21st Century Business Herald reporter Gong Zhaoen reports
On the morning of March 5, the first "ministerial channel" of the Second Session of the 14th National People’s Congress was held in the Great Hall of the People.
Zhang Yuzhuo, director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council of the State Council of China, said in an interview that in the field of new energy vehicles, state-owned automobile enterprises have not developed fast enough in this area, "not as good as Tesla, not as good as BYD". The Sasac will adjust the policy and conduct a separate assessment of the new energy automobile business of the three central automobile enterprises. The assessment items include technology, market share and future development of the enterprise.
"Because we have noticed that the automotive industry is like this all over the world. When fuel vehicles are still very advantageous, companies will invest a lot in new energy vehicles at the beginning. If they evaluate their current profits, it will not be easy to move forward at full speed. Our policy is to break down this obstacle, evaluate its technology, evaluate its market share, and evaluate its future development." Zhang Yuzhuo said.
Three "central automobile enterprises", including FAW Group, Dongfeng Group and Changan Automobile Group.
On March 5, 21 Business Herald reporters interviewed Lu Fang, CEO of Lantu Automobile, for the first time. He expressed his excitement about the policy.
"The automobile industry is a century-old industry. In the early stage of industrial development, we should pay attention to the development of technology, lay a good technical foundation, and pay attention to the cultivation of the market and the long-term development of enterprises. This is a logic of seeking truth from facts, and it is also in line with the guiding ideology of the development of the industry." Lu Fang said.
It is reported that the previous assessment of central automobile enterprises by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission also included many aspects, but the core was still based on profits.
Lu Fang told reporters that from the perspective of enterprises, profitability is still the ultimate goal, but there needs to be a path at what time and what to pay attention to. As the SASAC’s assessment indicators or directions for enterprises change, the "priorities" within the enterprise will also change, and synchronization will affect the internal development focus and management actions of the enterprise.
As the "head" of Lantu Automobile, Lu Fang admits that the direction is clearer. "In the future, we will do a particularly good job in technology, find ways to increase market share, and pay more attention to the long-term, future, sustainable and healthy development of the enterprise. We need to evaluate what the core competitiveness of the enterprise is."
In Lu Fang’s opinion, various aspects of technology, including intelligence, networking, and domestic components, need to be tackled by enterprises. However, the long-term development of enterprises involves more business models, profit models, management teams, and internal systems, all of which reflect the strength of enterprises.
At the same time, Lu Fang also publicly stated on the social platform: "Dongfeng has created a high-end new energy vehicle brand, and the’separate assessment ‘policy has been a great encouragement to us, which has strengthened our strategic determination and development confidence. It is conducive to us to let go of our hands and feet, work hard and fast, stimulate innovation vitality, meet user requests, and improve market share."
Affected by this good news, the automotive sector has strengthened again, with Dongfeng Motor rising its daily limit in a straight line, followed by FAW Liberation, FAW Fuwei, Changan Automobile, and Dongfeng Technology.
In fact, the pace of new energy transformation of several traditional mainstream automakers in China has accelerated, but compared with the strong development momentum shown by BYD, Geely, and Guangzhou Automobile in the field of new energy, the new energy transformation of the three major central automobile enterprises needs to be accelerated.
Among them, Changan Automobile is more active in the transformation of new energy, cooperating with Huawei, Ningde Times, NIO and other leading enterprises, and has made arrangements in many aspects of new energy. In terms of brands, it has formed three new energy brands: Avita, Deep Blue and Changan Qiyuan; in terms of sales, Changan Automobile sales exceeded 2.55 million in 2023. Among them, the sales of independent brands 2.098 million, an increase of 11.9% year-on-year, and the sales of new energy 481,000, an increase of 69.2% year-on-year.
However, in terms of specific new energy brands, the dark blue and 27,700 Avita delivered in 2023 are not only inferior to the sub-brands incubated by the two traditional car companies, GAC Aian and JK, but also ranked behind the new power "Wei Xiaoli".
As far as FAW Group is concerned, the new energy transformation of its own brand passenger cars mainly lies in the two brands of Hongqi and Pentium, but the current performance in the new energy vehicle market is not outstanding. In 2023, the retail sales of Hongqi brand new energy exceeded 85,000, an increase of 135% year-on-year. Although the growth has doubled, the sales performance is still less than that of the top traditional car companies and some new car-making forces.
At the end of last year, FAW Group chose to go south and reached strategic cooperation with the governments of Shenzhen and Guangdong Province based on the advantages of Guangdong Automotive Industry Cluster in the fields of new energy and intelligence.
According to the plan, in 2024, FAW’s goal is to sell 900,000 vehicles of its own brand and strive to 1 million vehicles; the sales of independent and joint venture new energy vehicles will reach 500,000 vehicles.
In terms of Dongfeng Group, it has formed a new brand pattern of "Warrior" brand for the luxury electric off-road market, "Lantu" brand for the high-end new energy market, and "Dongfeng" brand for the mainstream market.
Public data show that in 2023, Dongfeng sold a total of 2.4212 million cars, and new energy vehicles accounted for 21.6%, reaching 524,000. Among them, Landmap’s cumulative sales were 50,600, becoming one of the few car companies to complete the annual sales target, but there is still a big gap with the sales of new car brands.
According to the plan, Dongfeng will launch 21 independent new energy passenger car models and 17 new energy commercial vehicle basic models in the next three years, and the sales volume of independent new energy vehicles will reach more than 1 million by 2025.
It is worth mentioning that at the beginning of this year, Lantu and Warriors joined Huawei’s "Moments" one after another, planning to launch products that meet customers’ "differentiated needs" through cooperation, which also means that the two key new energy brands under Dongfeng in 2024 are expected to make breakthroughs in products and technologies.
As a representative of the "car-making national team", under the separate assessment of the new energy business of SASAC, the next three major enterprises may "make moves" to catch up with the leading independent brands in terms of technology, market share, and future development. The implementation of relevant policies is imminent, and the automotive industry is also expected to receive more support from SASAC and other relevant departments, effectively boost the automobile market, and continue to promote the sustainable development of China’s automobile industry in 2024.