Beijing Automotive's personnel shake-up, focusing on the independent sector

Author | Wang Xiaojun

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

The personnel upheaval among traditional automotive giants continues. This round involves BAIC.

Recently, BAIC Group and its subsidiaries BAIC Motor and BAIC Blue Valley (which will be renamed BAIC JiHoo) have been undergoing a series of personnel changes, mainly involving its two listed companies.

Specifically, according to the announcement, Chen Wei will resign as the chairman and non-executive director of BAIC Motor. Reports indicate that he will take over as chairman of BAIC Blue Valley.

Additionally, Peng Gang, the former vice president and party secretary of the sales company of BAIC Motor, will be promoted to deputy director of the marketing office of BAIC Group (in charge of work). He is a marketing expert born in the 1980s who has fought in BAIC's independent sector for many years.

Also adjusted are Li Jian and Wang Chunfeng, who will take over Peng Gang's positions. Li Jian, the former head of the brand management department of BAIC Group, will become the vice president of BAIC Motor and party secretary of the sales company, while Wang Chunfeng, the former deputy general manager of BAIC Motor Sales Co., Ltd., will be promoted to general manager of the sales company.

This is another major adjustment by BAIC Group targeting the new energy sector following the renaming of BAIC Blue Valley to BAIC JiHoo. The underlying logic of this adjustment is to optimize resource allocation in the independent sector through a younger and more professional team, concentrating resources to break through the two major brands of JiHoo and BAIC.

Last year, BAIC Group underwent a leadership change, with veteran Zhang Jianyong appointed as the party secretary and chairman of BAIC Group, after which a series of reforms began, setting new goals for BAIC—achieving a "renewal and upward" transformation of the BAIC brand within three years, enhancing brand awareness and reputation; and achieving a "brand leap" for the BAIC brand within five years, with sales and brand strength improvements, positioning the corporate brand influence and reputation among the top in Chinese automotive groups, and stabilizing the independent brand in the "first tier."

However, achieving these goals is not easy in the current fiercely competitive environment.

Within BAIC's system, there are joint ventures such as Beijing Benz, Beijing Hyundai, and Fujian Benz, with independent passenger vehicles mainly represented by JiHoo and BAIC. For a long time, BAIC has faced the issue of relative weakness in its independent brands, with sales and revenue heavily reliant on joint venture brands.

In recent years, sales of joint venture brands have declined, and independent brands have not risen as expected, leading to poor overall performance for BAIC. From the performance of the two listed companies, the situation is also not optimistic. In the first three quarters of 2024, BAIC Motor achieved revenue of 144.021 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 6.7%; the net profit attributable to the parent company was 3.102 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 23%; while BAIC Blue Valley reported a net loss of 4.49 billion yuan in the first three quarters of 2024, a year-on-year increase of 38.2%.

BAIC is attempting to reverse the external perception of its new energy business.

BAIC obtained new energy vehicle production qualifications as early as 2009, being the first manufacturer to receive such qualifications. However, in the past decade, its new energy sector has lingered in the B-end market, and its long-term brand image has been difficult to change.

However, this situation has changed somewhat since the launch of the high-end brand JiHoo. When JiHoo was introduced, it had a first-mover advantage, collaborating early with major companies such as Huawei and CATL, and successfully went public through a reverse merger in 2018. During those years, BAIC was once the sales champion in the new energy market In recent years, market competition has become more intense, and more brands have partnered with Huawei. ZEEKR is neither a smart selection car model nor has it long focused on pure electric vehicles; therefore, it has neither caught the spotlight of cooperation with Huawei nor benefited from the rapid growth of hybrid/extender vehicles, resulting in a persistent lack of explosive sales opportunities.

It wasn't until last year that the prices of models like the Alpha T5 under ZEEKR dropped repeatedly, even reaching around 100,000 yuan, allowing ZEEKR to close 2024 with an annual sales volume of 81,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 170%. However, there is still a significant gap from the 600,000-unit target for 2027.

Additionally, last year, BAIC partnered with Huawei, making BAIC Blue Valley a hot concept stock related to Huawei at that time. Later, both parties focused on the 400,000 yuan market, creating an executive sedan, the Xiangjie S9, to compete with the luxury brand's "56E." However, with monthly sales around a thousand units, it clearly cannot be considered very successful.

Nevertheless, BAIC's exposure has significantly increased due to this partnership. Recently, information about the range-extended version of the Xiangjie S9 has been announced, and it remains to be seen whether it can replicate Huawei's ability to turn stone into gold and become the next "dark horse," leading BAIC's new energy brand to a new level.

In addition to the Xiangjie S9 launching a range-extended version, ZEEKR has also cut its pure electric products and started to layout range-extended models, hoping to catch up with the wave of explosive growth in range extenders.

Since the leadership change at BAIC Group last year, a series of initiatives to strengthen independence have already begun, and this personnel adjustment is also a key step in that process.

Since last year, BAIC has adopted a new "BAIC" logo and started to build a new brand structure. In terms of research and development, BAIC Group's R&D investment exceeded 13 billion yuan last year, most of which is directed towards key technologies in electrification and intelligence. Although this puts pressure on short-term finances, it is expected to yield results in the future.

In addition to strengthening cooperation with Huawei, BAIC has also partnered with CATL, Didi, and Pony.ai in new project areas to promote the implementation of key electrification and intelligence projects. The layout of these new projects is also expected to make its ecosystem in the industrial chain and production services more complete, leading to collaborative development.

Currently, the remaining new forces in the automotive industry each have their own chips, and traditional car manufacturers are also changing leadership and preparing for a strong offensive. The new round of competition will undoubtedly be more intense. BAIC clearly needs to enhance its profitability and improve its brand competitiveness, which requires products that are more recognized by the market.

After the personnel adjustments, it remains to be seen whether BAIC can demonstrate renewed competitiveness in terms of products and marketing