ABT Chapter 31

 On the second day of their arrival in Munich, the pre-competition activities began. More than eighty teams from various countries, gathered at the Mercedes-Benz Museum located in the northern part of Munich.

In Li Fanyu's memory, this location was supposed to be the headquarters of BMW. But the history of automotive development had been altered, and it had become the headquarters of Mercedes-Benz instead.

The museum itself didn't have much to offer, it was just Mercedes patting itself on the back.

Inside the exhibition hall, everything from the first generation of Mercedes-Benz models to futuristic concept cars was displayed, along with various antique development drawings and interactive automotive culture exhibits, spanning over two hundred years.

The underlying message throughout the museum was: Cars were invented by us, cars were invented by us, cars were invented by us...

However, the thoughtful service inside the museum did touch Li Fanyu a little. As soon as they entered the museum, the staff warmly handed them guidebooks and a translation device.

Surprisingly, there was an option for Chinese in the translation device, which made the young people feel warm in this foreign land.

Liu Qing was a hands-on person and couldn't resist moving when she saw car models. Unfortunately, she ended up buying three models priced at 30 euros each, which made Li Fanyu look at him with a loving yet idiotic expression for a long time.

After paying, he discovered, to his surprise, a shiny row of English letters on the bottom of the model: MADE IN CHINA, YIWU.

Zhang Yu connected his phone to WiFi, opened Taobao, and added: 79.9 yuan on Tmall. (The exchange rate between euros and RMB is approximately 1:7.)

Visiting the Mercedes-Benz assembly line workshop was a shocking experience for them. The entire assembly line was almost unmanned, with just over a dozen people in the spacious factory responsible for program maintenance and driving away the assembled vehicles. The ones doing the work were all robotic arms and welding robots.

After leisurely strolling around for a day, they followed the address sent by Lao Zhang and arrived at an apartment not far from the competition venue.

The furnishings in the apartment were very simple, and the area was not large. With a layout of two bedrooms and one living room, four boys squeezed into one room, while Cheng Ke, as the only girl, had her own room, and the host slept on the sofa...

The host was a man in his thirties named Zhu Jiu. It was said that he was their senior fellow apprentice, who had been working in Germany for almost ten years.

Although they had Lao Zhang's support, they still felt embarrassed about freeloading. So Cheng Ke, who was proficient in German, led the boys like a dog, marching to the supermarket to buy groceries and beer.

The ingredients in the supermarket were strange and many of the things they wanted were not available. Cheng Ke could only show off her skills and make a mixed Western and Chinese meal, which brought tears to Zhu Yong's eyes.

Haven't had fried noodles for years...

On the first day of the competition, as the sponsor, the chief designer of Mercedes-Benz personally arrived at the venue to give a speech to the participating teams and assign the competition tasks.

As Professor Zhang had analyzed when he came, the theme was indeed environmental protection. The task was to use mature technologies that could be popularized within five years as the basis. As for the other aspects such as the type of car, level, and interior, there were no restrictions.

This meant that they could unleash their creativity, even if they designed a UFO.

But! The technology had to be existing, something that could be put into production soon after being designed.

Li Fanyu sniffed out some different meanings behind this. Those who came to participate were all geniuses or top students in industrial design. It wasn't just him who noticed, many people were excitedly clenching their fists.

Mercedes-Benz's intention was clear: if the design was outstanding and ultimately won the grand prize, it was very likely to be adopted by Mercedes-Benz as a mass-produced model.

Mercedes-Benz's mass-produced model!

For college students who hadn't even stepped out of the school gate, achieving such an honor would undoubtedly provide them with the best starting point for their future career development.

This feeling was like a high school student participating in a composition competition. Before the competition, the teacher told the students: study hard, and the student who gets first place will be recommended to the Central Party School to become a mayor for you.

Looking at the task book in their hands, everyone couldn't wait to return to the apartment and start creating.

Although the Germans were rigorous in their work style, the opening was brief to the point of being irritating. After Janik announced the official start of the competition, some German automotive designers volunteered to guide the teams.

It was called guidance, but it was essentially just a rundown on the experience of making clay models. They didn't mention anything about design direction or technical applications.

Such a large-scale competition had a total opening time of less than an hour. This made the few who were used to enduring speeches feel a bit empty. There were no speeches from various leaders, no summaries from the organizers, and no representatives coming forward... It felt a bit unusual.

Back at the apartment, the three academic overachievers had already started arguing fiercely.

The differences in their design approaches caused a significant dispute. Liu Qing believed they should start with new energy sources, emphasizing the concept of zero pollution. However, Xu Fufang insisted they should focus on convenience, designing vehicles that could accommodate more people with larger spaces and lower displacement. From an urban perspective, private cars meant additional expenses and taxes. Cars with multiple occupants would reduce more pollution, have greater practicality, and were technically easier to implement.

When it came to Zhang Yu, his approach was completely opposite to Xu Fufang's. He believed the direction of environmentally friendly cars should be single occupancy, low cylinder count, and low displacement. He even advocated for using electric engines, which he deemed to be the most environmentally friendly.

Zhang Yu accused Xu Fufang of having outdated thinking, while Xu Fufang criticized Zhang Yu for being too radical. Liu Qing criticized both of them for lacking imagination.

After arguing until their throats were dry, they only then noticed that there were two other people sitting next to them, enjoying fried chicken and beer.

So, Xu Fufang proposed a vote to use democracy to decide on the design direction.

Li Fanyu and Cheng Ke wiped their oily hands clean and then realized that the final decision rested on the two of them.

Cheng Ke tilted her head and scanned the three of them.

After thinking for a long time, she bit her lip and said, "I think Zhang Yu's idea is quite reliable. Think about it, the traffic in cities is increasing, and taxi fares are getting higher. So, small cars for single occupancy still have a market. Plus, with smaller car models, even drivers with poor skills can easily handle them."

Zhang Yu felt proud for a moment and shifted his gaze to Li Fanyu.

Li Fanyu scratched his head, feeling a bit embarrassed, and said, "Actually, I also have an immature idea. What do you think about designing hybrid cars?"

The three academic overachievers collapsed. Weren't you here to be a babysitter? Why are you adding unnecessary complications?

Ignoring their rolled eyes, Li Fanyu continued, "According to my idea, traffic congestion is getting worse. When the engine operates at low speeds, fuel combustion is incomplete, causing more pollution than at high speeds. Many exhaust emissions are generated during this time. So, what if we design a car that can be driven by electricity at low speeds and switch to gasoline engine drive at high speeds? Wouldn't that be a good solution?"

The other four began to scoff at first, but after his explanation, they faintly felt that it made sense. This wasn't a bad direction at all. And from a technical standpoint, it wasn't difficult to achieve.

The theory of hybrid vehicles had been proposed since the last century, but due to the immaturity of electric engine technology and the difficulty of controlling the hybrid ratio, there had yet to be a successful mass-produced vehicle using this concept.

But what the competition required was a concept, not solving technical challenges. A hybrid vehicle was indeed a good selling point.

Li Fanyu looked at them, pleased to see them deep in thought. These past two days, he hadn't been idle. He had searched for a lot of information on the computer.

To his knowledge, although the concept of hybrid cars had existed in this world for a long time, there hadn't been a mass-produced vehicle using this concept. However, in Li Fanyu's memory, there were cars like the Toyota Corolla with a hybrid engine, the BYD Tang, which was an acceleration king for under 200,000 RMB, and a quasi-supercar with a 1.5T displacement that could accelerate from 0-100 km/h in just 4 seconds - the BMW hybrid version of the I8!

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