"Can someone introduce this?"

    Little Wang sitting in the driver’s seat, just like a consumer who came to the 4S store to buy a car, said to Lu Liang, "Not bad, the cockpit is alright, the seat wrapping is quite strong, and the dashboard materials are solid, not much worse than high-end sports cars."

    "This car, we’ve adopted dual-motor all-wheel drive, and it can accelerate to 100 meters in just 2.81 seconds, with a top speed of 259 kilometers per hour, and a wheelbase of 3000 mm..."

    Liao Jie smiled, introducing various data like a salesperson, and Lu Liang was also pulled aside by Zhang Peiqiang.

    He said seriously, "Mr. Lu, details and small aspects can be modified, but there is still a big issue at the moment."

    Their car has no problem passing the crash tests by C-NCAP, and even the issue of new energy easily catching fire has been addressed by reversing the battery installation to protect the owner’s safety.

    But there is a problem that has remained unsolved for a long time, which is the chassis technology. With their current technology, it’s very difficult to pass the moose test.

    The moose test is an internationally important standard for measuring vehicle safety.

    The test’s name comes from moose, an animal found in most parts of Northern Europe and North America, which often unexpectedly jumps out in front of vehicles, colliding with fast-moving cars and causing serious accidents.

    The moose test checks the vehicle’s ability to avoid obstacles, challenging the car’s performance in making S-turns at high speeds.

    The test involves driving at a uniform speed of 70 with four people plus weights, continuously avoiding obstacles to the left and right, with better performance yielding higher scores.

    It’s like the Toyota Avalon costing around 200,000 and the BMW 325 costing over 300,000, where the BMW 3 series feels some pressure but can pass, while the Avalon cannot and will flip.

    This performance depends on the chassis tuning technology, but in China, apart from professionals, most people have never heard of the moose test, and the technology is unsurprisingly far behind foreign levels.

    Lu Liang smiled, "You mentioned this last time, and I’ve kept it in mind, so I’m planning to spend some money to invite General Motors’ technical team to adjust the chassis."

    Even if he cooperates with General Motors, investing heavily in building a factory in Detroit, chassis technology is not something that can be learned overnight, and spending money to hire people is still necessary.

    "I’m relieved to hear you say that," Zhang Peiqiang sighed with relief, and Lu Liang asked, "Professor Zhang, have you made a basic budget for the whole vehicle?"

    "Mr. Lu, I’m not very sure about that, but someone has been recording it all the time," Zhang Peiqiang waved to call another assistant over, "His name is Zhong Shaoqing."

    Zhong Shaoqing smiled, nodded, and greeted, "Mr. Lu, if we take the most basic version as an example, the construction cost should be between 220,000 to 270,000."

    The reason for a difference of 50,000 is mainly because it’s still very hard to calculate, as many parts are custom-made and charged at very high prices.

    We can only stand from the supplier’s perspective, calculate the cost plus a 20% mark-up, and estimate the future vehicle construction cost.

    However, the 20% mark-up can be compressed, and the key is in Lu Liang’s negotiation with suppliers.

    If he is formidable enough, with high production capacity or quick return, it’s not impossible to compress the mark-up to 5%.

    Lu Liang suddenly asked, "What’s Tesla’s profit margin?"

    Zhong Shaoqing thought for a moment and answered, "I conducted a survey before using the domestic Mao Dou 3 as an example; the gross profit margin for this car should be between 20-25%."

    The real profit margin of a product is something only the manufacturer might know, and he could only deduce it from disclosed documents.

    "After becoming fully localized, the price dropped from 360,000 to 310,000, and it still has such a high gross profit margin?"

    Lu Liang’s face couldn’t hide his surprise, and concurrently, he had a rough range for pricing his own sports car at least the gross profit can’t be lower than 25%.

    It’s not that he wants to make more money, but any commodity in the domestic market, once the market develops, will start to compete endlessly with inexplicable pricing.

    Therefore, when launching new cars in the initial phase, the gross profit margin must be set high. Only then can they have the qualification to reduce prices and join the competition later.

    Just as they were discussing, Little Wang also ended his consumer experience and walked over with a smile, "Hey Lu, remember to give me a car when the new one launches."

    "Don’t you dislike driving electric cars?" Lu Liang laughed.

    "I’m mainly trying to support you."

    Little Wang showed a proud expression, and unless there was business, Lu Liang rarely appeared in the public eye over the past year.

    He, however, with Panda’s listing in the US, once reached a personal wealth of 26.5 billion, and regained first place as an internet celebrity.

    Should he chose to accept ads, each one would command an eight-digit figure, and now he’s promoting for free, hoping Lu Liang recognizes the favor.

    "Let’s talk about it later," Lu Liang laughed awkwardly and picked up the suggestions provided by Little Wang, totaling more than twenty suggestions.

    "I say, just make it a two-door two-seat model; that kind of sports car seems more stylish," Little Wang was excited, constantly offering ideas.

    In his view, four doors and five seats are purely redundant; if you want to be stylish, be thorough, and it’s best to add some flamboyant scissor doors — undoubtedly many people would like them.

    "That wouldn’t be a sports coupe; it’d be a sports car."

    Lu Liang rolled his eyes and flatly rejected. Sёarch* The n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    The reason sports coupe models exist is primarily to satisfy the drawback that sports cars only have two seats, wanting to be flashy but not overly flashy.

    Scissor doors are even less needed — even the NIO EP9 still sits in the corner collecting dust, proving the point.

    Thinking of NIO, Lu Liang suddenly remembered that Li Bing seemed to have called him a few days ago to arrange a meeting.

    Building battery swap stations is a bottomless pit, and he can’t wait to have NIO go public to finance its growth.

    So he approached Lu Liang to make connections, asking him to introduce some reliable market makers. NIO also wants to go public in the US and raise US Dollars.

    "Let’s just do it this way. I have things to do in the afternoon, so you go ahead with your own activities."

    Lu Liang planned to leave. Although today is New Year’s Day, it is also the first day of the new year.

    His schedule for the afternoon and the coming days is packed, so he really doesn’t have time to chat aimlessly with Little Wang.

    He instructed Zhang Peiqiang to consider Little Wang’s suggestions appropriately, then conduct market research, and finally confirm the final version.

    Lu Liang left decisively, without looking back.

    Little Wang looked resentful, turned to Zhong Shaoqing, and said, "Does your boss seem like a scumbag? He treats me like a disposable item, uses me and discards me, didn’t even invite me for lunch, not even a sip of tea."

    Zhong Shaoqing held back his laughter, hearing someone describe himself like that for the first time, and quickly poured a glass of water, "Mr. Wang, please have some water."

    Little Wang glared at him and walked away directly.

    On New Year’s Day, Lu Liang was very busy, and news about him online was rapidly fermenting.

    Hu Run Magazine got clever. Last year, they were just a few days behind Forbes and ended up missing out.

    Therefore, learning from the pain, they directly published their version of the Billionaire List at 12 noon on the first day.

    The top three remain Hengtai Xu at 44.3 billion dollars, Little Ma from Penguin at 42.2 billion dollars, and Ali Jack Ma at 40.2 billion dollars, with some increases but no change in rankings.

    Hu Run knows what netizens want to see, directly placing Lu Liang at number 25, after Jingdong Daqiangzi, and recording in detail that Lu Liang’s wealth is composed of five parts.

    Douyin is valued at 45 billion dollars, and he holds 7.07% equity, worth 31.8 billion dollars.

    Ningde Era is valued at 26.5 billion dollars, holding 10.664% equity, worth 28.24 billion dollars.

    Tianxing Technology has not yet had a new round of financing, so the market value hasn’t been updated. It’s temporarily set at 3 billion dollars, with Lu Liang holding 72% equity, worth 2.16 billion dollars.

    There’s also Panda, with market value of 8.55 billion dollars as of last month’s 29th, holding 8.235% equity, worth 8.31 billion dollars.

    Finally, there’s Tianxing Investment and Tianxing Private Equity.

    Probably apart from Lu Liang himself, no one knows the exact value, only roughly estimating at 1 billion dollars.

    The tally shows Lu Liang’s wealth at 9.995 billion dollars, 66.9 billion RMB, ranking 25th on the Hu Run Billionaire List.

    "Mr. Lu, last year’s rate of wealth growth is truly astonishing, considering that the year before it was only 1.335 billion dollars, increasing by 648% in one year."

    Once the Billionaire List was announced, Hu Run specifically featured an article mentioning Lu Liang, fearing that netizens wouldn’t be aware of his ranking from last year.

    As the domestic replica of Forbes’ list, they’ve always lacked traffic, and Lu Liang is synonymous with traffic.

    "580 billion RMB in one year, and much of it is in valuation. Have I become conceited? Why does it not feel like particularly much?"

    "Domestically and internationally, whenever something big happens, Liangzi is almost always involved. I thought he already had a billion-dollar fortune."

    "Tsk tsk, ranked 25th, not even ten billion dollars."

    "Where’s Little Wang? A while back, various media bragged about him so much, yet he’s nowhere on the list?"

    "Panda’s stock price under his direction has halved again, estimated to rank in the two hundred positions to see his name, truly a failure, even Liangzi can’t support him."

    "Liangzi has fallen, Little Wang too. These two are indeed a pair of comrades in despair."

    "I say everyone, do you not understand the significance of ranking 25th on the Billionaire List for those born after ’85? I bet most people won’t earn even a fraction of the zeroes after the decimal point in their lifetime."

    "The online surfing identity is self-assigned, but if I meet him offline, I’ll respectfully call him Mr. Lu. However, online, sorry, only 25th, Liangzi, I’m disappointed in you!"

    Meanwhile, Lu Liang took a moment from his busy schedule, using his restroom time to surf online briefly.

    He also learned about this year’s Billionaire List being announced, saw the online comments, and couldn’t help but smile wryly.

    Is this person whose net worth is just 500 million dollars short of being a "ten-billion-dollar super-rich" so undervalued?

    "However, Hu Run seems to have missed a part."

    Lu Liang’s ventures in Tokyo are somewhat known, but investing 200 million dollars in Detroit is public information.

    If you include the value increase from Bitcoin investments, another 4 billion dollars could be added, plus the upcoming dividends from the third and fourth phases of private equity funds, at least 3 billion dollars more.

    "Turns out I’m already a billion-dollar magnate?"

    Lu Liang was instantly overjoyed. From now on, when drinking soy milk, he will drink one bowl and pour one bowl, not for any particular reason, just because he has money.