Source of this article: Times Finance Author: Lin Qian
"The world's industrial powers basically have world-class car brands, Volkswagen BMW Daimler in Germany, Ford GM in the United States, Toyota Honda in Japan." A senior expert of an industry association told Times Finance that "the automobile industry and the country's overall industrial strength are largely bound, China is already the world's largest industrial power, has not yet emerged the world's first-line automobile brands, but the strength of the overall automobile industry is gradually getting stronger, independent brands are also going up, this is a major trend."
To become a world-class giant car company that can rival Volkswagen and Toyota, in addition to the strong national industrial system and economic strength as a backing, the company itself also needs to have integrated control of the industrial chain, excellent product development and marketing capabilities, advanced automotive technology, excellent organizational structure and combat capabilities, and management and business leaders who dare to face change and have a forward-looking strategic vision.
In the far-reaching industry transformation of intelligent electrification and the chip crisis sweeping the global automotive industry in 2021, the head Chinese brands represented by Great Wall Motors have also shown the above qualities.
According to the data of the China Automobile Association, the market share of the Chinese brand camp has risen from 38.4% at the end of 2020 to 44.4%, close to the best results in history, and most mainstream independent car companies have achieved a production and sales growth rate of more than 10%.
Taking Great Wall Motor as an example, the data shows that Great Wall Motor's sales in 2021 will be 1.28 million units, an increase of 15.24% year-on-year, and its output will be 1.26 million units, an increase of 15.12% year-on-year. In terms of production and sales, Great Wall Motors has surpassed SAIC Volkswagen. In this war of trade-off, Chinese brands led by Great Wall Motors are accelerating the realization of the transcendence and replacement of joint venture brands.
Image source | Great Wall Motor's official website controls the industrial chain and the domestic and overseas markets have blossomed twice
"Cultivate new opportunities in the crisis, open a new situation in the change.".
In 2021, the global automotive industry is deeply affected by the "lack of core", under this crisis, the head car companies represented by Volkswagen not only declined overseas sales, but also performed much worse in the Chinese market, while Chinese brands such as the Great Wall achieved both production and sales.
Behind this is the victory of supply chain management and emergency management decisions.
It is understood that the chips of the joint venture car companies are coordinated by the brand side globally, and the weight of resource allocation is different, and the Chinese market is not the first choice. Different from the rigidity of the supply chain of joint venture car companies, Chinese brands such as Great Wall Motors have shown strong flexibility and stability in ensuring the supply of chips, and have established more than one chip supply chain, and while docking batch supply with chip factories and suppliers, they will pay attention to the collection of market loose orders, which to a certain extent makes up for the impact of chips and successfully resolves the crisis.
In addition, the complete parts supply system that has been formed has also escorted the strong development of Great Wall Motors during the epidemic. At present, great wall motor's four major parts subsidiaries of Nobo Automobile, Seiko Automobile, Hive Easy Chuang and Mande Electronics have certain competitiveness in various segments, and also have the industry-leading level in independent development of new aspects, to meet the needs of Great Wall Motors and also to supply externally, to enhance competitiveness in a market-oriented way.
Image source | Great Wall Motor's official website
Hive Yichuang covers four major sections: powertrain, transmission system, electric drive system and intelligent steering system, with more than 8,000 employees. Nobo Automotive products cover three major systems of automotive intelligent cockpit, exterior and rubber, with annual sales of 13.2 billion yuan. MANDEL Electronics focuses on automotive electrical, optoelectronics, and thermal management. Seiko Automobile is responsible for the manufacture of body, structural parts and chassis, and has achieved full process coverage and employs more than 11,000 people. Each of the four companies performs its own duties, and 50%-60% of the parts of Great Wall Motors are self-generated.
While consolidating the domestic basic disk, Great Wall Motors is also actively forging ahead overseas. According to the data, Great Wall Motor's overseas market sales in 2021 were 142,700 units, with a growth rate of 103.7%, a record high. Since going overseas, Great Wall Motor's cumulative overseas sales have exceeded 900,000 units.
It is worth mentioning that although Great Wall Motors is not the first Chinese brand to propose globalization, it is the one that implements the globalization strategy most thoroughly and resolutely. Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall Motor, previously said, "The implementation of the globalization strategy will be an inevitable choice for Chinese automobiles based on a long-term strategy. In my opinion, a truly successful enterprise must be global, and a truly successful brand must be a global brand."
Great Wall Motor User Experience Center in Bangkok, Thailand | Image source Great Wall Motor's official website
Soochow Securities Research Report pointed out that drawing on the development experience of overseas leaders Toyota and Volkswagen, the expansion of domestic leaders overseas is the only way for car companies to globalize. Southeast Asia, such as India and Africa and South America, where the economy is taking off rapidly, will become important positions in the future.
At present, Great Wall Motors continues to consolidate its leading position in Russia, Australia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Chile and other markets, and actively explores new markets such as Egypt, Nepal, Brunei, Pakistan and Laos. At the same time, Great Wall Motors' acquisition of Daimler's Plant in Brazil, the opening of a German subsidiary in Munich, Germany, and the establishment of a European headquarters have formed a market radiation that leverages the surrounding markets with key markets as the fulcrum and builds a global sales network.
It is worth mentioning that since 2016, Great Wall Motors' export data has been showing an upward momentum, which is inseparable from Great Wall Motors' perennial layout in overseas markets.
Great Wall of Science and Technology Technology base consolidates the foundation for the development of the new era
Throughout the development history of international car giants, technology is in an important core position and has a vital impact on the development of enterprises.
As the leader of Chinese car brands, Great Wall Motors also understands this truth. Over the years, Great Wall Motors has always adhered to the principle of "precise research and development, the pursuit of industry leadership in segmentation", helping the company accelerate its transformation into a "global intelligent technology company".
For a long time, Great Wall Motors has established R&D centers in the United States, Japan, Germany, Canada and other countries, forming a global R&D layout with China headquarters as the core, covering Europe, Asia and North America, and comprehensively covering the research and development of complete vehicles, core components, new energy and intelligence. It is understood that Great Wall Motor's R&D investment in the first three quarters of 2021 has exceeded that of the whole year of 2020. According to the statistics of China's auto patent data in 2020 jointly released by IPRdaily and China Automobile Center, Great Wall Holdings published 2278 patents, an increase of 32.06% year-on-year, ranking 7th in the industry.
Great Wall Pickup | The source of the picture is the official website of the car company
Great Wall Motors has already accelerated its layout in many fields and independently mastered the core technology.
Through the integration of global high-quality resources, which lasted five years and invested more than 20 billion yuan in research and development, Great Wall Motor released three major technology brands of "Lemon", "Tank" and "Coffee Intelligence" in 2020, forming a technology ecology that integrates "automatic driving, intelligent cockpit, efficient fuel and new energy". By the end of June 2021, cars carrying the three major technology brands accounted for half of Great Wall Motor's total sales.
Shanxi Securities pointed out that the use of modular technology platform will greatly reduce the production and research and development costs and research and development cycle of automobile enterprises, and then maximize the profits of automobile enterprises and improve the cost performance of automobile products, thereby greatly enhancing the competitiveness of enterprises. Among them, the launch and use of the lemon platform will help enhance the comprehensive competitiveness of Great Wall Motors' products. Hardcore tank platforms to create differentiated competitive advantages will effectively promote "brand upwards". The coffee intelligent platform is a comprehensive intelligent platform covering software and hardware systems, and it is the first to go in the field of intelligent technology.
In addition, Great Wall Motors also holds the holding of hive energy, millide zhixing and other science and technology innovation enterprises, deeply ploughing new energy battery motors, energy storage, intelligent steering systems, automotive electrical devices and other fields, and constantly feed back the company's business development. In 2017, it acquired part of the shares of Australian miner Pilbara Minerals to lock in the supply of raw materials upstream for lithium batteries. At the same time, Great Wall Motors has also made strategic investments in the automotive intelligent chip company Horizon and officially entered the chip industry. In 2021, Great Wall Motor invested in Tongguang Co., Ltd. and went deep into the semiconductor industry.
Tank Euler attacks the production and research strength to improve the brand echelon
Technology reflects the thickness of the enterprise, the product is the external embodiment of the width of the enterprise, and the brand shows the height of the enterprise.
At present, Great Wall Motors currently has six major brand matrices of Haval, Weipai, Pickup Cannon, Euler, Tank and Salon, and each has a clear brand positioning and a distinct brand distinction.
Source | The official website of the car company
Among them, the Haval brand takes the cost-effective route, focusing on fuel SUVs of 50,000 yuan to 200,000 yuan to maintain its own leading level. From the perspective of Haval's current development, its "National God Car" H6 is the core explosive model, and has successively launched models such as the Big Dog Series, Red Rabbit, First Love, and M6, consolidating the leading position of the Haval brand in the low-end SUV market. Official data shows that haval brand sales reached 770,000 vehicles in 2021, an increase of 2.6% year-on-year, accounting for 60.11% of annual sales.
If Haval is the basic disk of Great Wall Motors, then Euler and Tank are important pillars for the future development of the Great Wall. It is reported that Euler and Tank each benchmark 500,000-200,000 electric cars and 200,000-600,000 yuan off-road, representing the user insights of Great Wall Motors in the field of new energy vehicles and off-road market segments.
From the perspective of individual brand development, with strong product strength and relatively high cost performance, tank 300 is out of the circle in a very short time. According to official data, the tank brand delivered 11,958 vehicles in December 2021 and 84,500 vehicles in the whole year, showing an overall climbing trend. According to the previous Times Finance from the tank dealer, the current order for the tank 300 is around 200,000.
The Euler brand takes the Euler good cat as the arrow, with a retro, cute appearance, compared with the same level of fuel vehicles are very competitive product strength, in the female market segment has achieved good sales. Official data shows that the Euler brand will sell 135,000 vehicles in 2021, of which euler good cat sales are 50,931.
Source | Euler Auto official blog
In addition, Weipai, Great Wall Pickup truck and Sharon Zhixing also have a number of star models, which are competitive in the market segment.
It is worth noting that from the perspective of the brand matrix of Great Wall Motors, each benchmarks different consumer groups and needs, combined with the consumption trend of the new era to make targeted transformations, each brand has a very distinct personalized label, and the car use scene has done a deep excavation of personalized needs.
The Haval H6, Euler Good Cat, and Tank 300 are excellent examples. This also shows that the Great Wall has long been aware of market demand, can launch products for consumer demand, and has formed a sufficiently scientific product development system and decision-making mechanism. In terms of product concept, it is in line with multinational car companies such as Volkswagen and Toyota, and is ahead of most Chinese car companies.
Ping An Securities Research and Research Report pointed out that under the completion of the sales target in 2023, Great Wall Motors is expected to add more than 100 billion yuan in revenue scale, and the profits of pickup trucks and tanks are strong, which is an important profit pillar for Great Wall Motors.
Tank 300 | Image source tank brand official blog
Ping An Securities believes that Great Wall Motors has laid a good organizational and technical foundation for the next five years, the brand echelon has been built, the brand combat group is in full swing, and the rich new product reserves will help the company usher in the triple improvement of volume, price and profitability. The company's net profit for 2021/2022/2023 is forecast to be 89/138/17.8 billion yuan.
Efficient implementation Of talent mechanism reform and rapid transformation
The success of individuals and enterprises should not only look at the struggle of individuals, but also refer to the process of history.
Summarizing the experience of Toyota and other Japanese cars in curves, the two oil crises have given historic opportunities, when Japan's national strength is rising, industrial strength and automobile supply chain are strong, and the three giants of the United States are self-contained. At the same time, Toyota has established a lean production method under the leadership of management, with the highest efficiency and quality in global automobile manufacturing.
Nowadays, the wave of intelligent electrification has created a historic opportunity for Chinese brands such as Great Wall Motors to overtake in curves, the improvement of China's overall industrial level, the strong national economy and market have also provided a solid backing for independent brands, China is also a highland for new energy vehicles, and multinational car companies such as Toyota Volkswagen are slightly behind Chinese brands in the transformation of intelligent electrification.
Image source | The official website of the car company
At present, the sky and the place are ready, and in terms of people and aspects, Great Wall Motors has long been prepared. Wei Jianjun once said, "A brand-new era is quietly coming to us, new technologies, new things, new contradictions, new problems, emerging in an endless stream. To be sure, the competition has become a duel, and the confrontation has already begun."
In 2020 and 2021, Great Wall Motor has successively implemented two consecutive phases of equity incentive plans, with a total of more than 10,000 recipients, covering 50% of core employees. In the future, it will also cover 100% of the core value employees, truly realize the transformation from "migrant workers" to "partners", and realize the common development of enterprises and talents. In addition, In 2020, Great Wall Motors issued an internal "de-aggregation" proposal to break the hierarchical differentiation from the past from daily operation and create a more open, efficient and attractive platform organization.
Great Wall Motors has also made targeted organizational innovations. In the past three years, the company has reconstructed the company's organization, mechanism, process and enterprise ecology, forming a 3.0 version of the organizational structure of "strong back office, large middle office, and small front desk". And user-centric, to achieve products and brands and R & D through + combat process through.
"Tough times are a good time to build a brand, and the more this time comes, the more we have to connect with the market, pay attention to user needs, focus on improving user satisfaction, and create real value for users." In the face of industry changes, in the micro-film "Will Great Wall Motors Survive Next Year" released by Great Wall Motors on its 30th anniversary, Wei Jianjun said that Great Wall Motors' "user-centric" change will not change because of external changes.
Soochow Securities Research Report pointed out that in this round of opportunities, Chinese car companies with a certain scale of production and sales have reached a higher level and achieved a growth path similar to Toyota, and Great Wall Motors is the core player.
The development of the history of world automotive business has repeatedly proved that technical ability and organizational combat effectiveness determine the competitiveness of enterprises; the foresight and strategic vision of enterprise leaders determine the staying power and development ceiling of enterprise technical capabilities.