Recently, Dongfeng Company listed on the property rights exchange to transfer 25% of its shares in Dongfeng Yueda Kia. This means that Kia will usher in a new journey in China. "In 2022, Kia, which has been deeply involved in the Chinese market for 20 years, is about to usher in the first year of the second phase of development, which is also a key step taken by Kia based on its global Turnaround strategy." The general manager of Dongfeng Yueda Kia said publicly.
Under the wave of electrification and intelligence, China's auto market is changing, traditional car companies, new car manufacturing forces, Internet companies and other cross-border players have entered the game, and the competition pattern of the automotive market is being reshaped. In the face of the rapidly changing market pattern, Kia will forget everything in the past, with the new attitude of new power startups, start again in the Chinese market, and will refer to the successful experience and management methods of global Kia and start new changes from the inside.
△ At the Shanghai Auto Show, Dongfeng Yueda Kia fired the "first shot" of brand renewal, and released a new LOGO, a new brand concept and a new purpose
Products continue to be high-end, accelerating the transformation of electrification
As the trend of automobile consumption upgrading becomes more and more obvious, the continuous high-end layout has become the anchoring direction of major car companies. In the global market, kia brands have been improving product quality and positioning, and have gradually got rid of the cost-effective label.
Last year, Hyundai Kia Group ranked fourth in the world in annual sales, and in the first three quarters of this year, the cumulative sales volume ranked third in the world; in September this year, Hyundai Kia Group's sales in Europe have surpassed Toyota and Volkswagen brands to become the largest non-local automobile company; in May this year, the Kia brand global market sales exceeded 50 million vehicles. In terms of pricing, in the U.S. market, the actual price of Kia products is the same as that of Toyota. In the positioning of some models in overseas markets, Kia is even higher than brands such as Hyundai and Toyota.
In the Chinese market, the Kia brand is also continuing to rise, reshaping its brand image. At the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show, Kia launched a brand renewal in China, released a new LOGO, a "customer-centric" brand concept, continuously improved the brand experience and brand image, and committed to the transformation to electrification.
At the same time, in China, Kia is also getting rid of the label of "cost performance" and continuously enhancing its brand value with global high-quality products. The Smart Run Ace and Jawa MPV listed this year are the first products for Kia to reshape the consumer group and test the high price range, and the brand's high-end has begun to show results. In the future, Kia will stop production of models of less than 100,000 yuan in an orderly manner, introduce Kia's best-selling high-quality models in the world into China, and win the recognition of consumers through product competitiveness.
Next year, Kia plans to launch a mid-term redesign of the new flagship SUV Sportage and K3, and also plans to introduce a hybrid version of the new HEV to continuously enhance the brand image with high-value products and a variety of options.
At present, China's new energy vehicle market has great growth potential, and the Chinese market has become a bridgehead for the electrification transformation of global car companies. According to the data, from January to November this year, the cumulative sales of domestic new energy vehicles were close to 3 million, an increase of 166.8% year-on-year, and the cumulative sales penetration rate increased to 12.7%, hitting a record high. In this context, Kia has firmly grasped the development trend of the times and accelerated the launch of new electrification products.
According to Kia's "Plan S" medium- and long-term strategy, it will be committed to the transformation of the two core directions of "electric vehicles and environmentally friendly mobility", and plans to launch a total of 11 electric vehicles by 2026, including 7 E-GMP special electric vehicles; by 2030, achieve annual sales of pure electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and other environmentally friendly models of 1.6 million vehicles, of which 880,000 pure electric vehicles, accounting for 55% of total sales, ranked among the world's first-class electric vehicle brands. At the 2021 Guangzhou Auto Show, Liu Changsheng said: "China is leading the development of the global electric vehicle market, in order to cope with the rapid development of China's electric vehicle market, Kia plans to launch more than 1 special electric vehicle model per year to expand the electric vehicle model matrix to meet the different needs of users." ”
With a "more Chinese" attitude, we will integrate into the global layout
China's automotive industry has developed so far, in the field of electrification and intelligence has been at the forefront of the world, the Chinese market is crucial to any car company.
New Era Securities analysis believes that China has taken intelligent and connected vehicles as one of the key transformation directions of the automobile industry, with an initial investment scale of 10 billion yuan, and it is expected that by 2025, the industry market size will be close to the scale of trillion yuan, and the penetration rate of the Internet of Vehicles will exceed 70%.
As China's automobiles lead the world in the pace of intelligent and electrification technology transformation, more and more multinational car companies have begun to consider how to deal with the speed of technological transformation in the Chinese market, and have set up global-oriented research and development centers in China, focusing on cutting-edge technology and paying more attention to China's local market demand.
For Kia, the Chinese market will also become the forefront of its many strategic landings. As early as 2013, Hyundai Kia Group established the largest overseas R&D center in Yantai, making full use of local resources to develop high-quality products for Chinese consumers. In order to further improve its R&D strength in China and cope with the new challenges of the automotive industry, hyundai Kia Group established the Group's first overseas advanced digital R&D center in Shanghai this year.
Under the wave of intelligent electrification, the competition pattern of China's automotive market is being reshaped, and consumer demand has also changed. In the face of the new market pattern, Kia will hope to regain the favor of Chinese consumers with the new attitude of a new power startup company and a sincere attitude.
It is understood that Kia will combine the actual situation of the Chinese market, refer to the world's successful experience, and combine the actual situation of the Chinese market, and start new changes from the inside, including a series of adjustments in the fields of products, channels, organizational management systems, talent introduction, network operation, brand management and other fields.
Kia will pay more attention to the needs of Chinese consumers and increase investment in technological strength, including yantai technology research and development center and Shanghai digital technology research and development center.
In terms of operation and management, Kia should establish an efficient organizational management system, including introducing local talents who understand the Chinese market better, and at the same time, promoting internal high-quality talents.
In the strategic layout of global Kia, Jiangsu Yancheng will be regarded as an important hub for production and export, helping the sustainable development of Yancheng and even the Yangtze River Delta economy.
After more than 20 years of deep cultivation in the Chinese market, Kia, which has started again, will increase investment in technology and products with a "more Chinese" attitude and action, better meet the needs of Chinese consumers, and open a new chapter in the development of the Chinese market. Text/Zhang Xiaotong
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