951 Elon“s Plans
Lu Zhou just planned on walking around the exhibition hall, he didn’t expect to b.u.mp into his old opponent.
After leaving Elon’s booth, Lu Zhou looked at President Gong.
“So s.p.a.ce-X is also at the Summit?”
President Gong smiled and said, “Of course, the Asian market is open to the entire world, we do not discriminate. This is why we are working with more than 90 companies from all over the world.”
He suddenly remembered something and spoke.
“I heard that Elon has been doing a lot in Shanghai recently.”
Even though Lu Zhou wasn’t interested in business matters, he was curious about what the so-called real-life Iron Man was doing.
“Like what?”
President Gong: “They acquired a North American electric vehicle charging station company named EVgo. After the restructuring of EVgo, they moved the headquarters and factory from North America to Shanghai. They plan on rolling out their own electric charging stations in Shanghai. Apparently, the Shanghai authorities are quite happy that the EVgo headquarters and factory are in Shanghai, thus they are receiving support from relevant state departments.”
Even though China held a battery standardization conference a few years ago, that didn’t mean there was no market share available for charging station companies to take.
After all, the cost of directly replacing a battery was more expensive than charging the battery. And only some gas stations were doing battery replacements. Although battery replacement services were more convenient on long road trips, its functionality in the city was quite limited.
Due to the improvement of charging technology and expanding coverage of charging stations, users could charge at various parking lots that covered residential and commercial areas. This was even more convenient than swapping out a battery!
Elon’s plans were apparent.
Lu Zhou gradually realized something.
“… He plans on putting Tesla chargers across Shanghai?”
“Correct.” President Gong nodded and said, “More precisely, he plans on building Tesla and another alternative energy vehicle compatible charging stations and selling the electricity produced by our nuclear power plant back to us.”
Jesus f*ck, what a creative business idea!
Lu Zhou said, “Would the state agree?”
President Gong smiled and said, “There’s nothing illegal about this. Of course, we can break the rules of the game and think outside the box as well, but that might not be a good thing for us.”
Lu Zhou contemplated for a while and shook his head.
“Thinking about this hurts my brain…”
I guess academia is more suitable for me!
Even though academia wasn’t perfect, the problems were more black and white. All Lu Zhou had to do was focus on academic problems and let other people handle the business side.
But now, he felt like he had almost reached the ceiling of academia.
From the Lunar Orbit Committee to the ILHCRC, it felt like it was becoming more and more difficult to avoid the business side of things.
If he left the business side and only focused on the academic side, a lot of projects wouldn’t have been possible.
“Haha, it is quite troublesome, but normal people like me still need something to do. After all, we can’t all study nuclear fusion and mathematical conjectures!”
President Gong smiled and changed the topic of conversation.
“Forget about this, Academician Lu, if you’re interested, you should go to the High-tech Industry Development Conference later. The state plans on investing 50 billion yuan to support the development of high tech industries. We could use some suggestions from academicians like you.”
Lu Zhou shook his head and spoke.
“I’ve been to enough conferences over the past few days, so no, thanks.”
Honestly, he only came here for Chen Yushan.
He was so sick of dealing with the business side of things.
President Gong smiled and said, “Okay then, if you just want to walk around, there are some entrepreneurs who are giving pitches to investors, which you might be interested in.”
Lu Zhou: “I’ll check it out then.”
President Gong smiled and said, “It’s getting late, I still have to prepare for a meeting, see you later then.”
…
Near the s.p.a.ce-X booth, Bobby curiously Elon asked, “What were you going to say, about going back ten years ago?”
He was curious about what his boss had to say.
Elon looked at Lu Zhou walking away and said, “I would try my best to convince him to work for me, or lobby Congress and let those idiots realize that this person is in control of the future of the United States… Or I’ll find a way to get my hands on the fusion and lithium-sulfur battery technology.”
Bobby replied, “And go to prison for corporate espionage?”
Elon shrugged and said, “It’s just a fantasy.”
Bobby sighed and spoke.
“… Okay then.”
s.p.a.ce-X was Elon’s baby.
Even if s.p.a.ce-X didn’t make any money, it was still Elon’s most treasured company.
However, despite his efforts into building this company, s.p.a.ce-X was still being defeated by China’s aeros.p.a.ce industry.
This kind of defeat would demoralize anyone.
Elon watched Lu Zhou disappear in the crowd. He then turned toward Bobby and whispered in his ear.
Elon looked around and quietly spoke.
“Listen, I don’t care what the White House thinks, but we’re a business, and making money from other countries is the best thing we can do to help America.
“After the Pangu reactor was built, it is clear that China plans on accelerating the urbanization process. I’ve discussed this with some of my Chinese politician friends, and there are signs that Beijing wants to build a giant urban city that covers the whole area of Shanghai, Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province, and Anhui Province. It will be called the Yangtze River Delta City Group.
“If they succeed, it will become one of mankind’s greatest achievements.”
Bobby held his breath and spoke.
“That… is scary…”
“This is an opportunity for us, and as long as we provide a service for alternative energy, we’ll be able to benefit from this.” Elon patted Bobby’s shoulder and said, “You got this, I need you to represent Tesla and overtake all of Shanghai’s electric charging stations…
“We need a market share of over 80%.”