Farewell to 2019 and look back at the four major farewell moments in the automotive industry

In a few hours, we will bid farewell to 2019 and welcome 2020.

This year, there have been many "farewell" moments in the automotive industry.

This year, An Tiecheng, the former chairman of Shenlong Motors, probably did not expect to say goodbye to his car company career in this way.

This year, after working in the FCA Group for more than 10 years, Zheng Jie, the former FCA "Queen", turned around and left the automotive industry and became the "Captain" Zheng Jie of Huazhu.

This year, a generation of "magic car" Xiali is about to bid farewell to A-shares.

This year, a series of sentimental models were forced to cease production, and the Beetle heritage was no longer in existence.

This year, new energy vehicles, which have been making rapid progress, also stumbled and said goodbye to their barbaric growth.

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If the "new four modernizations" are the bright future of automobiles, then now is undoubtedly the eve of grabbing admission tickets. Saying goodbye to the "bright era" of the car market, the night before was cold and windy. The continuous decline in sales has become the main theme in 2019. It was also in this year that the automobile giants who had made a huge success in the market began to gather together to keep each other warm and form their own circles of friends.

Farewell to 2019, the auto market has left these few memorable moments.

Market

Subsidies are declining, and new energy vehicles bid farewell to high growth. "Winter has arrived!" At the 2019 China Automobile Industry Summit, when talking about the new energy vehicle market, Xpeng Motors Founder and Chairman He Xiaopeng sighed.

In the first half of this year, my country's new energy vehicle market is still making rapid progress. Data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers shows that sales of new energy vehicles in my country have been experiencing positive year-on-year growth from January to May this year, reaching a peak of 152,000 units in June. By July, sales suddenly "cut in half."

The reason is well known, and the impact of the subsidy reduction is "indispensable".

Just like the national football team has been called to limit salaries, the market cultivation policy of using subsidies to "encourage" consumers to buy cars is not a long-term strategy after all.

If the "salary limit order" issued by the Football Association feels a bit forced, then the decline of the new energy vehicle subsidy policy is a long-established fact.

The new energy vehicle market, which is still in the development stage, is like a child being supported by an adult. Although it will walk slower after being let go, it will eventually learn to walk on its own.

“The new energy vehicle market has changed from a single-wheel drive of policy to a two-wheel drive of policy and market.” On December 27, BYD told us.

When you learn to walk by yourself, you will inevitably stumble.

In June 2019, new energy subsidies were reduced, and sales fell for the fifth consecutive time, causing many new energy vehicle companies to suffer.

In November, my country’s new energy vehicle sales were 95,000 units, a year-on-year decrease of 43.7%. This is already the "fifth consecutive decline" since July after subsidies were reduced in June this year. Compared with the year-on-year growth rate of 152.6 in January, the contrast is huge.

As Luo Lei, deputy secretary-general of the China Automobile Dealers Association, told us, in the past, many sales of new energy vehicles were actually driven by OEMs through investment in luxury travel and other methods. "Although the current sales of new energy vehicles have dropped, they are closer to the real needs of consumers. The past data are 'fake data'."

For the new car-making forces that have just started, it is more It was excruciating pain.

“Next year will be very stressful for Hezhong, so we have to fight to the death and live to the death.” During the 2019 Guangzhou Auto Show, Zhang Yong, President of Zhejiang Hezhong New Energy Vehicle Company, talked to us about new energy When the car is in its current state, it is described as a battle for survival.

The stock price has shrunk, financing has not gone smoothly, and he has experienced too many ups and downs. Li Bin, the founder of Weilai, was even called "the worst person in 2019" by the media.

Behind the decline of subsidies, there are still foreign brands eyeing it.

Not just Tesla. If foreign car companies have been slower in the past few years, then this year, Toyota, Volkswagen, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, BMW... almost all major foreign car companies have launched their latest electric vehicles, and head-on competition is no longer inevitable.

Models

Goodbye, the sacred car "Xia Li", goodbye, feelings

In 2019, there are also many people's feelings saying goodbye.

“We produce our own cars, which benefits China and the Chinese people. Let’s call it Xiali!” said Li Ruihuan, then mayor of Tianjin.

This theory has been circulating about the origin of Xia Li's name. At that time, it was 1986, and the first red two-cylinder car rolled off the assembly line in the workshop of Tianjin Xiali Factory.

Xia Li, who has not been a "big brother" for many years, is still constantly being screened in 2019.

Having been the national sales champion for 18 consecutive years and the first domestically produced car exported to the United States, Xiali was so famous in the past that it was known as the nation's "sacred car", along with Santana, Jetta and Fukang. "Like this" and also known as "Four King Kong".

The title of the nation’s “sacred car” is not for nothing.

It is said that "Old Paoer" Feng Xiaogang was Xu Fan who chased him in Xiali. After Zhao Benshan debuted, the first car he bought was Xiali.

Not to mention ordinary people, although the price of a car of 100,000 yuan was not cheap at the time, it was still easier to reach than the Volkswagen Santana and Jetta. At that time, Xiali was like a status symbol and a sentiment. The group of people who "got rich first" are also proud to buy Xiali.

However, on December 23, FAW Xiali issued 14 announcements in a row, announcing that its asset restructuring plan with China Railway Wusheng Technology Development Co., Ltd. had been approved by the board of directors and the board of supervisors. This means that FAW Xiali, which has stopped producing new cars in the past few years and has been relying on "selling and selling" to survive, finally announced that it will bid farewell to A-shares and cease to exist.

If the complete withdrawal of Xiali has made past generations of Chinese people say goodbye to their past feelings, then the discontinuation of Beetle has made fans around the world sigh.

On July 10, local time in Mexico, the last Beetle model rolled off the assembly line at the Puebla plant in Mexico. This marks that the Beetle model, which has been produced for 81 years and has gone through three generations of design, will officially cease production.

In 81 years, the Beetle has achieved a total sales volume of more than 21.5 million units, and its classic has become a symbol of sentiment.

However, when product strength cannot stop the decline in sales, mere sentiments cannot prevent the discontinuation of production.

In the "cold winter" of the market, many car companies have also said goodbye to sentimental models for "five buckets of rice".

At the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show, a large number of media became witnesses. BMW's new generation 1 Series based on the FAAR front-wheel drive platform was officially released. This not only means that the BMW 1 Series bids farewell to rear-wheel drive, but also declares that the "small steel cannon" models in the automotive world are officially extinct.

A typical example is Mazda, which prides itself on being independent.

The Chengdu Auto Show officially started pre-sales for the new Mazda 3 Angkesela. As a result, only the Sedan model was sold, and the classic hatchback version was absent from the domestic market. With sales as the guide, manufacturers will of course make the right choice. It's just a group of Mazda fans. Since then, there is no more model with a personalized label on the market.

There is also the discontinuation of production of Reizhi and Crown. The former means that there are no ordinary brand V6 engine rear-drive medium-sized cars on the market, while the latter means that only the Hongqi H7 and the 300,000-class rear-drive medium and large cars are left. Kia Stinger.

Without technology and no emphasis on research and development, no matter how classic or sentimental a model, it will eventually become obsolete. In the "cold winter" of the auto market, those car companies with a complex of technology inevitably bow to the mass market that dominates sales.

Car companies

Say goodbye to the traditional industrial structure and fight alone

“I don’t know what to do?” 28-year-old Xu Haidong (pseudonym), a traditional automotive R&D engineer I have only been working for less than 3 years, and at this age when I should strive the most, I am in confusion. "The company's performance is getting worse and worse. I don't know when it will lay off employees and close down. I want to change jobs but there is no way. Basically, I only recruit more senior engineers or electric and digital positions."

In 2015, just out of Xu Haidong from campus joined FAW Haima Automobile Co., Ltd.

I originally thought that my salary would double if I changed jobs in three years, and I would have a promising future. However, who knew that the traditional automotive engineer who was so popular now has no way to get into the job.

Xu Haidong’s confused current situation is just a microcosm of the structural imbalance of the automobile industry.

The "New Four Modernizations" are undoubtedly the bright future of the automotive industry, but under the wave of change, the demand for automotive talents has undergone earth-shaking changes. Before the arrival of "spring", the wave of layoffs hit us first.

At the end of 2019, the layoffs of car companies around the world are gradually reaching a climax. In the past two months, Audi announced that it will lay off 9,500 employees by 2025, and Daimler announced that it will lay off at least 10,000 employees in the next two years. Previously, international first-tier car companies including BMW, General Motors, Nissan and others have announced layoff plans.

According to incomplete statistics, the world's leading car companies have announced at least 100,000 layoffs since this year.

Car companies are launching a "tide wave" to cut costs; on the other hand, they are increasing their research and development budgets for smart electrification and the demand for technical talents such as electrification.

So in the auto market, such a scene has emerged: while auto companies are laying off employees, they are also hiring; while they are fighting in the market, they are also working together to keep warm.

On October 31, 2019, a big news suddenly broke out in the automotive industry: FCA and PSA announced their merger. It was not until December that the two parties formally confirmed the merger, and a world's fourth-largest automobile group with annual sales of 8.7 million vehicles was born.

On the occasion of the marriage of overseas automobile giants, the two major domestic automobile giants, SAIC Motor and Guangzhou Automobile Group, also suddenly announced their "hand in hand" in December.

According to a participant, "Chen Hong and Zeng Qinghong were face to face, not like competitors, but like old friends. It's been a long time since I've seen the two leaders of SAIC and GAC so happy."

The marriage between SAIC and GAC is the first cooperation between the two major automobile groups. As a leading company in the Chinese market, such an in-depth cooperation is more like an industry signal that "the new four modernizations of automobiles are heading towards the era of teaming up".

Whether it is a strong alliance or a group to keep warm, no car company can survive alone in the face of the gold-eating monster of the "new four modernizations".

It can be foreseen that fighting alone has become a thing of the past, and group exploration and alliance confrontation will become the new automobile competition pattern.

People

Car people who turned around in the cold winter of the car market

On December 30, at the 2019 National Business Work Conference department heads’ series of briefings, Hu Jianping, deputy director of the Market Construction Department of the Ministry of Commerce, said that it is expected that China's new car sales may reach 26 million units throughout the year, a year-on-year decrease of 7-8%.

This means that the stage of rapid popularization of automobiles in China has basically ended, and the automobile market has transformed from an incremental market to a stock market.

In 2019, two well-known domestic car people turned around and left the market in different ways, which also became a microcosm of an era.

In 2008, the financial crisis caused by the United States swept the world, and the Chinese automobile market was also experiencing a cold winter. Also in this year, Zheng Jie, a well-known "sonorous rose" in the Chinese automobile industry, entered Chrysler.

From 2008 to 2018, the number of vehicles increased from 9.38 million to 28.081 million, ranking first in the world for 10 consecutive years. This is the "golden decade" of the rapid development of China's automobile industry.

However, for Zheng Jie, she was still facing a parent company with liabilities exceeding US$10 billion and on the verge of bankruptcy. As she said herself: "This company couldn't be worse, how could it be worse?"

In 2010, Chrysler's sales in China were only 20,000 vehicles.

Zheng Jie, who chose to stay, quickly demonstrated her deep understanding and execution ability of the Chinese auto market. During Zheng Jie's leadership, the Jeep brand finally achieved localization and reached a new peak - in 2016, GAC FCA achieved sales of 180,000 units; in 2017, GAC FCA achieved sales of 222,000 units. In 2018, the cumulative number of Jeep brand users in China exceeded one million.

Even Zheng Jie, the first Chinese female executive to join the top management of a global automobile group, also left the automobile industry in March this year and switched to the hotel industry.

Another car person, An Tiecheng has a richer resume in the automotive field than Zheng Jie.

An Tiecheng, who has worked for FAW Group for 33 years, his greatest achievement during that period was leading FAW-Volkswagen to increase its production and sales volume from 250,000 units to 1.3 million units from 2005 to 2013. .

Coupled with his experience in joint ventures and independent companies, An Tiecheng "airborne" to Shenlong Motors in June 2017, and was immediately dubbed the "Savior of Shenlong" and "Firefighting Captain" by the media name.

However, two years later, An Tiecheng was transferred to China Automotive Center before he could prove himself. The time Shenlong gave him was only more than two years.

If given another half year, can An Tiecheng turn the tide for Shenlong? Can Zheng Jie bring a turnaround for Guangfike? Unfortunately there is no if. In the cold winter of the car market, there is not much time left for everyone to maneuver.

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.