The first stop of Hechuang Automobile Export fell in Myanmar.
A few days ago, Hechuang Automobile signed a distribution agreement with Myanmar MNEM *** and officially entered the Myanmar market. According to the strategic cooperation agreement, Hechuang Automobile will join hands with Myanmar MNEM Company to launch Hechuang Z03, A06, V09 and other products in Myanmar. Myanmar's leading businessman MNEM has also become the first overseas V09 user of Hechuang Automobile.
According to reliable sources, the first phase of Hechuang Auto's overseas business strategy will mainly focus on the expansion and promotion of markets such as the European Union, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. In addition, the company is also exploring the possibility of overseas assembly through KD. "For Hechuang and many other car companies, going overseas is a new topic, and they are all adjusting and responding while walking. Some relevant personnel said this to the "automobile talk".
Domestic sales were sluggish
Founded in 2018, the company was originally jointly funded by GAC and NIO, and the name of the company was still GAC NIO at that time. In 2021, Guangdong Zhujiang Investment Management Group *** hereinafter referred to as "Zhujiang Investment Group") took over, and at the same time, NIO fully withdrew, and the company officially changed its name to Hechuang Automobile.
At present, the actual controller of Hechuang Automobile is Zhutou Group, with a shareholding ratio of about 6856%。In addition, GAC Aion and GAC Group also hold Hechuang Automobile respectively. 46% of the shares.
Since its establishment, the company has launched four products, including the mid-size electric SUV Hechuang 007, the compact electric SUV Z03, the mid-size electric sedan A06 and the electric MPV V09. Despite the tight pace of product launches, none of them sparked a strong market response.
Industry sales data show that in November this year, Hechuang Automobile sold only 520 vehicles, of which 007, Z03, A06 and V09 sold 2, 129, 40 and 349 respectively. Although the V09 was launched in the second half of this year, it took on most of the sales of Hechuang Automobile, but on the whole, Hechuang Automobile is still under pressure. From January to November this year, the cumulative sales of Hechuang Automobile were 1770,000 units. According to the development of this trend, Hechuang Automobile even last year's 1890,000 units sold, all of which are difficult to achieve.
Frequent personnel changes
The reason for the lack of improvement in sales is that the brand awareness and market influence of Hechuang Automobile are relatively low, and it is difficult to attract potential customers. Second, the frequent change of the senior management team of Hechuang Auto has led to a lack of coherence and stability in the marketing strategy.
"Automobile" learned from relevant people close to Hechuang Automobile that in the first half of this year, Du Lan, who had just joined Hechuang Automobile as co-president of Hechuang Automobile, had officially resigned around the end of October, when V09 was not long after it was listed.
Immediately after the beginning of November, the "number one" of Hechuang Automobile changed again, Li Zhihong no longer served as the president of Hechuang Automobile Technology, and officially announced that Zhang Yuesai, the former vice chairman of GAC Passenger Vehicle, was the president of Hechuang Automobile Technology, and was fully responsible for the company's production and operation management.
It is understood that as a marketing veteran who has revived GAC Trumpchi, Zhang Yue just retired from GAC the day before the race, and parachuted into Hechuang Automobile the next day. It is not difficult to see from this that GAC Group and Zhutou Group affirm this veteran, as well as the urgency of Hechuang Automobile to change the status quo.
It's just that after Zhang Yuesai joined Hechuang Automobile again, he was very low-key, and there was no relevant action until this entry into the Myanmar market, and the outside world knew that export had become the direction of Hechuang Automobile.
Myanmar has both opportunities and challenges
The prototype of the Z03 has been exported to Germany, Egypt, Azerbaijan and other countries and regions, and has reached preliminary agreements with many countries and regions. ”
Yang Ying, co-president of Hechuang Automobile, revealed in an interview with ** that Hechuang Automobile is promoting EU certification and preparing for entering the European market. At the same time, the project of Hechuang Automobile to enter the Middle East market is also being promoted. In August this year, it signed a purchase and sales intention with MJ in Turkey and obtained the first batch of overseas orders.
Based on in-depth consideration of overseas markets, Hechuang Auto decided to set up its first export business in Myanmar, perhaps in order to make full use of Myanmar's geographical advantages and market potential to further expand the company's business territory in the Southeast Asian market.
Of course, the challenges of the Myanmar market cannot be ignored. On the one hand, Myanmar suspended the import license of individual cars and the import license of cars in car showrooms from the end of September 2021**Announcement issued on December 16, 2022 stipulates that only left-hand drive vehicles will be allowed to be imported from 2023, and strict requirements will be imposed on the production life of each imported vehicle type.
On the other hand, according to the latest report from Myanmar**, Myanmar's vehicle trading market has seen some changes recently. In some cities, high-vintage left-hand drive cars and high-value vehicles have become cold in the market, while relatively low-value vehicles can still be traded normally. At present, among the four models on sale in China, the price of 2 models has reached about 300,000 yuan, and the price of 2 models is about 150,000 yuan, which also means that when entering the Myanmar market, Hechuang Automobile needs to pay close attention to market changes and adjust its strategy in time to ensure that its business can adapt to and make full use of market opportunities and conditions.