International oil prices have finally broken through the $50 per barrel mark, and oil prices have risen by nearly 40% since the beginning of the year. According to this momentum, oil prices will continue to rise, and there is no possibility of a fall.

China accuses the United States of unleashing the Iraq War, which has caused turmoil in the international situation and led to a rise in international oil prices. Western countries, led by the United States, say that because China's demand is too strong, nearly half of the world's oil carriers are destined for Chinese ports every day, and the shortage of supply has naturally led to the rise in oil prices.

Like an avalanche, no snowflake is innocent.

Under the combined effect of various factors, international oil prices have been rising, making the oil-producing OPEC countries laugh half to death, and every day the treasury has a large amount of foreign exchange.

At this time, the attention to new energy vehicles began to focus again.

Because human beings clearly know that oil, the treasure trove of energy left to mankind by the earth's sacrifice of countless creatures after hundreds of millions of years of evolution, will eventually be consumed one day.

As the leader of Zhonghua Group's new energy vehicle team, Xiong Fanxing has been busy since returning to China. He is now focusing on two major tasks, one is to refer to Toyota's THS system and strive to create a new autonomous hybrid system. The second is to find suitable battery energy for pure electric vehicles, lead-acid, manganese-lithium, nickel-metal hydride, lithium-ion and other battery types are emerging in an endless stream, and various brands are exploring the future mass production of batteries.

In order to compare with Toyota's THS system, Chunghwa Group's hybrid project was named ZHS system.

In Toyota's THS system, the gasoline engine is in the mainstream position, and the electric motor is used as an auxiliary role. Electrical energy is generated by harvesting excess energy from the engine, and the vehicle is still driven by the engine.

However, in Xiong Fanxing's vision, the ZHS system will be dominated by electric motors, and gasoline engines will be auxiliary. The engine will continuously generate electricity to provide electrical energy to the electric motor, which will drive the car forward.

This line of thinking is completely reversed from Toyota's technology, so that it can circumvent the patent barriers that Toyota is proud of.

In practice, the ZHS system can also be plugged in, and when used in combination with a gasoline engine, it looks more like an electric vehicle from the future than Toyota's THS system.

"My idea is that the ZHS system can use one energy source alone or a mixture of two energy sources, which is the way to develop new energy vehicles in the future. ”

Toyota's hybrid has always relied on petroleum, and Xiong hopes that one day his system can be separated from oil and can be used directly on electricity for a long time.

However, he also admits that he was greatly inspired by Toyota's THS design philosophy, and Toyota has its own tricks up its sleeve for how to smoothly transition between electric and kinetic energy.

After identifying new energy vehicles as a strategic pillar for the future, Xiong Fanxing received a large amount of capital investment for his team to design and develop various schemes.

The ZHS system quickly began to become a reality step by step from a paper idea, and the hybrid system based on electric motor drive has already taken shape and is about to enter the experimental stage.

As for battery energy, Xiong Fanxing has not yet found a suitable feasible plan.

Although Huaxia electric motorcycles now have the largest market share in the domestic market, all batteries are purchased products, feeding the Yangtze River Delta battery manufacturers such as Chaowei and Tianneng.

Since it is going to enter the electric vehicle market in the future, the core technology such as batteries must be in their own hands, Xiong Fanxing accepted Han Hao's instructions, and while looking for a feasible plan for batteries, he is also looking at the objects that can be acquired.

If you want to say that the domestic battery factory, the most suitable is BYD, this company focuses on research and development in the field of battery development is developing rapidly, beating Japanese and South Korean competitors.

However, Wang Chuanfu, the boss of BYD, is a person with a heart, and he is not willing to cooperate with the China Group, because they have mastered the magic weapon of "iron battery", and they are naturally unwilling to share the killer feature of electric vehicles in the future.

Originally, BYD did not announce its entry into the automobile industry, and the two sides had cooperated in some areas of batteries, but their peers were enemies.

Originally, Han Hao planned to invite BYD to form a joint venture into an automotive battery company, which could share technology in the future and greatly reduce procurement costs, but Wang Chuanfu refused.

"The iron battery is the result of our BYD's hard research and development, why should we cooperate with the Zhonghua Group, they have the ability to do it themselves? ”

BYD's F3 gained a small market share after its launch with the hot sales of Corolla and "Qin", which made Wang Chuanfu feel as if he had found a starting brick for the car.

Zhonghua Group will be the opponent that BYD will defeat in the future, how can it cooperate with the other party at this time and share the core technology?

In terms of traditional internal combustion engines, Zhonghua Group is far ahead, but in terms of electric vehicles, BYD has a unique technology and will surpass the current hot Zhonghua Group and become a powerhouse in the new field.

Therefore, BYD insists on developing its own electric vehicle industry independently.

Xiong Fanxing inspected the battery factory in China, but also to find a suitable R&D team for himself, and he hoped to have a large number of skilled hands available for his own deployment.

However, at the invitation of his American college classmates, he flew to the United States for a purely technical exchange.

Straubel, Xiong Fanxing's college classmate, has been in touch with each other because of their interest in new energy vehicles.

The other party has newly joined a start-up company called Tesla Motors, and it is said that it has realized the series practical test of 10,000 lithium batteries.

"Listen, my college classmate now has a lot of money in China, and if we can convince him, we may be able to bring us the money that is in short supply! The Series A funding is running out quickly, and we have to find the Series B funding as soon as possible, or the company will go out of business immediately. ”

As the chief technology officer of Tesla Motors, Straubel deliberately leaked the breakthrough in battery technology in order to attract more venture capital.

Musk will definitely not agree to your approach, he has always wanted to have absolute control over the company!"

Another Tesla co-founder said.

Tesla Motors originated from the whimsy of several IT engineers, who did not have any experience in the traditional automotive industry, but just felt that electric vehicles should be the next entrepreneurial outlet, so they joined forces to found this company called Tesla Motors.

To this end, it also attracted a large investment from Musk, a genius in Silicon Valley, who served as the chairman of the company and had de facto control.

"Don't worry, Musk knows my moves, and without his nod, no money can come in. ”

Straubel looked at his watch, and at this time the friend from China should have just landed at the airport.

Come to the world-renowned Silicon Valley, which leads the pace of the global information age, and countless Internet startups gather here.

Xiong Fanxing came to the headquarters of Tesla Motors according to the address, and they are larger than expected, with more than 100 engineers working in it.

"Let you take a look at our little baby, its endurance is close to 450 kilometers, and the acceleration of 100 kilometers is less than 5 seconds, which belongs to the subversive of the new era!"

As soon as they arrived at the scene, Straubel led Xiong Fanxing to visit the prototype car they made.

Named Tzero, a prototype of Tesla's No. 0 is quietly displayed there, as beautiful as a newborn baby.

Xiong Fanxing is concerned about whether the lithium battery used in Tesla's No. 0 machine is really as powerful as the other party said, and the 18650 lithium battery, which is widely used in laptops, can really be applied to cars!

Can't wait to sit on it and drive a big lap, Tzero did show extremely strong performance, which made Xiong Fanxing start to be interested in the 18650 lithium battery pack.

18650 lithium batteries are prone to short circuits or explosions, and protection circuits are required for production and charging, which makes traditional car manufacturers exclude them from the battery source. Because what the new energy of the car needs is stability, once the short circuit explodes, the consequences will be unimaginable.

"Explosives are also very dangerous, but they can be used safely by us humans after sufficient defenses, otherwise how can our rockets fly into space!

We have made a series of optimizations for the shortcomings of the 18650 battery, so you can try to avoid the danger you talked about!"

Straubel patiently explained to Xiong Fanxing.

In the global field, Tesla Motors is the first team to apply 18650 lithium batteries to automobiles, and it is clear that they have made a key breakthrough.

"To be honest, after listening to your introduction, I am also very interested in applying 18650 lithium batteries to my own projects. If its shortcomings can be overcome, this lithium battery is undoubtedly one of the directions of electric vehicles in the future. ”

Xiong Fanxing did not expect that on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, there are already people who are leading the way in the field of electric vehicles, and they have blazed a different path.

"I can't be the master of investing in Tesla, but I will pass on your intentions to my Chinese bosses. None of us knows what the future holds for electric vehicles. But we can keep in touch, and if you're willing to share battery technology with us, that's the best sincerity. ”

Tesla Motors is more of an internet company than a traditional car company. Although Xiong Fanxing has a large amount of funds in his hands to deploy, cross-border investment has to go through Han Hao's nod.

According to the Americans, they need money, but the money from China has shrunk dramatically in terms of enjoying the corresponding benefits.

Investments are allowed, but they cannot participate in the company's decision-making and do not have a seat on the board of directors, and only enjoy a certain dividend distribution right.

Tesla needs money, and Zhonghua Group needs battery technology, it depends on whether the two sides can reach an agreement.

After being rejected by BYD, through Xiong Fanxing's relationship, Zhonghua Group instead found a company in the United States that mastered the new battery technology, and they could make a completely different battery pack to apply to electric vehicles.

"They are short of money, but they are not going to sell the company to anyone, they are only willing to accept strategic investments, which is the common practice of Internet companies.

They also don't sell their battery technology to third-party companies unless they have to, because that's their core asset. ”

After returning to China, when reporting to Han Hao, Xiong Fanxing said.