On the last day of 20 19, I was a little flustered sitting in the office. Looking at colleagues who are gradually leaving, listening to each other's New Year greetings, and quietly leaving for another year. Busy as I am, I'm not ready. How can we say goodbye to today and welcome tomorrow? In the circle of friends, autobots are busier and more anxious this year. Presumably this year has not been easy for most people. This is the new normal.
In 20 19, a once-in-a-century great change is taking shape.
The day before yesterday, Beijing, the coldest day since winter, Zhang Baolin, chairman of Changan Automobile, came in a hurry with a smile. We didn't see his sense of relief, but more of a sense of crisis. In his words: "The overall development of Changan Automobile is improving, but it still faces great challenges!" Cautious optimism is also a state that only a few car companies have, and it is more difficult to live.
He admits that 20 19 is a very important and difficult year in the history of Chang' an development in recent 10 years. On the one hand, actively and cautiously control the latest situation of industrial development, on the other hand, closely focus on the changing needs of consumers, intensify efforts to create classic products, and further accelerate the pace of reform and transformation.
This caution and hard work have paid off. 1-1/month, the overall sales volume of changan automobile is 1566200, and the breakthrough of changan China brand automobile is 1 15400. From August to165438+10, the chain growth was achieved for four consecutive months, and it is expected to outperform the market from June to 65438+February. Star model CS75 series in CS75? Driven by PLUS,1October 1 1 reached 27,220 vehicles, up 124% year-on-year. The market response of CS55 series and Yidong series is also very good. Auchan X, which just went on the market in July, has sold more than 1 10,000 vehicles, and there are still more than 1.7 million orders that have not been delivered.
Changan Ford began to stabilize and improve with the listing of Sharp International, which was highly competitive, and there was an upward turning point and it returned to the normal track. Changan Mazda sold 6.5438+0.2 million vehicles, although the volume is not large, but the benefits are improving.
Among them, Changan brand passenger cars are particularly prominent. Tan Benhong, executive vice president of Changan Automobile, said with a smile: "Changan has found the rhythm and feeling again."
Innovation and entrepreneurship, reform and upgrading
The decline of the automobile market started from 20 18, and perhaps no one thought that 20 19 would be more difficult. After years of rapid growth in China's automobile market, many automobile enterprises are caught off guard by this seemingly invisible change, and a large number of enterprises, whether joint ventures or independent enterprises, are facing life and death.
Changan Automobile's leadership has long been aware of the changes in the industry, so as early as the end of 20 17, it began to "deepen reform and start a business for the first time", and in April of 20 18, it released the third phase of innovation and entrepreneurship plan, stepped out of the comfort zone and began to deepen reform and transformation and upgrading with the mentality of entrepreneurs. Zhang Baolin's phrase, "Times have eliminated you, which has nothing to do with you", made Chang 'an people completely awake in their spiritual consciousness, and forced them to start to act quickly, reform and transform.
This transformation and upgrading is all-round, involving research and development, production, operation, marketing, share reform and other aspects. For example, Changan brand passenger cars will resolutely eliminate some excess capacity and more than 20 uncompetitive products. In the context of the continuous decline in sales, it is difficult to make up your mind to eliminate all things that are backward and do not conform to the future development trend. This requires an accurate judgment of the future and the courage to take responsibility. At the same time, paying attention to the improvement of product profitability has also increased the average price of Changan's own brand bicycles by more than 2,000 yuan.
On the one hand, it is slimming optimization. For example, the joint venture company Jiangling Holdings will be introduced into Aichi to revitalize assets, and 50% of Changan PSA, which has lost hope for many years, will be sold to Baoneng, and Changan new energy vehicles will be replaced with long-term development. The original Changan Suzuki factory will build a new car. On the other hand, combined with the future trend, we will increase the intensity of open cooperation, establish a joint venture with Weilai Automobile, strategically cooperate with Huawei and Tencent, and set up travel companies with FAW and Dongfeng.
In terms of internal management, Changan Automobile closely focuses on consumers and the market, optimizes the management system, improves management efficiency, implements the 1/2 project, and enhances its digital capability. Digital management has entered the era of 2.0, reaching users directly, strengthening front-end consumption research and responding to consumer demand quickly.
On April 9, 20 19, Changan Global R&D Center, located in Liangjiang New District, Chongqing, with an investment of 4.3 billion yuan, was put into use, marking that Changan Automobile officially entered the R&D 4.0 era of "openness, enjoyment and global cooperation". A research institute is divided into modeling research institute, new energy research institute and automation research institute, and a product department and a product department are set up to implement matrix management. Through this reform, the efficiency of R&D is greatly improved, the cost of R&D is reduced, and the R&D cycle of new products is shortened from 36 months to 24 months.
Through nearly two years' efforts, the management efficiency of Changan Automobile has increased by 20% and the cost has decreased by 15-20%. Efficiency has become another core competitiveness of Changan Automobile.
Changan Ford used to be a big contributor to Changan Automobile's profit, but it has lost its way in such a rapidly changing market as China, and has reached the stage of thorough reform. Now, Ford Asia-Pacific has been cancelled, Ford China's strategic position has been upgraded, and a large number of localized talents have been adopted. Shareholders of both parties have signed the revitalization plan for the next three years, and strive to turn Changan Ford into an enterprise integrating research, production and marketing.
Zhao Fei, the executive vice president of Changan Ford, who just took office for one year, said that at the end of 20 18, 70,000-80,000 vehicles were crushed and the supply of new products was cut off, which destroyed the already fragile Ford dealer channel. Now the inventory of dealers is not only at a reasonable level, but also all the products they want are in the warehouse, so that they can fix production by sales. In this way, the vitality, enthusiasm and profitability of dealers have reached 75%.
With the adjustment of strategy, the change of consciousness, the efforts of the team, and the launch of products with competitive market, Changan Ford also began to fight back and enter the rising channel.
Scientific and technological innovation, consolidating the foundation and cultivating the yuan
Products are fundamental, and Chang 'an people with engineer culture have a deep understanding. Changan Automobile has spared no effort to invest in technology research and development, and it is also the earliest and largest enterprise with global resource integration research and development capabilities. Zhang Baolin said that no matter how difficult it is, it will spend 5% of its sales revenue on R&D every year, which is the core competitiveness of Changan Automobile. Of course, it is also the reason why the media is firmly optimistic about Changan Automobile when the general trend is not good and the survival of the fittest is eliminated.
Great attention has been paid to strategy, and years of technological innovation have developed in all directions. Changan Automobile changed from CS75? PLUS began to provide consumers with a moderate surplus of technology and configuration. For example, the 2.0T, 1.4T blue whale engines are all leading in the industry. The application of Aisin 8AT gearbox, including a series of intelligent technology configurations such as IACC, APA5.0 and three-screen linkage, is a sincere move by Changan to provide users with moderate advancement and technical surplus.
Changan has mastered more than 100 intelligent technologies in deciding future life and death, especially L3 automatic driving and APA6.0 automatic parking. And mastered the core technology of the three power companies in new energy. According to Tan Benhong, Changan has just set up a global software center in Chongqing, and plans to build a research and development team of 2,000 people to truly form an intelligent core competitiveness.
As we all know, the fundamental reason for Changan Ford's cliff-like decline in recent years is product problems. The replacement cycle of the United States 1967 can never keep up with the rhythm of China's two-year small change and three-year big change. Now, according to Zhao Fei, Ford's future product research and development has joined China's consumer demand from the very beginning, especially in modeling, interior decoration and intelligence, and Changan Ford Research Institute has been established in China. Ford authorized Changan Ford to develop economical cars, which can realize a series of changes in China design, China speed, China cost and China value.
Talking about how to make Changan Automobile in an invincible position for a long time, Zhang Baolin stressed that we must first grasp the needs of consumers; Secondly, technological innovation, products are fundamental; There is also marketing innovation, from sales to service.
Ready to go, outperform the market
Although market analysts are not optimistic about China automobile market in 2020, and the growth rate of -3% is recognized by many people, it will still maintain a high consumption. "In 2020, it must be significantly higher than the development speed of the industry!" Zhang Baolin is very optimistic and confident about the adjusted development of Changan Automobile.
This confidence is not unreasonable. Changan brand passenger car has entered a new competitive product cycle, with a brand-new design concept, injecting the strongest powertrain system, leading intelligent network connection application and excellent driving quality into products such as CS75? PLUS、CS55？ New products such as PLUS and Yidong PLUS began to win the recognition of consumers. The Geneva Motor Show will present concept cars and cross-border production cars, as well as new cars and high-end brands in a new design language.
In Zhao Fei's introduction, Changan Ford's 3.0 acceleration plan is advancing, and there will be 20 cars on the market in the next three years, 9 of which are brand-new products. Changan Ford has entered the high-incidence exhibition period, and it is just around the corner to return to the original high level from the sales volume of 2,654,380+million vehicles this year.
Talking about cars
The market is still cold in winter, but for Changan Automobile, the most difficult days may have passed. Changan Automobile, which has a history of one hundred years, has ushered in new vitality in the transformation and upgrading with the mentality of entrepreneurs, the R&D strength with the most scientific and technological innovation ability in the industry and the product definition of consumption orientation.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.