Edit | Yu Bin
Produced by | Chaoqi Network "Yu see column"
The back wave of the Yangtze River pushes the front wave. In the domestic automobile market, there are many players, but there are few overlords who can unify the rivers and lakes. And even if some domestic power brands claim to be kings, it is only you who sing and I appear, and each leads the way for only a few years. Four years ago, Changan Automobile, which has won the status of independent sales champion for many consecutive years, is enough to have such a jianghu status, and it is also strong and sharp as a domestic brand.
However, in 2017, the rising star Geely stole the sales crown position that originally belonged to Changan Automobile, and the sales scale increased by more than 60% year-on-year, surpassing Changan Automobile in one fell swoop. In the following years, Changan Automobile also fell into a continuous downturn, and its status was gradually slightly embarrassing.
On the one hand, the mainly moving car camp lost the main battlefield and was repeatedly crushed by the Emgrand family of Geely. On the other hand, SUV models have been attacked by Brands such as Roewe and Haval, and even its sales in 2018-2019 have been lower than those of Great Wall Motors, which only sells SUVs.
Under multiple pressures, Changan Automobile also shouted the slogan of complete transformation and three entrepreneurships. In the intelligent and new energy two-way force. However, it has been observed that with the rise of major new car-making forces in recent years, in the fierce market game, Changan Automobile's anxiety is increasing day by day, and even if it hitchs a ride on new energy vehicles and smart cars, the transformation and upgrading has not yet seen obvious results. Therefore, the topic of Changan Automobile's fall behind in the new round of industry reshuffle is also not endless.
Transformation is difficult to solve the dilemma of joint venture brands
As we all know, the increasing popularity of new energy vehicles is constantly encroaching on the market of fuel vehicles in the past. Therefore, traditional car companies have also encountered the practical problems of increasing saturation of the fuel vehicle market and bottlenecks in sales growth. Changan Automobile, which shouts transformation, is also difficult to escape the common problem of most traditional car companies: that is, sales are still mainly fuel vehicles, and there is not much achievement in the field of new energy vehicles.
It has been observed that near the Lunar New Year, the demand for car purchases has entered a peak period, and the advertising of major car brands on social media is more ferocious than usual, and the fierce competition is self-evident. It is worth mentioning that after being robbed of the position of "big brother" of its own brand by Geely, Changan Automobile also won back the crown of sales for a time last year, and in the period from January to November, the total sales volume has exceeded the whole year of 2020. However, the good times did not last long, and its sales volume fell behind Geely again in November.
At the same time, in terms of new energy vehicles with heavy financial layout, few models have shown their brilliance. Only the micro-electric vehicle "Changan Benben" frequently enters the public's sight. Obviously, this model alone is difficult to support Changan Automobile's ambition to transform. Moreover, Avita, which was previously high-profile publicity, also disappointed many expectant riders after the late arrival in November.
Therefore, some people in the industry expressed concern that Changan Automobile, which developed by joint ventures in the past, although it shouted transformation in its mouth, in fact, it still relies heavily on the fuel vehicles of the joint venture brand to bring sales and support the company's market. Under the huge pressure, will Changan Automobile retreat from the difficulty and return to the old road of relying on joint venture brands?
However, even on the old road of the joint venture brand, Changan Automobile's road is not smooth. Take Changan Ford, for example. It is understood that from the launch of the new Focus from 2016 to the end of 2018, Ford's products in China have been suspended for 35 months, during which Time, Ford has not had any replacement and new models listed in China.
As a result, Ford's sales have taken a sharp turn for the worse since 2017. Although the sharp listing can alleviate the problem caused by ford's insufficient products, it is almost broken due to its improper positioning. Moreover, Changan's other models are in the final stage of the product, the market application of the three-cylinder new technology is weak, and the product reputation is insufficient, resulting in its sales continuing to be sluggish.
Taking EVOS as an example, some netizens believe that the symbolism of this model is greater than the actual significance. You know, 2020 and 2021 is an important time node for Changan Ford to breathe a sigh of relief, but for various reasons, models like Ruiji that are not popular cannot achieve more sales, so it is urgent for new models to support overall sales.
However, EVOS obviously does not meet this demand, first of all, the crossover model itself is too niche, and it is not cheap to resonate with the vast majority of consumers. In addition, EVOS is known as the smartest fuel car, but the accurate reading of EVOS has not formed a brand effect like Fox, so the market response has weakened.
Coincidentally, changan Mazda's sales performance in the past two years is not optimistic. According to the data, Changan Mazda's cumulative sales in 2019 fell by 19.66% year-on-year to 133,600 units, while in 2018, sales fell by 13.41% year-on-year to 166,300 units.
At present, there are only three cars on sale, namely the Mazda 3 Axela, the Mazda CX-5 and the Mazda CX-8, although there are some high-quality fan fans, but they have always been applauded because of the single product. The reason is also related to the fact that the product is separated from the mainstream market demand.
In contrast, the performance of Changan Automobile's own brands is better than that of joint venture brands, but due to the overall downturn of the automotive industry and the impact of the epidemic factors on the development of the industry, it is difficult for independent brands to stand alone. Therefore, in terms of its heavy investment and transformation of new energy vehicles, under the premise that funds, technology and other aspects still need to seek foreign assistance, it is also worrying whether it can jump out of the strange circle of relying on cooperative brands.
The internal worries of the three ventures are greater than the external troubles, and the life and death of the transformation are uncertain
In 2020, Changan Automobile announced that it will transform from an automobile company to a technology company, and the positioning of the Changan brand will become "technology Changan smart partner". Since then, Changan Automobile has also reported the news of cooperation with Huawei and CATL to build new energy vehicles. Although it directly brought an increase to its stock price at that time, it can also continue to tell a new wave of stories in the capital market, and it seems that Changan Automobile will usher in a turnaround.
However, Changan Automobile, which seems to ride the wind and waves, has hidden worries and pressures that are difficult to see. For example, in late May last year, Changan Automobile, whose stock price has risen repeatedly, suddenly announced the news of the reduction of major shareholders, and some industry personnel calculated that they could withdraw a large amount of cash flow this time, and then Changan Automobile's stock price showed a downward trend.
On the day of the announcement, its stock price fell from a high of 25.5 yuan / share to 22.5 yuan / share. The market value was 122.391 billion yuan, compared with 135.990 billion yuan that closed three days ago, and the market value evaporated by 13.6 billion yuan.
It is understood that the actual controller of Changan Automobile Company, China Changan Automobile Group Co., Ltd., the third largest shareholder, Nanfang Industrial Asset Management Co., Ltd., plans to reduce its holdings by no more than 163.2 million shares, accounting for 3.00% of the total share capital, from 2021-06-15 to 2021-12-14.
The announcement said that the reason for the reduction was due to its own business development needs, and the shares of China Chang'an in the reduction came from the company's 2016 private placement of shares, and the shares of Southern Assets came from the unlimited sale and circulation shares transferred by China North Equipment Group Co., Ltd. without compensation.
In just 3 days, the market value of Changan Automobile has shrunk by more than 10 billion yuan, and some analysts believe that it is inseparable from Huawei's statement of "not building cars". At that time, Huawei said in a statement: "So far, Huawei has not invested in any car companies. In the future, it will not invest in any car companies, let alone hold or participate in shares. In the future, all the rumors that Huawei made cars or participated in the automobile manufacturing industry were rumors. ”
It should be known that previously, Huawei had announced cooperation with Changan, BAIC and GUANGZHOUC to build Huawei Inside's auto sub-brand and provide autonomous driving solutions for these three car companies. In addition, Huawei also cooperates with the Xilisi brand under Xiaokang Co., Ltd. to sell cars, providing the latter with Huawei's own online and offline sales channels.
Therefore, after Huawei made it clear that the rumors of car building were untrue, the depth of cooperation between Huawei and Changan was also very doubtful. It is understood that Changan and Huawei have reached a strategic cooperative relationship, but they insist on their own leadership in new energy vehicles. Therefore, the cooperation with Huawei is somewhat flashy, and even evaluated by netizens as a marketing move by Changan rubbing Huawei's car-making heat.
In addition to the development process, Changan Automobile needs to reduce its holdings to alleviate the difficulties of funds, but also hides many crises in the brand and reputation. For example, although it has independently developed the blue whale engine, it has a high appearance and is very suitable for contemporary young people. However, the general feedback of car owners is that its sound insulation is relatively poor, and there is a significant gap compared with the joint venture car. Although its engine is more reliable, it is slightly inferior in terms of power. Therefore, some car users have shown that Changan Automobile is very suitable for home use and is also very worry-free, but it is difficult to do it if you want it to exercise.
It is worth mentioning that recently, according to the China Net Auto Quality Complaint Platform, it recently received a complaint from the owner of Changan CS75 PLUS: the car machine is slow to respond, the reversing image is blurred, and the high-definition image of the official promotion cannot be reached. It is believed that Changan Automobile has fraudulent sales behavior. The owner of the car said that he had also communicated with the 4S store for a long time and had not been solved.
The platform also said that in fact, since September 2020, it has received complaints about the Changan CS75 PLUS model, and the owners have said that the car has serious problems such as caton and central control black screen. More than 95% of car owners have not been effectively resolved after complaining to 4S stores and manufacturers. This also means that Changan Automobile's after-sales service is not satisfactory, and the brand trust is also being collectively questioned.
epilogue
As one of the representatives of domestic independent brands, Changan Automobile was once also the light of the nation, not only has some independent technologies, but also has remarkable market performance. With the shrinking of the fuel vehicle market and the rise of the new energy vehicle market, Changan Automobile has gradually lost its advantages in the torrent of the market and lost its dominant position.
Despite its internal claims of three entrepreneurial ventures, it is determined to revolutionize itself completely. However, while the market territory of new car-making forces is expanding day by day, the problems faced by the traditional car company Changan Automobile such as weak product updates, improper positioning, and declining reputation are lingering. Changan Automobile, which relies heavily on the joint venture brand, wants to reverse the situation and successfully achieve transformation and upgrading.
It is expected that the "front wave" of Changan Automobile can re-find its own positioning in the process of three entrepreneurships, and smoothly break back to a round in the new track competition after the transformation.