Layoffs, shutdowns, broken arms to survive, acquisitions, transfers, alarmism.
Note that it is not about the unlucky eggs such as Weimar and Hengchi, but the real dilemma of domestic joint venture factories.
Some joint ventures are exiting China, some time ago, Japan's Mitsubishi withdrew from China and transferred related sales and services to GAC;
Year after year, the protagonists have changed wave after wave, the joint venture brand has advanced from soaring to falling behind, the new forces have gone from looking for factories to build their own factories, and even some joint venture factories have been sold to new forces;
In fact, the joint ventures have also been transformed, but it seems to be a lot slower, this retreat and advance, but it seems more and more obvious, things are a long story, we make a long story short.
There are many reviews of joint venture cars on the Internet, and although each has its own shortcomings, it is also a slogan exclusive to each company.
German cars, durable leather, American cars, strong power and high safety, Japanese cars, economical and fuel-efficient, Korean cars, high appearance and cost-effective.
In the nearly 40 years since the establishment of the first joint venture car factory, Beijing Jeep Automobile Company, to a series of joint venture projects triggered by Volkswagen's entry into China in 1984, the joint venture car company has been out of control.
Guangzhou Peugeot was established in 1985, FAW Audi introduced 100 Audi 100 in 1988, FAW-Volkswagen was established in 1991, Dongfeng Citroen was established in 1992, Ford entered China in 1995, Shanghai GM and Guangzhou Honda were also established in 1997 and 1998, Ssangyong, Kia and Hyundai also settled in China in 2002, Toyota officially entered China in 2003, and FAW Toyota was established.
Now it seems to have occupied half of China's automobiles, and models such as Santana, Jetta, Beverly, Accord, and Camry are also household names.
We have exchanged the market for technology and management experience, and constantly improve our car-making level and quality, and they have also relied on these good reputations to occupy a large market share in China, from mutual run-in to rapid expansion all the way forward.
All have always been complementary to each other, mutual achievement, because of this, FAW, SAIC, Dongfeng, Changan and other independent brands have a lot of necessary conditions for accumulation.
If you want to get rich, you must first build roads and sell cars, then you must first build a factory. Naturally, the construction of the factory also went all the way.
Hyundai Motor:
On January 16, Hyundai Motor said it had sold its plant in Chongqing for 1.62 billion yuan ($227 million).
This is Hyundai's fifth plant in China, the initial price was 3.68 billion yuan, and then dropped to 2.58 billion yuan, the factory that began construction in 15 years, with a total investment of 7.7 billion yuan and an annual output of 300,000 vehicles.
In the years when Korean car sales peaked, Hyundai sold 1.06 million units in China in 2015 and 1.13 million units in 2016, gradually surpassing Germany and Japan.
Now that the Chongqing factory has been released, Hyundai Motor's first factory in Beijing has also been acquired by Li Auto, and the factory in Cangzhou, Hebei Province is also rumored to be sold.
In 2018, Hyundai sales have come to more than 700,000 units, 270,000 units in 22 years, and only 260,000 units sold in 23 years.
I sigh that the most glorious days of Korean cars in China are afraid that they will stay in 2016.
Toyota:
Toyota has always been invincible, but at the end of the year, news began to spread that the Tianjin plant would cut production.
FAW Toyota's official response, "Due to the aging of the model and other reasons, some production lines have been suspended, and production is still continuing." ”
From 2018 to 2021, FAW Toyota, unlike other joint ventures, sales are still high, with 720,000, 738,000, 800,000 and 860,000 respectively, which made Toyota full of confidence at that time and aimed to hit one million sales.
But in 2023, the cold weather has also come to Toyota, and at the end of the year, when everyone is impacting sales, domestic new energy companies are also frequently releasing new cars, and a "letter to FAW Toyota dealer partners" will bring Toyota to everyone's field of vision.
According to the letter, FAW Toyota will continue to reduce the distribution in the next three months on the basis of the significant production reduction in October and November, until the distribution is lowered to 38,000 units in February next year. There is no shortage of encouraging tone in the letter for dealers, mutual trust and getting through difficult times together.
Toyota is known as the most profitable car company, as of the end of 23, Toyota's global sales have reached 300 million units, and FAW Toyota's new energy plant will be put into operation in October 2022, with an annual production capacity of 200,000 units.
Toyota's factory does not need to be explained in terms of technology and scale, and only the production capacity of new energy can be affected.
Ford Motor:
In the middle of the year, a number of media reported that Ford China would lay off 1,300 employees, and there was also news that its joint venture, Changan Ford, would shut down its outdated production line.
In the end, the official response did not directly deny it, and said that it was "building a leaner and more flexible organizational structure".
However, no news is groundless, and the loss of electric vehicles and the decline in the overall business in China have forced Ford China to make changes.
Also in 2016, Ford's sales in China reached a record high of 1.27 million vehicles. In the three years from 2017 to 2019, Changan Ford's sales were 828,000, 377,700 and 184,000 respectively, which has been halved for three consecutive years, and there is almost no respite. In 2022, Ford China's annual sales in China were 496,000 units, down 20.6% year-on-year.
Ford has a total of 11 plants in China, including seven Changan Ford, in Chongqing, Hangzhou and Harbin. In addition to Changan Ford, there are 4 more under construction.
Changan Ford's production capacity at its five vehicle plants was 1.6 million units, but it has now dropped to 670,000 units. When it is brilliant, it is a help, and when it is low, it is a burden, and the more factories it has, the greater the cost it consumes.
While sales in China have fallen sharply, Ford is also worried about the transformation of electrification, and the pressure is also great, and now there are models such as Ford Territory EV, Ruiji plug-in hybrid, and Ford electric horse Mustang Mach-E, but there is no one that can carry the banner.
For Ford, what can be done now is to streamline personnel, reduce costs, and adjust strategies, and the future may still be confused, but in the face of the world's largest automobile market, it will definitely not withdraw.
French cars were the first to decline, followed by Korean and American cars, and now Japanese and German cars are also clearly feeling the lack of optimism, and this is the current situation of the joint venture car plant.
In 2023, China's joint venture auto factories will face many challenges and changes.
1. With the continuous changes in China's automobile market, as far as the Internet public opinion situation is concerned, new energy vehicles are compared with fuel vehicles, which is the east wind over the west wind. Joint ventures need to constantly adapt their strategies and products to market demands.
Chinese consumers' demand for cars is more diversified, even personalized, and the requirements for technology and quality are getting higher and higher, which puts a lot of pressure on joint venture cars.
2. The government's policy on the automobile industry is also constantly adjusting. We will take the subsidy policy for new energy vehicles, the improvement of environmental protection standards, etc., which will have an impact on the production and operation of the joint venture automobile factory;
Due to the slow transformation, there are still few new energy models, even if the production capacity of the factory is very high, but the production focus can only be placed on the production of traditional fuel models, not to mention, it is now the era of the same price of oil and electricity.
3. The most critical point - the competition in China's auto market is extremely fierce. Domestic independent brands have grown, and even become the number one player in the new energy industry, from technology to price are more suitable for consumers, as well as competition from internationally renowned brands. Joint venture auto factories need to continuously improve product quality, reduce costs, and improve marketing capabilities to cope with market competition.
4. Technological innovation, three-electric system, intelligent driving, and intelligent cockpit are being popularized in China. In contrast, although the joint venture automobile factories have also achieved highly mechanized "black light factories", the on-board intelligence seems to have turned only halfway.
5. Finally, there are external factors such as the closure of factories, the global economic downturn, and the increasing operating pressure of joint venture automobiles due to the impact of trade wars and new crown epidemics.
In addition, in many countries, fuel vehicles and hybrid vehicles are still the most mainstream, and not all countries have as stable power supply as China.
Overall, there are many challenges and changes in 2023, but there are also opportunities. As a factory, we need to reduce production costs, improve production efficiency, and optimize supply chain management to combat these.
The joint venture brand still has a certain weight in people's hearts, and if you want to maintain a leading position, you must at least work harder in the Chinese market.
The east wind blows the horn of the expedition, and a hundred flowers bloom in spring.
Imagine if the joint ventures really all pulled out of China, would the market really be better?
The real start of China's automobiles is inseparable from these joint ventures and foreign brands, which exchange technology for the market, giving us room for the growth of local brands, and we have also learned advanced production technology and complete assembly lines, helping us to quickly grow into a big manufacturing country in the automobile industry.
But it's also easy to make money from the Chinese market, and who wants to do R&D honestly?
But then again, it's not a joint venture that really pulls across, we have to jump out of the country, looking at the global auto market, the general environment is still dominated by fuel vehicles and from pure fuel vehicles to hybrid vehicles.
It's just that in China, their blessed land, new energy pure electric vehicles have rolled up a few brothers.
The Chinese market is a market full of flowers, and it is unreasonable and impossible to have only one voice. Local brands and joint ventures are the state of you and me, and only when there are more and more fish in the water, the rivers and seas will be more vibrant.