Chapter 1163: The self-produced Aeolus sports car

The return frenzy and raging public opinion from all over the United States stunned Atari.

The arrogant Ray Kassar was finally awakened.

But it was too late!

Atari's reputation was completely ruined!

At the end of the year, just four days into the Christmas shopping season, Atari announced its early exit from the market. The company would suffer a direct financial loss of half a billion dollars, with 10 million Atari 2600 game consoles, more than 10 million game cartridges and all the costs already incurred.

The future losses and damage to goodwill were even more incalculable.

Many media outlets pointed out that the crisis that had been triggered had blown up the foundations of the Atari empire, and what had been severed was the future of Atari.

Not only that, but it had also caused huge damage to the American home gaming industry.

Fortunately, there was still the Tiangong Electronics Group, which could be called the 'model of the gaming industry', supporting the faltering gaming market.

While other video game companies were preparing to seize the market that Atari had given up, gamers had already flocked to the arms of the Tiangong Electronics Group.

You see, in the United States, where personal consumption accounts for 70% of the total economy, the overall retail sales during the year-end shopping season around Christmas can account for one-fifth of the country's annual retail sales.

During this year-end shopping season, Tiangong Electronics Group's products really sold like hot cakes in the United States.

Tiangong Electronics' CD and vinyl portable players, as well as home game consoles, led the way in the American consumer electronics sector.

According to statistics, the combined sales of Tiangong Electronics Group's various products during one year-end shopping season broke the one billion dollar mark, which is simply appalling!

The front page of USA Today commented on this phenomenon and gave Tiangong Electronics Group high praise: 'Tiangong Electronics – the rapidly rising consumer electronics empire!'

USA Today, with a daily circulation of more than two million copies, is read mostly by people from the middle class and above, and has a great influence across the United States.

With USA Today highly praising Tiangong Electronics Group, the popularity of the "Tiangong" brand in the United States has greatly increased, and it has exceeded its original market scope, which is excellent.

This report card was presented to Xia Yu by Huo Jianning, and it was highly praised by Xia Yu, who fully affirmed his work ability, which further boosted Huo Jianning's enthusiasm for work.

...

The year was 1983, and there was only a little more than a month left before the traditional Chinese New Year.

Every company was busy compiling statistics and summaries of the past year, and Xia Yu was becoming busier and busier.

However busy he was, he had not forgotten one thing: Tiangong Automobile Group had officially started production.

The Xiangjiang automobile industry had finally taken its first, most solid step.

Xia Yu had high expectations for Tiangong Automobile Group and had put in a lot of hard work, and now the time had finally come for the harvest.

That afternoon, he went directly from home to the Yuen Long Science and Technology Industrial Park.

When he arrived, Chen Caijun, the president of Tiangong Automobile Group, was already waiting.

The car production has finally started, and Chen Caijun is so happy that he is smiling at everyone.

'Good afternoon, Chairman!'

'Well, Caijun, show me the finished car!'

'Okay, follow me!'

After saying this, Chen Caijun leads Xia Yu towards the factory building.

When Xia Yu visited the Tiangong Motors plant last June, the first phase of the plant, with an annual production capacity of 100,000 vehicles, had already been built, and the assembly line was being set up, so it still looked a bit messy.

But this time, when he went inside, everything looked exceptionally pleasing to the eye.

Looking around, it was a sea of machinery.

Uniformed employees were busy on the assembly line, assembling one automobile component after another, a sight that made Xia Yu smile with satisfaction.

Of course, what attracted him most was the finished car.

The first car Chen Caijun showed him was a red convertible with the shape of a British sports car.

At first glance, anyone would be amazed by the shape of the car and subconsciously think it was a top-of-the-range sports car.

But in reality...

'Chairman, this is our Aeolus Generation I lightweight budget sports car, which is mainly derived from the company's four sports car companies: Lotus, Lamborghini, McLaren and Aston Martin.'

'In terms of parameters, the body dimensions are 3960×1650×1230 (mm), the wheelbase is 2275mm, and the kerb weight is 950kg. The power unit is a 1.6-litre inline four-cylinder naturally aspirated engine from Rolls-Royce, with a maximum power of 115 hp and a maximum torque of 135 Nm. It is mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox, and the front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in 8.7 seconds, with a top speed of 202 km/h...'

'The front and rear chassis use a double wishbone independent suspension with anti-roll bars, which, combined with the small, low-slung body, gives the driver a perfect handling feel...'

'The market price of this car is 16,800 US dollars. Because production hasn't reached the desired level, the current manufacturing cost is 7,860 US dollars per unit, while the technology transfer fee is 1,650 US dollars. Our profit margin for the entire vehicle is 10%.'

As Chen Caijun spoke, Xia Yu got a clear idea of the car. Although he had initially proposed the direction...

Yes, the price of this sports car called Aeolus I was only 16,800 US dollars!

At the current exchange rate, it is only a fraction of 100,000 Hong Kong dollars.

And just think, the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, which was released in 1980, was priced at 160,000 pounds, which was equivalent to 300,000 US dollars at the exchange rate at the time!

Even the more affordable Bentley Continental was priced at 60,000 pounds, which was equivalent to 115,000 US dollars, and sold for 530,000 Hong Kong dollars in Hong Kong.

Now the price of this Typhoon generation sports car is less than 15% of the Bentley Continental!

From this price point, it can be seen that the Typhoon generation is a model that sells dogs in sheep's clothing, and this can also be seen from the various parameters of the Typhoon generation.

But no matter if the car is high-end or not, whether it can be popular in the market is the most important thing.

In its previous life, Mazda launched a lightweight and inexpensive sports car in the late 1980s, and the first generation sold 400,000 units. It was also named the classic model of the 1980s, which shows that there is indeed a market for inexpensive sports cars.

No company has yet launched a cheap sports car, and the market for cheap sports cars has not been developed.

So if Tiangong Motors, a newcomer to the automotive industry, takes a different approach and launches a cheap sports car, it can stand out from the crowd, make consumers remember the brand, and successfully enter the global automotive market.

Even if it is cheap, if the Fengshen generation can sell 400,000 units like Mazda, the sales can reach nearly 7 billion US dollars, and the profit can reach 600-700 million US dollars.

This sales and profit can already beat most of the car companies in the world, allowing the Tiangong Automobile Group to enter the ranks of the top Asian car companies, and it can also enter the second-tier ranks in the world.

As for real sports cars, it is very difficult for Tiangong Automobile Group to re-create a brand. It is not the right time yet. After all, the research and development cost of developing a sports car is very high. Tiangong Automobile Group does not have the capital to re-create a sports car brand for the time being.

Anyway, Tiangong Automobile Group now owns four sports car brands: Lamborghini, Lotus, McLaren and Aston Martin. This was after Guangming Fund acquired them and transferred ownership to Tiangong Automobile Group.

It is precisely because of these four supercar companies that they have supported the technical framework for building cars in the Tiangong Automobile Group.

Then there is the technical support and complementarity of the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Group, which has enabled the Tiangong Automobile Group to move so quickly from research and development to production.