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.
This article undertakes "SAIC-GM-Wuling|Lv Juncheng's "100-day test" (I)
"Wuling abandoned by the people"
In fact, for the failure of Baojun's transformation, industry insiders believe that it is inseparable from the Wuling brand, and Baojun lives in the shadow of Wuling. Shen Yang, the former general manager of SAIC-GM-Wuling, also made a similar summary, and said that "the Baojun brand has not been able to find the right user group, and has only become a parasitic brand of the Wuling brand, resulting in the overlapping and unclear separation of the two brands." ”
In addition, Baojun did not choose the new energy track when it started the transformation, on the contrary, SAIC-GM-Wuling gave Wuling the responsibility of developing new energy.
In July 2020, Wuling launched the Hongguang MINI EV, which was at the time of the epidemic, and people's work and life were hit hard. The emergence of Wuling Hongguang MINI EV has also lowered the threshold of micro electric vehicles to less than 30,000 yuan, which can be said to be a real "people's scooter".
According to the data, since its launch in July 2020, Wuling Hongguang MINI EV has topped the global new energy single model sales champion for seven times, accounting for 75% of the micro pure electric vehicle market. As of February this year, the Hongguang MINIEV family has sold more than 1.2 million vehicles in its history.
It is precisely because of this "national god car" that it has achieved a big sale beyond expectations and rewritten the development path of the Wuling brand. In terms of volume alone, in recent years, SAIC-GM-Wuling has surpassed SAIC-Volkswagen and SAIC-GM to become the largest subsidiary of SAIC Group.
It should be noted that it is also due to the hot sales of this "god car" that has affected the revival of the Baojun brand.
However, from the fourth quarter of 2022, the market has rewritten the script.
Starting in the fourth quarter of 2022, SAIC-GM-Wuling's sales began to "get out of control". According to the data, from October to December of that year, SAIC-GM-Wuling's sales fell by 20%, 11.92% and 10.25% year-on-year respectively; Until January of the following year, it fell by 72.74% year-on-year, and in March, it fell by 39.67% year-on-year, and the sales volume showed a cliff-like decrease.
In this, the main force of the Wuling Hongguang MINI EV has a lot to do with it. According to the data, the decline of Wuling Hongguang MINI EV also began to be reflected at the end of 2022. In fact, the "loss of momentum" of Wuling Hongguang MINI EV also has an element of internal competition.
In March last year, SAIC-GM-Wuling Binguo was officially launched, and the new car is positioned as a small electric vehicle, with a total of 5 models and a price range of 59,800-83,800 yuan. Although the positioning of Wuling Binguo is different from that of the macro MINI EV, it is certain that the launch of Wuling Binguo will inevitably seize the market of the Wuling Hongguang MINI EV segment.
In addition to the brotherhood, the most important thing is the change of the external environment. Nowadays, consumers in the field of mini cars have gradually increased their choices, such as Panda MINI, Changan Lumin, Leapmotor T03, Chery Little Ant, Baojun KiWi EV, etc., all of which have formed a competition and diversion with SAIC-GM-Wuling's products.
What cannot be ignored is that the Wuling brand itself has also suffered from quality doubts. According to the third-party complaint platform, there have been more than 1,300 complaints against Wuling Motors since the beginning of this year, involving models such as Wuling Hongguang MINI EV and Wuling Binguo. This has also dissuaded many potential consumers from becoming the first choice of the people.
In fact, commercial vehicles have been Wuling's main products for a long time in the past. It is understood that in the past 40 years, the cumulative sales of Wuling commercial vehicles have reached 20 million, of which the sales of trucks have exceeded 5 million. For example, Wuling Hongguang has been the leader in China's automobile sales since its birth in 2012. As an economical and practical commercial vehicle, Wuling Hongguang is more suitable for merchants and self-employed people, so it has gained wide recognition in the van market.
However, with the fall of the micro-surface market and the transformation of the ride scene and the emergence of new energy commercial vehicles, Wuling Hongguang began to go downhill. The shining red mark that once lifted Wuling to the peak of an era has also stagnated in the development of the new era, and its sense of existence is getting lower and lower, which has to force Wuling to transform.
Waiting for the "Fire Captain"
The loss of momentum of the "god car". Even the overall performance of SAIC-GM-Wuling is not very good.
In the 2023 annual report disclosed by SAIC Motor, SAIC achieved a total revenue of 744.705 billion yuan, which was basically the same as the revenue in 2022 (744.062 billion yuan), but a decrease of 4.5% compared with 2021 (779.862 billion yuan).
The net profit attributable to the parent company was 14.106 billion yuan, a decrease of 12.48% compared with the same period in 2022. According to the statistics of Qingcheng Automobile, SAIC's net profit has fallen to the lowest in the past five years, with its net profit from 2019 to 2022 being 25.6 billion yuan, 20.43 billion yuan, 24.53 billion yuan and 16.12 billion yuan respectively. Whether it is revenue or net profit, SAIC's operating situation seems to be tight.
Among them, SAIC-GM-Wuling achieved revenue of 76.009 billion yuan last year, a decrease of 6.22% compared with 81.138 billion yuan in the previous year; The net profit was 930 million yuan, a decrease of more than 30% compared with 1.46 billion yuan in 2022, reaching 36.3%.
In the same period, SAIC Volkswagen and SAIC-GM will contribute 3.13 billion yuan and 2.54 billion yuan to SAIC Group in 2023.
It can be seen that although SAIC-GM-Wuling has the largest contribution (1.403 million units sold last year), due to the low-price route that has been taken, in terms of revenue and profit composition, SAIC-GM-Wuling is the smallest contribution among the joint venture subsidiaries of SAIC Group.
It is understood that Nagoya University in Japan had previously dismantled a 38,800 yuan Wuling Hongguang MINI EV, and they estimated that the cost of this car was about 26,900 yuan, and the profit of a single car was very low. Therefore, for the current SAIC-GM-Wuling, there is not only the pressure to boost sales, but also the pressure to strengthen profitability, and more importantly, the pressure of transformation, which needs to be solved by Lu Juncheng, who has just taken office.
But Lu Juncheng is now facing far from this, and two months after Lu Juncheng took office, there were changes in the top management of SAIC-GM-Wuling again. At the beginning of April, General Motors announced that Huang Yaosong will be the executive vice president of SAIC-GM-Wuling from April 1 this year, and will be fully responsible for the overall strategic layout and operation of SAIC-GM-Wuling to promote the continuous growth of the business.
Judging from his resume, Huang Yaosong has been engaged in finance since joining GM in 2010 until 2018; During the four years from 2019 to 2023, Huang Yaosong is committed to promoting the strategic transformation of SAIC-GM-Wuling's electric vehicles and business in overseas markets, and has laid the foundation for the growth of overseas markets.
Comparing Lu Juncheng's past resume, it can be seen that Lu and Huang have no intersection in their past work, which means that Lu and Huang will need more time to run in in their future partners.
In addition, there is also the status and influence of the former general manager Shenyang. It is understood that even today, Shenyang in SAIC-GM-Wuling is only in the state of "abdication and non-retirement", and at the same time as giving up the position of general manager, he was transferred to the chairman of the company's innovation and development and strategy committee, and his control and influence on SAIC-GM-Wuling should not be underestimated. It can be said that within SAIC, Shenyang is the role of chairman Chen Hong and president Wang Xiaoqiu.
This means that the new general manager Lu Juncheng is facing not only the challenges and pressures of the transformation of the joint venture in the face of the great changes in a century, but also the complex factional and personnel relations within SAIC-GM-Wuling. For the "upset" Lu Juncheng, how to weigh and exert force needs to be carefully considered.