The Famous Millionaire - Chapter 309

Of course, Morgan was reading the trend of the car industry accurately. The day would come when the cars powered by gasoline and diesel would gradually disappear from roads while electric cars filled every road.

But that day would come in the distant future. Morgan expected it would take at least ten years for electric cars to be competitive with gasoline-powered cars.

The main reason was the capacity of batteries. Unless innovative batteries were produced, electric cars could not catch up with the demands of gasoline-powered cars.

Morgan also purchased a Paekdu model. And he had his research team dissect it thoroughly and test its performance.

The result was surprising. The triangle-shaped motor, 5cm thick and 30cm in diameter, was capable of producing 400 horse-power.

Morgan felt as if he freaked out at the terrific performance of Paekdu.

I’m in big trouble now. There is no place for gasoline and diesel to sustain any more.

He felt he needed everything related to the car fuel, regardless of Super Green.

In particular, Morgan Energy was a big problem. He’d spent 60 billion dollars in taking over STM by mobilizing all kinds of financial methods. If he didn’t do anything about the investment, he might end up being the world’s poorest guy riddled with debts.

Morgan Energy was put on the market priced for a quick sale. It was less than he purchased it from Hyunwoo.

Originally, it was Morgan’s typical methods that he purchased a company at a bargain and resold it at an expensive price. As he paid $60 billion for STM takeover, he listed it for sale at the same price.

But the market reaction was cold. There were only a few who could invest such an astronomical amount of money, but they read the future of the car market well.

Everybody snorted at the sale of Morgan Energy.

“Does he think I’m a fool? As Hyunwoo succeeded in developing Paekdu, the era of gasoline-powered cars is over.”

“Morgan, you made money by having acted so mean. Now it’s the end of his selfish business. He reaped as he sowed.”

“Such a bad company and its owner should disappear from this world.”

Nobody contacted Morgan with respect to Morgan Energy.

Morgan now began to feel scared because the stock prices of Morgan Energy started to plummet.

Now Morgan decided to put Morgan Energy up for sale at a bargain.

“I’m going to sell it for $40 billion.”

But nobody responded to such an offer.

Those who had Morgan Energy stocks were all anxious to sell their stock as soon as possible.

He felt somebody was squeezing his windpipe. As a son of an ordinary plumber, he went through all kinds of crises, but this kind of severe crisis he had never experienced.

He had to overcome it, though. Just like he had so far, he had to make a comeback by turning this crisis into an opportunity.

Morgan Energy would not collapse overnight. Hyunwoo’s electric cars were just on the start line.The absolute majority of cars around the world were still powered by gasoline.

It would take at least four years for electric cars to replace gasoline-powered cars.

Super Green would generate profits for Morgan during that period.

Morgan had enough time to change the game.

Morgan clenched his fist and mumbled, “‘I can’t collapse like this. I can revive my company.”

And he found out one method.

Morgan paid attention to the Toughtex engine, which was the core of the Paekdu Project. The core of the project was Toughtex.

And he already had the production technique of Toughtex. If Hyunwoo made the engine, Morgan thought he could do the same.

I can develop a Toughtex engine.

Even though Hyunwoo registered all the patents on the Toughtex engine, Morgan thought that he could develop a new type of Toughtex engine once he discovered its core working principle.

Morgan called an executives’ meeting immediately and directed them to develop a Toughtex engine.

“This is a matter of life and death to us. All of you should be firmly determined to develop a new type of Toughtex by all means.”

***

“Wow!”

Duyoung raised his hands and shouted for joy.

Those around him including Hyunwoo congratulated him.

“Congratulations, dad.”

“Oh my god, you’re a Nobel prize winner! You’ve become the pride of our country.”

“Thanks, everybody. All thanks to you!”

Duyoung owed his Nobel Prize in chemistry to others.

To commemorate his father’s winning Nobel Prize, Hyunwoo paid a bonus to all the employees of his companies.

Hyunwoo also established programs to produce more Nobel winners at Haenim School, Sinsung University and STM Research Center.

In the meantime, Konho Ahn, the CEO of Ohsung Group visited Hyunwoo’s office.

“How are you, sir?” said Hyunwoo, standing up from his seat.

As soon as he saw Hyunwoo, Konho took his hands suddenly.

“I think I committed a gaffe last time. I misunderstood your deep considerations at that time.”

Konho was referring to the fact that Hyunwoo didn’t sell STM to him. After he confirmed the brilliant performance of Paekdu at Dakar Rally and the plummeting of Morgan Energy’s stocks, Konho could realize now why Hyunwoo didn’t sell STM to him.

“I couldn’t tell you about it at that time. I’m sorry about that.”

“No, no. You have saved my company. Not only I but also my children will regard you as the savior.”

“No, sir, don’t call me your savior!”

But Konho kept holding his hands and expressed profuse thanks.

Hyunwoo could check the situation of Morgan Energy in his office.

Morgan Energy was collapsing slowly.

Hyunwoo didn’t know Morgan Energy was staking its survival on the development of a new Toughtex engine. Accordingly, he was confident that it would go bankrupt in a few years.

Now, Morgan’s life was at an end, he thought. That was the same fate of OneStar and DonStar.

He didn’t need to pay any more attention to them.

Hyunwoo now refocused on Samryong Motors.

The production lines of the luxury models were completed. On the close heels of Paekdu, Glamor, Zeus and Flash were developed another two luxury models Titan and Valrok.

2,000 and 50,000 Titan and Valrok models were produced per year.

Consumers’ demands for these two models were explosive. Even though Titan cost 1.1 billion won, and Valrok cost 500 million won, they were sold out even before they were produced.

That was the same thing for Paekdu, Glamor and Zeus models that cost several billion won. Though Hyunwoo paid huge salaries to the researchers, the cost of production material was less than 50 million won per unit.

Sooner or later, Hyunwoo planned to release cheap vehicles, too. Not only the second factory in Dangjin but also other factories in China and India were under construction. If they were completed one year later, they would produce affordable cars in large quantities.

All combined, the number of cars manufactured at these factories would be around 15 million. And he also planned to produce super mini sedans for two persons, with the goal of producing 10 million cars per year.

Hyunwoo was thrilled with excitement when he thought about that.

The day is around the corner. The car world will change soon.

For some time, Hyunwoo had one dream. It was a car only run by solar cell without any battery or charging.

To realize this concept car, Hyunwoo had to make the car body with a solar cell able to produce plenty of energy to drive a car.

Taeho Min had been working on it for a long time, but he hadn’t yet made any tangible progress.

So, Hyunwoo extensively expanded the solar cell research institute of STM Research Center.

He also established solar cell departments at Haenim School and Sinsung University.

Whenever he had free time, he also touched various types of solar cells and worked on some good ideas. But he was so tied up with other things these days.

In particular, he paid a lot of attention to the irrigation work in Bangladesh.

A consortium of several Korean companies participated in the irrigation project to prevent flooding.

They also began to plant coconut mangroves along the coasts.

Hyunwoo flew to Bangladesh to check out the irrigation construction as well as the planting of coconut mangroves.

He first visited the construction site of the irrigation and asked for a meticulous construction then headed for the coasts where coconut mangroves were being planted.

After looking around the two places, Hyunwoo stopped by a car factory now under construction in Mumbai. Originally owned by Morgan, but sold to Hyunwoo as part of the STM deal, it was expanding production facilities extensively.

He also visited the New Delhi branch of Ani & Funny where Chatulbuz was the representative. There were three branches of Ani & Funny in India, but the New Delhi branch was the largest with 2,000 employees.

Then he flew to Mozambique, where he cultivated crops such as corn and wheat on a vast piece of farmland and grew grasshoppers in large quantities.

He wanted to visit the copper mines in Congo that he purchased from Morgan, but he already stayed too long overseas.

Besides, Hyunwoo had no way of determining the commercial feasibility of the mines as he had no knowledge of it at all. It would be better for him to establish a resources department within KOVE DREAM and have its expert appraise it accurately.

One year later, all the factories including the second factory in Dangjin as well as China and India were completed finally. As a result of massive spending of funds to build them, they were completed within a short period of time.

And they produced pilot small cars. The unit price was 10 million won, but because of its remarkable fuel efficiency, Hyunwoo was flooded with pre-orders from all around the world.

Suddenly, Hyunwoo heard an unexpected news.

That really stretched his nerves.

<Morgan Energy succeeds in developing Toughtex engine on its own, the core of Paekdu Project after one year of intensive research.>