introduction
In the past two years, upstream and downstream enterprises in China's home appliance industry chain have entered the new energy vehicle market, although the layout methods are not the same, but this trend has become a rising trend. So, this cup of wine for new energy vehicles, home appliance companies drink fragrant? (Click to read)
In fact, the history of China's home appliance companies 20 years ago when the tide of car manufacturing became a dream of yellow sorghum is still vivid. Revisiting this history, the car-making tide of twenty years ago is like a prequel, leaving a lot of experience and lessons worth learning from later generations.
Nowadays, new energy vehicles have become a field for Chinese home appliance companies to compete for layout. As early as 2003, China's home appliance companies have set off a vigorous cross-border car manufacturing boom, Chunlan, Midea, Oaks, Xinfei, Greenkel and many other home appliance companies have entered the automotive industry. Revisiting this history, the car-making tide of twenty years ago is like a prequel, leaving a lot of experience and lessons worth learning from later generations.
Chunlan: Once brilliant
From Chunlan air conditioner to Chunlan motorcycle, and then to Chunlan Automobile, Chunlan is the earliest home appliance enterprise in China to enter the market, and even entered the top three of China's medium-sized truck market at its most brilliant time, ranking only below FAW and Dongfeng.
As a pioneer in the manufacture of home appliance enterprises, Chunlan spent 720 million yuan to acquire Nanjing Dongfeng Special Purpose Automobile Manufacturing Factory (hereinafter referred to as Nanjing Dongfeng) for 720 million yuan as early as 1997 and established Nanjing Chunlan Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd. The acquired party, Nanjing Dongfeng, once entered the top three in China's heavy-duty truck industry in the 1990s, and was jointly invested and established by Dongfeng Company and the Nanjing Municipal Government in 1986, mainly producing semi-trailer tractor chassis, fire truck chassis, cargo vehicles, and is a vehicle manufacturer that can complete the final assembly, coating, welding and stamping processes.
After obtaining the truck manufacturing access certificate through the acquisition, Chunlan invested another 600 million yuan in technological transformation and new product research and development, and officially launched the first Chunlan automobile in 2001. Due to the successful introduction of the Japanese UD truck cab, Chunlan Truck has won the favor of the market with its excellent appearance design and comfortable cab, and has become a flower in the market of this category in the same year of launch. Chunlan can be described as a hit in the truck market, largely due to Chunlan taking the lead in launching flat-headed cab trucks in the Chinese market, and adopting the design concept of sedanization in the interior, creating the "flathead era" and "sedan era" of Chinese trucks.
In 2003, when many home appliance companies crossed the border, Chunlan Automobile had reached the peak of development, and the first phase of investment had been fully recovered. In a sense, perhaps it was Chunlan's excellent performance in car building at that time that made many home appliance entrepreneurs have more confidence or determination to build cross-border cars.
However, it is regrettable that Chunlan Automobile has not been able to continue its previous glory. When the reporter of "Electrical Appliances" checked this past information, he found that the decline of Chunlan Automobile was the result of the comprehensive influence of various internal and external factors. Whether it is the huge changes in the external market environment and policies, or the failure of corporate restructuring and diversification exploration, or the lack of its own research and development capabilities, almost every of these factors may pull a company into "disaster", and Chunlan Automobile has experienced all of them.
In 2008, Chunlan Automobile was acquired by XCMG Group and regretted withdrawing from the historical stage of China's automobile development. Nowadays, Nanjing Xugong Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd., with Chunlan Automobile as the predecessor, has developed into a single factory with the highest degree of intelligence and the largest scale of modern heavy-duty truck manufacturing in China, with an annual operating income of more than 10 billion yuan.
It is worth mentioning that Chunlan launched the power nickel-metal hydride battery project as early as 1997, and has since cooperated with automobile giants such as FAW and Dongfeng to launch hybrid buses, which can be called the originator of home appliance companies to explore new energy vehicles.
Beauty: The first experience of building a car
Also through acquisitions, Midea's first experience of car building began with the bus.
In August 2003, Midea Group signed an agreement with Kunming High-tech Development Zone to invest 2 billion yuan in 5 years to transform Yunnan Bus Factory, Yunnan Bus Modification Factory and other enterprises, introduce modern production lines, shape bus brands, and plan to build "Yunnan Midea Automobile Industry City" with vehicle sales of more than 5 billion yuan in Kunming. Since then, Midea has successively invested in and acquired Yunnan Bus Factory and Yunnan Aerospace Shenzhou Automobile Co., Ltd.
In October of the same year, Midea Group signed an equity transfer agreement with the equity holder represented by the Hunan Provincial Department of Transportation to Hunan Sanxiang Bus Group Co., Ltd., announcing the acquisition of Hunan Sanxiang Bus.
Through the acquisition of the above three bus companies, Midea Quick has the manufacturing capacity of 10,000 buses and special chassis, and has formed two major bus production bases in Kunming and Changsha on this basis. Midea Bus's goal at that time was also very clear, to become a leading bus manufacturer in China within 3 to 5 years.
However, this goal was not achieved. At the end of 2008, due to many factors such as product characteristics, sales channels, and institutional management, the two major bases of Midea Bus were completely shut down. In July 2009, Midea Group signed an agreement with BYD to sell 100% of its shares in Midea Sanxiang Bus to BYD for 60 million yuan. At this point, Midea's first car-making plan has come to an end.
The first experience of midea car building is not complete, and how will the beauty that has now made a comeback reshape the glory?
Oakes: 40 million yuan of car dream
Or mergers and acquisitions, Oakes' car-building journey twenty years ago can be called fast-forward and fast-out.
In July 2003, Oaks signed an agreement with Shenyang Agricultural Machinery Group to invest 40 million yuan to acquire 95% of the equity of Shenyang Shuangma Automobile Co., Ltd. With this paper agreement, Oaks officially entered the automotive industry. Moreover, Oaks still makes SUVs and pickup trucks, which seem to be one step closer to the cars that everyone yearns for than Chunlan's trucks and Midea's buses. In October of the same year, Shenyang Oaks Automobile Co., Ltd. was officially established; in November, oaks Automobile's first batch of multi-functional commercial vehicle (SUV) series prototypes rolled off the production line, and the brand name was "Lang Jie".
In February 2004, Oaks held a press conference in Beijing and announced in a high-profile plan to invest 8 billion yuan to eventually achieve an annual design capacity of 450,000 vehicles. According to the investment plan announced at that time, Oaks plans to invest 2 billion yuan in the first phase from February 2004 to June 2005 to achieve a design capacity of 100,000 vehicles; invest 2.5 billion yuan in the second phase from June 2005 to December 2006 to increase the design capacity of 150,000 vehicles; and invest 3.5 billion yuan in the third phase from December 2006 to December 2008 to expand the design capacity of 200,000 vehicles again.
The ideal is very full, but the reality is extremely bone-chilling. In 2004, sales of Oaks cars were not ideal, and the sales of the main sales of prime-powered SUVs and two-row seat car Carrito were far from reaching the target of 20,000 units set at the time of launch. Coupled with the sluggish environment of the automobile market at that time and the introduction of the new automobile industry policy, Oaks Automobile fell into the dilemma of internal and external difficulties.
On March 23, 2005, Oaks Automobile suddenly announced its delisting, which not only caused an uproar in the industry, but also left thousands of car owners with after-sales service arrears.
At that time, Oaks spokesman Huang Jiangwei once said a phrase that has been quoted many times: "Oaks is a car dream, and the cost of this dream is 40 million yuan." In just 20 months, Oakes's car-building dream came to an end in such a hurry.
New Flying: A unique path
Xinfei is the only enterprise in the wave of home appliance companies in 2003 that insists on the normal operation of the present.
Compared with the previous ones, Xinfei can be described as a unique way, combining its technical expertise in the field of refrigeration with car manufacturing. In January 2003, Xinfei acquired the xinxiang bus general factory that had been suspended, renamed it Henan Xinfei Special Purpose Vehicle Co., Ltd., and quickly established a development strategy with refrigerated insulation vehicles as a breakthrough. In May 2003, the first batch of Xinfei refrigerated vehicles rolled off the production line and delivered to users, and the history of Xinfei brand cars also began.
Source: The official website of Henan Xinfei Special Purpose Vehicle Co., Ltd
From refrigerators, freezers to refrigerated trucks, Xinfei's car-making layout has realized the extension of the industrial chain of its own technology, effectively integrating the original business areas with the new automotive fields. Compared with entering completely unfamiliar fields such as trucks and buses, Xinfei has found its own living space in the field of special vehicles and has chosen the right stepping stone to open the automobile market.
Today, Henan Xinfei Special Automobile Co., Ltd., founded in 2003, manufactures and sells more than 200 varieties of refrigerated insulation vehicles, RVs, vaccine transport vehicles, medical waste transfer vehicles, van transport vehicles, square cabins, communication vehicles, cultural and sports vehicles and other refrigerated, van and military vehicles. Among them, the production and sales of refrigerated insulation vehicles are at the forefront of the Chinese industry.
History tells us
In addition to the several companies mentioned above, home appliance companies related to the 2003 car boom include Green Cole and Duckling. In September 2003, Sinotruk became the majority shareholder of Duckling through asset replacement, and the former listed home appliance company turned its main business into the production and sales of heavy-duty trucks. At the end of 2003, Green Cole appeared on the scene, took 60.67% of the shares of Yangzhou Yaxing Bus, and officially entered the domestic automobile manufacturing industry. In 2006, Jiangsu Yaxing Automobile Group Co., Ltd., the controlling shareholder of Yaxing Bus, repurchased 60.67% of the shares of Yaxing Bus from Green Kerr. The way these two companies participate in car building is more in the operation of the capital level, and there is not much inventory here.
Looking at the tide of home appliance companies twenty years ago, these cross-border experiences of success or failure have precipitated many experiences and lessons.
When we put the home appliance companies in the past to build cars in the larger historical context, it is not difficult to find some inevitability.
From the perspective of the development of the home appliance industry itself, most of China's home appliances in 2003 were in a state of overcapacity, fierce competition and small profit margins. In order to avoid risks and find new profit points, some home appliance companies have chosen to diversify their investment across industries to achieve sustainable development.
From the perspective of the development of the automotive industry, after China's accession to the WTO, China's civilian car market has revealed a huge market space, which naturally attracts many capitals, including home appliance companies. On the surface, the two seem to be a hit-and-go deal, and The Chinese home appliance companies with heavy funds have stepped into the automotive field by acquiring domestic automobile companies with difficult operations, but at the same time, after China's accession to the WTO, foreign-funded car companies have successively established joint ventures with well-known domestic automobile companies, which are not only full of funds, but also have advanced automobile manufacturing technology. Home appliance companies that first entered the automobile manufacturing industry were obviously more immature and inherently insufficient.
More importantly, automobiles are a highly talented, capital- and technology-intensive industry. Among them, the importance of talents is self-evident. Taking Chunlan as an example, Chunlan Truck relied on the technical talents and employees left by Nanjing Dongfeng in the early stage of development. However, at that time, home appliance companies were not dominant in these three aspects, which created the short-lived car-making boom twenty years ago.
History tells us that we should never underestimate the complexity of automobile manufacturing, but be fully prepared for talent, technology and capital, and blind entry is likely to be lost in it.
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