With the application for bankruptcy reorganization of the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup, Renault's layout in China has become increasingly confusing.
Text | Du Qiaomei
On April 14, 2020, after Dongfeng Renault announced its restructuring and withdrawal from the traditional passenger car market in China, on December 30, Renault's commercial vehicle joint venture in China, Renault Brilliance Jinbei Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Renault Brilliance Jinbei"),was also rumored to have filed for bankruptcy reorganization.
According to Qixinbao information, Renault Brilliance Jinbei has newly filed for bankruptcy information, the case number is (2021) Liao 01 Breaking Shen No. 24, the applicant is Renault Brilliance Jinbei, and the economic court is the Intermediate People's Court of Shenyang City, Liaoning Province.
Earlier, the think tank Jun learned from informed sources that as early as three months ago, Renault Brilliance Jinbei had a factory shutdown, all employees were on holiday in early December and suspended the payment of employee wages from December 20, and French CEO Schgemey had also left China a few days ago.
In addition, the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup has been in arrears to a number of suppliers for several months, and some suppliers have taken the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup to court.
In fact, as early as 2020, the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup was facing the dilemma of cash flow depletion. Although the joint venture received a capital injection of 600 million yuan from both shareholders, insiders said that the funds are not expected to support a year's consumption, and the 600 million yuan is likely to be the "last capital injection" of the shareholders.
In September this year, foreign media reported that Renault planned to end its joint venture with Brilliance and withdraw from the Chinese commercial vehicle market.
It is understood that the predecessor of Renault Brilliance Jinbei automobile Co., Ltd. is Shenyang Brilliance Jinbei Automobile Co., Ltd., the Jinbei brand was born in 1989, which is the only commercial vehicle brand in China that represents a category with a brand name. In 2010, the number of Jinbei buses exceeded 1 million, becoming the first brand of light passengers in China, reaching 75% at the highest market share in this segment, ranking first in China's commercial vehicle market for 19 consecutive years.
In December 2017, Brilliance Automotive and Renault Group established a joint venture company of Renault Brilliance in accordance with a 51%:49% equity distribution, which mainly produces three types of models: car-oriented vehicles, new energy commercial vehicles and personalized modified commercial vehicles.
According to the official plan, by 2023, 5 core competitive models will be launched, and it will also enter the electric light passenger market, and by 2025, the proportion of mid-size vans in the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup will reach 15%.
However, since the establishment of the joint venture company, the introduction of new products in the Renault Gold Cup Brilliance has been slow, and the project introduced by Renault models has been delayed again and again, until November last year, when a redesigned model, the Golden Cup Sea Lion King, was launched. According to the data, the sales volume of the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup in 2020 was 23,000 units, a year-on-year decline of 42.8%.
After announcing its exit from China's traditional fuel vehicle market last year, Renault said it would focus on two pillars of business in the Chinese market – electric vehicles and light commercial vehicles.
Among them, the light commercial vehicle business will be carried out through Renault Brilliance Jinbei Automobile Co., Ltd., making full use of Jinbei brand equity and Renault technology; the electric vehicle business will be carried out through two other joint ventures, EasyJet New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. and Jiangling Group New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd.
Today, with the application for bankruptcy reorganization of the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup, Renault's layout in China is becoming increasingly confusing.
It is worth noting that in August this year, Renault and Geely signed a memorandum of cooperation, and the two sides will jointly develop Renault brand hybrid models based on the platform technology of Geely Holding Group.