Changan Automobile repeats personnel changes Chen Zheng, chairman of the European Design Center, announced his departure

December 15 news, recently, Changan European Design Center Chairman Chen Zheng sent a farewell letter on his social account, announcing his resignation. The letter said: "Due to family and personal reasons, I will temporarily bid farewell to this deeply loved industry, the past is also bumpy, the road ahead is also full, please cherish to move forward." ”

This news was confirmed by Changan Automobile.

According to public information, Chen Zheng graduated from Shenyang Ligong University with a bachelor's degree in mechanical and electronic design in 2002, and joined Changan Automobile as a creative designer in the same year.

In 2006, under the background of mostly entrusting overseas design companies to develop domestic automobile models, Changan Automobile registered and established a European design center in Turin, Italy, and established the first independent brand design team stationed overseas. In 2008, Chen Zheng was promoted to deputy general manager of changan european design center design, in October 2010, he was again promoted to deputy director of Changan Automobile design and CEO of Changan European design center, and in 2013, Chen Zheng became the design director of Changan Automobile, the CEO of Changan European Design Center, the vice president of Changan Automobile Engineering Research Institute, and the executive vice president of Changan Automobile Design Institute.

Prior to his departure, Chen Zheng was the Global Design Director, Chief Brand Operation Officer, Chairman of Changan European Design Center, General Manager of Changan Automobile Brand Public Relations Department, and Press Spokesperson of Changan Automobile Brand.

Chen Zheng believes that there are two criteria for evaluating the success of a car's design: one is to balance aesthetics and problem solving, and the other is to show brand value. First of all, the car styling design must first meet the aesthetic requirements, but it can not ignore the solution to the needs and problems of consumers. Through insight into the psychology, aesthetic trends and fashion trends of the target population, insight into the competitiveness of products in the same industry, engineering difficulties, cost control, etc., will accurately grasp the aesthetic orientation and needs of consumers. Secondly, behind each brand has its own unique value meaning, the brand value is 'transformed' into the product, so that the product becomes the brand's 'translator', which is the ultimate direction of design.

Under the leadership of Chen Zheng, Changan Automobile's international design team once reached 500 people, of which 300 were foreign employees, distributed in four departments in Chongqing, Italy and Japan. The team has successively designed mass production models such as EADO Yidong, Zhishang XT, Ruicheng CC, CS35, Yuexiang V7, CS75, etc., as well as concept models such as RaetonCC and "Jiliu" and "Yuyue" that represent Changan Automobile's "life dynamic" design philosophy. From 2015 to 2017, Chen Zheng's team also led the design philosophy of Changan Automobile's brand "Life Dynamic 1.0" and the new design concept of "Wisdom and Color Double Rotation", which unified Changan Automobile's product concept and brand spirit and gradually formed the family characteristics of products.

At the end of 2017, Chen Zheng participated in promoting the listing of the UNI sequence of "future technology mass producers" and put forward a new design concept of "new technology wisdom aesthetics", which became a major attempt for Changan Automobile to promote the brand. At present, the UNI sequence already has two models on sale, UNI-T and UNI-K, and the third model, UNI-V, will be launched in early 2022. As of November 2021, the cumulative annual sales of the UNI sequence were 112853 vehicles, which basically maintained an average monthly sales performance of over 10,000 units.

With the departure of Chen Zheng, who will steer and lead the international design team of Changan Automobile in the future has become the focus of attention from the outside world. Conforming to the new trend of electrification and intelligence and the new concept of "software-defined car" are also difficult points that Changan Automobile's design team needs to solve in the future.

It is worth mentioning that Avita Technology, a high-end intelligent electric vehicle brand that Changan Automobile is planning, will newly locate the global design center in Munich, Germany, and the international designer team led by Chief Design Officer Nader Faghihzade will carry out product design work.

According to Changan Automobile's "14th Five-Year Plan" and 2030 Vision, the company plans to invest an overall investment of 150 billion yuan, focusing on future competitive highlands such as software, intelligent technology, low carbon, new business models, and high-tech talents, and realizing Vision 2030 and accelerating its march towards a world-class automobile brand through five dimensions of precision. Among them, at the product level, Changan Automobile takes the opportunity of software-defined automotive products and services to accelerate the expansion from providing "hardware products" to providing "ecological products + software products" to create the ultimate customer experience.