"Those who observe the trend are clear, those who are trending are wise, and those who control the situation are unique in the world. —Guiguzi
As the world's largest single market and the fastest-growing automobile market, China's "cake" is huge, and the pace of switching from the era of fuel vehicles to the new energy era is also significantly faster than others. It is in the context of the rapid transformation of electrification, intelligence and digitalization that we can see that some car companies use corners to overtake to make sales rise, and some car companies are being surpassed in corners and are accelerating the loss of heat.
When many car companies are generally facing the pain of transformation and change, we have heard a firm and loud voice:We want to set a model for joint venture new energy, a model to prove the strength of the joint venture systemA model that proves that joint venture products can still be played. And the person who shouted this sentence was Gao Guolin, then vice president of Dongfeng Motor and deputy general manager of Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company.
From "Mr. Accounts" to the "head" of car companies
Gao Guolin is an old Dongfeng man, who entered Dongfeng after graduating from university, and has served for nearly 30 years, which can be said to have witnessed the whole process of Dongfeng Nissan brand from scratch and from weak to strong.
But what many people don't know is that after graduating from Xi'an Jiaotong University in 1988, although Gao Guolin successively worked for Shenzhen Dongfeng Real Estate, Fengshen Automobile, Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle, Dongfeng Venucia, and Dongfeng Motor Group. He has a full value chain management mindset and rich experience in business management, but for a long time, his work content is related to financial management and business management.
From the "Mr. Accounts" in everyone's eyes to one of the "heads" of car companies, its span is self-evident, but it is not uncommon in the automotive industry, but at this node in 2021, he will take over the position of vice president of Dongfeng Motor and deputy general manager of Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company, which is still a matter of both opportunities and challenges.
Because in the past for a long time, Dongfeng Nissan has been in a highlight moment, achieving sales of more than one million vehicles for many years, and the development is very steady, even in 2018, when the domestic automobile market began to decline, Dongfeng Nissan's cumulative terminal sales of the whole network have reached 1166696, a year-on-year increase of 39%, it is not an exaggeration to say that he is a high-level receiver.
However, when the joint venture brands feel that they can sit back and relax, with the shareholder wind of intelligence and electrification, Chinese auto brands are rising rapidly. Coupled with the consumption downgrade brought about by the epidemic for three years, the style of joint venture brands that do not have too many product reserves has changed suddenly and has begun to be fully sung. According to the data provided by the China Automobile Dealers Association, there will be 2,362 4S stores withdrawn from the network in 2020, and nearly 1,400 4S stores will be withdrawn from the network in 2021, of which the number of 4S stores of French, Korean and American joint venture brands will be the largest.
In the face of such a situation, stabilizing the sales base and accelerating the electrification of the brand have become the most urgent tasks for the joint venture brands, and it is naturally a challenge for Gao Guolin. Perhaps because of his low-key and pragmatic financial background, we can often see this "head" of a car company going deep into the front line to conduct point-to-point research on brand channels and terminal operations.
After the X-Trail e-power with the slogan of "the same price of oil and electricity" was listed, Gao Guolin went non-stop, from Sichuan and Chongqing to Northeast China, visited Chongqing, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning and other places one after another, answered the dealers' confusion, carefully recorded each of their suggestions, and quickly set up a working group to solve the dealers' difficulties and difficulties with the fastest efficiency, in order to let them better operate the local market and improve the level of operation, so as to make adequate preparations for improving terminal sales and customer service capabilities.
In the face of the problem of brain drain and lack of talent within the enterprise, Gao Guolin carried out a drastic reform of the organizational structure, changed the marketing department to the user operation center, and opened up sources and reduced expenditure in marketing. Gone are the overwhelming ads, replaced by warm marketing aimed at precise users. At the "New Sylphy Family Listing and 5 Million Happy Family Gathering Night", Dongfeng Nissan played the sentimental card, and the phrase "will be happy" was almost on the lips of every car owner present;At the time of the release of "Dongfeng Nissan Pure Electric Confession Night and ARIYA Launch", "Dongfeng Nissan ARIYA is Loving You" played with homophonic stalks, so that many people quickly remembered this new product and completed textbook-level marketing again and again.
From "traditional joint ventures" to "new brands of electrification and digitalization".
At any time, for any car brand, the product always comes first. Compared with maintaining sales and stabilizing the foundation, there is a more important task and pressure for Gao Guolin, that is, to promote the electrification and digital transformation of Dongfeng Nissan. After all, this represents the future of Dongfeng Nissan.
Therefore, in the choice of new energy strategy and technical route, Dongfeng Nissan also thinks more thoroughly, and many new car-making forces are different from the pure electric market, Dongfeng Nissan's attitude is clear, that is, it will adhere to the strategy of fuel, pure electric, and hybrid three power paths.
At this stage, Dongfeng Nissan has rich technical achievements in the field of electrification. For example, the efficient e-power system installed on the Sylphy and X-Trail models, relying on advanced technologies such as "flash charging and flashing", not only has high safety and low fuel consumption, but also provides users with a quality comparable to that of pure electric vehicles, and can help users quickly adapt to pure electric vehicles.
The first model ARIYA based on the world's top cloud map professional pure electric platform is different from other car companies that directly use the first-class commercial battery solution, Dongfeng Nissan uses self-developed battery cells, customized special line production in accordance with Nissan's global high standards, and has 100% strict testing and screening, avoiding potential safety hazards from the source, and at the same time has a longer service life and higher energy density. In addition, ARIYA also uses a specially designed one-piece aluminum battery cabin to improve the extrusion and collision resistance of the battery pack, and build a set of "copper walls" for the safety of the vehicle's battery.
It is also based on the profound car-making heritage that Dongfeng Nissan has gained more than 15 million users in the Chinese market. Standing at this new starting point, Dongfeng Nissan, which has been deeply involved in the Chinese market for 20 years, knows best the truth that "water can carry a boat, and it can also capsize a boat". Therefore, brands need a blade that can better embrace the Chinese market, and this blade is Venucia. Compared to other brands, walking on one leg is different. Venucia adheres to the three major technical routes of pure electric, plug-in hybrid and FCV hydrogen energy, and its layout in the field of new energy is at the forefront of Japanese brands.
From "technology undertaking" to "intelligent manufacturing in China".
With more than 2,000 people, Dongfeng Nissan Technology Center has super independent research and development capabilities, and under the leadership of Gao Guolin, Dongfeng Nissan Technology Center has also mastered a stronger right to speak, officially bidding farewell to the situation of "what Japan gives, Dongfeng Nissan makes". Venucia's three new vehicles, the DD-i ultra-hybrid, VX6 and the VX6, are not only the first models of the brand to land in each of the three major technical routes, but also a product that Dongfeng Nissan Technology Center has dug deep into and caters to the needs of Chinese consumers, and it is also a powerful embodiment of its strong R&D strength and profound heritage. The presentation of these achievements also made the brand concept of "in China for China" emphasized to the public at the Guangzhou International Auto Show some time ago that Gao Guolin emphasized to the public that "in China for China" sounds more than just a slogan.
Although the volume of fuel vehicles in the Chinese market still ranks first in the world, but from the perspective of the penetration rate and growth rate of new energy vehicles, it has the first-mover advantage of completing product iteration earlier, and the current electrification transformation in China has also been verified by the market. That is to say, in addition to Venucia, products such as NIO ET5 and Ideal L8, which are completely based on the needs of Chinese consumers and can make people shine, are also likely to appear in Dongfeng Nissan in the future.
On December 6, 2023, Dongfeng Motor Group officially issued a personnel adjustment notice, and Comrade Gao Guolin will no longer serve as the deputy general manager of Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company, and will continue to serve as the vice president of Dongfeng Motor. The notice said that Comrade Gao Guolin has worked in the Dongfeng Nissan system for a long time, and has made important contributions to the new energy development, digital transformation and new marketing model innovation of Dongfeng Nissan. Gao Guolin also said that he will continue to support the stable and efficient development of Dongfeng Nissan at the level of Dongfeng Motor.
Shu Jin said: The ancients used a few words to expound the wisdom of dealing with the changes of the times. Standing at the cusp of a century-old change in the automotive industry, there is no need for anyone to "take the blame" on the overall decline in sales of joint venture brands. Because the automobile industry is always a marathon competition, ups and downs are inevitable, but the times create heroes, heroes become the times, including Gao Guolin, the heads of joint venture car companies have to do is, the more critical the period, the more we have to bear the pressure, the more the era of change, the more we must embrace change.
After all, in the face of the giant wheel of the electrification trend, it is the people who can understand the general trend of history, the smart people who conform to it, and the people who drive it are the trendsetters. Fortunately, at this stage, Dongfeng Nissan keeps up with the times and is close to consumers, and we have reason to believe that this forward-looking and pragmatic "evergreen tree of car companies" can still be in the joint venture 20 times win the future.