The battery industry, which can be said to be one of the most important industries in the world in the next few decades, is no less important than chips, and even this is not only an economic issue, but also an environmental issue, in the 21st century before Chen Zhiwen traveled, global warming has played a role in abnormal effects.

As long as the post-80s mainlanders can actually feel it, for example, near the Yangtze River Basin, many people in the river when I was a child were able to walk, and the winter was very cold, and in the 21st century, there is basically not much ice in winter, and even sub-zero temperatures, a winter may only be a few days, and it is still the early morning period. Summer, on the other hand, is getting hotter and hotter, especially in 2022.

There are many problems that need to be solved to solve environmental problems, but battery technology is definitely an important part of it, and even if nuclear fusion comes out one day, batteries will not be obsolete.

In terms of technical difficulty, the technology of the battery is much lower than that of the chip, and the small factory with only a few dozen people when BYD started its business in later generations can be among the top few in the world, let alone Ningwang.

Of course, it is still far away from the era of lithium batteries or electric vehicles, but the next market that is about to break out is that laptops and mobile phones will appear soon, and even non-lithium batteries also have a large market, such as various portable electronic products, which need high-endurance batteries, which is also the market basis for the rapid development of batteries.

In fact, the development of science and technology also depends on the market, only by relying on mobile phones to drive the battery market, and then iterative upgrading, follow-up, there will be the possibility of electric vehicles, otherwise, battery technology will never develop.

As a large group, Midea must think for a long time, focusing on conquering a market that is not yet a giant but will be 100 billion dollars in the future, which is the best development strategy.

After all, the computer market has not exploded today, the software market can not develop, the only advantage of the United States at present, that is, games, and the game is very profitable, so much money will be used for some profiteering investment, and the other part, must be invested in research and development, into the high-tech field, in this way, in order to really gain a firm foothold in the future, just like Samsung, which almost monopolizes chips and LCD.

The battery industry, Western countries, is unlikely to carry out technical blockade, because they do not have this technology themselves, and the ZZ factor is very safe.

"In the battery industry, if we want to enter the mainland, we can cooperate with the mainland, but if we want to develop rapidly, it is better to acquire a ready-made enterprise as before." Lei Shengli thought for a while and said.

"Oh, what good goals do you have?" Chen Zhiwen asked, in fact, he also knows that the acquisition of a battery company that already has a certain foundation is the best way to develop, but this is not a prophetic advantage for the traveler from the 21st century, because he does not know which battery technology is more awesome.

To be precise, the development of the battery industry in the past hundred years is very slow, only a few places need to use batteries, the most common may be the flashlight or the starting battery on the car, the essence is the battery, is prepared for the object that needs to move, because it does not move, you can find a socket on the line.

As long as it is 85 years later, electronic products have exploded, and the demand for batteries has also followed the technology and developed exponentially, so that a bunch of battery giants will be born in the future, and several of Chen Zhiwen know are in China, Japan and South Korea, and they are old now, and have no reference significance.

At present, the giants in the field of battery research and development can be said to be the electronic giants under the Japanese consortium, such as Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic, Canon, etc., these companies also take battery technology as a strategic development direction, and Chen Zhiwen can't buy it even if he has money. As for South Korea and the mainland, it's still early.

"There is one." Lei Shengli said: "Our handheld machine, the annual sales of tens of millions, and because of internal regulations, when selling, there will be 4 dry batteries in the package, so our dry battery purchase is also very large, many battery manufacturers around the world have taken the initiative to find us, and we will naturally test these batteries."

A battery company called Delphi in the United States, their battery quality is very good, the same size, the battery life is almost 15% higher than other brands on average, but the price is too expensive, and it was finally eliminated.

And I know that this company is currently in a difficult situation in the United States, its market is being grabbed by Japanese counterparts in a price war, and it can't compete with Japanese counterparts, and this company is not only a battery supplier for many global car brands, if it can be acquired, it will also help our group's development in the automotive field. ”

"That means they have the technology, but the cost can't be controlled? Is it because labor is expensive in the United States? Or is it simply that technology can't do it at a low cost? Chen Zhiwen asked, this is very important, in fact, low cost is one of the most difficult technologies.

"I don't know much about that, but if I need to investigate, I'll need a little time." Lei Shengli said with an embarrassed smile, he has only been in contact with others twice, and he is a nodding friend, and he doesn't know too many secrets of others.

"Okay, go check it out, and by the way, check other battery manufacturing companies in the United States or Europe, and if there is a suitable one, we will buy it, but we must ensure that their technology can all be brought to Asia." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, although there will be no restrictions on battery technology in theory, if a company supplies batteries to its own satellites, military equipment, submarines, tanks, etc., it will definitely not work, and he does not need these businesses.

"Okay, I'll send someone to check it out immediately." Lei Shengli said.

A week later, Lei Shengli and He Guoyuan came to Chen Zhiwen's office with the prepared materials.

"Chen Sheng, this is all the information of the Delphi battery, I have sorted it out, please take a look." Lei Shengli handed over a folder to Chen Zhiwen, which was not a cumbersome introduction of information, but had been sorted out, and he could see all the key data at a glance, which was also what any boss needed, and the big bosses didn't have time to look at a lot of meaningless introduction materials.

"I'll see." Chen Zhiwen took it, opened it and looked at the catalog, all the contents were a brief introduction to the Delphi battery, and at this time, Lei Shengli also introduced: "This Delphi battery."

In less than ten minutes, with the help of Lei Shengli's introduction and concise information, Chen Zhiwen also roughly knew the situation of this company.

Delphi company, originally in the 20s, when the global automobile industry was just born, a sub-business of an automobile company, at that time, oil car companies were everywhere, just like 40 years later, when the new energy vehicles in the mainland just broke out, and under the subsequent years of competition, a large number of automobile companies went bankrupt, and the parent company of Delphi was the same, but there is no end to the road, a subsidiary of the car battery that exists for the sake of the car, it is actually mixed with the wind and water, and then the focus is on the development of car batteries, Later, it entered the field of dry batteries, and finally became the hegemon of the American battery industry in the 60s, ranking at least in the top five.

But in the 70s, Japan began to enter the high-tech field in all aspects, and the battery industry is the same, with low labor and enough volume, it is stronger than the United States in terms of cost, and the research and development field is also stronger.

At a time when the most high-end industries such as the American automobile industry and the chip industry have been impacted by Japanese automobiles, Delphi Automobile's automotive batteries and dry batteries have also been greatly impacted.

In the field of automotive batteries, not only the production of American cars was hit by Japanese cars, in order to reduce costs, American car brands chose cheaper Japanese cars, resulting in the failure of double lines, not to mention the field of dry batteries.

In order to reduce costs, Delphi battery and the labor union did a big job, paid a lot of money to move the factory to Mexico, the local labor cost is indeed low, but the quality is always problematic, the cost is still not able to compete with the Japanese, the whole company, has been losing money for 5 consecutive years, the trend of decadence has appeared.

"It's really for us, there are a lot of technologies, there are markets, even if we move to Wanwan, we can significantly reduce costs, and we also have a large number of retail channels within the group, which can help this Delphi gain a bigger market." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, this is the advantage of mastering Costco, and Galaxy Trade has obtained a lot of big supermarket orders through the ultimate cheap and cost-effective strategy, once you want to do something, unless it is some industrial products or service industries, otherwise, the entire retail channel will be of great use.

"Delphi's current market value is only $50 million, the company's net assets are about $200 million, and the debt is hundreds of millions. Lei Shengli said: "And their technology, may not be as good as those in Japan, but there are also a large number of basic patents, new technologies and a lot of R & D talents and experience, production, but also just choose Mexico this unsuitable place, after we acquire, the factory will be moved to Wanwan or the mainland, and then invest in their research and development, will be part of the technology licensed to the local place, so that the two sides can research and develop together, the starting point of the mainland side will be very high, which can save us a long time." ”

"Well, my acquisition in the United States, with Morgan Stanley more cooperation, you can go to them, negotiate a suitable price, buy this company, we also need some of their resources." Chen Zhiwen said decisively.

As long as it develops in the future market of batteries, it will definitely not be a loss, and it is worth spending much money now, and it is of great significance to be able to buy technology to save time.

And this kind of acquisition involving less than 100 million US dollars, just hand it over to his subordinates, he doesn't need to pay special attention, and if there is progress in the follow-up, he can just speak again.

(End of chapter)