Virtual fire is still prosperous

“The shrinking of the overall market in 2011 revealed many potential problems with independent brands. In 2012, they will still face more difficult situations.”

"We will have 5 new models on the market next year." A few days ago, Changan Automobile spokesman Jiang Aiqun told the "China Business" reporter, "We are ready to go this year and we will have real strength next year."

However, from what perspective, the so-called “strength” of Chang’an Auto [3.43 2.39% report] is still just a wish.

At the beginning of 2011, Chang'an Group (including Changan Automobile, Hafei, Changhe, etc.) proposed a sales target of 2.4 million units, and is expected to achieve a growth rate of around 10%. To achieve this figure, Chang'an Automobile, with sales of 1.9 million units in 2010, naturally It is a well-deserved main force. However, the data from January to November of this year made the situation of Changan Automobile quite embarrassing. It is understood that in the first 11 months, Changan Automobile sold a total of 1.5176 million vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 10.13%, especially in November, Changan Automobile sales decreased by 22.3% year-on-year.

According to industry analysts, the most crucial reason leading to such a drastic decline in Changan Automobile is the lack of performance of Changan Auto's independent brands. Close to the year, Yuexiang, the main brand of Changan Auto's own brand, only sold more than 60,000 vehicles and completed about 55% of the annual plan, while the sales volume of the other main model CX30 barely surpassed 10,000 units, completing only the annual plan. Less than 60%.

"This year, the overall situation of China's auto market is poor, which exposes independent brands to many defects in management, products, technology and brand names. It is obviously not possible to complete these problems completely by one year. Therefore, for Changan Automobile, The deepening and adjustment of its own brand will continue." Liu Feng thinks.

Indeed, a high-level person in Changan Automobile told reporters that in 2012 Changan Automobile will continue to implement adjustment strategies. It is understood that Chang'an Auto will separate its mid-to-high-end brands into independent operations next year, and in the micro-vehicle segment, Changan Automobile plans to build a star model and use this model to drive the performance of the entire Changan Automobile in the mini vehicle sector.

Except for Changan Automobile, nearly all of its own-brand car companies also set 2011 as their adjustment year in the face of the overall poor performance of the auto market this year, and in their view, since they have to adjust, they must be adjusted to the required position. Therefore, at the very least, in 2012, adjustment was still the main theme of self-owned brand car companies.

It is understood that under the big idea of ​​adjustment, Chery plans not to launch a brand new model in 2012, and will strive to speed up the localization process of the current production bases, realize the localization of procurement, R&D localization, and localization of talents, which means that Chery, who launched more than a dozen models a year, finally started to really try to subtract from the number of models launched. An insider of Chery said: "Every new project in the future, we will let the production, procurement, market and other departments do measurements at the same time, if this project is difficult to profit in the future, we will give up." Rao Da, Secretary-General of the All-China Federation of Fellowships, applauded Chery’s courage to adjust. He said: “The development of self-owned brands has to date took more than 10 years. It is certain that the adjustment will be deep. Chery no longer plays multi-model games, but Increase the probability of successful launch of models and concentrate on doing things.”

After BYD [21.45 4.38% Research Report], Geely, and other companies broke large-scale layoffs and sales disruptions this year, they also hope to make substantial adjustments in product structure, channel development quantity, and technology R&D investment next year. With a view to improving their internal strength and renewing their efforts to the market.

Jia Xinguang, a well-known analyst in the automotive industry, said: “Now people generally are not optimistic about the overall trend of the auto market next year. Therefore, self-owned brands can only recharge their batteries by adjusting.” In his opinion, under the powerful offensive of joint ventures, 2012 will be a year of deep adjustment of independent brands.