Auto-First | Zhang Chi
Trust and confidence are more important than gold, and these two points also determine whether the BAIC Group, which is trapped in performance, can get out of the trough. Just after the new year, bail group once again dispatched troops.
Auto-First learned from BAIC Group that BAIC Group recently issued an internal document appointing Gong Yueqiong, chairman of Foton Motor, and Liu Yu, chairman of BAIC BJEV, as deputy general managers of BAIC Group. This personnel appointment, BAIC Group adopted a low-key treatment, and there is no official release of any information at present.
Like the cold treatment of this personnel appointment, the 2021 BAIC Group sales report card is also half-covered, and has not been released in the name of the group so far. On January 12, data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed that BAIC Group sold 1.723 million vehicles in 2021, down 9.5% year-on-year, lower than the 3.8% year-on-year growth rate of the broader market. Among them, The relatively good performance of Foton Motor sold 650,000 units, down 4.43% year-on-year, and Beijing Benz sold 758,000 vehicles, down 2% year-on-year; other sectors performed sluggishly, and Beijing Hyundai has not released annual sales data. According to the data of the Association of Automobile Associations, from January to November last year, Beijing Hyundai only sold 320,000 vehicles, and it is expected to fall below the 400,000 mark in 2021; in addition, Beijing Motor and Beijing Off-Road have not released last year's sales data.
In 2021, Liu Yu's BAIC BJEV sector began to stabilize and rebound, selling 26,100 vehicles in 2021, an increase of 0.82% year-on-year, although it is still a low base, far below the 1.6 times growth of the broader market. But it still makes people see a lot of changes in BAIC BJEV, the bold use of technology-born female general Dai Kangwei as the general manager of BAIC BJEV, cooperation with Huawei to develop intelligent driving is about to be delivered, Magna technology realization, multiple financing, Jihu brand marketing up, these visible achievements, but also the chairman of BAIC Group Jiang Deyi to Liu Yu to give trust to Liu Yu.
Auto-First think tank shows that Liu Yu has a rich resume, he has many years of marketing experience in Beijing Hyundai and BEIJING Motor, as well as the experience of the director of the BAIC Procurement Center and the president of the Automotive Research Institute. The use of Liu Yu is also an inevitable choice for BAIC Group, which is in the transformation of the new four modernizations and the performance needs to be improved. At present, the sector for which BAIC Group is responsible has not been announced, and the industry believes that the current weak autonomous sector or its main direction in charge in the future.
Similar to Liu Yu, Gong Yueqiong is also a veteran of the BAIC system, working in Beiqi Foton for 17 years. His public resume shows that he started from the deputy general manager of the financial planning department of Beiqi Foton in 2001 and has been working in the financial field of Beiqi Foton since 2017, of which he has been the head of the company's finance since 2011, the general manager of Beiqi Foton in 2017, and the chairman of Beiqi Foton in January 2021.
Foton Motor has always been an important contributor to sales and profits of BAIC Group, and in recent years, it has been trapped by the Borgward project, and its operating performance has not been stable. However, with the takeover of Borgward in 2019, Foton Automobile has gradually recovered, with a net profit of 155 million yuan in 2020, a year-on-year decrease of 19.27%, and by the first half of 2021, it has achieved a net profit of 608 million yuan, and although Foton Automobile's sales in 2021 fell by 4.43%, it still outperformed the 6.6% year-on-year decline of the commercial vehicle market. Gong Yueqiong was promoted this time and is also considered to be a good and excellent career.
Jiang Deyi has been at the helm of BAIC Group for a year and a half, and a series of adjustments will eventually rely on performance, as Liu Yu's New Year's speech said, "In 2022, we will end the sting and jump up." At present, Jiang Deyi has given Liu Yu and Gong Yueqiong enough trust, and they have also expressed confidence that BAIC has officially entered the time of the Shaozhuang faction.