Chapter 159: Changes in the Global Energy Landscape
"Absolutely impossible. If this is one of the conditions for your deal, then the chips you offer are far from enough.

Chen Yuanguang's appeal and reputation in China are enough to save the Lotus brand, let alone just a seat on the board of directors. Even if Lotus is wholly owned by Light Armor Technology, Yuanguang cannot become its spokesperson. "Lin Jia flatly refused.

At their point, money is nothing more than a numbers game and they have higher pursuits. For Lin Jia, even if she builds the car herself and creates a luxury car brand, she will not let Chen Yuanguang help her promote it.

In a sense, the God of Light is no longer just a slogan or a gimmick in China. Chen Yuanguang is becoming more and more divine among the Chinese people. This divinity refers to the people's support and unconditional trust.

In Lin Jia's opinion, this is also the best way to protect oneself. Once Chen Yuanguang endorses the car, it means that there is no difference between him and Lei Jun, Boss Jia, and Evergrande Xu. It is nothing more than a difference between good and bad businessmen. Naturally, it means that one has given up his divinity.

Standing up for Xiaomi Auto, from today's perspective, Lin Jia has already regretted it. He shouldn't have agreed to Lei Jun's request for the founder's signature version. Although it was just a signature, it made Chen Yuanguang and the Ultra car highly bound together, which is not a good thing in the long run.

Then losing divinity for money is equivalent to losing a sense of security, which is definitely an unprofitable deal for them. It is equivalent to leaving higher-level needs unmet in order to satisfy lower-level needs.

Not to mention that Lin Jia knows what Chen Yuanguang is doing now. If he can achieve overtaking in the chip field, then he will be a great master. No matter how turbulent the domestic and international situation is, the interest groups relying on Chen Yuanguang will not be coveted or sacrificed.

Under Lin Jia's operation, Xiaomi Auto will no longer be linked to Chen Yuanguang in the future, will eliminate its Chen Yuanguang element, and focus its marketing on Lei Jun, not to mention Lotus Cars.

Yu Ning did not expect Lin Jia to refuse so decisively, and hurriedly said: "We fully respect Mr. Chen's opinion. Even if Mr. Chen does not accept the application for spokesperson, Lotus's invitation to capital will be valid for a long time.

We really need a strategic partner like Guangjia Technology."

"We are very interested in the cooperation and also in acquiring a stake in Lotus Cars. After Guangjia Technology has done sufficient market research, we can conduct further specific negotiations," said Lin Jia.

Yu Ning looked particularly depressed when he left Guangjia Technology's headquarters building in Shenhai. Lotus Cars has been in decline for too long. Even though it has many powerful shareholders behind it and has made the most radical electrification transformation, they are still not 100% sure that they can make a profit.

The purpose of listing on NASDAQ is to achieve profitability, be able to tell stories to capital and drive up the market value, and Chen Yuanguang's endorsement is a shortcut and insurance.

Why Lotus Cars believes Chen Yuanguang will accept such cooperation.

Because in their view, even if Guangjia Technology only holds a 10% stake, Chen Yuanguang only needs to spend one or two days each year shooting promotional videos and photos to obtain excess returns, which can bring returns of billions of dollars in the long run.

Even Bill Gates would do this deal.

Bill Gates and Zuckerberg were invited to the wedding of the son of India's richest man Ambani, and the business cooperation between Bill Gates and Ambani was only 60 million US dollars.

Yu Ning couldn't understand why Lin Jia refused so bluntly, but he would not ask Chen Yuanguang for his opinion again because there was no need.

From the outside world's perspective, Lin Jia is Chen Yuanguang's commercial spokesperson, and asking Chen Yuanguang again will only result in another rejection.

After the discovery of room-temperature superconductivity, all of Chen Yuanguang's experiences from childhood to adulthood were put under a magnifying glass. As a lover who had been with Chen Yuanguang since college, Lin Jia, coupled with her family background, was considered to be the woman with the greatest influence on Chen Yuanguang, even more than Chen Yuanguang's parents.

Therefore, Yu Ning would not seek trouble for himself, even if Chen Yuanguang himself was willing.

"How many meetings have been held about the damn Wright?" Jeffrey asked his assistant.

Jeffrey is the White House Chief of Staff, which is equivalent to the President's chief personal assistant. He also has his own assistant.

"I saw that there are three meetings this week related to Wright. They will discuss the access permit for perovskite batteries, room-temperature superconductivity, and China's current 712 project." The assistant said after flipping through the notebook.

Jeffrey let out a long sigh. Times have been tough in the White House recently.

It is clear that the controversy surrounding Washington is intensifying. Since the second half of last year, China's new energy vehicles equipped with perovskite batteries are making Tesla unattractive.

Tesla's sales have declined significantly in several major markets around the world.

Especially after car companies such as Volkswagen, Toyota, and Honda signed cooperation agreements with Guangjia Aerospace, the entire European market began to say no to Tesla.

Volkswagen first announced at its spring press conference that the latest ID series equipped with perovskite batteries will be available soon.

Even in the face of warnings from the White House, Germany is determined to cooperate with China in the fields of new energy and photovoltaics. America's weakness in geopolitical conflicts has been noticed by these countries.

France was able to push Guangjia Technology to sign an agreement with Safran and the European Space Agency. The automotive industry is a much more important lifeline for Germany than the aerospace industry is for France.

No matter how much the White House talks, it cannot stop the cooperation between Volkswagen and Guangjia Aerospace.

The ID series is equipped with perovskite batteries. Even though this option costs 5,000 euros, consumers are willing to wait and see the latest ID series, and have little interest in Tesla.

"It is clear that Tesla is losing its first-mover advantage and their appeal to consumers in Europe is declining sharply."

"The Volkswagen series equipped with perovskite batteries is becoming the most anticipated new energy vehicle in Europe"

"Volkswagen is fully confident in the ID series and hopes that it can help Volkswagen reverse its decline in the global new energy vehicle market."

China's domestic new energy vehicle market is in a state of chaos. No one is making any money and everyone is selling cars at a loss. All kinds of materials are piling up.

The foreign new energy vehicle market, which is not competitive at all, is so attractive, giving people a sense of unique beauty.

As America's only hope in the new energy vehicle market, America obviously does not want to watch Tesla gradually lose the global market.

China's new energy vehicles have a long way to go in the global market. Even with the support of technology, it is difficult to compete with Tesla in terms of brand power. Volkswagen, Toyota, and Honda are different. Toyota's verification code can be sold at mid-to-high-end prices in many overseas markets.

The fact that China's new energy vehicles are powered by perovskite batteries is at best a minor problem, while traditional car companies are using perovskite batteries to seize Tesla's market share, which is a serious problem. "This is not the most fatal problem. The most fatal problem is that perovskite batteries will seriously affect the American oil business and affect the leadership of the American in the global climate crisis," the experts at the meeting asserted.

"With the revolutionary breakthrough in photovoltaic technology, China has taken on a large number of photovoltaic projects around the world. The global photovoltaic market is being eroded by China, and Meyer Burger's losses are rising sharply.

Even if it moves to the federal government and the federal government provides financial subsidies, it still cannot fill this hole.”

Meyer Burger is the largest solar cell manufacturer in Europe. Before the advent of perovskite cells, their losses were US$50 million in half a year. After the advent of perovskite cells, their losses directly rose to US$200 million, and will continue to rise in the foreseeable future.

They continued to stay in Germany, but Germany's subsidies were extremely limited. In addition, they needed to transform the production line. They first had to obtain technical authorization from Guangjia Aerospace, then transform the production line, and finally produce and sell. The whole process would take at least a year according to their habits.

The most worrying thing is that after the product is produced, China will have already adopted the second-generation perovskite battery technology. You should know that Xiaomi cars are already equipped with second-generation perovskite batteries.

As a result, Meyer Burger has been hesitating, while losses have continued to grow and the number of orders has dropped sharply.

America has been trying to persuade Meyer Burger to move to America, but this poses another problem. After moving to America, it will not be able to cooperate with Light Armor Aerospace and will still not be competitive in terms of products. Although it can get much richer compensation than Germany, the compensation is only temporary. The product competitiveness brought by technology is the most important.

Simply put, Meyer Burger is stuck from front to back and is facing a bankruptcy crisis.

"Our attractiveness to European companies is declining sharply, while Germany and France have each passed new energy plans with a total value of more than 20 billion euros, with the federal government paying for the introduction of the latest photovoltaic power stations.

Under such prospects, even though the federal government plans to provide Meyer Burger with a total of $14 billion in tax breaks and subsidies, they are still waiting to see the results of negotiations with France and Germany, trying to pin their hopes on their promises.

The conflict between Big Mao and Second Mao is stirring up trouble in the quagmire. For China, it is no exaggeration to say that it is a godsend opportunity.

It's not just the vast markets in the north and Central Asia, but also Russia's cheap resources and the European energy market.

After Europe was unable to obtain cheap energy from Russia, they turned to China's photovoltaic production capacity. Photovoltaic production capacity combined with new energy vehicles can alleviate the EU's energy anxiety to a certain extent.

According to the photoelectric conversion rate of perovskite and China's massive production capacity, even a photovoltaic power station project with a total value of 20 billion yuan will still be profitable in the long run.

For China, Germany and France are the best model projects that can help them open up the entire developed country market.

The most painful thing is America, watching your biggest rival eat meat. Everyone wants to eat meat from old Europe. The various preferential policies that America gives to European manufacturing industries are actually stabbing Europe in the back. What makes them painful is why you get to eat more meat than me without stabbing them in the back.

“With the progress of photovoltaic power generation and new energy vehicles in the global market last year, the global oil consumption was reduced by 200 million barrels per day throughout the year.

Sometimes the decisions you make can backfire on you in the future. According to our estimates, this number will reach 2025 million barrels by 1000, and China's production capacity and technological progress can be even more terrifying than this number. This means that by 2025, more than a quarter of the oil demand in the global automotive industry will be replaced by electricity.

If Tesla fails to compete in the global market, America's auto industry will be destroyed just like Detroit.

Therefore, we can no longer hesitate and must cooperate with China." Stephen, a senior researcher at the Rand think tank, said helplessly.

“I know you don’t want to accept this reality, but it is the reality.
The destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline cut off the possibility of peace talks between Russia and Europe, making Germany's industry weaker and reducing their competitiveness.

At the same time, it is precisely because of the destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline that Europe has suffered an energy shortage, and it has to introduce China's photovoltaic production capacity to make up for the energy shortage.

Not to mention the destruction of Nord Stream. Although there is no falling out on the surface, everyone actually knows who did it.

Jeffrey felt a headache after hearing this. No one dared to make a decision, not only because of the sensitivity of Light Armor Aerospace itself.

“This is an opportunity for the opposition party, and they can use this opportunity as the biggest excuse to attack us in this year’s election.

We will be passive in front of voters.”

If you use too much hate propaganda, it will be very difficult to make a sharp turn.

The Donkey Party actually wants to negotiate peace with Guangjia Aerospace and introduce perovskite batteries because there are a large number of environmentalists among their supporters.

Promoting more efficient photovoltaic power generation and allowing Tesla to also have the support of perovskite batteries is a once-in-a-lifetime publicity opportunity for them, which can further consolidate the image of the Democratic Party in promoting solutions to the climate crisis.

The problem is that this will seriously offend the financial backers behind the Elephant Party.

For the federal government, the further development of photovoltaics and new energy will severely damage America's oil business.

The outside world may think that the big oil producers in the Middle East are making a fortune from oil. In fact, thanks to the shale gas revolution, America is the world's number one oil producer.

Their oil production capacity accounts for 17.9% of the world's total, 44% more than the second-ranked Saudi Arabia, and traditional energy manufacturers are the financial backers behind the Elephant Party.

They are also the biggest force preventing perovskite cells from entering America.

Stephen didn't say anything because he could clearly feel that the Democratic Party was also losing voters. From the reports, a large number of young voters expressed serious dissatisfaction with the fact that the Cybertruck could not be equipped with perovskite battery technology.

In addition, in sensitive areas, the negative public opinion caused by the Democratic Party’s refusal to support the victims has led to a large number of young voters fleeing, and they would not support the Democratic Party even if they do not vote.

These young voters are an important voting bloc for the Donor Party.

(End of this chapter)