In recent times, the attitude of the automobile circle to Korean cars can be described as a hot and cold, from the fifties, Korean cars began to shine, wind and rain for many years, when the aura gradually faded, thunder sparks are particularly clear.
According to data released by the China Passenger Car Market Information Association, Hyundai and Kia's cumulative sales in the Chinese market in 2021 were 385,000 units and 163,400 units, respectively, and their car sales have been declining for five consecutive years, with the combined Chinese market share of the two major brands being less than 2%.
Just in March, which is not yet halfway through, Korean cars have undergone several twists and turns. Taking Hyundai as an example, on March 4, the State Administration for Market Regulation announced that Hyundai Motor will recall some imported Kia Kahua vehicles produced by Hyundai motor vehicles from March 18, 2022, a total of 1,090 vehicles, due to the possible interference between the housing of the airbag control module and the internal memory in the event of vibration or impact of some vehicles.
On March 7, Hyundai Motor officially announced its entry into the second-hand car market, and is expected to limit its used car market share by 2.5%, 3.5% and 5.1% from 2022 to 2024, respectively, but the reality is that the retention rate of Korean cars is not as good as one year, and the three-year retention rate of Kia used cars has dropped from 72% to about 66% at the peak.
In the past two years, countries have never stopped around the topic of new energy vehicles from topic to capital, and among them, I am afraid that only the Korean automobile circle has been silent, as if it has been reduced to a background board.
After Apple, is there a "savior"?
In the past half century, the pattern of the global automotive industry has taken turns, but in terms of substantive changes, in fact, there have only been three times, and in these three ups and downs, it is clear that none of them are willing to lie dormant. Japanese and Korean cars are the first to rise with the trend of history, the 1973 oil crisis, Japanese cars first gained a foothold in the United States, Toyota, Honda that began to penetrate into the global market at that time.
Around 2008, the Great Depression caused by the US subprime mortgage crisis further eroded the market strength of the three traditional american car brands, in addition to the Japanese cars that continued to consolidate their position, The Hyundai-Kia-Kia Representative Korean automobiles also took advantage of the rise, it is reported that hyundai-Kia Group successfully surpassed Honda Motor in 2008 to become the world's fifth largest automaker, and soon surpassed Ford Motor in the following year to become the world's fourth largest automaker.
At that time, it was the best years of Korean cars in the world.
But in the new decade that followed, the automotive field continued to be electrified, intelligent, and networked, Tesla naturally did not give in, and the domestic representatives Weilai, Xiaopeng, and the ideal also continued to emerge, only the automotive industry has always been a huge Korean market but there has been no conspicuous fresh force pouring in, watching the Korean power battery sweep the world, but the car manufacturing field is quiet almost strange.
Until the news that Apple was bent over and entered the game came out.
Apple's sudden appearance at this moment is not unexpected, and it did once stir up the atmosphere of the Korean automotive circle. In fact, from 2021 onwards, Apple's plan to cooperate with South Korea's Hyundai Motor has been described by various forces, such as last January, the South Korean media disclosed that Apple and Hyundai Motor planned to sign a cooperation agreement before March; in February, it was rumored that Apple and Kia were close to reaching an agreement to invest about 4 trillion won in the latter.
At the same time, CNBC also reported that the negotiations between Apple and Hyundai Are nearing completion and are scheduled to be officially put into production in 2024. More critically, after the news that Apple may expand cooperation with Hyundai, Hyundai's stock price rose by 17.1%, and Kia Automobile's stock price also rose by 35.78%.
A piece of news that the dust has not yet settled can cause such a boiling, and the anxiety in the Global Car Manufacturing Tide in south Korea's automotive sector is self-evident.
What's more, the profit margin of Korean car companies in the global vehicle manufacturing system is not high. Taking Hyundai as an example, hyundai's global sales for the full year of 2020 were 3744737 units, down 15.4% year-on-year; revenue fell slightly by 1.65% from 2019 to 104 trillion won; operating profit fell 22.9% year-on-year to 2.78 trillion won; net profit fell 33.5% year-on-year to 2.12 trillion won, with a profit margin of only 2%.
In other words, whether it is from the backward situation of the car-making movement, or the industry itself, the emergence of Apple is appropriate for Hyundai and the entire Korean automotive field. But surprisingly, as of now, the cooperation between Hyundai and Apple has not landed, and Hyundai Does not seem to have much interest in the olive branch extended by Apple, and the reason is not difficult to guess.
On the one hand, Apple car manufacturing urgently needs the next "Foxconn", and Hyundai's attitude to foundries may be far less enthusiastic than the capital market, on the other hand, the Korean auto industry was forced to integrate due to the strong attack of foreign capital, the nineties is the eventful autumn of Korean car brands, the biggest feature of the Korean auto industry in this period is technology introduction and international cooperation, almost every Korean automaker has a joint venture or cooperation with foreign manufacturers, such as Ssangyong and German Mercedes-Benz.
However, after the Asian financial crisis, South Korea's automobile industry was gradually dismembered, and Ssangyong, Daewoo, and Samsung automobiles were all controlled by foreign capital, and soon Only Hyundai-Kia Group was left with South Korea's pure "independent brand". For the entire Korean automotive industry, Apple can indeed win sporadic sharp spots in the short term in the booming car-making tide, but in the long run, it is not always a good thing to be controlled by people.
But in addition to Apple, can Korean cars wait for other "saviors"? The cycle of this answer is really too long.
Trams are outdated, hydrogen energy to make up?
According to market research institute IHS MAKIT survey data, Hyundai's previous share of electric vehicle sales in the world is less than 7%, ranking ahead of Tesla, BYD, Renault-Nissan and SAIC. Frankly speaking, there are not many Korean new energy vehicles, and Hyundai has planned to increase the number of electric vehicle models to 23 by 2025.
In the past two years, South Korea, which is one step behind in the field of new energy, has gradually begun to be somewhat urgent, and various indications show that south Korea is interested in catching up with this tide of car manufacturing, such as the "Future Automobile Industry Development Strategy" previously released by the South Korean official, which is expected to become the main body of the market by 2030.
Among them, hydrogen energy vehicles and electric vehicles are expected to account for 20% to 30% of New Car sales in South Korea, and even in order to increase charging equipment, the Ministry of environment of the Republic of Korea, the Korean Environmental Industry Group and 6 domestic fuel and gas suppliers signed cooperation agreements. Although the blueprint is drawn in a similar way, for now, the atmosphere of new energy vehicles in South Korea is not satisfactory.
Taking tram service facilities as an example, South Korea's domestic new energy-related infrastructure is still a long way from perfection, it is reported that there are only more than 60,000 electric vehicle charging piles in South Korea, of which 56,000 are ordinary charging piles and 8989 are fast charging piles. In addition, in 2018, nearly 290,000 pure electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles were produced in South Korea, 193,000 hybrid vehicles were sold in Korea by only 89,000 units, and 46,916 pure electric vehicles were produced and 29,632 units were sold.
There is no doubt that the reason why the Korean car-making forces have been slow to lose their voices is that the domestic automobile consumption environment accounts for a large part of the reason. However, it is worth noting that South Korea is not silent in the entire field of new energy vehicles, at least the start of hydrogen vehicles can not be underestimated.
Hyundai, in particular, became the world's first company to mass-produce hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as early as 2013. According to the plan, by 2030, Hyundai Motor will achieve the goal of producing 700,000 sets of fuel cell systems, and the Korea Association of Automobile Manufacturers once predicted that Hyundai's sales of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will reach 3666 units in one year, surpassing Toyota to leap to the first place in the world.
South Korea's automotive industry for hydrogen energy vehicles have high hopes, relevant data show that South Korea's hydrogen energy vehicles increased by 3100 times, can drive employment of 420,000, South Korean officials plan to 2025, the establishment of an annual output of 100,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicle production system; by 2040, will be phased production of 6.2 million hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
In addition to new energy vehicles, autonomous driving technology has also become the focus of science and technology. It is reported that South Korea is the first country in the world to complete autonomous driving facilities and formulate a legal system, and Hyundai Motor will also invest 41 trillion won by 2025 to develop autonomous vehicles.
In the official plan, self-driving cars above L3 will account for 50% of new car sales in the future; in the field of mobility services, it will achieve a rapid growth of 30% per year. As an early automobile industry power, the South Korean automotive industry is a worm, dead but not stiff, no one can assert whether the new global automotive forces have really turned South Korea away, at least South Korea's local car circle still has a hint of stubbornness.
But not all the forge ahead can be exchanged for a satisfactory result, South Korean hydrogen energy vehicles to face the same dilemma as trams, relevant information shows that the South Korean capital area of hydrogen energy power vehicle charging piles are only 13, more deserted than tram charging piles, and South Korea currently only has 2,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
However, South Korea's means to expand domestic demand are also quite extreme, such as forcing related companies to buy a certain number of electric vehicles and hydrogen energy-powered vehicles, and even planning to replace all official vehicles used by public institutions with electric vehicles and hydrogen-powered vehicles. Electric vehicles have not caught up with the uniform footsteps of the large troops, and whether they can rely on hydrogen energy to win back a city is the most important thing for all Korean car companies to consider in the next long period of time.
"Catfish" can't swim into the domestic auto market?
Overseas first abandoned Korean car market is the mainland, from high-profile into China to become a marginal role, Korean cars have been used for only twenty years, looking at the world, there are still Korean cars in the only European and American markets, data show that in 2021, Hyundai Kia's U.S. sales surpass honda for the first time ranked fifth, sales increased by 23.3% and 19.7% respectively year-on-year in 2020. In the European market, Hyundai Kia's sales volume increased by more than 20% year-on-year, and its market share exceeded 8%.
It is undeniable that the domestic automobile market is far from what it used to be, especially as the market concentration of auto head brands rises year by year, and other brands with low influence can only be eclipsed. According to McKinsey data, the concentration of nine leading brands in China's passenger car market was 48% in 2016, and since then it has grown by 2 percentage points per year to reach 54% in January-May 2019.
The market concentration of the head brands of the 8 independent brands was 64% in 2016, and in the first five months of 2019, this data became 79%, in other words, it rose by 15 percentage points in just three years.
It is certain that the pattern of the domestic automobile market is almost difficult to change substantially, as far as Chinese brands are concerned, Ai Media Consulting shows that in the first ten months of 2021, the sales ranking of various automobile brands in the domestic market has not changed significantly, Dongfeng Motor has always occupied the first place, the cumulative sales volume in the first eleven months reached 646,000 vehicles, followed by BAIC, SAIC, Changan and FAW, with cumulative sales of more than 400,000 vehicles from January to November.
How difficult is it for car brands below the head to survive in China?
According to the data provided by Go Digital Research, 34 domestic companies once sold less than 1,000 vehicles in the first three quarters of a year. Among them, GAC Gio has the least, with 2 vehicles; ZTE Automobile is second, with sales of 3 vehicles in the first three quarters, Lifan Automobile's sales in the first three quarters are only 188 vehicles, and Huatai Automobile's sales are 982 vehicles.
As for the Korean cars that have gradually withdrawn from the domestic market since around 2016, it seems like a fantasy to re-seize this fertile land. In 2016, 80% of the more than 600 Kia dealers were in the red, and Kia's sales in China fell to 360,000 units in 2017, a plunge of 44%.
Unfortunately, in addition to the mainland, the Obsession of the Korean domestic market with Korean cars has also faded on a large scale.
About two decades ago, South Korean law required local residents to drive only cars made in South Korea, namely Daewoo, Hyundai, Kia and Ssangyong. This situation was stalemated until South Korea joined the WTO and the ban on importing cars was lifted, and today, imported cars on the streets of Seoul have been in an endless stream.
In particular, the United States and Germans can not attack, in 2020, the United States brand cars in South Korea a total of 46,000 units, accounting for 15.2% of the total sales of imported cars, surpassing Japanese cars (21,000 units, 7%), from the third place to the second place; the first place is the German brand, 187,000 units, accounting for 61.9% of the total sales of imported cars. Of the total U.S. auto exports of 2.367 million units in 2020, 2.8 percent were exported to South Korea, the ninth-largest market for U.S. auto exporters.
What is more interesting is that under the pressure of the chaebol system, the consumption power of young people is limited, and the preference of middle-aged people with relatively good economic strength is more blatant, and the South Korean media statistics have shown that the largest customer group for buying imported cars is 30-40 years old, accounting for nearly 40%.
In fact, the saddest thing about Korean cars is not the loss of the Chinese market, but the tragic abandonment of their own people.
The Tao is always reasonable, and has used the name Crooked Dao, the Internet and the new media in the science and technology circle. The WeChat public account of the same name: Dao always has a reason (daotmt). This article is an original article, and any form of reproduction without retaining the author's relevant information is not retained.