In addition to the performance of electric vehicles, another important factor affecting the adoption of electric vehicles is how much the vehicle is sold for.

In the case that the convenience of use is not as good as that of traditional cars, if the price of pure electric vehicles is ridiculously high, then the competitiveness of electric vehicles compared with traditional cars will be further reduced.

In the previous life, all of Tesla's models, including Model S, Model 3 and other imported versions, were all priced at more than 400,000 yuan, and the more expensive ones, such as Tesla Model X, were priced at as high as 800,000 yuan, and the top version was close to 1 million, which was comparable to the Mercedes-Benz S series and BMW 7 series.

It wasn't until 2019, after Tesla's Gigafactory project in Shencheng was settled, that Tesla announced that the price of the domestic version of the Model 3 would become 290,000, while the lowest price of the previous imported version was 430,000, a price reduction of more than 100,000.

If the cost of today's Ming EP1 car is controlled at 350,000 yuan, then the final price will definitely be lower than 400,000, if Zhou Jingming is confident enough, the price can even be set at less than 300,000, "don't make money, only earn and drink", first let electric vehicles enter people's lives, after all, Tesla in the first period of time, every time a car is sold, it will lose tens of thousands of dollars.

"Is there room for further compression of costs?" Zhou Jingming continued to ask after hearing this. The ideal cost in Zhou Jingming's mind should be less than 300,000, after all, the positioning of Tianming EP1 is only a B-class car, not a luxury car.

"At present, the cost of 350,000 yuan mainly comes from imported battery components, if we can achieve independent production of battery components in the future, coupled with our further optimization of the rest of the vehicle accessories, the cost will definitely be below 300,000. Martin Eberhard replied.

The most costly part of the entire electric vehicle is the battery component, followed by the body, as long as these two aspects are controlled, it is not difficult to reduce the cost.

"Cost control is one thing, but it can't reduce the overall performance of the vehicle, which is the most important principle. Zhou Jingming emphasized.

"Don't worry, chairman, I'll find a reasonable balance. Martin Eberhard replied with a smile.

After the end of the dynamic test, in the following time, under the auspices of Martin Eberhard, the rest of the performance tests were carried out, but after the power test was over, Zhou Jingming and others left.

And the next day, Zhou Jingming's desk, there is one more performance test report, in addition to yesterday's known power data, braking, handling, cruising range and other data are all reflected in this report, after actual testing, it was found that Tianming EP1 The cruising range of this car is 460 kilometers, although it has not been able to reach the theoretical 500 kilometers, but the cruising range of 460 kilometers is enough to make this electric car stand out.

It's just that yesterday's test was just to get the corresponding data, and there will be a series of real car tests next, mainly for the stability and safety of this car to be tested many times.

However, the next test did not affect the pre-sale of this car, and Zhou Jingming also convened Zhao Ke and others to discuss the pre-sale of Tianming EP1 together.

"Pure electric vehicles are a new thing, if the traditional car sales method is adopted, it may cause problems such as inventory backlog, so I plan to hold a press conference for this car in the near future, officially announce the birth of this car, and accept pre-sale orders, what do you think?"

In Zhou Jingming's office, Zhao Ke and others sat side by side, and Zhou Jingming took the lead in speaking.

"Isn't it too sudden to release it directly without any exposure?" Zhao Ke asked worriedly.

"But there haven't been any major motor shows in recent times, and if we want to wait, we will have to wait until the Geneva Motor Show in March next year, which is the closest one to us. Xu Weidong continued on the side.

It's only December 2002, and if the Tianming EP1 is to be unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show, it means three months to wait.

"There is no need to wait until March, anyway, it is pre-sale, from pre-sale to final delivery, there is a certain amount of time in between, and there is a period of publicity during this time, and its role is similar to that of the auto show. Zhou Jingming shook his head with a smile.

Every time Tianming Group launches a new car, its attention is no worse than that of ordinary auto shows, and Zhou Jingming is confident that this electric car will become an instant hit.

"Then when do you plan to hold a new car press conference? January 1st next year?" Since Zhou Jingming said so, Zhao Ke continued to ask.

"Yes, it's next year's New Year's Day! I want to make 2003 another memorable year in the history of the development of the automobile industry. Zhou Jingming nodded with a smile.

"Okay, then I'll be responsible for the preparation of the press conference, and a few people from Daxun can assist me. Zhao Ke took the initiative to ask.

"Okay, the preparation work will be taken care of by the senior brother, including the advertising and publicity of this car, all of which can be prepared simultaneously. Zhou Jingming nodded.

After agreeing on these things, the rest of the work became simpler, the electrification project team, according to Zhou Jingming's requirements, assembled three complete versions of the Tianming Ep1 for the press conference site publicity use, at the same time, the actual car test work in charge of Kocconi also began to kick off in the northern Xinjiang of the motherland.

On December 16, Monday, Tianming Group officially announced the group's first pure electric vehicle, which will be officially released on January 1, 2003 and accept global reservations.

This news is like a depth charge, in the last month of 2002, stirred up a thousand waves, although last year in the release of the hybrid version of the S3, Zhou Jingming has revealed that there will be the release of electric vehicles, but no one expected that Tianming Group's action was so fast, only a year later, there will be a blockbuster model released again.

After the release of this news, Tianming Group also published some photos of the Tianming EP1 car through several media with business dealings, as a warm-up for the New Year's Day press conference next year.

As Zhou Jingming expected, as soon as this news was released, it immediately caused a huge shock in the world.

As the second attempt of mainstream automakers to enter electric vehicles, Tianming Group can be said to have perfectly taken over the key left by General Motors, when General Motors tried to open the door to the electric vehicle industry to no avail, and announced the discontinuation of the EV-1 car, Tianming Group picked up the key again and launched a second attack on electric vehicles.

While many media are reporting, they have also raised such questions: this time, can Tianming Group be invincible in the electric vehicle industry as before?

After all, traditional cars are still in their prime, but there is no doubt about one thing, that is, Zhou Jingming did open the electric era of the automotive industry in 2003.

Wonderful Book House