Chapter 208: M&A

Teracasting.

A revolutionary process that will completely change the paradigm of automobile manufacturing.

Typically, a car is completed by welding thousands of parts, securing them with rivets, and going through dozens of steps in the painting and assembly lines.

From the engine room to the A-pillar, roof, and wheel housing.

This means that each part is manufactured separately, resulting in hundreds of joints.

But.

Teracasting is a technology that ‘stamps out’ the entire body at once, completely different from this manufacturing method.

Like plastic injection molding, it uses a 3,000-ton super-large die-casting press to mold most of the body frame as a single casting.

Since the lower chassis, side frames, and main structures are integrated.

The number of parts is reduced by more than 70% compared to the existing ones, and the number of joints is reduced from 400 to less than 40.

Single process, single mold, single time.

“Is this… really possible?”

I nodded at Lee Hye-ryeong’s question, her eyes wide with surprise.

“It seems impossible, but it’s a perfectly feasible method.”

Even before the regression, Tesla had started mass production using a similar construction method.

Ahsung had also improved the process, inspired by it.

‘Of course, it’s a technology that will take a few more years to actually implement.’

Everyone’s eyes were focused on me.

I added one more bold letter to the whiteboard.

[Tera Press]

And below that.

I drew a thick line across the existing part-by-part divided structure.

“Nova is not a handmade car like PRIME. We may need to produce hundreds… or even thousands of these cars a day.”

“If Teracasting is applied, manufacturing efficiency will definitely skyrocket.”

“But applying such a structure would require a considerable initial investment, right?”

As always, the experienced Vice President Hong Chung-ki hit the nail on the head.

As he said, to apply Teracasting, at least two 3,000-ton GDC units would have to be introduced.

A completely new construction would be required, including the design of super-large molds suitable for the integrated chassis, and the uniform injection and cooling process of molten aluminum alloys.

“The introduction cost alone is at least five hundred billion per unit.”

Add to that the cooling lines, robot arms, and mold replacement systems……

I summarized the approximate initial investment cost on one side of the whiteboard.

Sighs escaped from everyone’s mouths at the rows of zeros following the numbers.

The total amount calculated was.

[7.2 trillion!]

“……It’s a good thing Executive Director Oh Seong-hak is not here.”

I laughed at Park Cheol-jin’s words, which sounded like a joke.

If he had been there, he would have definitely poured out a storm of complaints, saying that the investment cost had already exceeded 10 trillion won, even though not a single car had been sold yet.

“The initial cost will be high, but over time, we will definitely be able to extract more value than that. So…… Cheol-jin, you talk to Executive Director Oh Seong-hak about the cost.”

“……Me?”

“Yes. You’re the representative of Dojin Frontier.”

His lips moved as if to say.

That he was just a salaried president and that I was the real owner.

But I didn’t care.

Originally, an organization is a place where you have to do what you’re told.

“But there’s a lot more to prepare for the production of Nova besides Teracasting. I don’t have a good sense of how big a scale we should aim for.”

At Lee Hye-ryeong’s words, both Hong Chung-ki and Park Cheol-jin nodded, as if they had been worried about the same thing.

“Since we haven’t actually made a proper car yet, demand forecasting won’t be easy.”

“If we aim for a large scale and end up with a lot of inventory, the loss will snowball, and if we aim too small, we won’t be able to respond to orders properly, and trust will decline.”

Unlike mobile, automobile production cannot increase capacity in a short period of time.

It takes at least a year, and up to two years, from line construction to normal operation.

“The problem is…… we haven’t properly proven ourselves as a car company yet.”

We proved our technology with PRIME.

But making a mass-market car was another matter entirely.

I continued quietly.

“Brand loyalty, market trust, distribution network…… all of these things take time.”

So I decided to use a different method for demand forecasting.

The same method used to predict the demand for PRIME.

I opened the editing window of KTalk Feed and moved my fingers.

[KTalk Feed] - @Kang Tae-joon | 105,173,655 followers

I’m trying to predict the demand for EV-Nova.

Please participate.

#EVNova #ProductionScale #DojinFrontier #OnlyRealFacts #Teracasting

【Buy ☑】0%

【Don’t Buy ☑】0%

※0 votes

Interest in Nova was so high that as soon as I posted the voting article, the numbers started moving at an incredible speed.

-1 hour later

【Buy ☑】93%

【Don’t Buy ☑】7%

※823,119 votes

-3 hours later

【Buy ☑】95%

【Don’t Buy ☑】5%

※1,823,921 votes

-24 hours later

【Buy ☑】95%

【Don’t Buy ☑】5%

※8,182,389 votes · Final result

“Wow…… 7.7 million units.”

“Are there really that many people willing to buy Nova?”

Park Cheol-jin and others exclaimed as they looked at the numbers.

“The numbers are high, but there will be a lot of phantom voters. It seems like demand forecasting has become even more complicated.”

I nodded in agreement with Lee Hye-ryeong’s words.

“Feed voting is just a matter of clicking once.”

While 95% of the 8 million people chose ‘Buy’.

It was difficult to predict how many would actually lead to purchases.

“Still, it’s really impressive.”

Lee Hye-ryeong continued cautiously.

“Even when a car brand launches a completely new model, it’s rare to get this kind of response.”

Park Cheol-jin added.

“Even Toyoshita, the world’s number one car company, produces more than 10 million units a year, but they’ve never exceeded 2 million units with a single model. Ahsung’s Urbante, even at its peak, had a maximum of 400,000 to 500,000 units per year.”

“Electric cars would be even less, right?”

Since it was 2017, the early days of the paradigm shift to electric cars.

It was true that demand was not high.

Vice President Hong Chung-ki provided additional explanation.

“Even with Tesla, electric car sales in the first half of the year were only about 100,000 units.”

While they dominated the premium electric car market with Models J and Z.

The mass-market Model 5 would only start delivery at the end of this year.

‘So 7.7 million units is just not realistic.’

“Still, the fact that 7.7 million people expressed their willingness to buy Nova if given the chance means that potential demand could be much larger than expected.”

Then, Executive Director Oh Seong-hak, who had just entered during the feed voting, presented an idea.

“Why don’t we use the results of this vote more proactively?”

“How so?”

The others were curious, and their eyes turned to Director Oh.

“Now that people know there’s a lot of pent-up demand for Nova, we can start taking reservations based on that. If we also collect a deposit at the same time, demand forecasting will become much easier.”

“Oh……”

Exclamations erupted from all over the conference room.

It was a realistic and effective method that no one could deny.

“Then, what would be an appropriate amount for the deposit?”

Too little would reduce credibility, and too much would be a burden, potentially lowering reservation rates.

“How about $1,000?”

That’s 1.3 million won in our currency.

It was an amount that wouldn’t be a burden but would also convey trust.

I immediately accepted Director Oh’s idea and started pre-order sales for EV-Nova.

The results were surprising.

-First day of reservations: 310,000 units

-After one week: 590,000 units

When I posted the unexpected results on the feed.

A flood of inquiries from buyers poured into the comments section.

[KTalk Feed] - @Kang Tae-joon | 107,192,834 followers

EV-Nova pre-order results

582,798 units

Vehicle delivery will begin sequentially from the end of 2019

#EVNova #ThankYouForYourSupport #OnlyDeposits #580MillionDollars

└I was supposed to be the only one buying it, why are so many people buying it?

└It’s good if it sells a lot. What’s the problem?

└It’s selling too much. I’ll get mine late. 323,982nd in line. Damn.

└Hahaha, still better than me. I’m 432,921st.

└This is gonna take like 3 years, right?

└First delivery is at the end of 2019, so it might take longer than 3 years.

└Damn. I want it fast. Is this too much to ask?

└What can you do? It’s their first time making a car, so the infrastructure is lacking.

└Can’t they just collaborate with Ahsung Motors and make it faster?

└Haha, a hostile M&A would be faster than a collaboration.

└It won’t be easy.

└While Ahsung has been losing to Dojin in mobile and defense lately, they still have a strong foundation.

└Hahaha, their chairman is in jail, though? I think the era of Ahsung is over.

└Right. Who do you think got the current president elected by going all-in?

└If Kang Tae-joon really wanted to, I don’t think there’s anything he couldn’t do.

As I read through the comments one by one.

A smile formed on my face naturally.

I was just thinking about what justification to use to start the M&A.

In this atmosphere, I thought it would be okay to proceed with the support of public opinion.

‘Of course, it’s too early right now.’

So I thought I’d have to wait for the right time.

Unexpectedly, the opportunity came sooner than I thought.