What are the chances that Dongfeng Qichen will leave Marley again?

More than half of the top 30 manufacturers achieved year-on-year growth. When the performance of many peers has obviously increased, Dongfeng Qichen has not yet bottomed out, and the market performance is difficult to be optimistic. 1 By April this year, the sales volume of Dongfeng Qichen decreased by 56% year-on-year. During the same period, the sales volume of domestic passenger cars decreased by 35%, which was lower than that of Qichen.

If there is no big improvement in the later period, this year may be the third year after Marley took office. In 20 19, Dongfeng Qichen sold 20 12.3 vehicles in 20 19, down 8.6% year-on-year, and only completed 8 1% of the minimum target in 20 19. In 20 18, Dongfeng qichen * * * sold134,000 vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of nearly 8%.

Regarding the continuous decline in sales of Dongfeng Qichen in recent years, automobile analyst Zhang Xiang told CRRC reporter: "Dongfeng Qichen is a joint venture and can be understood as the sun company of Dongfeng Group. At the beginning of the joint venture, it was only a separate brand of the joint venture company. After separation, most of them lack funds and cannot really be independent portals. Before Dongfeng Qichen, the selling point was to use Nissan technology, which was cheaper than Nissan and better in quality than its own brand. However, the general quality of independent brands has also improved, accumulating a certain living space for joint ventures such as Dongfeng Qichen. "

The market has been declining for two years.

Dongfeng Qichen was founded on 20 10, which was originally Nissan's own brand. The previous models were repackaged for Nissan's old platforms and models. Before the separation, the company was named "Dongfeng Nissan Qichen". At the beginning of 20 17, Qichen announced that it had left Nissan, upgraded to the same level as Dongfeng Nissan, and entered the ranks of independent brands from a joint venture.

Now, in addition to sharing the manufacturing plant with Dongfeng Nissan, Dongfeng Qichen also has a comprehensive management department, business planning department, finance department, commodity planning department, modeling department, marketing department, sales department and after-sales service department, which basically has a complete automobile enterprise structure. However, in terms of equity relationship, Dongfeng Qichen is still a subsidiary of Dongfeng Co., Ltd., a joint venture between Dongfeng Group and Nissan, which is different from Dongfeng's brand Fengshen.

The glory of Dongfeng Qichen seems to stay in the first year after "solo flight". In 20 17 years, its wholesale sales reached143,000 vehicles, up 25% year-on-year, setting a new record for the annual sales of Qichen brand.

20 17 is the highlight moment of Dongfeng Qichen and Marley. At that time, the D60 built by Marley became the main sales model of the brand, contributing nearly half of the sales performance in 20 17. On 20 18, Zhou Xianpeng was promoted to executive vice president of Dongfeng co., ltd, and Marley officially took over, and vice general manager of Dongfeng qichen was promoted to general manager.

Ma Lei, born in 1979, is a young man among the heads of automobile industry in China. In 2002, after graduating from University of Shanghai for Science and Technology with a major in industrial engineering, Ma began to serve as Guangzhou Fengshen Automobile Industrial Engineer and Minister of Industrial Engineering. After 20 10, he served as deputy director of Dongfeng Nissan's management planning office and director of dealer support department of sales headquarters. 2065438+In February 2007, Ma Lei was appointed as the deputy general manager of Dongfeng Qichen, responsible for marketing, sales and after-sales service.

Marley, who is outstanding in marketing position, put forward the concept of "flying close to the ground and precise marketing". The flying time in 20 17 exceeded 293 hours, which increased the coverage rate of Qichen from 50.8% in 20 16 to 60%.

However, after Ma Lei was promoted to the top position, when the products planned by Dongfeng Qichen in the early stage were put on the market, most of them received little feedback or even withdrew from the market.

The general trend has gone, and the main models are insufficient.

After 20 18, Qichen launched T70, T60 and other low-priced SUVs, but most of them were flat in sales. In April this year, the sales volume of Dongfeng Qichen * * * was 5,529 vehicles, of which the D60 car launched before Marley took office was still the sales volume of Dongfeng Qichen, accounting for nearly 50% of the total sales volume.

In 20 19, the overall sales volume of Dongfeng Qichen T60, T70 and T90 SUV models was 43,957, and the sales volume of car D60 terminal was 72,265,438+09, contributing nearly 60%.

In the introduction of new energy products, Marley is more radical. In the second half of 2065438+2009, the layout of compact car D60EV, small SUVT60EV and micro SUVe30 electric car was completed in three months, and there was no improvement.

Marley seems to realize that it was not a good idea to launch electric products on a large scale last year. He has publicly stated that the electric vehicle market in China will enter a difficult moment in the next two years. The main challenges include the oversupply of travel service providers and the continuous structural adjustment of the entire travel service industry. However, vehicle arrangement and vehicle source are still affected by subsidies. After the subsidies are further reduced, the market may fall into a downward trend.

The change of the general environment is one of the dilemmas that Marley is facing at present. The sales volume of Qichen star products exceeded 10,000 in June, and now the sales volume in 2743 is three quarters less than that in the past. This model was advertised as "Sylphy" in China edition, because its engine HR 16 is the same as Nissan Sylphy HR 16, but there is a gap in maximum horsepower and power.

In recent years, the price of LaVida, Sylphy and other models produced by Dongfeng Nissan has dropped below 6.5438+10,000 yuan, which has had an impact on products such as Dongfeng Qichen D60.

Marley has also publicly admitted that Dongfeng Qichen has experienced the development and changes of China automobile market for ten years. At the beginning, the automobile market only needed one car and the corresponding channel marketing system. If the appearance and price are right, the sales volume will not be bad. But now that the market has changed, car companies need to consider more.

In this regard, Zhang Xiaoliang, the founder of So Car, an automobile consulting company, said: "The automobile market environment in 17 years needed some reliable products with good quality and low price, while Qichen at that time still stayed in a more suitable time window. Nowadays, the market competition is more intense. Automobile products are either fully functional or from big brands, and it is difficult to find a market for economical products with relatively few functions. Qichen's current products lag behind pure independent brands in terms of design, performance and function. "

Where is the independent way out for joint venture?

In Zhang Xiaoliang's view, Marley has his own difficulties. Dongfeng Qichen does not have a huge team of designers and R&D teams, and the whole back-office system is not fully established, lacking strong system support. In contrast, many independent brands rooted in Hongmiao have their own design centers in China's first tier cities and even several major cities around the world.

"Because Qichen is also a subsidiary of Dongfeng Nissan Joint Venture, the foreign party has half the decision-making power, and the technical support depends on the foreign party. In order to protect their own interests, foreigners don't want Qichen to surpass themselves in all aspects of the car. This means that malei does not have much autonomy in improving materials and functions. " Zhang Xiaoliang said.

Dongfeng Qichen is one of the few surviving joint venture brands. When Qichen was founded, Guangqi Honda concept, Dongfeng Honda Siming, SAIC-Volkswagen Tian Yue, FAW-Volkswagen Carrier and Changan Ford jiayue were successively established. Most of the products they provide are localized transformation of their joint venture brands that are on the verge of elimination, and the platform technology used is also relatively old. Now, except for a few brands such as Qichen, the others have been killed.

The insiders believe that at that time, many automobile groups wanted to take shortcuts to make a new brand of the joint venture company independent, taking the joint venture independent model. But in the end, they found that this model is neither fish nor fowl, and it is better to be purely independent. Later, the automobile group was a purely independent business like Fengshen, and China was not interested in maintaining his joint venture brand in the early years. Finally, neither foreign investors nor China people are willing to provide too much financial support for their own joint venture brands in technology and research and development.

"Do a joint venture, everyone basically can't find the direction. If it is a purely independent brand, it has more autonomy and can do it according to its own wishes. If it wants to do all the functions, if it wants to improve the material standard, it will be upgraded. There are not so many rules and regulations, and it is easier to conquer the market than joint ventures. " Zhang Xiaoliang said bluntly.

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.