Can the modern car, which is difficult to return to, usher in a new dawn by replacing the person at the helm in China?

At the critical moment when other car companies were busy rushing for performance at the end of the year, Hyundai Motor Group (hereinafter referred to as "Hyundai Motor") was busy with high-level personnel changes in China.

Hyundai Motor Group recently announced an important personnel appointment, Li Heyuan will succeed Li Guangguo as the president of Hyundai Motor Group (China), and is fully responsible for the operation and management of Hyundai Motor Group (China) Investment Co., Ltd. The appointment will take effect on January 1, 2022, with a leadership "blood change" beginning in the sprint of the year. It is not difficult to find Hyundai's anxiety and its deep desire for the Chinese market, but in the new year, can Hyundai inject new momentum into the company and even return to the mainstream track by changing the helmsman? At present, it does not seem to be easy.

Can personnel reform break the shackles?

Since the beginning of this year, Hyundai Motor's personnel changes in China have not stopped. Dong Dongping, vice president of Hyundai Motor Group (China) and deputy general manager of Beijing Hyundai, Li Feng, general manager of Dongfeng Yueda Kia, and Li Hongpeng, vice president of commerce of Hyundai Motor Group (China), have left one after another, which also means that the three local generals who were previously known as Hyundai Motor Group's "opening a new era in China" have all withdrawn. Later, Fan Jingtao, deputy general manager of Beijing Hyundai, was also transferred to BAIC BJEV and cut off the business of Beijing Hyundai. It can be said that Hyundai Motor has now reached a critical moment to reorganize its business in China.

According to public information, Li Heyuan graduated from the School of Economics and Management of Jilin University, and successively obtained an EMBA from Peking University and a doctorate degree from the Business School of Chinese Min University. Hyundai Motor said that Li Heyuan is currently the vice president of Hyundai Motor Group in China, and he has been serving Hyundai Motor Group's business in China since 2001, and has rich experience in government communication, corporate strategic planning, product technology "new four modernization" layout, joint venture enterprise development management, hydrogen fuel cell layout development, localization management and other fields.

It is not difficult to find from the data that Li Heyuan not only has a deep understanding of hyundai automobiles, but also is also very familiar with China. The reason for choosing such a helmsman is bound to rely on his familiarity with the Chinese market to reverse hyundai's decline in the Chinese market and open up a new situation. Industry insiders told the "China Times" reporter: "Foreign-funded enterprises want to truly take root in China, they must first achieve the localization of raw materials, product localization, and talent localization, but the contradictions and conflicts between china and South Korea in modern management are becoming increasingly serious." Now it seems that Hyundai's localization talent management model has completely come to an end. The headquarters also hopes to clarify the rights and responsibilities of both sides, strengthen the business support of Hyundai Group in China, and grasp the leading power and discourse power. ”

However, objectively speaking, after the stabilization of personnel changes, there are still many shackles in Hyundai Motor's development in China.

A series of problems such as the continuous decline in sales of Beijing Hyundai, the lack of product competitiveness, and the weakening of the brand power have made this Korean brand that once had unlimited scenery breathless. The reporter checked the data and learned that from 2017 to 2019, Beijing Hyundai's sales were 816,000 vehicles, 746,000 vehicles and 703,000 vehicles, down 27.8%, 8.6% and 5.7% year-on-year, respectively; in 2020, Beijing Hyundai's sales reached 502,000 vehicles, down nearly 30% year-on-year. It is far from the original sales target of 750,000 vehicles; in 2021, the sales situation of Beijing Hyundai is still not ideal. Cumulative sales from January to November were 320,100 units, only 57.16% of the annual target of 560,000 units, while the market share of Korean passenger cars was only 2.4%.

Ren Wanfu, a commentator on the automotive industry, pointed out to the "China Times" reporter: "Personally, I believe that in recent years, the sales volume of Beijing Hyundai Automobile has declined all the way, and the internal reason is that the lack of advantages in the technical level has led to insufficient product competitiveness, and the price war for sales has hurt the brand; the external factor is that it is 'squeezed down' by independent brands and other joint venture brands, and the advantages of appearance and cost performance are no longer there." ”

Start with the technical route and product layout to help yourself

Beijing Hyundai's active self-help is not only reflected in the drastic personnel reform, but also in the active and perfect product layout.

After the official release of the HSMART+ strategy, Beijing Hyundai launched three heavy models of Fiesta Pure Electric, 10th Generation Sonata and 7th Generation Elantra; new models such as the new generation Of Mingtu, Mingtu Pure Electric, the new ix35, and the 5th generation Tucson L were also put on the market at a close pace; especially on September 26, Beijing Hyundai's first MPV model, Kustu, was launched.

Longitudinal comparison of today's domestic MPV market, it can be found that there is basically a differentiated trend. Some of the hot-selling models are high-end commercial vehicles represented by Buick GL8, with a price of more than 200,000 yuan to 300,000 yuan; the other part of the products are commercial freight vehicles represented by Wuling Hongguang and priced at about 100,000 yuan and below.

The positioning range of Kustu is in the MPV market of 160,000 yuan to 200,000 yuan, which is more in line with the current consumption level of Chinese people. Ren Wanfu said frankly: "Because of its domestic production, Kustu is naturally relatively low in terms of price. The layout of this price range is a more reasonable approach, which not only meets the opponents of the independent brand, but also meets the challenges brought about by the exploration of the joint venture brand. At the same time, with the liberalization of the three-child policy, coupled with the high comfort and low fuel consumption of the MPV model itself, the home MPV market may also have a demand gap, and the timely launch of an MPV model is also a strategy for expanding the domestic market share of Beijing Hyundai. ”

It is worth noting that the development of new energy vehicles ushered in an accelerated period, in addition to the vigorous development of electric vehicles, the layout of hydrogen fuel vehicles has also become a new race point for car companies to strive for curve overtaking. Hyundai Motor, as the "seed player" of the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle layout, also showed the bottom card. On September 7 this year, Hyundai Motor officially announced the "Hydrogen Energy Vision 2040", in terms of the layout of the international battlefield, China will become an important point of Hyundai Motor's hydrogen energy strategy.

Hyundai Motor said, "Many countries around the world have issued national strategies for hydrogen energy. As the world's fastest-growing economy, China will become an indispensable and important force in this 'wave of hydrogen energy'." He also believes that under the guidance of China's national environmental protection goals of "striving to achieve carbon peaking by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060", China's hydrogen energy industry has ushered in the initial stage of rapid development.

Zhang Xiang, a researcher at the Automotive Industry Innovation Research Center of North China University of Technology, said in an interview with the "China Times" reporter: "Hyundai Motor has accumulated rich experience in hydrogen energy, and the technical level is also first-class, in the past two years, the Chinese government's support for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is relatively large, the main reasons are two, the first is the 'double carbon policy', the second electricity is hydrogen fuel cell The number of ownership in these two years is also increasing." At present, there are more than 100 domestic hydrogen refueling stations to form a certain scale, and commercialization has gradually matured. In this context, Hyundai Motor's choice to enter the Chinese market at this time is also the right time. If you come in early, it is difficult for enterprises to develop without government support. Coming in late, being preemptively entered by other car companies will lose the first-mover advantage. In addition, multinational companies such as Hyundai Motor, its global vision determines that the cost and price will not be too much affected by specific regional subsidy policies, once the direction is firm, such multinational companies are willing to offer time costs, which is a point that is more difficult for general start-up companies to compete. ”

Hyundai Motor also said that after Li Heyuan was promoted to president of Hyundai Motor Group (China), Li Heyuan will continue to focus on promoting the field of hydrogen fuel cells and work with Chinese partners to continuously enhance the competitiveness of enterprises.

More than 20 years into China, Hyundai Motor is well aware of the principle that "backwardness is to be beaten".

Despite the efforts to save itself, today's Modern Brand in Beijing has too many chronic diseases, and it is not easy to fully innovate through repositioning. For Li Heyuan and Hyundai Motor, how to improve the product strength of Beijing Hyundai and how to quickly adapt to changes in the Chinese market are all issues that need to be solved. Under his leadership, whether Hyundai Can re-form a cohesive force in China and return to the mainstream track is still up to time and the market to judge.

Responsible Editor: Li Yan'an Editor-in-Chief: Yu Jianping