Li Mu's efforts had made traveling to China the most popular choice for international tourism.
Since the panda bear became popular all over the world, the number of overseas tourists traveling to China had increased by more than 200% compared with the same period last year. Moreover, the immigration authorities even speculated that the number of overseas tourists traveling to China would double in the near future.
The reason why they were so confident was that there were now a large number of tourists applying for tourist visas in Hua Xia. The number of visa applications received by embassies all over the world was several times more than before.
For overseas tourists who wanted to travel to Hua Xia, applying for a visa was the first step. They might not be ready to travel for the time being, and they might not have planned their travel time and route for the time being. However, they already had the idea, so they wanted to apply for a visa first.
The embassy had been relaxing and speeding up the approval of tourist visas, not only because these overseas tourists could bring huge income to the domestic tourism industry, but also because these overseas tourists could correct the inherent perception of Hua Xia and pass on the scenery and culture of Hua Xia to overseas.
In the United Kingdom, the Windsor family was also actively promoting cooperation with Makino Technology.
Although the Windsor family was not in power, their influence in the United Kingdom was still very strong. Moreover, the Windsor family's own industry also covered all walks of life. It could be said to be one of the strongest families in Europe. Therefore, they immediately began to help Li Mu with all kinds of tourism resources needed in the United Kingdom.
The current manager of the Goldberg family, Davidson Gao Bai, who had a certain friendship with Li Mu, also received the news that Li Mu was going to open up the European export market. He immediately called Li Mu and brought good news to Li Mu.
Davidson told Li Mu, "Mr. Li, our Goldberg family has shares in several European airlines. If necessary, I can bring these airlines to cooperate with Makino Technology and cooperate with Makino Technology in the future European tourism routes to China."
Li Mu was pleasantly surprised. "Thank you so much, Mr. Gao Bai. I didn't expect your Goldberg family to be so involved in such a wide range of businesses. Not only are you involved in banking, finance, and investment banking, but you're also involved in airlines."
Davidson smiled and said, "In fact, the situation in Europe is not the same as in North America and Hua Xia. North America and Hua Xia have many new industries and new tycoons, especially internet tycoons like Mr. Lee. But in Europe, the overall situation is still supported by Old-Money, and most of the funds are in traditional industries such as finance, industry, and energy. These traditional industries are also the industries that families like ours have been deeply involved in."
As he spoke, Davidson continued, "Actually, we also have some shares in Daimler. This time, I contacted you, Mr. Lee, because I want to cooperate with you on a small matter."
Li Mu asked curiously, "Daimler is the parent company of Mercedes Benz?"
"Yes." Davidson said, "Daimler has several car brands, and Mercedes Benz is one of them."
Li Mu asked again, "Then what do you want to cooperate with me on?"
Davidson smiled and said, "Daimler has been promoting a sub-brand since 1998. This brand may not be on the market in Hua Xia yet. It's called Smart, and it's a small car brand that Mercedes Benz and Swatch cooperated with. It specializes in producing ultra-small cars. I wonder if you've heard of it, Mr. Lee?"
“Smart？” Li Mu frowned. Of course, he had heard of Benz's Smart. Not only had he heard of it, but he had also driven this car in his previous life.
To be honest, Smart was not suitable for a man like Li Mu. It was fine that the car was small, and its power was average. It could not run very fast, and it was quite noisy when driving. The driving experience was not worth more than a hundred thousand, but the winning factor was the brand, the design, and the concept of ultra-small cars.
Driving Smart, there was no need to worry about parking. If it could park a three-wheeled buggy, it would not be a problem. Driving it in a big city was much more convenient than driving a big car. In addition, it was very convenient to stuff things in, and the fuel consumption was very low. It still had some unique advantages.
Therefore, Li Mu asked, "I know about Smart, but what kind of collaboration do you want to use Smart for?"
Davidson smiled and said, "I was asked by someone to do this. Didn't you authorize BMW to use the panda bear image? BMW just released a concept drawing yesterday. In the next one or two months, they will be releasing a limited edition panda bear Mini Cooper. The entire front of the car will be a panda bear design with flowers. When this concept drawing was released, the European dealers received many interested orders. It is expected that the sales will be very good in the future. Smart and Mini are both small cars, and it is very suitable for cartoon designs. Therefore, we hope to get the panda bear authorization to produce a panda bear limited edition Smart."
Li Mu smiled and said, "Do you really need to call me personally for such a small matter? I will arrange for the marketing department to send the authorization letter to Smart. "
Davidson smiled and said, "That's great. Thank you, Mr Lee. Smart has been looking for a suitable opportunity to release the authorization letter. Looks like this is a good opportunity."
"You're welcome." Li Mu smiled and said, "This is a piece of cake for us."
As he said this, Li Mu suddenly remembered that he had to arrange the production line in advance before Tesla could start mass production. Therefore, he asked Davidson, "Oh right, Davidson, if I want to buy a car manufacturing company, do you have any good recommendations?"
"Car manufacturing company?" Davidson asked in surprise, "Mr Lee wants to enter the car industry?"
Li Mu smiled and said, "I want to test the waters."
Davidson asked, "I don't know what type of car you are interested in? Do you want to buy a supercar brand to play around? "
Li Mu said, "No, no, no. I'm not interested in supercars. Ordinary civilian cars are fine, such as ordinary sedans, luxury sedans, or SUVs."
Davidson thought for a moment and said, "There are two car brands in the UK. One is called Jaguar, and the other is called Land Rover. I don't know if Mr Lee has heard of them?"
Li Mu nodded and said, "I've heard of them. Which company owns these two brands?"
Davidson said, "Ford owns them, and they aren't doing very well."
As he said this, he continued, "Ford bought Jaguar more than ten years ago, and bought Land Rover from BMW four years ago. Then, they integrated these two brands, but the overall performance was quite bad. Jaguar Land Rover is now one of the burdens in Ford's hands. Ford has the intention to sell it, but there doesn't seem to be any interested buyers in the industry. Everyone thinks that these two brands are difficult to do well."
Li Mu furrowed his eyebrows.
Jaguar Land Rover sold quite well in Hua Xia in his previous life. Jaguar was a bit inferior, but Land Rover was really amazing. Land Rover became unstoppable in Hua Xia with the movie "Dwelling Snail".
However, Ford seemed to be in a worse situation. Before Land Rover became popular, they sold Jaguar Land Rover to India's Tata.
This was a very bad move. It was equivalent to cutting off their own flesh at the lowest point, and then letting Tata buy it and it skyrocketed.
If there was a chance to buy Jaguar Land Rover now, it would be a good deal.
Although Li Mu didn't know much about car manufacturing, he had talked to Elon Musk. Tesla and traditional gasoline cars had a few common technologies, and the chassis was the most important one.
To put it bluntly, the chassis was a platform. It was a complete set of solutions from the wheelbase to the engine and gearbox layout, to the suspension, to the tuning, to the various electronic control systems, stability systems, and so on.
Even if Tesla was a pure electric car, it couldn't do without a mature and reliable chassis technology. Other than the Roadster, Tesla's chassis technology was borrowed from Lotus. The subsequent main models, from the Model-S to the SUV X, and the cheap 3, were all based on Tesla's own development platform.
If there was a ready-made platform for traditional gasoline cars, Tesla's research and development and production would be easier.
For example, using the platform that Jaguar used to produce the XJ to produce the Tesla Model-S, they only needed to lighten the chassis, install the battery, replace the engine, gearbox, and transmission components, and keep the front and rear suspension and electronic control system. Then, a mid-sized luxury Tesla would be ready.
Jaguar also had a sports car model called XKR. Based on this platform, the Roadster might not be any worse than Lotus's.
As for Land Rover, in the future, SUVs and hard off-road vehicles would be popular. Even if it couldn't be used to produce pure electric hard off-road vehicles with Tesla, it could at least be used to make money.
Furthermore, buying Jaguar Land Rover now would definitely be the lowest price.
After Ford entered the year 2000, its operations were in a mess, and its losses were getting worse. In the following years, it sold off its assets. Jaguar Land Rover was sold to India's Tata, and Volvo was sold to China's Geely …
Oh right, there was still Volvo!
Volvo was actually more suitable than Jaguar Land Rover to mix with Tesla!
Volvo's models were more comprehensive. From small cars to large cars, to luxury cars, to SUVs, it had a complete product line. Although it was a bit ugly, it did a good job in terms of safety.
Volvo currently had three main models, the S series, V series, and XC series. The S40, 60, and 80's product line was very complete. The XC6 and 90 also covered medium-sized SUVs and large SUVs. Furthermore, the XC series was not a hard off-road vehicle, and the concept of Model-X could be transplanted to the XC series.
More importantly, Volvo had many patents in the safety field. If they were all integrated into Tesla, it would save a lot of work for Tesla's future autonomous driving.
Simply put, with a set of adaptive cruise control, collision prevention system, pedestrian protection system, and lane departure system, it would be able to achieve semi-autonomous driving. On top of this set of systems, more intelligent navigation, safety, and identification functions would be added, and it would basically be able to reach the threshold of autonomous driving.
If Lu Zhou could also take over Volvo, Tesla would have a lot less to worry about in the future. Tesla could directly build its own product system and technology barriers on top of Volvo.
Moreover, Tesla could also use its technology to nurture Volvo, Jaguar, and Land Rover.
For example, Tesla could use its own intelligent driving function to increase the intelligence of these three brands' cars. At the same time, it could also use Tesla's own motor and battery technology to help these three brands' cars to achieve hybrid power.
After stuffing a low-power motor, a small-capacity battery pack, a charging module, and an energy recovery module into the gasoline-powered vehicle, and then doing some overall tuning, it became a plug-in hybrid vehicle.
Put in a smaller motor, a smaller battery, on-board charging module, and energy recovery module, and it would become a normal hybrid car.
And Tesla itself had its own motor technology, battery technology, charging and discharging technology, and energy recovery technology. Wasn't it already complete?
。 m.
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