Since the beginning of 2022, the international environment has changed, which will undoubtedly lead to greater uncertainty in all walks of life. In particular, the automotive industry is facing a tight supply chain and an unstable consumer market, with a "chip shortage", rising raw material prices and the looming epidemic, and overseas markets seem to be in a dangerous situation. For enterprises going to sea, how to achieve "four levels and eight stability" to ride the waves, the test is not only the color of the enterprise, but also the courage and pattern of the helmsman.
Yin Tongyue, deputy to the National People's Congress, secretary of the party committee and chairman of Chery Holding Group
In the face of overseas markets full of opportunities and risks and challenges, Yin Tongyue, secretary of the party committee and chairman of Chery Holding Group, said that Chinese entrepreneurs and independent brands should not only maintain curiosity and competitiveness, but also have patience, and opportunities in overseas markets are always available to those who are prepared.
2021 is Chery's 20th year of going to sea, with annual exports approaching 270,000 vehicles. If you pull back the time to 2001, when China joined the WTO, this door 20 years ago opened up China's connection with the world, and also opened up the infinite possibilities of Chery Automobile's overseas journey. In October of that year, Chery's first batch of 10 cars were exported to Syria, officially kicking off the prelude to Chery's "going out" and making Chery the earliest independent brand in mainland China to explore the international automobile market. At that time, the first car produced by Chery was officially listed for just over a year, which allowed its own brand products to go abroad, reflecting the original intention and determination of entrepreneurs.
China-Europe Express Chery Special Train
20 years later, Chery once again used a beautiful report card to confirm the effectiveness of "going to sea". In 2021, Chery Group's exports exceeded the 20,000-vehicle mark eight times in a single month, and the monthly exports in December exceeded 30,000 vehicles in a historic period, with a single month of 31,253 vehicles, an increase of 126.7% year-on-year, promoting the new "coordinates" of exports of nearly 270,000 vehicles in the whole year. From January to February 2022, Chery continued to make great strides, achieving exports of 46,897 units, an increase of 33.9% year-on-year.
Up to now, Chery Group's global automobile users have exceeded 10 million, including 2 million overseas users. Chery's products cover more than 80 countries and regions around the world, and have won the trust and favor of consumers.
In the past, Chinese products won the market at low prices, and it was the market for technology. Today, after 20 years of overseas development, Chery has doubled the export price of products, won the market by relying on product quality and technical strength, and achieved the grand goal of exchanging technology for market. It can be said that quality is the stepping stone for export, technology is Chery's passport to the international market, and culture is Chery's adhesive based overseas.
If Chery's 20-year overseas journey is compared to a battle, then technology is undoubtedly the "killer weapon" to ensure victory. Born in 1997, Chery, from the beginning of its inception, will be technological innovation as the core gene, in the words of Chery leader Yin Tongyue is to achieve "standing on top of the sky", "standing on the ground" is to consolidate the foundation, the traditional car to do solid, do thoroughly; "Dingtian" is to seize the commanding heights of new technologies, new energy, intelligent networking, automatic driving and other forward-looking technologies to do high, do sharp, so that China's auto industry is really strong.
To this end, Chery invests 5%-7% of its annual sales revenue for research and development, and has mastered core technologies such as engines, automatic transmissions, chassis, engine management systems, and platform technologies, gradually breaking the monopoly of core technologies by foreign auto companies. In 2021, Chery Automobile released the "Chery 4.0 Era Global Power Architecture", naming the fuel and hybrid solutions under the architecture "Kunpeng Power CHERRY POWER", making the technology Chery officially enter the 4.0 power era.
For the general trend of automobile electrification, Chery has taken the lead in creating an exclusive platform for new energy, and the platform technology has reached the advanced level of the industry. For intelligence, Chery launched the "Lion Zhiyun" intelligent interconnection system, which can enhance intelligent voice interaction, provide AI face recognition, AI smart cloud butler and other artificial intelligence technologies. At the same time, chery, as an open innovation platform, also collaborates with excellent partners such as iFLYTEK to develop more application scenarios for customers at the rapid arrival of the era of intelligent and connected vehicles.
At present, Chinese automobiles are at the forefront of the world with new energy, intelligent networking and other technologies overseas, which is even more gratifying. In Yin Tongyue's view, technology is chery's "root", and deep roots can be ye mao. This is also the core competitiveness of Chery to continuously improve its market share in domestic and foreign markets and make the "Chinese business card" more and more shiny.
The technical underpinning not only makes Chery's products more reliable, but also gives Chery the strength to carry out adaptive development of products that are "adapted to local conditions" according to the different environments, market conditions and consumer behavior habits of overseas markets, so as to better meet the needs of local markets, regulations and consumers.
Yin Tongyue once laid down three principles for employees involved in Chery's overseas market work: First, we must make long-term planning and make every day a Chinese brand day. Chery's achievements in overseas markets are the results of long-term efforts by all personnel, so every step of practice must not be sloppy, and must be accumulated overnight.
In addition, the practice should be systematic, not only to sell products, but also to shape the brand, and to shape the overseas image of Chery brand from many aspects such as product quality, sales, after-sales service, and employer image.
Finally, we must integrate into the local area, be responsible corporate citizens, provide quality products and services to local users, and care for and promote overseas employees with a respectful attitude. In this way, Chery can steadily insert the banner of Chinese brands outside the country.
Chery "global car" OMODA 5
Under this guideline, Chery has accelerated the pace of internationalization, and Chery's "global car" OMODA 5 ushered in the first car off the production line in Wuhu on February 8, 2022. OMODA 5 fully meets the highest five-star standards of the global new car safety evaluation (NCAP), including China, the European Union, Australia, Central and South America, Southeast Asia, etc., reflecting Chery's new ideas of developing products and innovating business models with "user thinking + Internet thinking". OMODA 5 plans to be listed in overseas markets for the first time in the first half of this year, and the first wave will be listed in more than 30 countries and regions around the world, such as Russia, South Africa, Chile, etc., and then further exported to the European Union, Australia, New Zealand and other newly expanded overseas markets.
At present, Chery Products have entered more than 80 countries and regions around the world, established 10 production bases overseas, and established more than 1,500 sales and service outlets overseas, forming a relatively complete overseas sales and after-sales service system. Through the market radiation capability of these production bases and sales service systems, the automotive market covering five continents of Asia, Europe, Africa, South America and North America has been realized.
Behind Chery's hot sales in overseas markets is the deep accumulation of promoting the globalization layout in the past 20 years, and the results of adhering to the strategy of "no internal instability, no external strength, internal and external promotion, and common development". Looking at the international famous automobile brands, all of them have become international first-class brands by going to the global market. Similarly, in the view of Chairman Yin Tongyue, strong exports are also a sign of China's transition from a big automobile country to an automobile power, and the vast overseas market contains huge opportunities for Chinese auto brands.
Not long ago, Premier Li Keqiang pointed out in response to questions from Chinese and foreign journalists that on the whole, China's economy has been deeply integrated into the world. However, industry and consumption are upgrading, the market potential is large, and there is a lot of room for all kinds of investment. Obviously, car companies going to sea is also an important step in integrating into the world, which is not only an important growth point for Chinese car companies to increase sales, but also a reflection of the strength of car companies. Chery's goal of going to sea will be a difficult and long-term test for the entire system; at the same time, Chery's success overseas will also feed back the domestic brand image and the improvement of the comprehensive strength of the enterprise.