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According to the national enterprise credit information system, Denza Automobile Sales Service Co., Ltd. was established on February 14, as a wholly-owned subsidiary of BYD Automobile Industry Co., Ltd., with a registered capital of 50 million yuan, and the legal representative He Zhiqi is the general manager and chairman of BYD Automobile Co., Ltd. The company's business scope includes new car sales, new energy vehicle sales, electrical accessories sales and other businesses.
In this regard, Zhao Changjiang, director of BYD's high-end brand preparation office, confirmed the matter, saying that Denza Automobile Sales service Co., Ltd. has officially issued a business license on February 14, and the reconstruction of high-end services and experiences is about to begin.
According to the data, Shenzhen Denza New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. was established on February 16, 2011, and BYD Automobile Industry Co., Ltd. and Daimler Greater China Investment Co., Ltd. each held 50% of the shares. At the beginning of the birth of the brand, BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu said: "As a child of Daimler and BYD, Denza is a brand born on the shoulders of giants. ”
Denza Automobile's first mass-produced car, the Denza 300, was first launched at the 2014 Beijing Auto Show and officially launched in September of that year, with a listing price of 369,000-399,000 yuan. From the perspective of development time, the starting point of Denza Automobile is not slow, because in 2014, Li Bin, chairman of E-Car, just led the team to establish Weilai, and Tesla in the United States has just landed on the NASDAQ under the leadership of Musk.
However, depressing development is not smooth, although the development time is early, although backed by BYD and Daimler. Denza 300 sales after the listing is not ideal, although after many upgrades to launch Denza 400, Denza 500, etc., but still can not reverse the market. According to public data, Denza's sales in 2015-2019 were 2800, 2287, 4713, 1974 and 2089 respectively, with cumulative sales of 13,863 vehicles in four years, with a cumulative loss of more than 3.5 billion yuan in five years.
In the past five years, both BYD and Daimler are laying out new energy vehicles, such as BYD's Dynasty series and Daimler's EQ series, and the development focus is not on Denza, but it provides financial support for Denza to seek development. According to the data, in May 2017, May 2018, February 2019, May 2019, May 2019 and January 2020, BYD and Daimler increased their capital by 1 billion yuan, 800 million yuan, 400 million yuan, 300 million yuan and 350 million yuan respectively, and Denza has increased the capital of shareholders by 5.4 billion yuan in three years.
In order to reverse denza's market situation, BYD and Daimler have also made efforts, and Beijing Mercedes-Benz Sales Service Co., Ltd. is directly responsible for the operation of the Denza brand, including sales, marketing, brand communication, customer service, etc., and BYD is responsible for manufacturing. At the 2019 Guangzhou Auto Show, Denza's second model, Denza X, was officially launched, with a pure electric model priced at 319,800-35.78 million yuan and a plug-in hybrid model priced at 289,800-31.98 million yuan. From the outside, Denza X incorporates a large number of Mercedes-Benz design languages and sells them at Mercedes-Benz dealers to increase brand awareness. However, Denza X still failed to reverse the disadvantage, in 2020 Denza's cumulative sales of only 4175 vehicles, the reason for this is that Denza X is based on BYD Tang EV600 built, although integrated into many Mercedes-Benz designs, but the foundation is STILL BYD.
Although Denza Automobile's performance in the new energy vehicle market is not ideal, under the heavy investment, BYD obviously does not intend to give up Denza Automobile. On December 24, 2021, BYD announced that its holding subsidiaries BYD Automotive Industry and Daimler had each increased their capital by 1 billion yuan in shenzhen Denza New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. in a monetary manner. On the day of the announcement of the capital increase, market news pointed out that BYD and Daimler have signed an equity transfer agreement on adjusting Denza, and the two sides intend to transfer denza's equity. After the completion of the transfer, Daimler and BYD's shares in Denza will be adjusted to 10% and 90%, and the related matters are scheduled to be completed in mid-2022. In response to the share transfer report, BYD and Daimler did not directly comment, and could not confirm the authenticity of their news.
However, with the establishment of Denza Automobile Sales Service Co., Ltd., there are some points worth exploring. According to the plan, Denza Automobile will launch three new vehicles in China, including MPV, medium-sized SUV and medium-sized SUV, of which the new high-end MPV will be the first model after the high-end of Denza Automobile. Previously, Zhao Changjiang solicited the demand for MPV from netizens on Weibo, and this MPV should belong to Denza Automobile, and it is expected that the configuration of this MPV should be relatively high and the price will be relatively high. Previously, there were media reports that zhao Changjiang consulted the new MPV product demand based on BYD's new high-end brand, and the independence of Denza Automobile makes the industry speculate that Denza Automobile is a new high-end brand that BYD Automobile will launch, but BYD denied that "the high-end brand has another place, and Denza will be one of BYD's independent brands." According to previous reports, BYD's new high-end brand is expected to be priced between 500,000 and 1 million yuan, and the first model is a hardcore off-road vehicle.
The success of DENZA after high-end still depends on the product. The Denza models currently on sale do not have this strength, and the sales channels need a strong product matrix support, so the future new model strategy is related to success or failure.
BYD said that the company will pour more resources and core business into Denza, help it to reach a new level in product research and development, intelligent manufacturing, channels and sales services, and work with Daimler to promote the better and faster development of the Denza brand. On the basis of Denza's business cooperation, the two sides will further deepen the partnership and expand the scope of cooperation.