"Mr. Wang, how’s it going?"

Leaving the dock, Lu Liang headed to Zhangjiang Science Park, where he met Little Wang.

In order to retain General Motors’ people better and thank him for his contributions to the new car,

Lu Liang gave him an informal advisor title, without responsibility or salary, to allow easier access to the R&D department.

"Eight have already expressed their intent to stay, and another five are wavering but still hesitating."

Little Wang rolled his eyes and handed over a document: "The last five have families in the United States and are really difficult to sway."

When he’s needed, he’s Mr. Wang; on normal days, he’s Little Wang. Smart, Lu Liang is really quite the dog.

"Eight is enough." Lu Liang squinted with a smile, passing the documents to Xu Jiawei and tasking him with the follow-up arrangements.

Suddenly he asked, "Got any plans for next month?"

"Other than Panda reaching the six-month unlock period, there shouldn’t be much."

"Recently heard the 318 route is quite popular. How about taking a trip with me, heading west, to enjoy the country’s beautiful landscapes?"

Lu Liang smiled charmingly, patting the car hood. With the chassis tuning almost complete, next are various official and unofficial tests, leading to the final pre-launch warm-up.

He assigned tasks for administrative executives like Hu Weiwei, Wang Xiaofeng, and technical experts like Zhang Peiqiang, Qin Siyuan, each to drive a minimum of three thousand kilometers to participate in vehicle performance and energy consumption testing.

Lu Liang planned to pick a time, take some people, drive a few thousand kilometers from Modu to the Tibetan Region, streaming the journey live and posing as a travel blogger for a few days.

"Not going."

Little Wang instantly refused, his face full of disdain: "I see you just want to find a free driver."

It’s not like he hasn’t driven a sports car before. It’s only fun to drive in the city, but once the journey exceeds three hundred kilometers, everything feels uncomfortable.

Three thousand kilometers from Modu to the Tibetan Region, sounds nice, heading west, enjoying the country’s beautiful landscapes, but after that journey, one’s lumbar disc would likely protrude.

"We have intelligent cockpits, massage seats, want cold it’s cold, want heat it’s hot, very comfortable."

"Still not going."

Little Wang waved his hand and left decisively, as if he had made up his mind.

"Getting smarter and smarter."

Life isn’t easy, Lu sighed.

He headed to the workshop separated for chassis tuning.

Lautburn had a worried look; they had at most a week before they had to finish their work in China and return to Detroit.

It was just that he suddenly realized,

People’s hearts had drifted apart, and it was difficult to lead the team.

Although he hadn’t received any resignations from the members yet, he already heard and saw some signs.

Some people got girlfriends, some were diligently learning Chinese, and others inexplicably had local cars.

Without surprise, the situation he feared the most emerged; they came with nineteen people, but less than ten might return.

Flannery earned fifty million US Dollars from Lu Liang for tuning, directly snatching away most of the team’s technicians.

That business deal, what a bloody loss, although tech patents still belonged to General Motors, talent is the root of everything.

"Mr. Laute, have you gotten used to life in Modu during this time?" Lu Liang greeted with a full smile.

"Quite accustomed." Laute called over a young man and handed the chassis data report to Lu Liang.

Traditional fuel cars, due to the presence of engines, tend to be front-heavy and rear-light, leading to an unbalanced chassis.

But new energy vehicles don’t have this problem; the battery replacing the engine is installed at the bottom of the car, and the body is relatively heavier, effectively balancing the front and rear, providing stability.

Currently, it can pass the moose test at a speed of 80, and with the team’s tuning, even if encountering shallow pits or uneven roads, it can drive smoothly over them.

Compared with fuel cars like Pame and Maserati, he couldn’t guarantee this system would completely surpass them.

But if it’s just compared with Li Xiang ONE, NIO ES8, Tesla Model 3, Model Y, X, it would definitely outperform them by a long shot.

Fifty million US Dollars to tune a sports car and an SUV, averaging 25 million per car.

This money was well spent by Lu Liang, not to mention he managed to find NIO as the sucker.

If one day a new car launch was held, he could completely beat his chest and say their new car chassis system is far ahead of the industry peers.

"Mr. Laute, have you ever thought about continuing to work at East Country?"

Lu Liang handed the data report to Liao Jie, and before Lautburn could refuse, he added, "General Motors may frequently appear in the Fortune 500, but it has been around for too long."

"The longer a company exists, the more complicated its internal relationships become, and the initial generation of people has already exploited all the bonuses."

"They not only exploit but also introduce their relatives and friends, becoming parasites on the enterprise."

"Cadillac used to be so glorious, the presidential car, the luxury car that numerous successful individuals dreamt of."

"But now? It can’t touch BMW and Mercedes in the mid-to-high-end market, nor Honda and Toyota in the mid-to-low-end."

"Stuck in the middle, neither here nor there, for many years."

"If it wasn’t for the CT5, XT5 that you led the team to develop, its basic market competitiveness would be non-existent."

"However, even with these two cars developed under your lead, has the revenue improved?"

Lu Liang seemed like a thirty-year-old Cadillac fan, angry at its failures, lamenting its misfortune.

He could see that Laute was no longer so resistant, just a little bit more, needing someone to help speak his mind.

Lu Liang was more than willing to be that spokesperson, helping him find a reason to convince himself to leave General Motors.

"New energy is a brand new market. It certainly can’t fully replace the market position of fuel vehicles, but our country has the largest population in the world, the largest market, and with national support, it can definitely compete with fuel cars."

"Mr. Laute, on behalf of Tianxing Technology, I sincerely invite you to join us and take on the position of CTO, to make up for our shortcomings in the chassis field."

Lautburn remained silent for a long time, pondering deeply. Lu Liang indeed valued him very much, far more than Flannery did.

CTO, also known as Chief Technology Officer, is the company’s technical executive responsible for setting the technical vision and strategy and overseeing technological research and development.

Although Lu Liang didn’t mention salary or benefits, the position already indicated the treatment, often ranking in the top five in the company, sometimes even in the top three.

Lautburn mused for a while: "Mr. Lu, I need some time to think about it. Before leaving Modu, I’ll give you an answer."

"Alright, I’ll be waiting for your response."

Lu Liang slightly nodded and didn’t say more.

After all, having said this much and having extended the CTO invitation, if he still disagrees, it can only mean they aren’t meant to be.

Leaving Zhangjiang Science Park, he returned to New International.

Lu Liang found Chen Jinchun, it was time for her performance over the next two months.

"Mr. Lu, we’re all ready~~"

Xiao Chen was full of excitement, rubbing her hands eagerly.

Over the past year or so, she had amassed ten terabytes of video footage, finally ready to make use of it.

These video materials are divided into two parts, one part showing the construction process from scratch at the Su City production base.

The other part starts from the design sketches of their first model, detailing how they narrowed down from over a thousand sketches to a dozen, then underwent ten rounds of voting, finally selecting the coupe model.

The coupe model is just the beginning; there are also safety structural pressure tests, crash tests, and the recently passed moose test.

The chassis code of their first internal test vehicle is not 00001, but 00175.

This number represents the 174 samples scrapped due to testing, as well as the 174 improvements made.

The warehouse piled high with chassis, with an average custom price of around 2 million, incurring a total cost of 348 million just from this alone.

"Next month, I’ll take you on a trip to the Tibetan Region," Lu Liang suddenly said with a smile.

A car has four seats. Initially, he tentatively planned for himself, Li Jiahui in charge of the car system R&D, and Zhang Peiqiang’s assistant Liao Jie. The last seat was originally reserved for Little Wang.

But since that guy refused, it’s not like he couldn’t be replaced, so he might as well bring Xiao Chen, at least the trip wouldn’t be too dull.

Xiao Chen’s eyes lit up, raising her hand in cheer: "Yay~~ No price for youth, drive straight to Lasa?"

"That’s the plan for now. As for the exact departure time, I’ll check when I’m free around that time."

Lu Liang couldn’t help but laugh, instructing her to first edit the video of the production base and release it directly when that place is completed.

"Roger that." Xiao Chen chuckled foolishly, a company-funded road trip, and the destination being the Potala Palace she’d always yearned for.

Being chosen by Boss Lu to join Tianxing initially was simply the best thing ever.

This life, she’d rather die at this job.