In 2021, China's auto market finally ended three consecutive years of decline since 2018. Among them, the performance of the new energy vehicle market is the most eye-catching, with annual sales of more than 3.5 million units, and the market share increased to 13.4%. Especially in the case of tightening the policy of restricting traffic and restricting purchases and the continuous rise in oil prices, the new energy vehicle market has ushered in another outlet.
It is said that "standing on the outlet, pigs can fly", but there is such a new energy vehicle company that has not been able to get rid of the quagmire of falling sales, it is BAIC New Energy. As the former seven-time champion of new energy vehicle sales, today's BAIC BJEV has fallen into a situation of internal and external difficulties.
Sales are sluggish
What happened to BAIC BJEV?
Statistics show that the cumulative output of BAIC BJEV in 2021 was only 6,369 units, down 51.84% from the previous year, and the cumulative sales volume of the whole year was only 26,127 vehicles, basically the same as in 2020. However, in the context of high sales in the entire automobile market, the performance of BAIC BJEV can only be said to be not advancing and retreating.
However, before 2020, BAIC BJEV is still the king of the new energy vehicle market sales champion for seven consecutive years. In just two years, BAIC BJEV has quickly fallen from the sales champion to the bottom, and it is even difficult to squeeze into the top 15 sales of new energy manufacturers.
In fact, for BAIC BJEV, the decline in sales is not unusual. Although in the previous 7 consecutive years to win the new energy sales crown, but at that time China's electric vehicle market has not yet achieved the policy-driven to demand-driven transformation, immature products, immature supporting facilities, so that most new energy products have been reduced to the product of mixed subsidies.
Among them, BAIC BJEV quickly seized the market mainly with its E-series products. However, its weak product strength has not been covered by high sales, and the disadvantages of mileage, driving texture, quality control and other aspects have been gradually exposed, lacking the support of user reputation, and BAIC BJEV E series models have also been eliminated by the times.
On the other hand, BAIC BJEV can become the seven crowns, thanks to the rise of online ride-hailing cars, especially the EU series has become the standard for online ride-hailing drivers. However, the demand in the online ride-hailing market is limited after all, and with the saturation of the market and the increase of competitors, the BAIC BJEV EU series has gradually lost its core users.
The loss of customers, coupled with the high dependence on policy subsidies, has made BAIC BJEV's profit source very single. Since the new energy subsidies began to decline in 2019, the profits of BAIC BJEV have also been slashed. So we see that after two years have passed, BAIC BJEV has still not been able to get out of the quagmire and launch high-quality volume models. Watching by OLD rivals such as BYD relying on new technologies to achieve breakthroughs, we can't help but ask, what are the management of BAIC BJEV doing?
High-ranking officials are corrupt
Chaos is hard to turn around
It is reasonable to say that a car company that once had brilliant achievements should always do something in the face of years of dismal sales and huge losses, right? But BAIC BJEV has done nothing except launch the high-end brand Jihu. Why?
Recently, a criminal verdict from the Chaoyang District People's Court in Beijing seemed to give us the answer. In this judgment, we can see that Xu Feng, former assistant director of BAIC BJEV Marketing Company, was tried and sentenced to seven years in prison and fined 300,000 yuan for accepting bribes and bribery.
At the same time, we can see that Xu Feng took advantage of his position as assistant director of THE marketing communication department of BAIC BJEV in four projects, including the "EX3 Project" and the "EU5 Project", and together with his wife, received a total of RMB 1.43 million in benefit fees. Xu Feng and his wife used the above money for daily consumption.
In addition, in addition to seeking improper benefits in many projects such as "EX3 Project", "EU5 Project" and "EC5 Project", Xu Feng thanked Cao Bin, then director of the Marketing and Communication Department of BAIC BJEV, for his help, and also collaborated with others to give Cao Bin a total of 500,000 yuan in cash.
It is not difficult to see that in the main product projects of BAIC BJEV, there is a phenomenon of serious corruption among internal executives. High-level power for personal gain, do not put their minds on marketing, research and development, such a car company, can have high sales is a miracle, right? In addition to the internal corruption problem, the management of BAIC BJEV, which has undergone many personnel changes, still has not seriously reflected on its own problems.
Previously, Zhang Xiyong, general manager of BAIC Group, publicly proposed the sales target of "BAIC BJEV will sell 100,000 vehicles per year in 2022 and strive to impact 300,000 vehicles in the future". However, judging from the sales performance of BAIC BJEV last year, in order to achieve this goal, BAIC BJEV needs to achieve a year-on-year increase of more than 280%. BAIC New Energy, which is so ambitious, still does not seem to understand the current market law.
Uncle Che summed up
Although in the past year, the sales volume of the new energy market has been soaring, BAIC BJEV is still mired in losses and cannot extricate itself. Product strength is lagging behind, high-level corruption is serious, development planning is high and far-reaching, and the former seven crowns are now in ruins. Perhaps it is the past policy dividend that has brought BAIC BJEV to a height that does not belong to it, but its own problems cannot be ignored. On top of the new energy outlet where pigs can fly, BAIC BJEV is still struggling, and perhaps only BAIC BJEV itself knows best.