Dialogue Tesla Global VP: Weekly bookings China's world number one

Wu Bi Sora Sina Technology, the global vice-president of Tesla's China business, Menghong the world's largest Tesla electric car showroom, less than 5 kilometers from Tiananmen Square. Every day a variety of faces appear here. Some people come here for personal experience, someone who orders on the spot, is for the early mention of the car, of course, there is no significant Chinese brand logo in the exhibition hall, there are many who are the first to know the existence of such a car. "Tesla is an Internet device," Wu Bixiang said. She is the global vice president of Tesla in charge of China, and the Tesla model S that she sees in the showroom is both a car and not a car. China Mission 2014, was Wu Bixiang and the team as the Tesla of China's pioneering year. Last year, the establishment of a decade of Tesla began to substantively promote the process of China. Last September, Tesla formally accepted a reservation from a Chinese user, last December the Tesla Chinese website, which was released in the Chinese market this January Model S model. To date, Tesla China's official website has accepted Model S and Model X two models of the booking. When Wu Bixiang officially entered Tesla late last year, the electric car company's Chinese team was about 15, and now it has grown to more than 30 people. Tesla's official online China area still has a number of job vacancies, and it is said that the team will grow to two hundred or three hundred people in the future. The composition of the team also shows the difference between Tesla and the traditional car manufacturer. "Our team is very interesting, from all walks of life--it, traditional cars, electricity, legal ... Blending brings a lot of ideas and knowledge that creates a lot of opportunities for innovation, "Wu Bixiang told Sina Technology. Wu Bixiang, for example, was previously from the IT company Apple, while Tesla China general manager Zheng Shunjing from the traditional car company Bentley. The first-line staff in the Tesla showroom, known as "product specialists" rather than sales, are also responsible for receiving customers who come to the store to order their cars, but even if you are not a potential customer, they will also introduce Tesla electric cars in detail. These product experts do not deduct from the sale of cars, their main job is to share the technology products of Tesla. But that does not mean Tesla has no sales mission in China. "Apple's initial entry into the Chinese market is the same, the most important is not to make quick money, but to provide the best customer experience, then the income will be a logical growth", Wu Bixiang did not disclose performance targets, but stressed that Tesla's team with entrepreneurial mentality into the Chinese market. But it is not overnight that electric cars are truly accepted by the public. In the Tesla showroom in Beijing, almost every customer asks the same questions, such as safety, endurance, and charge. A Tesla Model S is probably the farthest from Beijing to Jinan, but if you can't find a convenient place to recharge in Jinan, this distance will become meaningless. "The most important thing now is to solve the problem of user recharging at home, followed by the problem of maintenance services, after the sale to achieve a bit," Wu Bixiang said that the current Chinese market power grid capacity is not a big problem, the existing infrastructure is good, and the key is how to solve the problem of "The Last Mile", which is to install Tesla's charging pile into the user's parking space. Tesla is also poised to dive into more Chinese cities this year, with the electric car company having to solve the same infrastructure and other related problems in every city. Wu Bixiang left the Chinese team three years. The world's first although electric cars are a relatively niche market, Tesla does not have to worry about sales at the moment. The two models accepted by the Chinese market will probably have to wait nearly a year to lift the car after paying the deposit. Waiting doesn't seem to stop the user's enthusiasm. There are news that Tesla electric cars in the Chinese market have been ordered to be thousands, although Wu Bixiang not give a definitive answer, but she said to Sina technology, the Tesla China Pavilion Weekly order volume is the world's first. And if orders continue to grow, the capacity allocated to the Chinese market will increase correspondingly. What kind of Chinese users buy Tesla? By the media exposure will include Millet Technology Chairman and CEO Lei, Peace general manager Ren Chuan and so on. Tesla China also revealed more subscribers to the technology, finance and other industries. "From the price of cars, we need consumers to have a certain amount of financial resources, but it does not need to be a billionaire," Wu Bixiang, for example, if she drives a regular car, the monthly oil fee is 2500-3000 yuan, while driving Tesla one full five times the cost of electricity is 250 yuan, according to Tesla's warranty of eight years of time calculation, Only the oil cost can save 200,000 yuan. And because there is no traditional mechanical device, Tesla's maintenance cost is almost one-tenth of the traditional car. If calculated in this way, Tesla's domestic price of more than 700,000 Model S can be regarded as a mid-range car. "And it's zero emissions, always on the internet," says Wu Bixiang, who is expected to launch 35,000-dollar parity electric cars by 2016. It is not just consumers who have a keen desire for Tesla. Tesla electric cars, seen as a reversal of the traditional automotive industry, clearly contain huge industrial opportunities. Tesla CEO Elon-Musk has said China is poised to become the biggest market for Tesla and is considering building plants in China. Production in China also means it is expected to receive new energy subsidies from the government. "If China is big enough," says Wu Bixiang when it comes to building the plant. In addition, Tesla is looking for the possibility of setting up a super charging station in China, which is to communicate with grid companies and to find suitable locations. Starting this year, Beijing will build 1000 new energy vehicle charging piles and start building new energy vehicles ' infrastructure. More imaginative, Tesla's control platform for electric cars is a 17-inch touch screen, like a large ipad, but is said to be more powerful than a regular tablet and has a lower yield. Such a touch-control platform, not only to control the entire car, but also a variety of internet services in the new battlefield, Tesla will be how to operate their own platform? All is unknown.