AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)10/27 Report--

Dongfeng Motor finally announced its new leader! On October 27, Dongfeng Automobile Group Co., Ltd. announced the decision of the main leadership adjustment: Yang Qing was appointed chairman and party committee secretary of Dongfeng Automobile Group Co., Ltd., and dismissed from his post as general manager of Dongfeng Automobile Group Co., Ltd. The relevant dismissal shall be handled in accordance with the provisions of the relevant laws and articles of association.

According to the data, Yang Qing was born in July 1966, joined Communist Party of China in August 1993, worked in June 1988, and graduated from Wuhan University of Technology (formerly Wuhan Institute of Technology) majoring in internal combustion engine. He joined Dongfeng Automobile Company in July 1988. He has successively served as Deputy Chief engineer of Piston bearing Factory of Dongfeng Motor Company, Director of Steel Pipe Ring Workshop and Party Branch Secretary, Deputy General Manager of Dongfeng Automobile Piston bearing Co., Ltd., General Manager of Dongfeng Automobile Fasteners Co., Ltd., General Manager of Dongfeng Automobile Axle Co., Ltd., executive deputy general manager of Dongfeng Dana Axle Co., Ltd.

In August 2016, Dongfeng Commercial vehicle Co., Ltd. held a cadre meeting and recommended Yang Qing to be the general manager of Dongfeng Commercial vehicle Co., Ltd. In April 2017, Dongfeng Motor Company held an enlarged leadership meeting and announced that Yang Qing was appointed Deputy General Manager and member of the standing Committee of the Party Committee of Dongfeng Motor Company. In March 2018, Dongfeng Commercial vehicle Co., Ltd. announced that Yang Qing, member of the standing Committee of the Party Committee and Deputy General Manager of Dongfeng Automobile Group Co., Ltd., was also the Party Committee Secretary of Dongfeng Commercial vehicle Co., Ltd. In July 2018, Yang Qing no longer holds the post of party committee secretary of Dongfeng Commercial vehicle Co., Ltd. In March 2020, Yang Qing no longer holds the post of general manager of Dongfeng Commercial vehicle Co., Ltd.

In July 2020, Dongfeng Automobile Group Co., Ltd. held a leading group (expanded) meeting to announce the central government's decision on the appointment and removal of cadres: comrade Yang Qing was appointed director and deputy secretary of the party committee of Dongfeng Automobile Group Co., Ltd. He will no longer hold the post of deputy general manager of Dongfeng Automobile Group Co., Ltd. In February 2021, Yang Qing was appointed Director, General Manager and Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Dongfeng Automobile Group Co., Ltd.

In March 2023, Dongfeng Automobile Group Co., Ltd. held a leading group meeting. Entrusted by the leaders of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, the responsible comrades of the relevant departments of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee announced the Central Committee's decision on the removal of the chairman and party committee secretary of Dongfeng Motor Group Co., Ltd.: according to the needs of the work, in accordance with the relevant regulations on the age of central enterprise leaders, Comrade Zhu Yanfeng was removed from the post of chairman and party committee secretary of Dongfeng Automobile Group Co., Ltd. Since then, under the background of the vacancy of the chairman of Dongfeng Automobile Group, Yang Qing, the then general manager, temporarily presided over Dongfeng's work.

Yang Qing took over as chairman of Dongfeng Automobile Group with a heavy burden and heavy task. Data show that Dongfeng Motor Group sold a total of 1.4913 million vehicles in the first three quarters of 2023, down 20.73% from the same period last year. Sales of its major joint venture brands all declined on a large scale, including Dongfeng Honda sales down 19.42% year-on-year to 412400 vehicles, Dongfeng Nissan down 29.93% to 506900 vehicles, and Dragon Motor down 29.47%.

The overall performance of the joint venture brand is lower than the market level, which directly affects the profit performance of Dongfeng Motor, which is also the main reason why Dongfeng Motor does not increase profits. According to the financial report, Dongfeng Motor Group achieved operating income of 45.677 billion yuan in the first half of the year, an increase of 2.9% over the same period last year; the profit attributable to equity holders of the parent company was 1.27 billion yuan, down 76.9% from the same period last year; it is understood that Dongfeng Motor should share 1.403 billion yuan in profits and losses of the joint venture during the reporting period, a decrease of 3.822 billion yuan compared with the same period, of which Dongfeng limited decreased by 1.76 billion yuan and Dongfeng Honda decreased by 1.514 billion yuan.

Where is the way of joint venture brand? Life is hard for both Dongfeng Nissan and Dongfeng Honda. In the era of fuel cars, Japanese cars have good brand awareness and good reputation, leather solid, durable, fuel-saving and other labels bring it a certain premium, but in the era of electric cars, these original cognitive labels have been unable to support the premium. As the later followers of electric cars, Japanese brands are no longer faced with established giants such as Volkswagen and General Motors, but Chinese brands such as BYD and Ian.

For Dongfeng Group, the adjustment of management structure is extremely urgent. On the one hand, fuel vehicles with joint venture brands as the main sales force are suffering from a continuous decline in market share, while the heavily invested new energy brands have not yet played a role in boosting the group's sales.

On August 16, Dongfeng Motor launched the new energy strategy of Dongfeng passenger vehicles and made a major adjustment to the management system of the new energy cause of independent passenger vehicles. After the adjustment, Dongfeng Motor will integrate the management of Dongfeng Fengshen, Dongfeng e π and Dongfeng Nano. Among them, Dongfeng Fengshen will accelerate the transformation from fuel vehicles to energy-efficient vehicles, Dongfeng e π will position itself as an electric brand oriented to the mainstream market, and Dongfeng Nano will be a pure electric brand for small market segments. So far, Dongfeng Group has formed a brand pattern of "fierce" brand for luxury electric off-road market, "Lantu" brand for high-end new energy market, and "Dongfeng" brand for mainstream market in the field of passenger cars.

In fact, as early as 2021, Dongfeng Group has paved the way for the transformation of new energy, and has invested huge amounts of money. In April 2021, Dongfeng Company released the "Oriental Wind" plan and the "transition Action" of scientific and technological innovation, which plans to increase investment in new energy vehicles and speed up the transformation to scientific and technological enterprises. However, although Dongfeng Automobile Group has invested heavily in the field of new energy, it has not received good market feedback. Industry insiders say that for independent brands that are in transition, it still takes time to incubate the growth of new brands. In addition to the high-end brand Lantu, Dongfeng needs to make a sound in the mainstream new energy market as soon as possible.

In addition to accelerating the transformation of its own brands, Dongfeng Group is also promoting the electrification of joint venture brands to shorten the time cycle of electric vehicle research and development as much as possible. Nissan will use the S pure electric platform in Dongfeng's newly released quantum intelligent electric architecture to develop and produce Nissan's pure electric models, but the exact form of cooperation between the two sides is not clear, the Daily Business Daily reported. You Zheng, deputy general manager of Dongfeng Motor Group, said in an interview that Audi recently bought SAIC's platform, Volkswagen bought Xiaopeng's platform, Volkswagen bought zero running platform for Jetta, and Nissan will also use Dongfeng's platform. It further said that if Volkswagen develops products on its own platform, the window period for the MEB platform will be between 2022 and 2026. In the past four years, he has chosen to use SAIC, Xiaopeng, zero running platform, autopilot and intelligent network connection technology to fill this gap, which can also shorten the development cycle of the enterprise.

For the current Dongfeng Automobile, how to give full play to the traditional car companies' original supply chain, after-sales service and other advantages, continue to add new energy track, is the key to gradually enhance its market competitiveness in the future. At the same time, in the context of the decline of joint venture brands, how to break the shortcomings of independent brands and speed up the transformation of traditional joint ventures is also the key.

According to the plan, the brand new model of Dongfeng independent passenger car will be 100% electric in 2024. By 2025, the annual sales of new energy vehicles will exceed 1 million, including 700000 new energy vehicles in the three major product lines of the "Dongfeng" brand. In terms of overseas exports, the export volume of Dongfeng's own brand accounts for no less than 10%.

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