At the end of the year and the beginning of the year, car companies began to make frequent personnel changes. According to incomplete statistics from the Red Star Capital Bureau, in the past four months, a total of about 20 car companies and three major international first-chain giants have undergone high-level changes, involving more than 50 executives. Through personnel reforms, car companies are seeking new developments such as reducing costs and increasing efficiency, improving performance, and accelerating the transformation of new energy.
New EV manufacturers reduce costs and increase efficiency.
Recently, among the new forces of car manufacturing, NIO (09866hk/nio.US), Nezha Automobile, Xiaopeng Motors (09868.).hk/xpev.US) and Leapmotor (09863.)HK) have had senior executives leave one after another.
On January 6, Bai Jian, vice president of Weilai Hardware, confirmed on Weibo that Yin Shuijun, the head of Weilai mobile phone, will leave his post and Bai Jian will take over the mobile phone business.
Yin Shuijun, a former president of Meitu Mobile, officially joined NIO in 2022 and led the establishment of NIO's mobile phone business team, mainly responsible for the implementation of the mobile phone business. In September last year, NIO Phone was officially launched.
The outside world speculates that Yin Shuijun's resignation is because NIO's mobile phone business does not meet expectations, and the future is worrying. After the launch of the mobile phone, NIO has never disclosed the sales volume to the public. At the end of last year, NIO announced that it would lay off at least 10% of its workforce and postpone and cut projects that would not improve its financial performance for three years to ensure the company's long-term competitiveness.
Xpeng's personnel changes have been going on for more than a year. On January 22, Wang Fengying led a new round of organizational restructuring of Xpeng Motors, involving multiple departments such as marketing, human resources, intelligent data, manufacturing and product planning.
Huang Ronghai, the former head of the Data Intelligence Center (DIC), is in charge of the human resources department, and Chen Dan, the former head of the human resources department, has resigned from Xpeng Motors; Zhang Li, the former general manager of Great Wall Motors, who joined Xpeng Motors a few months ago, was in charge of production and manufacturing, replacing Jiang Ping, who had retired; Jiang Ziyang, who previously worked as a senior consultant for positioning consulting at Reece Strategy, joined Xpeng Motors to be responsible for product planning, after being led by Wu Meng. In addition, public relations director Xu Jing was rumored to be demoted, although the news was not confirmed by Xpeng Motors.
On January 9, the smart brand announced that Yi Han was appointed as the deputy CMO of the smart brand global company and the CEO of the Chinese marketing company. On January 19, Wang Tao, the former head of visual perception of Xpeng Motors' U.S. team, resigned.
After the sales "fall" in 2023, the management of Nezha Automobile Marketing Company has changed blood.
According to Nezha Auto's internal appointment documents, CEO Daniel Zhang personally leads the marketing team and will also serve as the president of the marketing company. Zhou Jiang, vice president of Nezha Automobile, will also serve as the executive vice president of the marketing company, assisting Daniel Zhang in managing the Shanhai business department, responsible for coordinating the marketing of Shanhai product line, and undertaking the overall sales target of Shanhai product line; Hu Enping, executive vice president of Nezha Automobile Marketing Company, was appointed as the executive vice president and director of the creative and new ** department of the marketing company, responsible for coordinating the marketing of Yunhe product line, in charge of Yunhe business unit and channel development department, and responsible for the overall sales target of the product line. Jiang Feng and Li Changhe were dismissed from their positions as executive vice president and executive vice president of the marketing company, respectively.
In 2022, Nezha Automobile was the sales champion of the new car-making force, and its sales in 2023 will decline by 16% year-on-year, only half of the annual target will be completed, and it will be at the bottom of the "Wei Xiaoli Zero".
There seems to be another hidden reason for the personnel changes of Leapmotor.
On January 24, Leapmotor issued a statement saying that the labor contract of Wu Baojun, the former co-founder and president of Leapmotor, had expired and terminated on January 8, and the company would not renew his employment after a resolution of the board of directors. What is rare in the industry is that Leapmotor did not thank Wu Baojun.
On January 25, Wu Baojun posted a post on Weibo in response to the resignation rumors, which mentioned: "Due to the expiration of the labor contract, the company proposed not to renew the contract. The board of directors resolved by means of communication that he will no longer serve as the president of Leapmotor Technology and will continue to serve as a director. ”
He reflected on the achievements made in the past three years and eight months, and said, "We have exceeded expectations and achieved the three major goals of the employment agreement I signed before I came to the company. Intriguingly, he wrote: "The president of a professional manager is also an employee, and employees are weak and helpless for a huge corporate organization", and put forward three hopes for the company: I hope that the company will respect history and respect contracts; It should be lawful, reasonable and reasonable; Customers first, employees second. The next day, Mr. Wu deleted the post.
It is understood that Wu Baojun is currently negotiating with Leapmotor on the issue of the equity held by Ningbo Jinghang and the employee stock ownership plan. The disagreement between the two sides is also focusing on the treatment of Wu Baojun's shareholding.
Traditional car companies are accelerating the pace of transformation.
Joint ventures to meet market challenges.
Several traditional auto groups have also undergone executive changes, including SAIC Motor (600104SH), Great Wall Motor (601633SH), Changan Automobile (000625SZ) and China's FAW have seen the most drastic changes in their senior management.
The involvement of the top leaders of car companies in business management and the promotion of young and promising executives are a new sight for traditional car companies. In the face of the strong impact of independent brands, the sales of most joint venture brands will decline significantly in 2023. Joint ventures are responding to market challenges through internal adjustments and optimizations, and personnel changes are an important part.
SAIC's management team is constantly injecting young fresh blood to further accelerate the pace of innovation and transformation of the new track.
On December 22, 2023, SAIC Motor announced that the group agreed to appoint Jia Jianxu, general manager of SAIC Volkswagen, Jiang Jun, CEO of Zhiji Automobile, and Wu Bing, general manager of SAIC Passenger Vehicle Branch and CEO of Feifan Automobile, as vice presidents of the company.
On January 11, SAIC announced that Wu Bing would no longer concurrently serve as the general manager of SAIC Passenger Vehicle Branch and CEO of Feifan Automobile; Former Huayu Automobile (600741SH) General Manager Wang Jun took over as General Manager of SAIC Passenger Vehicle Branch and CEO of Feifan Automobile.
Jiang Jun is a post-70s, Jia Jianxu and Wu Bing are post-75s. The vice presidents of SAIC also include Zhou Langhui, Wei Yong, Yang Xiaodong, Zu Bijie and Lan Qingsong, the first three of whom are all post-70s. In other words, among the 8 vice presidents of SAIC, 6 are post-70s.
On January 9, SAIC-GM-Wuling announced that Lv Juncheng was promoted to the general manager of SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co., Ltd., and Shenyang no longer served as the general manager of SAIC-GM-Wuling, but was transferred to the chairman of the company's innovation and development and strategy committee.
Great Wall Motor's Wei brand changed its commander again.
On October 13, 2023, Chen Siying, CEO of WEY Brand New Energy and general manager of tank brand marketing, announced his resignation. On January 2, Chen Siying officially joined Polestar Technology as Chief Operating Officer.
On November 1, 2023, Great Wall Motor announced new personnel appointments, Liu Yanzhao will concurrently serve as the general manager of the Wei brand and the tank brand, Zhao Yongpo will be the general manager of the Haval brand, and Gu Yukun, the former commodity director of the tank 500, will serve as the executive deputy general manager of the tank brand.
Since 2016, Wei Pai has changed 7 CEOs in 7 years, of which Yan Si, the longest-serving first-person leader, has been in office for 23 months, and Yu Fei, who has the shortest tenure, has only been in office for 4 months.
This is related to the fact that the sales of the Wei brand have not improved. In 2023, the cumulative sales of WEY brand will be 4160,000 units, up 14% year-on-year, but far from the peak of nearly 140,000 units in 2018.
In addition, at the beginning of November 2023, Guo Tiefu, former general manager of public relations of Great Wall Motors, joined Geely's brand Radar Auto as the chief marketing officer. Li Xiaorui, the former general manager of Great Wall Haval, was revealed to have joined Xiaomi Automobile, but this news has not been officially confirmed. On January 29, it was reported that Qiao Xinyu, executive vice president of brand marketing at Haval, had resigned.
At the end of 2023, Changan Automobile's major executive changes occurred in AVATR and Deep Blue Automobile, showing its determination to bet on new energy and intelligence.
Zhu Huarong, chairman of Changan Automobile, replaced Tan Benhong as chairman of AVATAR, and Chen Zhuo, vice president of AVATAR, was promoted to president of AVATAR; Wang Jun, President of Changan Automobile, became the chairman of Shenlan Automobile, and the CEO of Shenlan Automobile is still Deng Chenghao, and Deng Chenghao was promoted to vice president of Changan Automobile in early December 2023.
Zhu Huarong said at the 2024 Global Partner Conference that through early investment and incubation, AVATR has achieved phased results and has now become a key force carrying the company's strategy. On the other hand, it is also to give resource security, "to give people to people, to give money to money, to give technology to technology." ”
Deep Blue Automobile's sales volume in 2023 will be 1370,000 units, with an annual sales target completion rate of less than 685%；AVATR is 2770,000 units, with less than 30% of the annual sales target achieved. Deng Chenghao's promotion is considered to be a recognition of the Deep Blue Automobile he manages.
On October 31, 2023, FAW Jiefang (000800SZ) announced that Hu Hanjie applied for resignation as the chairman of the board of directors, director and member of the special committee of the board of directors of the company, and no longer held any position in the company. Wu Bilei, who is currently the director, general manager and deputy secretary of the Party Committee of FAW Jiefang Group, and the general manager and deputy secretary of the Party Committee of FAW Jiefang Automobile, and the general manager of the medium and heavy-duty vehicle product line of the headquarters, took over as the chairman of FAW Jiefang. Li Sheng, the current deputy general manager of FAW Jiefang Group Co., Ltd., deputy general manager of FAW Jiefang Automobile Co., Ltd., general manager and secretary of the Party Committee of Qingdao Vehicle Division (Qingdao Automobile Company), general manager of Qingdao medium and heavy vehicle product line and general manager of light vehicle product line of Qingdao Vehicle Division, succeeded Wu Bilei from his original position and served as general manager of FAW Jiefang.
The personnel changes of FAW Jiefang are part of a new round of organizational and personnel changes of China FAW. In August 2023, after Qiu Xiandong took office as chairman and secretary of the party committee of China FAW, he announced a series of marketing management system adjustments with Hongqi as the core.
On October 8, 2023, FAW-Volkswagen announced that Li Fenggang will succeed Sun Huibin as Executive Vice President of FAW Audi Sales Co., Ltd., with overall responsibility for the sales, after-sales service, network and brand marketing of all FAW Audi domestic and imported vehicles in China. Sun Huibin will be transferred to the Strategy and Cooperation Department of China FAW.
On October 27, 2023, the "veteran" Yang Qing officially served as the secretary of the Party committee and chairman of Dongfeng Company, and the "head" of Dongfeng Motor, which had been vacant for seven months, was finally settled. In March 2023, Zhu Yanfeng, former secretary of the Party committee and chairman of Dongfeng Company, stepped down due to age, and Yang Qing, then deputy secretary of the Party committee and general manager, presided over the work.
In October 2023, Zheng Chunkai, the former executive deputy general manager, will no longer serve as the leader of Dongfeng Honda in China, and will be transferred to the chairman of Dongfeng Honda Engine. At the same time, Pan Jianxin, former deputy general manager of Dongfeng Honda, will be promoted to executive deputy general manager. On December 6 of the same year, Dongfeng Nissan also issued a notice of personnel changes - Zhou Feng served as the vice president of Dongfeng Motor and the deputy general manager of Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company, and Gao Guolin no longer served as the deputy general manager of Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company and continued to serve as the vice president of Dongfeng Motor.
In November 2023, it was reported that Shan Hongyan, CTO of Chery New Energy's iCar, had resigned 2 months ago; Zhang Yuesai, former general manager of GAC Passenger Vehicle, was appointed president (legal representative) of Hechuang Automobile, Lou Qiaoping was appointed chief financial officer, and Li Zhihong was no longer president of the company.
Foreign car companies and first-chain giants attach great importance to the Chinese market.
Accelerate the transition to electrification.
At the end of the year, foreign car companies and international first-class chain giants were transferred to the head of China, some of which were foreign executives, and some of which deepened the localization of talents, reflecting the importance of the Chinese market and the urgent need to accelerate the transformation of electrification.
On October 18, 2023, BMW Group announced that Sean Green, former Senior Vice President of Marketing at BMW Brilliance Automotive, will become President and CEO of BMW Group Greater China. Shao Bin, President of BMW (China) Auto, will succeed the former as Senior Vice President of Marketing at BMW Brilliance. Jochen Goller, President and CEO of Greater China, will return to the German headquarters and be promoted to a member of the Board of Directors of the BMW Group, responsible for customers, brands and sales.
It is reported that although Gao Le and Gao Xiang are foreign executives, they have both worked in China for about 10 years and are "China experts".
On January 16, Audi AG announced that Johannes Roscheck will become President of Audi China and will manage Audi AG's business in China as of April 1. Jürgen Unser, former president of Audi China, will return to Germany as planned to start a new job at the Volkswagen Group.
On December 11, 2023, Volvo Cars announced that Pan Hesong, the current President of the Greater China Sales Company, will be appointed as the head of commercial operations for Volvo Cars Asia Pacific (APEC) except Greater China, and Roger Yu, the current Vice President of Volvo Cars Greater China Sales Company, will be appointed as the President, effective January 1.
Volvo said that the management changes are to promote its electrification transformation by 2025 and achieve its goal of achieving 50% of sales of pure electric models.
On January 2, Jaguar Land Rover China and Chery Jaguar Land Rover Joint Marketing Sales and Service Organization (IMSS) announced that Wang Fang will join the joint agency as Executive Vice President of Marketing with immediate effect. The position of executive vice president of IMSS marketing department was previously held by French Luo Lin, and the outside world analyzed that this was the "localization" of the senior management team by Wu Chen, president of IMSS.
On October 20, 2023, Bosch announced that Dr. Chen Yudong, the current President of Bosch China, will retire on January 1, 2024, and Dr. Xu Daquan, the current Executive Vice President of Bosch China, will succeed him as President of Bosch China. On January 1, Wu Yongqiao, Deputy General Manager of United Automotive Electronics, was officially promoted to President of Bosch XC Business Unit (Intelligent Driving and Control Division) in China.
As of January 1, Juergen Brandl, formerly Head of Volkswagen Group's Global Customer Center for Autonomous Driving and Mobility, will be appointed as Head of Continental's Autonomous Driving and Mobility Business Group in China, reporting directly to Ismail Dagli, Global Head of Autonomous Driving and Mobility Business Group, and to Tang En, President of Continental China.
Since November 1, 2023, Wen Haoding, former President of KONE China Frontline, has been appointed President of Schaeffler's Industrial Business Unit in China and a member of the China Management Committee.
Red Star News reporter Wu Danruo.
Edited by Yu Dongmei.
*Red Star News, Newspaper Rewards! ）