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Of course Hu Lai didn't know about Rebus' arrangements at the Rice Group.

After signing the contract with BYD, Hu Lai's focus shifted to purchasing a new automobile production line from German Siemens.

Factory Director Zhang is conducting final purchase negotiations, and the overall price has been reduced from the previous two billion to 1.7 billion.

However, even if the production line negotiates a purchase contract, it will still take some time until the actual installation and operation, debugging and trial production are completed.

In order not to delay the progress, the small production platform that Phoenix had previously introduced from the Mustang Factory came into play, and the "Mayfly" shared car independently produced by the Phoenix Factory officially began production.

Under the advice of Li Kenan and Phoenix Sharing Car CEO Song Yang, the newly produced "Ephemeral" shared car canceled the air suspension and replaced it with a rear five-link independent suspension.

The previous 20KWH blade battery has also been changed to a 30KWH blade battery, and the new "Mayfly" shared car has become a long-range version, with a cruising range of 460 kilometers!

In terms of details, "Mayfly" shared car has made many improvements.

Not only were all the previous low-quality glass replaced by Fuyao Glass, Yanguo's top brand, but even the tires were replaced with better-quality Chaoyang Tires.

In short, not only has the overall electronic configuration of the "Ephemeral" shared car not been reduced, but it has further replaced all previously low-quality parts with domestic mid-to-high-end brands, with the domestic rate reaching more than 90%!

As a result, the overall quality of the new batch of long-range shared cars is significantly improved compared to the previous low-cost shared cars from the Mustang factory.

Hu Lai readily agreed to this change.

Judging from Li Kenan's recent feedback, after the previous batch of shared cars were operated intensively for a period of time, there were still many problems.

For example, small parts such as wipers, turn signals, brake lights, and glass regulators still have many minor problems.

And this kind of small problem often occurs, which undoubtedly has an impact on the overall reputation of Phoenix Car Sharing.

In this case, it is better to use better quality spare parts directly. Although it is more expensive, it is stable!

The production of the brand new "Ephemera" shared car has begun, and Hu Lai goes to the factory every day to check on the progress. This life is also very fulfilling.

However, a few days later, Director Zhang, who had just signed the purchase agreement, suddenly came to Hu Lai's office.

Director Zhang looked a little anxious and said as soon as he came in:

"Boss, the financial statements for last quarter have come out. There are some minor issues that I still need you to make a decision on."

Um?

Hu Lai was stunned and slowly raised his head.

Since the launch of the "Rainbow" series of electric scooters, Phoenix's financial situation has completely improved.

I simply glanced at the financial reports for each quarter and no longer had to worry about financial issues.

Not long ago, foreign motorcycle orders alone were worth hundreds of millions of dollars in profit.

Is this all spent?

Hu Lai took the financial information handed over by Director Zhang and looked at it carefully.

Seeing Hu Lai starting to look up, Director Zhang stood aside and explained:

"Boss, when we didn't invest heavily in the new energy vehicle department, the company's finances still had good profits."

"But during this period, we have continued to increase investment in the new energy vehicle department, and now we have purchased an automobile production line worth 1.7 billion in one go. The company's financial situation is immediately stretched."

Hu Lai carefully looked at the financial statements of the previous quarter, which was the point when Director Li Dong agreed to help solve the new energy vehicle license issue.

From then on, Hu Lai began to vigorously expand the new energy vehicle department, not only recruiting a large number of workers and engineers, but also increasing the series of supporting production equipment.

Moreover, because the new energy vehicle department needs a larger and wider production site, the entire factory lease has been expanded several times!

I didn’t realize that I hadn’t purchased a production line worth RMB 1.7 billion before. Based on this statistics, the expenditure of the New Energy Vehicle Department for this quarter was as high as RMB 2.8 billion!

Hu Lai looked at the data and was a little shocked.

Before I knew it, I had invested so much!

Nima.

This automobile industry is really not something that ordinary people can play.

Make a little move and money will flow like water!

For the first time, Hu Lai felt that he had underestimated the investment required by the automobile industry.

He couldn't help but sigh, no wonder the rice group's first phase of car manufacturing directly cost 10 billion U.S. dollars, and it will increase to 10 billion U.S. dollars in the future.

No wonder NIO, which is well-known in the industry, lost 30 billion in just three years and nine months!

If it weren't for the blood transfusion of Phoenix's electric motorcycles, the Phoenix New Energy Automobile Department would have completely brought down the Phoenix factory.

Thinking of this, Hu Lai suddenly felt a strong sense of crisis in his heart.

At present, the Phoenix Factory's profit method is still too single, and most of its profits are supported by the electric motorcycle business.

If one day there is a global economic crisis or there is a problem with foreign trade orders for electric motorcycles, then there will definitely be a big problem with Phoenix's overall layout!

Phoenix Factory's current ability to resist risks is too weak.

Numerous thoughts flashed through Hu Lai's mind. Director Zhang, who was standing by him, saw that Hu Lai was silent and continued:

"Boss, not only have we invested too much in the automobile department, our investment in the research institute has also exceeded expectations!"

Hu Lai's eyes quickly saw the specific content of the research institute's expenditure, and he was secretly speechless.

As expected, the investment in scientific research is really a huge expense!

In addition to the salary and benefits of researchers, the latest equipment purchased by major laboratories and laboratories also costs a huge amount.

And the biggest expenditure is the R&D funding applied for by each research institute!

Take lithium batteries as an example. The first phase of R&D expenses for ternary lithium batteries is 8 million yuan, while the first phase of R&D expenses for semi-solid lithium batteries is 30 million yuan.

Although it doesn't seem like much, this is only the first phase of expenses, and you will need to invest continuously in the future.

Cutting-edge technologies like semi-solid lithium batteries require a large number of scientific researchers to overcome, and without investing hundreds of millions or more than a billion, there will be no results at all.

The projects established by Phoenix Research Institute so far don’t seem to be many, only about twenty, but the total cost is simply outrageous!

This is simply moisturizing without any sound.

Boil the frog in warm water.

"The overall expenditure of this batch of research institutes has reached 1.7 billion?"

"Yes, boss!"

Director Zhang sighed:

"Boss, we need to take this matter seriously."

"We have only introduced the automobile production line now, and then there are also collision laboratories, wind test rooms and other equipment and venues that need to be improved. This is also a big investment."

"Our Phoenix Research Institute is still constantly submitting new projects. Should this matter be slowed down? Many of our project-initiating technologies are temporarily unavailable..."

"Moreover, Zhou Wei from the Information Technology Department and I also had a mutual understanding. As we have more and more customers, our server room also needs to be expanded, which also costs money..."

"If you don't want to slow down the new energy vehicle department, then we can slow down the research institute's projects?"

“It’s still a bit difficult for us to invest in several big projects at the same time!”

Hu Lai's originally good mood suddenly turned helpless. He put down the financial report in his hand, leaned back on his chair, and stared at the ceiling.

Indeed, as Director Zhang said, new energy vehicles and research institutes have invested a lot of money at the same time. The two expenditures of up to 4.5 billion are still too difficult for the Phoenix Factory.

If "Rainbow 2" hadn't sold well in China, and other products could also generate a lot of profits, these two expenditures would have been enough to bring down Phoenix Factory.

The important thing is that if we continue to increase investment, Phoenix Factory can still cope with it in the short term, but if one day sales decline or unexpected events occur, it is hard to say...

Hu Lai has a headache, it’s really hard to make a decision!

Since the establishment of the Phoenix Research Institute in the Phoenix Factory, Hu Lai has attached great importance to it and has never stopped introducing scientists, experts, scholars, and senior engineers.

Nowadays, research laboratories and research groups for various projects have been established one after another, and some laboratories have even produced a small amount of scientific research results.

Unless it was a last resort, he was really unwilling to give up his continued investment in the research institute.

However, the investment in the New Energy Vehicle Department cannot be stopped.

A large amount of investment has been invested in the early stage, and now we are waiting for the new energy vehicle license to produce new energy vehicles.

Thinking of this, Hu Lai felt even more upset.

Now Phoenix has no excess cash in its account, but it will definitely still need to spend money to buy new energy vehicle production licenses.

Although the production license issue can be solved with a loan, Phoenix still needs to make its own decision for the fundamental problem!

Is it really necessary to suspend investment in the institute?

Hu Lai was a little unwilling to give in. He thought about it in his mind. The only possible growth point, new energy vehicles, has not yet been achieved, and other products are very stable. It is impossible for sales and profits to increase by leaps and bounds!

Bicycle production capacity is already saturated, and sales in the domestic market are pretty good.

The production capacity of the overseas version of Rainbow, the domestic version of Rainbow 2, and Rainbow 6 is all fully booked, and there is no chance of a major explosion.

The only ones whose production capacity is not operating at full capacity are "Quick One" and "Dali Tricycle".

After several express delivery customized versions of "Quick One" were launched, the number of orders dropped.
To be continued...