Chapter 511: Financing Proposal
Translator: Min Editor: Rundi
Hearing Jiang Chen’s words, Luer was speechless. He didn’t think that it was because of this reason Jiang Chen noticed his booth.
“…Sorry.”
Luer’s honesty made Jiang Chen feel peculiar. Although he expected the company to be in a difficult situation, he didn’t expect them to be this bad.
“Electric vehicle? But I feel like there is nothing special comparing your vehicle with the other electric vehicles.”
When Jiang Chen mentioned his product, Luer was immediately energized.
“No, Mr. Jiang Chen, you didn’t get to know about the uniqueness of our product. We used wireless charging technology to replace the need to have a charging port. Therefore, the car owner just needs to park the vehicle on the charging lot to complete the charging process.”
“So you’re saying, if you’re compared to a phone manufacturer, the relative advantage of your phone is just that charging doesn’t require a cable?” Jiang Chen mocked.
Although he didn’t have a deep understanding of the automotive industry, he still knew a bit about pure electric vehicles. No other reason other than the fact that the apocalypse only had electric vehicles. Fossil fuel vehicles will be eliminated with historical inevitability, just as the original coal burners.
The technical challenges of the modern day were the distance and charging time.
Let’s first start with distance. Under the ideal setting at a steady speed of 30 kilometers per hour, it is hard for a pure electric vehicle to achieve 300 kilometers of distance. The short distance would no doubt bring extreme inconvenience to the owners and the limiting factor of the electric vehicle’s wide adoption.
The other problem was charging time. Typically, a pure electric vehicle’s charge time is between 7-8 hours. Although the widely used Lithium iron carbonate battery possesses a half hour charge function, the high power charging severely affects the car’s battery life, especially due to the heat generated. But during a long trip, the owner would not wait for 7-8 hours before the battery is charged again.
For a lot of short-tempered people, half an hour of charge time was already too dreadful.
But Luer’s technology tree was skewed. It didn’t make any progress on the technical challenges but rather specialized in wireless charging technology. The lenient view would be foresight; the harsher version would be running without learning how to walk first.
But because of this, the concept car they introduced drew Jiang Chen’s attention, because the charging station at the apocalypse happened to use wireless charging technology. The owner would only need to drive the car to the specific lot, and then log into a mobile electronic device or the vehicle computer to start the charging service.
Convenience was the advantage of wireless charging.
Luer’s expression immediately turned awkward when he heard Jiang Chen’s ridicule.
“Did you not consider the energy lost in the process? I don’t really know cars that well, but just making a comparison to the phone industry, based on the current phone wireless charging technology, the ideal energy lost is at 30%.” Jiang Chen smiled and continued.
Luer was immediately unhappy seeing Jiang Chen berate his proud work and rebuked.
“That’s not completely right, the lithium battery our company designed can shorten the charging time to 15 minutes! And it doesn’t reduce the battery’s life.”
15 minutes?
It was an incredible achievement; Jiang Chen was surprised.
“Oh? How did you do it?”
To Jiang Chen question, Luer was silent.
Seeing he didn’t speak, Jiang Chen had an idea in his mind. Silence meant that either his solution didn’t include advanced technology, or it was not technically difficult to achieve. If it were hard to mimic, then he wouldn’t be silent.
“Mr. Luer, if you can’t satisfy my curiosity, how do you expect me to be willing to pay for your product?” Jiang Chen said softly.
“You’re willing to invest in us?’ Luer was astonished.
“If your product can interest me.” Jiang Chen used a nonchalant tone.
“Okay, to be honest, although we have twelve patents on the vehicle, the most critical innovation was rejected by the patent office. The rejection reason was simple: you can’t register using a series of lithium batteries as a patent… Uh, you should understand now.”
With the realization on Jiang Chen’s face, Luer shrugged.
“That’s right, I have to say, your solution is quite… innovative.” Jiang Chen facepalmed.
Yes, he understood Ruhrka’s solution, it was to connect multiple lithium batteries together and then attach a charging module on each battery. Because it was wireless charging technology, the charging station could conveniently charge multiple lithium batteries together. While this way could certainly shorten charging time, the disadvantages were too obvious to ridicule.
“… But did you consider the problem of cost? The size of the batteries, and attaching the charging module to each battery.” Jiang Chen continued to ask.
When Jiang Chen mentioned this problem, proudness appeared on Luer’s face, “I have to mention the KS-12 Series battery our company designed. It is the core of the technology of the vehicle! It is formed by eight independent lithium battery units capable of storing a total of 40 volts of power with a distance of more than 180 kilometers!”
The stat was mediocre compared to the other electric vehicles on the market, but the wireless charging and fast charging certainly could add a few points.
But Luer didn’t mention the most critical problem, the cost.
“What about cost?” Jiang Chen repeated the most fundamental question.
Luer’s expression turned awkward again as he dodged Jiang Chen’s eyes.
“Of course, the cost is a problem, but our technical experts have brought about an improvement plan. If we could acquire an investment, we have the confidence to reduce the cost to a reasonable range.”
When Jiang Chen heard this, an intrigued expression appeared on Jiang Chen’s face.
Typically speaking, the price of an electric vehicle is two times the cost of a diesel vehicle. From Ruhrka’s expression, the cost of the vehicle must be remarkably high.
“Can I ask the price of the vehicle?”
Luer hesitated for a moment before he answered, with honesty, “If manufactured at scale, the cost is 700,000 USD.”
“How many people do you think will foot the bill for this car?” Jiang Chen smiled.
Luer forced a smile.” Mr. Jiang Chen, if you are just here to make fun of me after chatting for so long, you have achieved your goal.”
“Then you have to be disappointed because I’m not here to make fun of you. Instead, I’m interested in your company… or technology per say.” Jiang Chen paused, and handed over his business card, “Are you interested in an equity infusion of 100 million USD?”