A few days ago, a heavy personnel appointment came from Chang'an Mazda. Nakajima officially stepped down as president of Changan Mazda Automobile Co., Ltd., and after a three-year term, the position was officially taken over by Kei Sumioka.
Sumioka is the President of Changan Mazda Automobile Co., Ltd
During his three-year tenure, Nakajima launched the next-generation Mazda-3 Axela, Mazda CX-30 and the new pure electric product Mazda CX-30 EV, further expanding Changan Mazda's product layout. Keisuke Sumioka serves as the director, executive vice president and CFO of Mazda (China) Enterprise Management Co., Ltd., and the change of coach of Changan Mazda will undoubtedly have a certain impact on the future development and strategic implementation of Changan Mazda.
There have been many changes of coaching
Since Changan Mazda became independent from Changan Ford Mazda in mid-2012, the position of President of Changan Mazda has been held by Matsuo Noriko, Hideaki Tanaka and Toshi Nakajima.
Matsuo Zehiro advocated the "characteristic boutique strategy", that is, to gain the trust of users by creating high-quality products, other car companies made money by building cars, and Changan Mazda at that time made money to build cars. During Matsuo's tenure, Changan Mazda only had three models, the CX-5, CX-8 and Mazda 3, and during Tanaka's tenure, Changan Mazda's product matrix added a new imported model, the CX-3.
As for the market performance, Changan Mazda at that time was not too prominent, and Brother Reel believed that its main reason was limited by the small product matrix and the cold winter of the car market. Before Nakajima took office, Changan Mazda's annual sales were only 160,000 units, down 11.8% year-on-year, and the cumulative sales of Mazda CX-5 and CX-8 were only 40,000 units, relying too much on the Unxella product.
The lack of new models to join, relying solely on product tone to attract consumers to buy, it is difficult to seize more market share. After Nakajima took over the baton of Hideaki Tanaka, he advocated the introduction of more new products, and under such circumstances, the annual production and sales of Changan Mazda in 2019 both exceeded 190,000 vehicles. In addition, under the leadership of Nakajima, Changan Mazda completed the integration and restructuring business with FAW Car Mazda in June last year, which is convenient for the unified management and deployment of resources.
Why did you choose Kei Sumioka to take over nakajima? It is not difficult to see from the career trajectory that Sumioka Kei served as the director of China's second business department and the director of China's commerce promotion department, is familiar with the Chinese market, has rich experience in product strategy and market growth strategy, and understands the market situation of China's automobile market, which is conducive to the promotion of Changan Mazda's major projects.
Now Mazda, drunkard is not in China
However, today's Changan Mazda is not the changan Mazda of the past, but the new Changan Mazda after the collection of Changan Mazda and FAW Mazda resources. At the end of August 2021, Changan Automobile, Mazda Automobile and China FAW issued a joint statement on the capital increase project of Changan Mazda Automobile Co., Ltd., and the (new) Changan Mazda will be changed to a joint venture jointly funded by the three parties, with Changan Automobile, Mazda and China FAW holding 47.5%, 47.5% and 5% respectively. Since then, FAW Mazda has become a joint venture subsidiary of Changan Mazda, and Mazda has been formally merged.
However, after the merger of the North and South Mazda, the advantages of the two were not fully utilized. According to the data, in 2021, Mazda's cumulative sales in China are 183953, down 14.3% compared with 2020. In the first two months of 2022, Mazda sold only 27,200 units in China, down 12.7% year-on-year, and was in a precarious position. Coupled with the impact of the epidemic and the rising price of raw materials, the burden on Sumioka's shoulders is not light.
Looking at Mazda's global market sales in 2021, the United States is Mazda's largest market, followed by Europe, the Chinese market is third ahead of the Japanese domestic market, but it shows the most obvious sales decline.
Mazda hasn't actually focused its development on the Chinese market. At the beginning of 2020, Mazda plans to stop launching new models by 2022, while in the US market, Mazda has 10 products, and suVs such as CX-50, MX-30 EV and CX-9 have not entered the Chinese market, as well as Mazda 3 hatchbacks and sports car Mazda MX-5. According to the plan, Mazda will launch the CX-70 and CX-90 in the US market, and the CX-60 and CX-80 in the European and Japanese markets.
However, is it mazda that has gained as much energy as it puts in, or does mazda just adjust to the liking level of different markets, which leads to the situation today? Believing in the answer is self-evident.
What will happen to Changan Mazda in the future?
At the beginning of March this year, Jeremy Thomson, Mazda's head of UK region, said: "Mazda's goal is to become a true luxury brand car company. ”
In fact, this is not the first time That Mazda has declared "brand transformation", as early as 2018, Mazda had said that the brand would transform into a "second-tier luxury brand", but there was not much discussion at the time. It should be known that a luxury car brand needs to have a deep history and technical heritage, flagship mass production models of large-displacement engines, unique positioning and other conditions, but more importantly, the title of luxury brand needs to be recognized by consumers. For Mazda, which is not a high sales volume, consumers are more in a melon-eating attitude.
Of course, a high-level word does not fully represent the development trend of the brand. According to the "Zoom-Zoom Sustainability Declaration 2030" released last year, Mazda mainly promotes five aspects, including internal combustion engines, products, technology, safety, Internet of Vehicles, and sustainable development. Among them, for products, Mazda mainly launched five hybrid models (excluding light hybrids), five plug-in hybrid models and three pure electric models.
It can be seen that the new energy market is Mazda's next main direction of attack. In the face of China, the world's largest new energy market, Mazda is likely to focus its latest product resources in China. However, from the perspective of Mazda's first new energy product, Mazda CX-30 EV has not played a role in expanding the brand's right to speak in the domestic new energy market. If Mazda wants to grab a piece of the domestic new energy market, it needs to beat many competitors in terms of product quality and price, while also increasing consumer confidence in its new energy products.
Write at the end
If the luxury brand is a "Michelin restaurant", then Mazda is a special snack, although not everyone is willing to consume it, but as long as there are consumers who are willing to pay for the tone of their products, then it can survive. However, if Changan Mazda does not transform in time to meet the needs of the Chinese market, the idea of increasing sales in China may be difficult to achieve.
(Text: six)