Chapter 969 - Decision
Chapter 969 Decision
Shanghai suburbs.
In a twenty-story office building conference room packed with cardboard boxes, a Caucasian man with a large nose sat at the conference table, across from Li Tinghui. They seemed to be quietly waiting for something.
The clock on the wall hit the hour mark, making a click sound.
It was almost like this sound interrupted Li Tinghui’s train of thought, startling him.
He took a deep breath and placed the contract on the table.
“Apologies, but I can’t accept your proposal.”
This was an acquisition contract, not for Beep Beep Charging, but for himself.
Bobby’s offer was quite attractive.
He did his best to sell 60% of his shares to Star Sky Technology for 10 million yuan, but now Tesla was willing to buy the remaining 40% for 10 million.
And if he agreed, this 10 million yuan would go into his own pocket.
Of course, this meant that he was completely out of the game and would lose total control of Beep Beep Charging. The promising charging station startup he founded would turn into a pissing contest between Star Sky Technology and Tesla.
“It’s okay, I expected this,” the Caucasian man said. He stood up and smiled casually as he said, “I hope you think this through seriously, after all…”
He paused for a second and continued, “You’re facing a giant with tens of billions of dollars of assets, even if you’re back by Star Sky Technology, you’re not a competitor.”
Bobby smirked with a disdainful smile.
Elon personally told him to talk with the founder of Beep Beep Charging and try to acquire the remaining 40%.
However, Bobby didn’t take Elon’s words seriously.
Tesla was the leader in electric vehicles; its brand name was implanted deeply in the alternative energy vehicle industry. It was like the Apple of cars, with an army of loyal supporters.
Now that Tesla had acquired EVgo and mastered its “ultra-fast high power charging station” technology, the first batch of charging stations had gone into production at the Shanghai factory, and they would be deployed at the end of next month.
Wireless charging?
It was a creative idea, but this gimmick stood no chance against the all-mighty Tesla.
By the time they took their product to market, Tesla would have already dominated the Shanghai charging station field.
After they left, the Chief Technology Officer, Wang Qiang, walked next to Li Tinghui and looked at the Tesla Roadster driving off on the streets below.
“CEO Li, those guys were from Tesla?”
Wang Qiang wasn’t the only one curious.
The employees in the office also secretly looked over, hoping to hear something interesting.
Faced with his subordinates questioning his decision making, Li Tinghui nodded and said, “Yeah, Tesla’s China General Manager, Bobby.”
There was a quiet exclaim in the office.
Wang Qiang couldn’t help but said, “Our company is becoming more and more nutty. First, we’re financed by Star Sky Technology, and now, Tesla wants to invest… Did they talk about the term sheet?”
Li Tinghui was emotionless as he nodded and said, “Kind of…”
He obviously wasn’t going to tell them that Bobby wanted to buy him out.
That would defeat morale.
“Then CEO Li, did you agree?”
Li Tinghui looked at his partner’s face. He didn’t know why, but he suddenly remembered Bobby’s face.
Bobby looked at him as if he were an ant.
Li Tinghui felt a burning sensation in his chest. He looked at his co-workers and suddenly spoke.
“No.”
The office went quiet.
Chief Technology Officer Wang Qiang had his mouth wide open.
No?!
This is Tesla!
The electric vehicles giant!
He didn’t know why his CEO would refuse the offer, refuse to receive help from Tesla.
Li Tinghui looked at the surprised employees and knew what they were speaking. He spoke calmly.
“Tesla didn’t come to us with an offer, they came with a gun.
“Some of you might know this already, but listen carefully, Tesla has acquired EVgo and wants to penetrate the Chinese charging station market. Tesla is our competitor. Tesla is not our friend. Receiving financing from them means capitulating to them!
“Our goal is to become the largest charging station company in China, or even in the world! Not just some subsidiary of Tesla!
“We won’t bow down to those Americans!
“You want their help? Keep on dreaming! The second they acquire us, they’re going to break us down and pave the way for EVgo to control the Yangtze River Delta city group area. They’re going to sell our own energy back to our citizens!”
Li Tinghui didn’t care if his employees understood him.
Those were his true thoughts.
The office was dead silent.
Some people were confused, some people were shocked…
Someone applauded.
Then, like dominos, thunderous applause filled the entire office.
Li Tinghui took a deep breath and nodded.
“Thank you.
“It’s an honor to work with you all.”
…
Whether it was because of ambition or blind optimism, Li Tinghui wasn’t worried at all. In fact, he was more relaxed than he had ever been.
His competitor was EVgo, a subsidiary of Tesla.
It was foreseeable that all Tesla electric vehicles would only be compatible with EVgo chargers.
However, now was not the time to worry about this. There was something else more important.
One was the relocation of his office.
The other was to negotiate with shopping malls, residential areas, and other parking lots in Shanghai regarding obtaining exclusive wireless charging station locations…
Office building, cafeteria.
Li Tinghui was sitting in a secluded corner, listening to the news on TV.
The CTV channel suddenly began to talk about a recent breakthrough in the lithium-air battery, with Professor Lu’s new paper in JACS making the news.
Lithium-air battery?
Li Tinghui looked at hte TV screen in shock.
That is some high-tech stuff…
Lithium-sulfur battery was just invented, and now it’s about to be obsolete?
He ate some rice and chewed while thinking.
Even though he wasn’t in the materials science field, as an electrical engineer, he still knew a little bit about materials science.
If there really was a breakthrough in lithium-air batteries, that meant that the driving range of electric vehicles would increase to a whole nother level. This would decrease the desirability of battery swapping.
After all, not only did the user have to pay for electricity, but they also had to pay for external costs such as battery removal and replacement. Only long-distance travelers had the motive to exchange money for their time.
For most civilians running to the grocery store, the lithium-sulfur batteries had plenty of juice. They could easily charge their batteries at night.
This was undoubtedly good news for Beep Beep Charging.
After the lithium-air battery news segment, the news anchor began to talk about iron ore prices continuing to rise. According to trustworthy sources, due to the increase in Asia’s infrastructure market, the prices of raw materials had increased.
Li Tinghui wasn’t very concerned with the futures market, so he placed his attention back to eating.
He didn’t realize what kind of impact the lithium-air batteries would have on the charging station market…