With the passing of 2021, many car companies have successively announced last year's sales results. However, just as the so-called few joys and several sorrows, in the midst of laughter, SAIC Motor, as the former "joint venture overlord", seems to be a little unhappy. According to the data, SAIC Motor's sales volume in 2021 is 5.46 million vehicles, if calculated by the sales achievement rate, it is still 710,000 yuan away from the target of 6.17 million, and there is a gap of more than 11%.
You know, with the two joint ventures of SAIC Volkswagen and SAIC-GM, SAIC Has never worried about sales, and only needs to live a "day of lying and making money". But last year, SAIC Motor was completely "planted", as for why? Mainly because the two joint ventures are not strong... However, the sales volume is less than expected, in fact, it is only the tip of the iceberg among the many problems of the entire SAIC Group, and more problems are worth digging into.
Sales are less than expected, should we joint venture "back the pot"?
In fact, SAIC's waterloo encounter in sales has long foreshadowed. In 2020, SAIC Volkswagen, as the "sales crown" within the group, has already experienced a sales crisis. I don't know whether it is because the "Headshot Test of the Passat Collision" has made consumers feel uneasy, or for other reasons, SAIC Volkswagen's annual sales in 2020 are only 1.5055 million vehicles, compared with 2 million vehicles in 2019, a drop of nearly 500,000.
In addition to SAIC Volkswagen, SAIC-GM's sales in recent years have also been a bit unsatisfactory. Although it is not as serious as SAIC Volkswagen' landslide. However, in 2020, SAIC-GM's annual sales volume was only 1.4674 million units, compared with 1.9701 million units in 2018, which was also a lot lower. Of course, to say that the more serious is definitely SAIC Volkswagen, after all, Volkswagen's brand image in everyone's mind has not been low, but the "Passat headshot incident" has cast a layer of haze on its brand image, of course, this is only SAIC Volkswagen.
In addition, SAIC's own brands will sell only 2.6 million vehicles in 2020. If you exclude SAIC-GM-Wuling, which was jointly established by SAIC, General Motors and Guangxi Automobile Group, the actual sales of independent brands are only 1 million vehicles, less than 20% of the total. It can be said that relying too much on joint ventures has always been saicid's biggest problem. You know, starting from 2022, the passenger car stock ratio will be fully liberalized, which is definitely not feasible for car companies that still want to make money lying down. From the dispute over bmw brilliance's shareholding to Dongfeng's withdrawal from Yueda Kia, all kinds of signs show that SAIC's good days are probably coming to an end.
On the new energy track, SAIC motor appears to be weak
Coming to the new energy track, SAIC is even more powerless. According to relevant data, SAIC Motor has invested nearly 6 billion yuan in the field of new energy from 2009 to 2015. However, from the current point of view, SAIC motor has almost no new energy strength products to hand. Of course, if someone has to take the Hongguang MINI EV, then I would like to ask, the price is only 1/10 of some pure trams, positioning the entry-level market / mini car market, how much profit return can such a product bring to SAIC? Sell points?
In addition, SAIC motor also launched the marvel X pure electric SUV in 2018 and customized it as a high-end pure electric product. However, from the sales data, the performance of the car is very dismal. Later, a brand new brand R car was built, and the MARVEL X was transformed into a MARVEL R, but unfortunately it still did not make waves. Nowadays, the R car brand has also been changed to Feifan Automobile, but unfortunately, the frequent name changes have not brought any improvement to SAIC in the new energy market.
In addition, SAIC motor also registered Zhiji Automobile Technology Co., Ltd. at the end of 2020. In January 2021, Zhiji Automobile also made its debut at the Shanghai Auto Show. According to the official introduction, the Zhiji L7 Beta Experience Will be delivered in the first quarter of 2022. It is not difficult to see that SAIC has always wanted to seek opportunities for overtaking in curves on the new energy road, but the frequent name changes and the disorganized multi-brand strategy have made everyone more and more confused about SAIC's chaotic brand layout, which has also led to the existence of these new brands.
IF SAIC's stubborn disease is not removed, I am afraid that it will be difficult to turn over
It is worth mentioning that even if SAIC has not been able to open the situation in the new energy market, it still rejected some excellent partners. For example, at the saic motor shareholders' meeting on June 30, 2021, Chen Hong, chairman of SAIC, directly said when facing the question of whether to consider cooperation with Huawei: SAIC motor should build its own soul and will not accept cooperation with Huawei. Needless to say, whether such an answer is appropriate in front of the public, it is somewhat incomprehensible that you can't play your own cards and don't want to pull partners.
In this regard, we believe that this is entirely because the executives of some car companies do not have a good vision, do not know when to follow the trend, but prefer a road to the black. It should be known that Huawei's own layout in the field of autonomous driving technology is relatively early, especially many technologies have been relatively mature. Traditional car companies such as Changan and BAIC have chosen to take the initiative to cooperate with Huawei to build cars, whether in terms of technology superposition or brand momentum, they have achieved good results. Including the recently unveiled AITO brand, it has once become the object of high concern of many consumers.
In addition to being too narrow and short-sighted, some SAIC executives were caught up in some scandals last year. Just in October and December last year, the Skoda brand of SAIC Volkswagen Automobile Co., Ltd. was exposed to the suspicion of serious violations of the law by executives, which was very disgraceful. In July last year, the Audi brand of SAIC Volkswagen Co., Ltd. was also exposed to yang Zhenyu, manager of the product management department, suspected of serious violations. I have to say that if saic motor is such an executive within the group, then it is simply a fool's dream to want to turn over.
Write at the end
In the 2020 financial report, SAIC's revenue and net profit are in a state of decline. Judging from the performance of the whole year of 2021, the situation is not expected to change much. This is fraught with uncertainty about the future of a listed company. In addition, in the Fortune China 500 list released in July last year, SAIC's ranking has also fallen from seventh in 2020 to twelfth, and savoy's market value is now almost one-third of BYD's, and we are full of worries about savoy's future.
It can be said that if the leadership team of SAIC Does not carry out a "major change of blood" this year, I am afraid it will be difficult to completely change its appearance. Although savoy's huge volume is still in front of everyone, the of a thousand miles is destroyed in the ant nest, and the long pain is not as good as the short pain. For the majority of investors and investment institutions, SAIC May replace a wave of executives with a larger pattern, higher vision and two sleeves, so that they have the opportunity to find their own position in the next new energy era. What do you think?