Even though SAIC-GM-Wuling has made a lot of explorations, it has not yet found a differentiated transformation space in the small and micro electric vehicle market.
"The era of Wuling Shenche has passed, and it is no longer possible to solve and cover up all problems by relying on the large sales of a single product." This is the "new handsome" Lu Juncheng's sharp comment on the current situation of SAIC-GM-Wuling. In January this year, SAIC announced that Lu Juncheng was appointed as the general manager of SAIC-GM-Wuling, and it has been 100 days since he took place.
"Explosive Cooling" Top
Lv Juncheng, who has been the deputy general manager of SAIC-GM since February 2023, has been in this position for less than a year before he "upset" to the position. On January 19 this year, a letter of appointment to the management allowed SAIC-GM-Wuling to bid farewell to Shenyang and enter the era of Lu Juncheng.
Lv Juncheng is a "veteran" who has worked in SAIC-GM-Wuling for many years, and has been engaged in vehicle design and research related work for a long time, and has successively served as CAE manager, chief engineer, vehicle integration director, deputy general manager of the technology center, secretary of the party committee of the technology center, and general manager of the technology center.
Correspondingly, Xue Haitao and Lian Chaochun, who also have an age advantage and have a high level of attention and demand in the industry in recent years, have not become the successors of Shenyang as previously predicted by the outside world. In the eyes of the industry, Lu Juncheng surpassed Lian Chaochun, Xue Haitao and many other popular candidates to be "upset".
It is worth noting that whether it is a normal promotion or an "upset" promotion, it is a change of power and responsibility, which will inevitably break the original order and adjust the new cadre structure. Similarly, after the "upset" took office, the first thing Lu Juncheng did was to sort out personnel relations and adjust the organizational structure.
Two weeks after Lu Juncheng took office, on February 6, SAIC-GM-Wuling held a meeting to announce the establishment of the product marketing center and the appointment of management personnel. At the meeting, SAIC-GM-Wuling made the decision to change the name of the sales company to the Product Marketing Center, and announced the appointment of the general manager, senior director and director of the Product Marketing Center.
The newly established product marketing center has Zhao Yifan as the general manager of the product marketing center, Zhou Yu as the deputy general manager, and Xu Bing, Wang Weisen, Wang Bo and other experienced "veterans" in the Wuling system as the general managers of each theater.
In this regard, Lv Juncheng said, "The reform takes the product marketing center as the core, and the product marketing center will be the source of SAIC-GM-Wuling's reform and innovation, and the product marketing center will work together with the product innovation center to achieve the optimal allocation and integration of resources." ”
It should be noted that this marketing reform is nothing more than a "new bottle of old wine" type of change. From the perspective of the main body of operation, the original sales company was renamed "product marketing center".
From the perspective of management, Zhao Yifan, who served as the general manager of the product marketing center, appeared as the general manager of product innovation of SAIC-GM-Wuling many times last year; Deputy General Manager Zhou Yu has a richer identity, having served as the director of the marketing center of SAIC-GM-Wuling Sales Company, the deputy general manager of SAIC-GM-Wuling Division, and also briefly served as the head of Xiaomi's automobile marketing.
Among them, Zhao Yifan, the "number one" of the marketing center, is the same as Lu Juncheng, who has a technical background. It is understood that in 2017, Zhao Yifan began to serve SAIC-GM-Wuling as a vehicle integration expert in the new energy development department; In 2019, he publicly disclosed his identity as the chief technology officer of the hybrid platform of SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co., Ltd., and since then he has also served as the middle platform technical officer of the E platform.
At the end of 2022, Zhao Yifan's publicly disclosed title was the chief technology officer of SAIC-GM-Wuling. It can be seen from Zhao Yifan's experience that he has been deeply engaged in the development of new energy technology, and he is also the one with whom Lu Juncheng's work intersects most closely.
In addition, several other deputy general managers have also served as the general manager of the planning and operation management department of SAIC-GM-Wuling and the deputy general manager of the sales company.
In this way, only the name has changed from the sales company to the product marketing center, and the management structure is almost the same as the original. Under the premise that the key figures remain unchanged, the marketing reform has not given more convincing force to the outside world, and it can be said that Lu Juncheng's "first fire" has not been burned.
"Baojun's Loneliness"
When the industry has not yet figured out the significance of this "new bottle and old wine" marketing reform, the "second fire" was ignited in the third month after Lu Juncheng took office, which is also a substantial step taken by SAIC-GM-Wuling in brand transformation.
On April 12, SAIC-GM-Wuling released the electronic and intelligent architecture - Tianyu architecture, which is not so much the release of SAIC-GM-Wuling as it is customized for the Baojun brand. It is understood that the architecture is divided into three platforms: D, M and S, and covers A00 to C-class full-size models, including different power combinations of pure electric and hybrid.
Based on the blessing of Tianyu architecture, the Baojun brand plans to release four new cars this year. Among them, the first intelligent pure electric SUV on the M platform, Baojun Yue Plus, and the S platform pure electric SUV Baojun Yue Ye 2024 have been launched on April 12, and two new cars on the D platform will be released in the second half of this year.
It is worth mentioning that at that time, Zhou Yu, deputy general manager of SAIC-GM-Wuling Brand Division, made a different remark - "There is no benchmarking in this press conference, and there is no stepping", "If everyone's support to us can be exchanged for traffic, I think the purpose of this press conference has been achieved, which is also the value of Baojun brand".
This seemingly dispensable attitude towards traffic is actually another manifestation of the thirst for traffic, and behind it is also Zhou Yu's inner anxiety about the current situation after Baojun's annual sales fell from more than one million to 50,000 yuan per year.
The Baojun brand was established in July 2010, at a time when Wuling Motors, the king of freight micro-cars, was transforming into a passenger car, and Baojun, which brought together the expectations and investments of SAIC, GM and Wuling, undertook the mission of passenger transformation.
Since its establishment in 2010, Baojun has also lived up to expectations. Relying on the 730, 560, 510 and other "popular" models to achieve a rapid rise in scale. Especially in 2017, its sales once exceeded the 1 million mark, becoming one of the brightest brands in the market. However, since then, Baojun has been in pain, and its sales have continued to shrink, and its sales in the three years from 2018 to 2020 have plummeted, with 879,000 units, 600,000 units, and 422,000 units, respectively.
After a short period of highlights, Baojun was not willing to be lonely, but started an upward transformation and turned to the mid-to-high-end market. In April 2019, the new Baojun brand, which has a higher positioning, was officially launched, and the brand logo was changed from "horse head" to "diamond label", and the new Baojun RS-5 and Valli models were launched with upgrades in terms of appearance, interior and equipment.
For the new Baojun, consumers are still looking forward to it, and even call on SAIC-GM-Wuling to create another "national god car". But unfortunately, the new Baojun has not yet regained the glory of its predecessors. According to the data, in 2020, the sales composition of Baojun's 422,000 units, the new Baojun's sales were only 154,000 units, and the old Baojun's sales were 268,000 units, and the upgraded Baojun was even inferior to the old Baojun.
Not only that, but the new Baojun has also lost its original basic users without reversing the decline. Corresponding to this is the declining sales volume. Data shows that in the past two years, the annual sales of the new Baojun are only more than 50,000 vehicles.
Although Baojun's motivation to move to the mid-to-high-end market is not wrong, Baojun has ignored a key point in the process of transformation - the high-end brand is not simply the price increase, but the matching product quality. In the absence of obvious technological innovation, the operation of changing the shell and changing the label coupled with raising the price will only make users feel that the name is not worthy of the name, and even the IQ tax.
"SAIC-GM-Wuling|Lv Juncheng's "100-day test" (II) will be released in the near future, so stay tuned.