a tractor factory to a micro-car manufacturer, and then to a joint venture car manufacturer. It has all chosen the right direction for three transformations.

   Now it is once again standing at the crossroads of destiny. Whether it chooses the right direction or not will determine its rise and fall in the next few decades. "

   Seeing that Xia Jingxing was so confident and put psychological pressure on one of his governors, Governor Ma glanced at him in surprise and said indifferently, "What if the choice is wrong? What kind of consequences do you think it will cause to this city?"

  Xia Jingxing did not answer this question, but said confidently: "I know that Wuling has always wanted to enter the passenger car market, and now there is a good opportunity in front of me!"

   (end of this chapter)