"Car Circle Layer" Peng Baoxuan
Edited by Ge Fanmei
At the beginning of the Year of the Tiger, Chongqing Changan Automobile Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Changan Automobile", 000625.SZ) carried out a personnel reform "in a big way", dismissed the general manager and middle and senior management personnel of all departments, and re-optimized the employment.
"It's not that our cadre team is incompetent, but that we are facing a new round of competition and need to reconstruct new capabilities," said Zhu Huarong, chairman of Changan Automobile.
In fact, Changan Automobile's sales in January 2022 are considerable, and it has performed strongly among many car companies. According to the data of the Association, Changan Automobile ranked second in the january 2022 manufacturer sales ranking, achieving sales of 277,200 vehicles, with a market share of 6.9%, second only to FAW-Volkswagen's 9.2% market share.
Among them, Changan Automobile's high-end brand UNI series is hot in the market, and the new model UNI-V has opened pre-sale on February 22, 2022. However, recently, the model UNI-K has been accused of having a reduction in the number of equipment, and has been complained by the owner.
Personnel has changed dramatically
At the cadre meeting held by Changan Automobile from February 8 to February 9, 2022, Changan Automobile carried out "drastic" personnel changes internally, and dismissed all the general managers and middle and senior management personnel of the company's departments.
Why the widespread change of managers? Changan Automobile said that the reform of the cadre personnel system is to deepen the market-oriented mechanism and the needs of the innovation and entrepreneurship strategy. The ultimate purpose of the reform is to stimulate vitality and enhance the competitiveness of Changan Automobile.
At the same time, Changan Automobile will comprehensively examine the aspects of youthfulness, knowledge structure, personality characteristics, and female proportion, and complete the major change of relevant personnel in about a week from February 8 to February 13, respectively, completing the recruitment of general manager (unit head) position on February 9, completing the employment of deputy general manager and non-manufacturing unit manager position on February 10, and completing the recruitment of manufacturing unit manager-level position and vacant positions without suitable candidates on February 13.
The specific selection method is the "group cabinet" system selection, such as the recruitment of the general manager (unit head) position, through the "self-recommendation + communication brewing + organizational recommendation" method. The employment of deputy general managers and manager-level positions is through the method of "communication and brewing + organizational recommendation". Those who are not hired will be recommended to work at Chang'an Learning Center.
Soochow Securities said that Changan Automobile's internal personnel reform involves 39 departments, with the autonomous sector first, and does not involve the joint venture sector for the time being. Zhu Huarong, chairman of Changan Automobile, said that the personnel reform "fights wars while changing defenses."
It can be seen that Changan Automobile began to adjust its management personnel from half a year ago. According to wind data, since the second half of 2021, Changan Automobile has hired a total of 2 board members, 3 members of the board of supervisors, 8 senior executives and other important personnel. Among them, the trend of "rejuvenation" of executives is obvious, with 8 executives after the 70s and 2 executives after the 80s.
In fact, there will be as many as 160 important personnel changes in the car market in 2021. Dongfeng Motor underwent 12 executive changes in 2021, of which Yang Qing succeeded Li Shaozhan as the director and general manager of Dongfeng Motor. Geely Automobile has also undergone 13 executive adjustments, and "post-80s" Gan Jiayue has been appointed as the CEO of Geely Automobile Group.
In addition, emerging car companies continue to hire talents from traditional car companies. According to the data of Future Auto Daily, about 23 executives of traditional car companies will join the new car companies in 2021. For example, in 2021, Jidu Automobile once gathered executives from Ford China, Lynk & Co, Cadillac, Jeep, Apple Automobile, BAIC Group and other car companies. Xiaomi Automobile also includes executives such as the president of BAIC Jihu Automobile, the president of Geely Research Institute, and the appearance designer of the BMW brand.
The big change of personnel in car companies is indeed a big test, and whether it can ensure the opening of sales in the first quarter needs to be continuously considered.
Accused of "false propaganda"
On February 14, Changan Automobile Group released its January 2022 production and sales report, achieving sales of 277,200 units, an increase of 10% year-on-year. Among them, the sales of self-owned brand cars were 226,000 units, an increase of 12.6% year-on-year, and independent brands supported the beam.
Changan's own brand cars have created UNI series and focused on the high-end market. In January 2022, the UNI series achieved sales of 12,047 units. In 2021, the total annual sales of the UNI series exceeded 120,000 vehicles, and the cumulative sales reached the mark of 200,000 vehicles.
In fact, domestic independent brands have made efforts to high-end. Geely Automobile launches Lynk & Co, Geometric Automobile and Extreme Krypton Automobile. Great Wall Motor launches WEY and Sharon Motors, SAIC Motor launches Lantu Automobile, and GAC Group launches GAC Aeon.
Minsheng Securities believes that the high-end of independent brands is comprehensively promoted, the market share of independent brands in the high-end passenger car market is expected to accelerate upwards, and the brand premium will continue to increase.
At present, the UNI series mainly has two models on sale, UNI-T and UNI-K. The price of UNI-T models is between 115,900 yuan and 149,900 yuan per car, and the unit price of UNI-K models is between 145,900 yuan and 184,900 yuan.
In terms of specific models, UNI-T's current monthly sales are declining. After its launch in May 2020, UNI-T sold more than 10,000 units per month from July to November 2020, and the market was hot. However, after reaching sales of 11,868 units in January 2021, UNI-T's monthly sales were lower than in the past, reaching only 4,694 units in December 2021.
The performance of UNI-K since its launch has also been average. UNI-K has sold 6,608 units since April and May 2021 and 5,093 units respectively, but monthly sales have since been around 3,000 units, and UNI-K has only sold 2,566 units in December 2022.
Recently, UNI-K has also received complaints from many car owners. According to the car quality network, the owner of the complaint believes that there is "sales fraud" in UNI-K due to the suspected reduction of UNI-K light shows and other functions, which is inconsistent with the real car.
According to the owner's complaint on the car quality network, UNI-K has advertised functions such as flow light shows and automatic parking on major platforms, but after purchasing a car, the owner did not find these functions. At the same time, the black cat complaint platform also has car owners to reflect the light show, automatic parking, face recognition and other functions of the reduction problem.
The content of the complaint of the owner of the UNI-K car
Source: Car Quality Network, Black Cat Complaint Network
In this regard, the researcher of "Thinking Finance" asked the customer service of Changan Automobile's official website to understand the relevant situation, and the customer service replied: "The lighting effect of UNI-K is mounted on the engineering test vehicle, and the listed mass production model is not equipped with this function, and there is no vehicle publicity and display of this function configuration in the official promotion." The official configuration table of Changan Automobile shall prevail. ”
The customer service also said: "The automatic parking function demonstration is only used as a technical innovation point to promote, only for the technical demonstration of the internal test product." And APA6.0 automatic parking function and L3 automatic driving are developed in bundles, and L3 automatic driving has not yet supported mass production. In the product unveiling, Changan Automobile explained that the mass production version is not equipped with relevant functions, and there is no description of this configuration in the promotional content of the UNI-K official model listed in the subsequent mass production. ”
Changan Automobile's official website customer service reply to the problem of allocation reduction
Source: Changan Automobile official website customer service
It is worth mentioning that the UNI series ushered in the first car UNI-V. UNI-V has been unveiled in 2021, and the official website is priced at 108,900 yuan / vehicle to 139,100 yuan / vehicle, and will open a global pre-sale on February 22, 2022. UNI-V is built on the Ark architecture and is equipped with a 1.5T Blue Whale engine, which uses the same powertrain as UNI-T. In terms of intelligence, UNI-V provides Face ID function, support gesture control music switching, home navigation settings, etc.
Huaxi Securities believes that UNI-V has expanded the product matrix, while the Great Wall's independent brands have been rebranded, driving high-end upgrades, and the popularity of explosive products has increased marginally.
After the listing of UNI-V, whether it can become a new growth point of the UNI series and whether it can drive Changan Automobile to further expand into the independent high-end market remains to be watched.