Title image source: Visual China
Text/ Yang Song Editor / Chen Xiaoping
"Dongfeng" has left, leaving only Yueda Kia.
At the end of December, Jiangsu Yueda Investment announced that it waived the right of pre-emption of equity and purchased 25% of the equity of Dongfeng Yueda Kia Automobile Co., Ltd. held by Dongfeng Motor Group for 297 million yuan.
According to public information, Yueda Investment and Yueda Group are the same actual controllers. After the completion of the transfer, the equity held by Yueda department increased to 50%.
This car company, which has been nearly 20 years old, has been losing ground in China in recent years and losing seriously. According to the latest transaction price, although the annual revenue is 10 billion, it is only worth 1.2 billion yuan.
After Dongfeng left, the Chinese-funded Yueda and Kia each held 50% of the equity of the joint venture.
Three joint ventures become two, one concentration of equity, the new Kia Yueda may have a change of moves, but it is not easy to reverse the decline.
Consecutive years of losses
Dongfeng Yueda Kia is a Sino-Korean joint venture automobile brand, founded in 2002 by Dongfeng Group, Yueda Group and Kia Motors (a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Group), with the three parties holding 25%, 25% and 50% of the shares respectively.
It also had a time of lying in the country to make money, however, as soon as the dividend of the automobile market faded, it quickly lost its sense of existence.
Dongfeng Yueda Kia's sales peaked in 2014, reaching 646,000 units that year, ranking 11th in the sales ranking of Chinese passenger car companies. After that, the down-and-fall mode was turned on.
In 2015, its annual sales volume was 616,000 units, down 4.6% year-on-year, marking the first decline in sales of Korean brands after eight years of domestic growth.
In 2016. Dongfeng Yueda Kia wanted to fight the "turnaround battle" and launched five new cars such as KX5 and new generation K2 in one go, and finally sales increased slightly by 5.5%, touching 650,000 units.
Subsequently, this Car Company with a Korean background suddenly entered the falling channel.
From 2017 to 2020, annual sales have become increasingly dismal, with only 359,500 units, 370,000 units, 289,000 units and 249,000 units, respectively, and the joint venture has suffered serious losses.
According to the information of Shanghai United Equity Exchange, in 2020, Dongfeng Yueda Kia's operating income was 21.94 billion yuan, net loss was 4.75 billion yuan, and liabilities were 13.656 billion yuan.
By 2021, this decline still shows no signs of improving.
In the first 11 months of 2021, according to the data of the Association, Dongfeng Yueda Kia sold 136,500 vehicles, ranking 25th among domestic automobile manufacturers. From January to October, the company's operating income was 12.477 billion yuan, and another loss was 2.612 billion yuan.
In order to reduce losses, Dongfeng Yueda Kia transferred its automobile plant in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, to Huaren Yuntong, a new car-making force, in 2019 to produce rival new energy vehicles.
It is reported that in the Dongfeng joint venture, Dongfeng Yueda Kia is the only loss-making car company, perhaps, this is the reason why it hastily withdrawn at a low price when it is nearly a year away from the expiration of the joint venture period.
Stuck on the low end
In the past few years, why has Dongfeng Yueda Kia been going downhill?
Zheng Yi, an analyst in the automotive industry, believes that there are many reasons for the decline in sales: during the peak sales period, there is no development of high-end models, K7, Sorento, Jiahua and other kia's main models, have not been localized in time; the most advanced technology has not been introduced into the country, and the development of localized models is not smooth; the rapid development of China's own brands, Kia's competitiveness is not as good as before.
Dongfeng BYYA YUEDA's main model, priced in the range of 100,000 yuan - 200,000 yuan, a large number of consumers, the competition is equally fierce, there are domestic brands Geely, BYD, there are also Ashkenazi Volkswagen, American General, Japanese Nissan, etc., especially domestic brands, the influence continues to strengthen.
"In the minds of consumers, the image has been positioned, and it is very difficult to develop from a second-tier brand." Mei Songlin, a senior analyst in the automotive industry, said that Dongfeng Yueda Kia belongs to the second-tier brands in the joint venture automobile companies.
According to the data of the Association, in the first 5 months of this year, Dongfeng Yueda Kia's top sales models, such as Zhi Pao, Ao Pao, Kia K3, etc., were mostly priced at 100,000, all of which were low-end models.
According to the official website, the most expensive price is the newly listed fourth generation of Jiahua, the starting price is about 290,000 yuan, Jiahua originally gave high hopes, however, from August to November in the four months, the cumulative insurance sales volume was only 1495 units (the data of the association), and the situation was extremely bleak.
Dongfeng Yueda Kia also thought about breaking through, and in September 2019, it introduced the first Chinese general manager Li Feng.
At the beginning of his tenure, Li Feng said that Dongfeng Yueda Kia will no longer launch models priced below 100,000 yuan, "If small cars sell too much, we will become the next Changan Suzuki, which is the biggest risk." ”
Li Feng mentioned in a speech in 2020 that it is necessary to serve the post-90s and post-00s Generation Z people, "concentrate the strength of the whole body, and use new values to meet the new consumption needs of Generation Z." ”
Dongfeng Yueda Kia also launched the user community "Come together" WeChat Mini Program, following the example of new car-making forces such as Weilai, trying to deeply participate in user operations and enhance community activity. Unfortunately, the tiger is not an anti-dog, and the user Mini Program community is very deserted.
According to the "21CBR" reporter's inquiry, the topics initiated by the official are mostly discussed in double digits, and the community atmosphere is not active.
Li Feng, who could not wait for more Generation Z owners, left in March 2021 and took over as general manager from Kia Motors' South Korean headquarters, Yoo Chang-seung.
According to statistics, in the past five years, Dongfeng Yueda Kia has changed 5 general managers, and this frequent rotation has aggravated turmoil and instability.
This equity change, the outside world speculated earlier that Hyundai Kia Group will take over the shares held by Dongfeng, because the restrictions on foreign ownership in passenger car manufacturing will be abolished, and there is no threshold at the policy level.
As a result, Kia did not increase its joint venture holdings to 75 percent.
Power new energy
After a series of high-level changes and equity concentration, Kia Yueda wants to use hyundai Kia's advantages in new energy to revitalize the brand.
After Dongfeng Group determined to withdraw, Liu Changsheng said in an interview that "upward" is set as the main direction of the company's future development, in order to stabilize high-priced products, put an end to the previous low-price competition strategy, and resist the pressure of "price for volume".
Liu Changsheng stressed that 2022 will be the first year of brand innovation in China, increase investment in the Chinese market, and will accelerate the suspension of low-end entry-level models (priced at less than 100,000 yuan) and take the high-end brand route.
The company also plans to accelerate the introduction of new technologies and new products such as hybrid and pure electric, including mass production of Kia hybrid HEV and plug-in hybrid PHEV models.
According to Hyundai Kia Group's plan, by 2030, the global sales target of new energy vehicles is 3.5 million units, of which Kia's new energy product sales target is 1.6 million units. In the Chinese market, the proportion of hybrid and pure electricity sales is planned to reach 50:50.
In terms of automatic driving, Dongfeng Kia Yueda also showed radicalism.
"They are the first in the joint venture brand to use the Baidu 3.0 car machine system," Zheng Yi told the "21CBR" reporter, the local system is equipped with software familiar to users, it is easier to achieve software localization.
Although the ambition is large, if you want to restore your former market position, the reality is also very bone.
The resources accumulated by low-end brands in fuel vehicles are difficult to replicate in the new energy track.
Dongfeng Kia Yueda officially shows that there are 4 new energy models on sale, 2 pure electric and 2 hybrid models each, and the pure electric model EV6 has also been unveiled. However, the proportion of its new energy vehicles is not high, and the monthly sales of some models are less than 100.
The transition of fuel vehicles to hybrid power and then pure electricity are in line with the stable transformation route of traditional vehicles. In the domestic automotive market, driven by new forces, the hybrid model market accounts for a relatively small proportion, pure electricity is a more mainstream choice, and a large number of cutting-edge brands have established cognition.
"The era of China's automobile 1.0 fuel vehicles is almost over, and 2.0 is a smart electric vehicle." Mei Songlin said that traditional car companies must take into account both fuel vehicles and new energy, and the advantages are not obvious compared with the new forces that focus.
The main fuel vehicle of mass production has not stopped the decline, the loss is serious, the transformation of new energy still needs time, and it is necessary to invest in a long time, which is a practical problem for the future company.
Fortunately, after the withdrawal of one shareholder, the superstructure has changed.
Due to the need to coordinate the three shareholders, Oriental Yueda Kia had a slow decision-making and it was not easy to reach an agreement, so the product introduction was slow and the brand positioning was not clear.
After Dongfeng withdraws, it will leave Yueda and Kia with new opportunities to speed up decision-making and execution efficiency, which is the premise of the reversal.
But objectively speaking, the time window left for it is indeed very limited.