I Am Proud!

Looking at the remaining funds, Xu Yifan sighed slightly.

"Even after selling over a hundred vehicles in the past ten-plus days, the profit after deductions is only around two hundred thousand."

Profit here meant after deducting employee salaries, taxes, and so on; it was the actual income Xu Yifan could receive.

This was actually quite good income. Jiuzhou Mini had only been on the market for about ten days. If this continued, the monthly income would be over six hundred thousand, and that was before considering increased earnings once production capacity ramped up.

But compared to the large expenses about to be incurred, this small income felt like a drop in the bucket.

"We had over four million on the books before. After paying for tooling and parts production with our suppliers, as well as purchasing raw materials, we have just over two million left to use.

Once Jiuzhou Mini's production capacity increases, the cost of purchasing raw materials will also go up.

If we operate at full capacity, producing around seventy vehicles, raw materials alone will cost over a million a day.

Besides, we can't buy parts and raw materials daily. At a minimum, we need to buy enough for about a week's production at a time.

Fortunately, it's not an immediate need. Our current production capacity hasn't ramped up yet, so a single purchase is only one to two million.

With the remaining funds, plus the money we'll earn during the production ramp-up period.

After deducting employee salaries, parts and raw material procurement, etc., we'll have around a million left to use."

As the factory entered normal operation, more information became visible on the system interface.

For example, the financial information. Besides the main panel showing the factory's total current funds, it also specifically displayed the usable capital.

The funds were also constantly changing. A sale brought in a vehicle payment, or a deposit.

A procurement payment was made, the cafeteria bought daily ingredients, all of which were displayed in real-time on the detailed financial interface.

Any financial flow unrelated to the factory or work would be flagged in red in the system.

Xu Yifan had previously dealt with a purchasing agent who, using his position, had ordered some items for his own home along with the factory's parts from a supplier – over ten air conditioners!

Naturally, the purchase was discovered the next day, the agent was fired, and the air conditioners were returned. It was considered Xu Yifan's mercy that the man wasn't prosecuted.

The air conditioners were assigned to the employee dormitories by Xu Yifan, increasing employee satisfaction by one percent!

This incident astonished the company's procurement department. They hadn't expected the factory director, who rarely appeared, to uncover such underhanded dealings.

At least, until they understood how Xu Yifan found out, most procurement personnel dared not harbor any ulterior motives.

The factory was just starting out, and there was absolutely zero tolerance for such behavior.

As long as the system was there, even an ordinary person like Xu Yifan, lacking management experience, could have absolute control over the factory!

After calculating the usable funds currently in the factory's account, Xu Yifan sighed and shifted his gaze to the buildings.

The production workshop was operating normally, with an estimated twenty-three Jiuzhou Minis to be produced today. The recruitment information would only be posted today.

Most importantly was the Battery Research and Development Center.

Battery Research and Development Center Level 1: Has 8 R&D personnel

Lu Jingping: ★★★★ Hua Yongan: ★★★ Liu Mincai: ★★★ Qin Si: ★★★ Qiu Haowei: ★★★ Zou Zhao: ★★★ Jiang Han: ★★★ Niu Litao: ★★★

R&D Project: New Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery Technology, 35% progress.

When he chose to view it, Xu Yifan could see the researchers in the Battery Research and Development Center conducting various experiments.

However, when he checked over the past few days, these researchers did not have the relaxed demeanor they had previously.

Their expressions were often furrowed, or they appeared lost in deep thought, sometimes sighing, or poring over relevant domestic and international papers and data on their computers.

They would get lost in thought even while conducting experiments, their already thinning hair becoming disheveled due to the complexity of the problems!

Their work attitude was good; they all looked very serious and showed no signs of slacking off.

Thanks to this, the young team's previous R&D progress had been steady, advancing by one percent every two to three days.

In just three months, the research progress on the new Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery Technology had reached thirty-five percent.

However, it seemed they had encountered a major problem in the last few days, with no progress made for a whole week.

Even though this young R&D team, with an average age of just over thirty, showed no signs of slacking, their efforts were yielding no results.

Xu Yifan understood that they had hit a technical bottleneck. There had been two or three minor bottlenecks before, which took four to five days to resolve and resume progress.

However, this current bottleneck appeared to be much more difficult.

Xu Yifan reached out and lightly tapped the R&D progress on the system panel.

A new dialog box popped up.

[Spend 8 million yuan to accelerate R&D?]

[Yes] [No]

He had tested this function before, but most of the time, it only cost a few hundred thousand to a million yuan to get a boost.

Now, the cost was enormous. The only possibility was that this particular bottleneck was extremely difficult.

For these researchers, unless they cheated, it would likely take a significant amount of time to grind, study, and experiment before they could overcome this project bottleneck.

This time could be three to five months, or perhaps one to two years, or even three to five years.

What if some of the researchers broke down due to the lack of progress over a long period? The timeline would be extended indefinitely.

Don't look at the fact that the battery lab has achieved 35% progress in the three months since its establishment.

It seemed fast, but that was because they had completed some of the simpler R&D projects first. The remaining ones were all more difficult.

If developed normally, a research team of only a few people would take an unknown amount of time to complete.

"This R&D feels like a student doing a test paper, first completing the questions they know and are easy, and then slowly tackling the difficult ones?"

"It's just that students have a time limit, and whether they do well or not only affects their final grade, while this R&D project has no time limit."

After sighing a couple of times, Xu Yifan's gaze sharpened.

"No, I can't just wait like this. Who knows how long it will take them to crack this bottleneck? In this situation, only spending money can break the deadlock!"

"It's just 8 million yuan, I have people backing me up!"

"I can rely on my parents, and I'm proud of it!"