At this year's Chengdu Auto Show, Dongfeng Yueda Kia executives said in an interview that "the future in China will strengthen the Kia brand, not dongfeng Yueda Kia", which has made people smell a smell of wind and rain...
The time came to the Guangzhou Auto Show, it was still coming, Dongfeng Motor officially sold its 25% equity in Dongfeng Yueda Kia at a transfer price of 297 million yuan, officially announcing that a disturbance and sharp edge that had lasted for nearly 20 years was coming to an end...
A change that benefits three parties
The ending may be doomed, but even so, in the era of the opening of the stock ratio that all parties are eager to move, the equity change of Dongfeng Yueda Kia still has an essential difference in nature from BMW Brilliance and Volkswagen Jianghuai, the latter is a painful price for self-imposed self-sufficiency, while the former is more like a self-help of active adjustment, a change benefited by three parties.
At this year's Science and Technology Day, the expectation of upgrading the independent sector, the determination to continue to develop the joint venture sector in a sustainable and healthy manner, and the desire to accelerate the mastery of new energy core technologies and resources, behind every strategic deployment of Dongfeng Company, there is no room for hesitation and financial support.
For Dongfeng Company, whether it is determined to vigorously integrate the original "divide and rule" independent brand matrix, or to withdraw part of the funds and management energy from Dongfeng Yueda Kia in a timely manner, it is for one purpose: focus.
Nowadays, new energy is rolling up the waves, the situation is changing rapidly, and everyone is struggling to stand up to the tide. Some companies have commented on the current situation: "Now is the market, technology, user base triple superposition of great changes, so it is completely impossible to use the logic of the past to judge the future situation."
At this moment, elephants like Dongfeng Company must turn around, sort out the past baggage on their bodies, avoid the dilemma of tail failure, and evolve a flexible, effective and rapid market response mechanism. Then, exiting Dongfeng Yueda Kia and focusing on its own mainstream automobile business sector, accelerating the company's transformation and upgrading is a matter of course.
For a long time, Yueda seems to be in a weak position among the shareholders of the joint venture, but with the change of equity relationship, Yueda is also constantly planning for its own long-term development.
In the middle of the year, Jiangsu Yueda Automobile Group was quietly established in a hustle and bustle. Its establishment will almost bring together the entire automotive industry resources of Yancheng, from related parts manufacturing to vehicle product development, production and sales, from Yueda Kia to Huaren Express, Guoxin New Energy, from commercial vehicles to passenger cars, Yueda Automobile Group has included it for unified management and operation.
Yueda and the whole of Yancheng are creating a new ecological chain system through Yueda Automobile Group, creating a platform that plays a gathering effect, and striving for an opportunity for Yancheng's automobile industry to regain its life.
For Yueda Group, the equity change has become a breakthrough for Yueda Automobile Group to revitalize traditional car manufacturing, stimulate the vitality of new energy, and reshape the value chain system. In the future joint venture relationship, Kia will strengthen Yancheng's important role as a production and export hub, that is, in terms of technology, manufacturing, etc., Kia will unswervingly promote the industrial development of Yueda and Yancheng.
Yueda Automobile Group, which is built by pooling the strength of the whole city, will also give full play to the advantages of concentrated industrial resources and coordinated development in multiple fields from the level of supply chain system and vehicle research and development and manufacturing, optimize the industrial structure and broaden the channels of cooperation. With Yueda Kia as the springboard, Chinese Express as the pioneer, and related parts industry and sales network as the support, we will further strive for market share and reconstruct the entire industrial system of Yancheng.
Starting with the equity change, Kia, which has been deeply involved in the Chinese market for 20 years next year, will also usher in the first year of the second phase of development, which is a key step taken by Kia based on the global Turn-around strategy and an important measure for Kia to feed the Chinese market.
However, in the face of the rolling waves of the Chinese market, Kia brands are bound to rethink how to build a more clear and competitive development method in all aspects of the whole value chain such as brands, technologies and products in the new round.
For Kia, the previously secretive and complex joint venture relationship has led to a lengthy decision-making mechanism and poor communication between multiple parties, which has hindered the company's development to varying degrees and at different levels, which is also one of the diseases that have plagued the joint venture company for many years.
Today, the adjustment of the shareholding structure also indicates that the dark cloud hanging over Kia's head is gradually receding. On the one hand, this means that the company's internal communication and decision-making mechanism will be greatly adjusted through unprecedented changes in history, and the cost and efficiency of decision-making will be significantly improved.
On the other hand, the second phase of Kia's development in China has been opened, whether from brand rebranding or product renewal, the new joint venture will also be fully supported by Kia's global resources, moving closer to the global market, and the competitiveness of the system will undoubtedly be further improved.
Dongfeng's timely withdrawal may be the best outcome of this stormy joint venture. Subsequently, Yueda Kia has become the most concerned thing for everyone.
Discover, New Kia
"With reference to Kia's global successful experience and management methods, we will start new changes from within, including the global unified image of the brand, the implementation of the electrification strategy, the adjustment of the organizational structure, and the introduction of high-quality products, opening a new journey and allowing more people to discover the new Kia." At the recent communication meeting, Liu Changsheng, General Manager of Dongfeng Yueda Kia, once again stressed the importance of the Chinese market to Kia and the need to connect with Kia's global market.
It can be seen that in recent years, from the introduction of core technologies such as the i-GMP platform and CVVD engine technology to the introduction of new logos and the launch of the "global flagship MPV" Jawa, Kia is indeed working hard to keep pace with the global market, quickly sort out the product line, actively adjust the product strategy, and try to rebuild Kia's "young" and "technical" brand image, so as to break through the shackles of brand power and form an effective combat mechanism in competition with other joint venture brands.
"In the future, models priced below 100,000 yuan will be discontinued as soon as possible, and Kia is not in a hurry to go in volume now, and does not want to achieve sales increases at low prices or by pressing dealers to pick up cars, but wants to succeed in small market segments and slowly enhance the brand power." Liu Changsheng, who has been in China for more than 9 months, is determined to return to Kia's global brand image and lead the upward development of Kia brand is the road of "scraping bones and healing poison" that the troubled Kia brand must go through.
This is a war that has no way back and cannot be lost, whether Kia's globalized products can be imported in an orderly manner, and whether they can prove their value after importation has become the top priority of Yueda and Kia.
The appearance of global models Jiahua has indeed filled the product gap of the entire Korean car in the MPV segment, marking the completion of its comprehensive layout of new products in the three major segments of cars, SUVs and MPVs.
However, it must be admitted that the weather-beaten Yueda and Kia have no successful operating experience in the high-end MPV market, and with the listing of Jawa, it will undoubtedly force Yueda Kia to build a complete market strategy, operating model and value system, which is an active and necessary value chain evolution.
Jawa has the strength to become the origin of Kia's high-end brand. However, in the turbulent market of MPV, even the unique GL8 cannot avoid the fall of Buick and Chevrolet, how to use the value chain transformation brought by Kahua to completely reverse the situation, testing everyone up and down Kia.
Fortunately, Kia will not let Kahua go it alone, and the other aces in his hand are also gathering momentum. "Next year we will have new models and hybrid models introduced, and from the end of next year or the beginning of 2023, we will invest in a new electric vehicle in the Chinese market every year." The new model in Liu Changsheng's mouth is Kia's veritable pillar model, the new Sportsage, and the new pure electric model EV6 has already been unveiled at major auto shows.
Yes, one is the brilliant representative of the traditional fuel era Sportage, the other is the scorching nova EV6 in the new energy era, coupled with the all-round step into the fiercely competitive hybrid market, Kia is obviously fighting, and the previous KX5 and K5 brand rebranding regrets will be handed over to these core models to a large extent.
With high-end flagship products spanning two eras facing the pressure of both ends of the country and the subversive ambitions of new forces, the Kia brand is betting on the glory of the past and the future, killing a bloody road in the siege, and achieving the dual mission of sales leap and brand leap.
The transformation of the Kia brand is undoubtedly painful, the pain of relying on a path for a long time and then changing tracks, and the pain of choosing between sales and brand. Byron once said, "All suffering can destroy man, but those who suffer can also destroy it."
No longer confused, Kia firmly believes that with mature and profound global operation experience, under the guidance of global strategy, "not oriented by high sales targets, more to improve product quality, to enter a higher level of the market, after getting small success, slowly enhance the brand power, and then seize the market." This is Kia's "tinder" to reverse the current status quo of "aphasia" in China.
Chinese Kia
However, when Yueda and Kia are taking steps to connect with the world, they must also understand that in Kia's global operating system, they have never faced such a fierce confrontation with local brands in emerging markets. The peculiarities of China's local market have made Hyundai and Kia try a painful lesson, so that they can no longer ignore the grim situation in the new round of globalization, and the rigid "dogmatism" obviously does not apply to China.
That's why Kia knows that it's all about being flexible when harnessing global resources and experience. On the one hand, Kia advocates that in the process of global operation, it is necessary to combine the actual situation in China, refer to the successful experience of the world, and operate Kia's market in China with a sincere attitude like China's new power startups.
Once upon a time, in the face of confrontation between China's local forces, Neither Hyundai nor Kia showed enough attention, and even disdained to compare with the rapidly growing Chinese independent brands.
Now, Geely, Great Wall and other brands ride the wind and waves, Kia finally put down her posture and humbly ask for advice. Based on Kia's global operating experience, drawing on the benefits of Chinese brands, fully understanding the needs of the Chinese market, and integrating into the new management methods and product systems.
To this end, Kia will significantly increase its investment in the Chinese market, especially in research and development. In order to adapt to the product strategy of the upcoming annual new car and make up for the lack of localization, Kia not only set up the Yantai Research Institute, but also established the Shanghai Digital Technology Research and Development Center this year.
In the future, Kia will continue to expand its technology investment in localization, including the establishment of a big data center in Guizhou, the establishment of a relevant organizational structure in the field of electrification and mobility, and cooperation with mature and leading local companies in autonomous driving.
On the other hand, Kia has built a localized operating model, in which the internal talent system is undoubtedly the key to the problem. In Kia's view, in order to be able to efficiently understand the Chinese domestic market and make corresponding coping strategies, it is essential to make positive personnel adjustments in the organizational structure.
In order to establish an efficient organizational management system, the joint venture will introduce outstanding talents who understand the Chinese market better, adjust the personnel structure, open up the talent mechanism, and then lay the foundation for Kia's localization, just like its subsidiaries in other markets around the world have done.
It is worth noting that Kia's concentration of superior resources is not only to manage the structure and R & D system as local as possible, but also to make substantial throttling in the production capacity structure.
"In the strategic layout of global Kia, we will use Yancheng as an important hub for production and export." At present, one of Kia's factories has been leased to Huaren Express for a long time, the second factory will serve as Kia's export base, and the third factory is mainly responsible for the production of the domestic market.
From Kia's point of view, the perennial low capacity utilization rate is intolerable for a joint venture company that encounters obstacles in operation in China, and it is imperative and impatient to "move the knife" in capacity planning, adjust the production capacity structure in time, save costs, improve efficiency, and break the wrist of the hero to gain vitality, which is also the direction that Beijing Hyundai and GAC FCA are working towards.
Under the disturbances, Kia's changes are imminent, and in the coming days and nights, Kia will still have many lingering sorrows, and they are also doing their best to bail out.
Before the global financial crisis erupted in 2007, Chuck Prince, then CEO of Citigroup, said a phrase that was widely circulated on Wall Street: "Things get complicated when the music of liquidity stops." But as long as the music is playing, you have to stand up and dance. We have to keep dancing. ”
It's that moment, the fluid music is still playing, and no market participant can guarantee where the market will go, just as no one knows when the music will stop, Kia must continue to dance.