After the Divorce, I Could Hear the Voice of the Future

"Is it really impossible to develop the battery-swapping stations?"

Li Bing murmured to himself, as he had long considered the battery-swapping station project to be more important than electric vehicles.

Especially as the sales of the Shen Lan s7 exploded, and the market share of Tianxing Car Machines surged once again, with many peer companies seeking cooperation.

In Li Bing's envisioned beautiful blueprint, NIO's battery-swapping station project would one day be able to rival or even surpass the Tianxing Car Machine as a super project.

He had been saying this to the outside world for many years, so much so that he himself began to believe it unwaveringly, determined to dedicate his life to the project.

Yet, at this moment, Lu Liang suddenly said that the battery-swapping project was hard to develop and that they should wait for the right time to cash out and leave.

For a moment, Li Bing felt a bit dizzy, faintly hearing the sound of a mirror shattering, which seemed to be both his conviction and persistence breaking.

Lu Liang remained silent, sipping tea alone.

Everyone has their emotions and desires, even those who are profit-driven like them might occasionally shed tears that the public would deem as crocodile tears.

But all the sentimentality is fleeting; when it comes time to choose, they always abandon emotions and make rational decisions.

Just like when Lu Liang broke apart the dependent mother and daughter Erii, he felt guilt and reluctance but was not driven to change by emotions.

Li Bing took a deep breath and raised the teacup in front of him. Lu Liang said, "The tea has cooled, have another cup."

"Cold tea cools the fire more," Li Bing murmured, downing it all in one go, feeling the bitterness in his mouth.

He thought for a long while: "I still want to hold on for a bit longer."

Lu Liang looked up and met Li Bing's gaze, a slight smile on his lips, approvingly saying, "That's how it should be."

Previously, Li Bing was too deeply immersed in his role, even wanting to pull him into the fold, but now the stubbornness in his eyes had faded.

After all, for the sake of the investors and his own interests, even though he already had doubts about the NIO battery-swapping project, at least he couldn't show it.

Because cars like the NIO, which cost four or five hundred thousand, or seven or eight hundred thousand, have no market competitiveness aside from looking relatively nice; without the battery-swapping project, NIO has no more stories to tell.

A company without stories in the capital market is like an apple in the fridge: not hated, but not liked either; you can eat it but people usually won't, especially since NIO is a potentially poisonous apple.

Li Bing gave a bitter smile, realizing that nothing could be hidden from Lu Liang. He continued, "I plan to spin off the battery-swapping project."

"Let's hold off on that for now."

Lu Liang pondered, offering his opinion: "The intention to spin off now is too obvious; at least wait until you're not short on funds."

A spin-off project can sometimes be good, sometimes bad; for example, the overseas Tianshu spin-off is good because they plan to go public in the future, but NIO's battery-swapping station spin-off clearly aims to prevent NIO's car division from being affected.

Li Bing's eyes were full of resentment, looking helplessly at Lu Liang, hoping he could come up with something: "With the battery-swapping being such a financial drain, when will we ever have enough money?"

Lu Liang sighed, helplessly saying: "In a while, when Tianxing Automobile is seeking financing, come around; I'll introduce you to some friends. With their lead, NIO should find market financing quite smoothly."

Releasing information about Tianxing Automobile's valuation at 30 billion US dollars is like setting a long line for fishing camels.

Only the camels haven't taken the bait yet, but we've caught some big fish that were unexpected, yet within reason.

BlackRock, Vanguard, and JPMorgan Chase, as well as General Motors, have all shown strong interest; just the price needs further negotiation.

The former likely wants to invest like they did in Ali Penguin, through round after round of financing, gradually becoming one of the major shareholders.

The latter seems to want to strengthen the relationship, especially since JPMorgan Chase needs to prepare enough positive news before their Q3 report to ensure nothing goes wrong, and General Motors is not satisfied with just holding General Tianxing, wanting shares in Tianxing Automobile as well, as the domestic market is Tianxing's home turf.

"I can finally get a good night's sleep tonight."

Li Bing was overjoyed, feeling his trip over the past few days was worthwhile with Lu Liang's words.

Because last time, Lu Liang had said the same thing.

Then NIO got a 500 million US dollar investment from the Saudi Sovereign Fund, taking a huge breather and successfully persisting until going public.

"Anything else?" Lu Liang glanced at Li Bing, picked up his tea cup, clearly signaling it was time to go.

Li Bing got the hint, chuckled along and said: "Mr. Lu, if nothing else, I'll head off first."

"Let me send you off."

"No need, no need, stay."

Lu Liang stood at the company entrance, smiling as he watched Li Bing take the elevator and leave.

As soon as he turned around, Little Wang couldn't hold back any longer and walked out of the reception room, full of curiosity as he looked in the direction Li Bing had left: "Mr. Li came to persuade you again about that battery-swapping station?"

He followed Lu Liang's arrangement to invest in Kunpeng Quick Charge and was fiercely given a motivational speech by Meng Changkun.

It made him believe that quick charging, ultra-fast charging, and even flash charging are the future mainstream for refueling the electric vehicle market.

Battery swapping, he thought, was a dead end.

Meng Changkun followed closely behind, also walking out of the reception room, smiling as he said: "It's obvious that Mr. Li has been quite anxious lately."

"The investment in the battery-swapping project is huge, yet it yields little results, with no turning back. How could one not be anxious? This project will not succeed unless the state sets standards and, like gas stations, invests massive amounts of money to spread it nationwide."

Lu Liang spoke as he walked, opening the office door and returning to his still-warm seat, intending to continue the conversation he had just had.