Dongfeng Yueda Kia is a very "special" joint venture car company, in general, the joint venture car companies are composed of two parties, such as SAIC Volkswagen, Changan Ford, etc., which are jointly established by SAIC Motor, Volkswagen and Changan Automobile, Ford Motor, while Dongfeng Yueda Kia is a joint venture established by Dongfeng Motor, Yueda Group and Kia Automobile, and the three parties have invested nearly 4 billion yuan together, which has been established for nearly 30 years since its establishment in 1992. Among them, Dongfeng accounted for 25% of the shares, Yueda accounted for 25% of the shares, Kia accounted for 50% of the shares, if the registered capital is calculated, Dongfeng investment is about 1 billion yuan, but surprisingly, Dongfeng Motor "sold" Kia at a price of 300 million yuan, and the receiver has not yet been disclosed.
Dongfeng Motor's withdrawal from Dongfeng Yueda Kia indicates that Kia Motors will become the second well-known car company controlled by foreign capital after BMW Brilliance. Dongfeng Motor invested 1 billion yuan, but sold it for 300 million yuan, does this mean that this is a "failed" investment plan? Not really, insider: core assets have long been sold.
With the vigorous development of new car-making forces, those car companies that are not too good in efficiency have also ushered in the "second spring", such as Weilai Automobile", which "borrowed" the factory production of Jianghuai Automobile, and the first factory of Dongfeng Yueda Kia was also acquired by Gaohe Automobile, which is a solid core asset. It is also reasonable for Dongfeng Motor to "sell" its share cheaply.
Dongfeng Yueda Kia's sales have been declining in recent years, which means that it is also constantly losing money, we can look at a few data, we have an understanding of the situation of Dongfeng Yueda Kia. Its cumulative sales in 2016 was 650,000 vehicles, which is also the "peak" of Dongfeng Yueda Kia, and in 2017, the cumulative sales volume fell to 359,000 vehicles, and the cumulative sales in 2020 were only 249,000 vehicles, all of which were constantly declining year-on-year, and by 2021, this downward trend continued, its cumulative sales in January-September were 112,000 vehicles, compared with the cumulative sales of January to September last year, a year-on-year decline of 20.61%, and the cumulative sales in the first three quarters were less than 120,000 vehicles. It is the lowest achievement in the joint venture brand. In the face of consecutive years of losses, Dongfeng Motor's exit is well understood.
In addition to the above reasons, there is another important reason, that is, dongfeng motor and Kia automobile car manufacturing concept has been a great conflict, Dongfeng motor wants to take the "civilian" route, but Kia automobile insists on "brand upward", resulting in internal contradictions more and more intensified. It is reported that from 2022, Kia Automobile will gradually stop production of low-end models below 100,000 yuan, focusing on increasing the price of models through hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles, and there has been a great friction with Dongfeng Motor. This change can be seen through the recently listed models of Kia Motors, such as Kia Jawa's listing at a price of 28.89-33.99 million yuan, while hyundai Kusto on the same platform is only 16.98-21.88 million yuan, which has opened a large gap. So, are you optimistic about Kia Motors' "brand up"?