"We must convey the belief that 'Loulan will not be broken down, pressure will be passed on, and responsibilities will be implemented layer by layer'." ——SAIC Chairman Chen Hong on the signing of military warrants by senior executives.
Text 丨 Yang Jie
Editor丨Tianyu
Recently, major car companies have released May sales data, some brands have sold more than 240,000 vehicles per month in the field of new energy, setting a new record, and some brands have continued to rise with fuel sequence. However, when the focus is on SAIC, Yipinjun sees the sales of the joint venture led by SAIC-GM and SAIC Volkswagen, and also sees the dilemma of continuous malaise of independent brands such as SAIC Roewe.
SAIC Chairman Chen Hong
In fact, as one of the world's top 500 companies, thanks to the strong performance of the joint venture camp, SAIC's overall operation is still healthy. However, digging deep into the recent operation of its own brand family, you will find that whether it is Roewe, the darling of the SUV era, or Baojun, which used to be smiling on the sales list, it has fallen into the darkest moment.
SAIC executives signed military warrants
Against this background, SAIC Motor decided to shut down the fuel powertrain plant and deepen the new energy transformation; On the one hand, at the workers' congress, Jiang Jun, CEO of Zhiji Automobile, Wu Bing, general manager of SAIC Motor Passenger Vehicle Company and CEO of Feifan Automobile, signed a military order to achieve its previously released "three-year action plan for the development of new energy vehicles".
01
Plants were shut down and workers were significantly reduced
SAIC's transformation is slow and difficult
Part One
According to Yipinjun, SAIC's subsidiary Shanghai Automotive Transmission Company is laying off employees, and as of the end of May, about 300 people have signed negotiated resignation agreements or retirement. On the layoff list, old employees over 50 years old, young employees who have not obtained leadership positions in the company recruited by social recruitment, and young employees whose three-year contracts have expired are the main targets for layoff.
In fact, this is not the first time SAIC has waved the scissors of layoffs at factories, as early as 2020, due to the decline in sales, Shanghai Automotive Transmission Company had a small layoff. Recently, some media have exposed that brands such as SAIC Maxus, Roewe and MG will lay off employees, and even news pointed out that SAIC will reduce salaries for all employees, including 20% for executives, 15% for ministers, and 10% for employees. Some departments of SAIC will also face salary cuts for all employees, buyouts of seniority, layoffs, and even layoffs of fresh graduates who have worked for less than a year. After Yipinjun learned about this information to the relevant person in charge of SAIC Group, he received a reply of "no news".
If layoffs and salary cuts are the red light of SAIC's operation, then the continuous decline in sales is the internal cause of this outcome. According to statistics from the Passenger Association, SAIC's annual sales fell by about 3% last year, with cumulative sales of 5,302,600 units. From January to April this year, SAIC's cumulative sales were about 1,265,100 units, down 26.99% y/y.
According to the plan, in 2023, SAIC Motor will go all out to sell 6 million vehicles, and the sales target completion rate is only 21.09%, which is not satisfactory. Especially in the independent camps such as Roewe and Baojun, the monthly sales of the brand are only more than 1,000 vehicles, showing a sharp downward trend, and its performance can be called catastrophic.
02
The independent fuel product line is lagging behind in all aspects
Chen Hong was helpless
Part Two
It is worth mentioning that the weak performance of SAIC's independent camp is not an accidental phenomenon, and the former Roewe was able to reach million-level sales with an RX5, but due to product quality, marketing and lack of core technical support, Roewe RX5 is only sold more than 2,000 units per month. Yipinjun once pointed out that the Roewe RX5 has fallen from the altar to the mortal world, and now it seems that there is still a lot of room for Roewe to fall.
As another divine car of SAIC, the fate of Baojun 730 is also the same, in the era of fuel SUVs, Baojun 730 can compete with Haval H6 for the title of "national divine car". At that time, Baojun could provide SAIC with peak monthly sales of 140,000 vehicles, and fell all the way after becoming a new Baojun, in 2020, Baojun's sales were 422,000 units, down 36.7% year-on-year, in 2021, its sales continued to fall to 215,000 units; in 2022, Baojun's sales of 189,000 units continued to decline; in the first quarter of this year, its sales were only more than 3,000 units, becoming a marginal walker with a very low sense of presence in the car market.
In fact, behind the decline performance of SAIC's independent camp in the era of new energy rise, SAIC's lack of independent technology research and development and misjudgment in terms of operational strategy. The former causes the lack of stamina of SAIC's autonomous fuel vehicles, while the latter directly creates a situation in which SAIC's autonomous camp loses the initiative in the new energy industry.
Specifically, the current RX5 is still equipped with the old 1.5T+7DCT wet dual-clutch assembly, and its power is not competitive compared with SUV models in the same class. In terms of intelligent systems, SAIC Chairman Chen Hong once proposed that "cooperation with third-party companies such as Huawei for autonomous driving is unacceptable to SAIC." In this way, it becomes the soul, and SAIC becomes the body. ”
However, in the intelligent system and intelligent driving level of independent brands such as Roewe, Baojun and MG, SAIC's technical research and development strength has not performed extremely well, and on the relevant quality complaint platform, Roewe's vehicle system failure has become the hardest hit area for user complaints.
SAIC Roewe's chaotic product pricing is also one of the main reasons for the current dismal operation. Yipinjun believes that after the recent price adjustment of its hybrid model eRX5, the price difference between it and the same configuration fuel model is still a staggering 25,000 yuan, in the current mainstream of the same price of oil and electricity, such a pricing strategy is not attractive, and its poor sales are reasonable.
03
Anchor the target of 3.5 million new energy
SAIC is under a lot of pressure
Part Three
Under major pressure such as factory layoffs, salary cuts for executives, and the complete collapse of the independent camp, Chen Hong, chairman of SAIC, can be described as under great pressure. On April 17 this year, SAIC Motor held a mobilization meeting to make a special deployment of the three-year action plan, and on April 18, at the Shanghai Auto Show, SAIC Motor released the "three-year action plan for the development of new energy vehicles": through brand strategy optimization, innovative technology deep cultivation, and full efforts to sprint to new heights, by 2025, the annual sales of new energy vehicles will reach 3.5 million units, of which independent brands will account for 70% of the overall sales of new energy vehicles, basically completing the development power switch of new and old tracks.
Recently, at the SAIC Group Employee Congress, Jiang Jun, CEO of Zhiji Automobile, Wu Bing, General Manager of SAIC Motor Passenger Vehicle Company and CEO of Feifan Automobile, signed a military order. Chen Hong even put forward: "The signing of the military order is an important measure to accelerate the promotion of the three-year action plan and achieve a full breakthrough, and we must convey the belief that 'Loulan will not be returned in the end' through the decomposition of goals, pressure and implementation of responsibilities." ”
From the data, in the past 2022, SAIC's new energy vehicle sales were 1.073 million units. Two years later, SAIC New Energy Vehicle must reach a growth rate of 226%, which is a very challenging task. For the executives of Zhiji, Roewe, MG and Feifan, the military warrant received today is likely to become an appetizer for the transfer certificate and the resignation of the executive tomorrow.
The new energy achievements demanded by Chairman Chen Hong also put forward extremely high requirements for SAIC's pure electric technology research and development. According to Yipinjun, SAIC Motor is currently accelerating the research and development of solid-state battery cells, fully promoting the large-scale application of solid-state batteries, and the first self-owned brand mass production car equipped with solid-state batteries will officially roll off the production line in 2025, with higher energy density and higher safety performance of power batteries.
However, in the context of extensive cooperation between automotive industry brands, we see that Tesla is already equipped with BYD blade batteries. SAIC still stubbornly adheres to the "soul theory" and does not cooperate with more suppliers, which may be able to grasp core technology patents, but faces a series of troubles such as large capital investment, long R&D cycle, high risk and poor results, which is really debatable.
“
Written at the end:
"The dust of the times falls on everyone and it is a mountain." For SAIC, layoffs and salary cuts are a huge challenge for employees who were once loyal to them.
Imagine that 50-year-old workers are retiring early, newly hired employees are suddenly dismissed, and professional managers are worried after signing military warrants, behind which SAIC and Chen Hong face perhaps only sales and revenue challenges, but for employees, they face income discontinuity and building collapse. Yipinjun will also continue to pay attention to the relevant information of SAIC Group, bring continuous reports, and welcome you to leave your message to SAIC in the comment area. ”
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