Two years later than expected, on the last day of July, 2020, the era of BAIC· Xu Heyi officially ended.
On July 3 1, BAIC held a meeting of leading cadres, announcing that Xu Heyi would step down as Party Secretary and Chairman of BAIC and be replaced by Jiang Deyi, former Chairman of Jinyu Group.
Xu Heyi has been in charge of BAIC Group 14 years, laying a solid foundation for joint venture brands, creating unprecedented profits, and taking the Group to try various new fields. It can be said that without Xu Heyi, there would be no BAIC today.
Xu Heyi likes communicating with people, talking and laughing in front of the media, being able to double-click 666 in front of the live camera and talking about strategy within the group. He comes to a strategic conference of BAIC every year and talks about it several times.
This temperament also made Xu Heyi leave a lot of golden sentences in the workplace, the kind of golden sentences that can't be forgotten after listening and laughing.
Today, we might as well stand at this time node and borrow four sentences from Xu Heyi to review the official career of Beiqi, the king of golden sentences.
"The fourth milestone in automobile history"
"In the history of automobiles, there are three landmark figures: Carl Benz, who invented automobiles; Henry Ford who invented the assembly line; Toyota Ichiro, the inventor of lean production. But they are all figures in the automobile 1.0 era. The car of the future belongs to the 2.0 era. A hundred years later, what the world should remember is Xu Heyi, Chairman of BAIC Group. "
This is 20 14, Rong Hui, Assistant President of BAIC Group, speaking at a forum.
Although Xu Heyi didn't say this "golden sentence" himself, looking back a few years later, Xu Heyi's goals and expectations for himself and BAIC are probably just that.
It seems appropriate to approach this person with this sentence.
BAIC Group was integrated by Xu Heyi. There is no doubt about it.
When Xu Heyi took office in 2006, it was hard to say that BAIC was a mess, but at least it was a mess-there was no decent brand, no independent car SUV, no reliable talent team and no available technology platform.
In the 18 years since Xu Heyi took office at BAIC, he has made at least two great achievements for the group.
One is to become a joint venture brand covering almost all the profits of the group.
Introducing Hyundai and Mercedes-Benz is Xu Heyi's greatest contribution to BAIC.
In 2002, 45-year-old Xu Heyi resigned as the deputy director of Beijing Economic Commission and parachuted into BAIC, becoming the deputy secretary and vice chairman of the Party Committee of BAIC Holding Company, and concurrently serving as the party secretary and chairman of the newly established Beijing Hyundai Company.
What was BAIC like then? The annual output of the whole group is less than 6.5438+0.8 million, and it is dying. Hyundai Motor, a joint venture brand that BAIC had just contacted before taking office in Xu Heyi, was the only lifeline at that time.
How to seize this life-saving straw is the first problem that Xu Heyi faces after switching to the automobile industry.
After the establishment of Beijing Hyundai joint venture company, there is not enough money to build a new factory. The final solution is to use the factory of Beijing Light Vehicle Company, which has completely stopped production. According to media reports at that time, weeds in the factory building of Beijing Light Vehicle Company grew to one person's height. In order to show efficiency and determination, Xu Heyi directly led 100 troops, bought a batch of sickles to mow the grass in the factory, cleared the road in the factory, and started the first step of "cutting through thorns" in modern Peiping.
At that time, because the influence of Korean cars in China was extremely limited, and there was almost no popularity in third-and fourth-tier cities, Beijing Hyundai was actually not optimistic.
However, under the impetus of Xu Heyi day and night, Beijing Hyundai has set three new records of joint venture and cooperation in China's automobile industry, including 224 days from the formal contact between the two parties to the formal signing of the contract, 37 days from the official unveiling of the company, and 436 days from the first car production line.
Only two years later, in 2004, with the best-selling models such as Elantra, Beijing Hyundai became the fifth car company in China.
It took only 63 months for Beijing Hyundai to sell from zero to one million, which is the fastest in China's automobile industry.
With the successful experience of Beijing Hyundai, in 2005, Xu Heyi led BAIC Group to cooperate with Daimler, and Beijing Benz was established.
In the first few years, Beijing Benz ranked last among ABB's three luxury joint venture brands. What Xu Heyi has done most is to push Mercedes-Benz to introduce more best-selling models to China. Later, Beijing Benz surpassed FAW-Volkswagen Audi, ranking second in ABB's domestic sales, and even once rushed to the first place.
In BAIC Group, Beijing Benz has gradually grown into a sub-brand with the highest income and the most profit. In 20 19, Beijing's automobile revenue was1746.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of15%; Among them, the revenue of Beijing Benz is 65,438+0,556,5438+0.5 billion yuan, accounting for 88.8% of the company's total revenue.
The second is the collectivization of BAIC.
This sentence is often used by the outside world to describe the establishment of BAIC Group that year, that is, "sons first, then Laozi".
Because BAIC seems to have many sub-brands, it actually has no absolute control. Needless to say, Beijing Hyundai and Beijing Benz, two joint venture brands, have long existed in name only, so let's put them aside. It is said that Beiqi Foton, the most successful commercial vehicle at that time, actually only owned 3.94% of the shares of Beiqi Foton, although the name was preceded by the word "Beiqi". There are also some motorcycle and parts related enterprises, and the shares of BAIC do not exceed 50%.
It was Xu Heyi who helped BAIC clear the baggage step by step.
In April, 2007, Xu Heyi established BAIC Asset Management Company to deal with financial debts, and 19 parts-related enterprises that were on the verge of bankruptcy and could not make ends meet were incorporated into BAIC Asset Management Company, thus clearing the debt obstacle of BAIC.
Later, Xu Heyi set up a spare parts company to take charge of related procurement, so as to avoid the joint venture brand monopolizing the spare parts business.
In this way, BAIC successfully grouped from a "body country" and began to travel light.
In this process, Xu Heyi played an important role in BAIC.
Ten years later, Xu Heyi's only regret is that it has never brought its own brand of BAIC.
He never stopped trying to build his own brand, and even used almost all the methods he could.
"Tesla will not become the apple of the automotive industry.
We will be at the end of next year.
Launch more than a model? S products "
Xu Heyi's ambition to build her own brand is all written on her face.
This is Xu Heyi's view on Tesla and his investment products at the 20 14 Boao Forum for Asia.
"elon musk will not become Jobs in the automotive industry, and Tesla will not become Apple's mobile phone in the automotive industry. We make cars, especially new energy sources, including Tesla. Definitely not Apple. "
Xu Heyi said this because he made up his mind: "We will launch a model after the end of next year? S products. "
Xu Heyi refers to the products of the electric vehicle company invested by BAIC.
20 14, 1 June, BAIC invested heavily in Atieva, a new car-making force from Silicon Valley, and obtained 25.02% of its shares, becoming its largest shareholder.
The reason why BAIC invested in Atieva is that Xu Heyi knows the difficulties of its own brand, so it hopes to build the first high-end new energy vehicle in China and become a high-end brand of new energy vehicles through cooperation with Atieva. From this point of view, what Xu Heyi wants to do is a bit like Wei Lai, and his ideal is full.
Lao Tie did spend a lot of money. At that time, it was said that "BAIC Group will provide all resources including R&D strength to the cooperative project for free, so as to achieve the goal of saving money quickly and make every effort for the success of the project."
In the same year, BAIC even joined letv to take a stake in Atieva, indicating that it would strategically cooperate with letv to build an internet smart car and improve the intelligence of the new car.
In order to show the sincerity of cooperation, Xu Heyi also expressed his willingness to OEM for LeTV's "super car".
That year, Xu Heyi and BAIC Group embarked on the road of electrification.
Unfortunately, the reality is skinny. Many years later, LeTV has already become a bubble of "returning to China next week", and Atiye Wa has not been heard from since 20 16. It's all gone.
"The battery life of an electric car is 300 kilometers."
This is what Xu Heyi said in an interview on 20 19. When the speech came out, it caused an uproar.
In fact, Xu Heyi's words have a background. In the first half of his speech, he said that if the technology of changing electricity is popular, people can change power stations everywhere like driving oil cars today, even more convenient than refueling, so the battery life of 300km is completely enough.
Of course, even so, there are still some problems in logic. Not to mention that even if it is an oil car now, the battery life of 300km is disgusting, not to mention that this premise is still in the distant future. In this way, when solar energy can charge the car while walking at any time, isn't it enough to last 100km?
But I don't doubt that "the battery life of an electric car is 300 kilometers", and Xu Heyi may have really considered this issue.
Because Beiqi New Energy's short-life entry-level electric vehicle used to be very hot.
BAIC is one of the first car companies to enter the entry-level electric vehicle with short battery life. You can completely enter the new energy market and gain a foothold first. BAIC's new energy relies on low-end and low-priced models and market strategies.
Xu Heyi's initial positioning of BAIC's new energy source was originally "exchanging price for quantity", and Attuyer Wa was given the task of "being Tesla". Xu Heyi's idea is "don't be Tesla, be Ford" for the new energy of independent brands.
In order to capture the mass market, the pricing strategy of BAIC New Energy is extremely common, and the subsidy price of many models even falls below 50,000 yuan. In addition, BAIC New Energy has also launched various fancy operations such as "car-electricity separation mode" and "rental-sales mode", just to divide a few more cakes in the new energy market.
With A0-class cars such as EC series, BAIC New Energy ranked first in new energy sales for six consecutive years. Even in 20 18, after the subsidy began to decline, the annual sales of EC series still exceeded 90,000 vehicles, accounting for 57% of the total sales of BAIC new energy. Cheap cars with a cruising range of 300 kilometers are an irresistible weapon for BAIC's new energy.
However, people don't always need cheap cars with a cruising range of 300 kilometers.
Someone once bought it, because the price was too affordable, and gave it a license plate. However, with the decline of subsidies, especially since 20 19, the state has put forward higher requirements for the cruising range of products, and at the same time restricted the issuance of electric vehicle indicators (in Beijing), and the BAIC EC series has no immediate advantage.
There are no technical barriers, and the sales accumulated solely by price and subsidies are chicken feathers every minute.
This blow has actually made BAIC New Energy never fully return to the taste of sales.
From this point of view, I don't know whether Xu Heyi's 300km endurance is forward-looking or sad.
"Dong Mingzhu quit.
The red flag is the government car. "
Xu Heyi once spared no expense for Beiqi New Energy, but it also suffered heavy losses in Beiqi New Energy.
But for the failure of BAIC's own brand for so many years, BAIC New Energy is not the first or the last.
In 2009, faced with the rapid development of independent brands, Xu Heyi entered the growth war of independent brands. BAIC Group spent $200 million to acquire part of Saab's assets, buy Saab's technology, and spend a lot of money to buy the "Saab" trademark (the name of Saab when it first entered China), and started its own independent brand BAIC Saab.
At that time, Xu Heyi was in high spirits, offering millions of annual salary, millions of housing subsidies, Beijing hukou and other heavy welfare conditions, just to find a truly capable team.
Thanks to the joining of a group of marketing experts such as Cai Jianjun, BAIC Sic Bo had a good life in the first two years when its own brand took off. However, strike while the iron is hot in Xu Heyi is also closely linked, and soon, BAIC's own brand will be extended to all parts of the country.
BAIC (BJ), BAIC Silicon Carbide, BAIC New Energy, BAIC Changhe, BAIC Wangwei, BAIC Yinxiang ... A few years ago, you could count so many independent brands of BAIC with your eyes closed. Below Beiqi Printing, it is divided into two brands: Beiqi Magic Speed and Specific Speed.
An independent brand has not found the right doorway, so make it bigger and more thorough. It is natural to imagine the outcome of six or seven independent brands following up at the same time. (Most of them have disappeared now. )
Because of this, BAIC's independent brand strategy has been at a loss since it was launched on 20 10. As early as five years ago, Xu Heyi actually issued a hurricane, saying that "independent brands can no longer stop losses, and the management responsible for this business segment will be asked to pack up and leave". Obviously, we will not allow this kind of thing to happen again.
Unfortunately, regardless of whether the group boss allows or not, the sales volume drops blindly. BAIC itself is still losing money.
Therefore, it's hard to say whether Xu Heyi has learned from a painful experience or is really helpless about his own brand. 20 18, at a media communication meeting, Xu Heyi said two words. First, "any enterprise should not be a generalist. Dong Mingzhu of Gree has completely stopped playing with cars, and she can't get Yinlong. " Second, "we don't argue that government cars give red flags."
Xu Heyi means that BAIC will focus on its own advantages, and from now on, it will focus on two brands: Beijing (BJ) brand off-road vehicle and BAIC New Energy.
When analyzing the reasons why BAIC's own brands are falling apart, none of them are spared, the reason mentioned by the media is that the investment in research and development is insufficient, so that the competitiveness of products is not enough.
Take BAIC New Energy as an example. In 20 17, only R&D expenses150,000 yuan were invested, accounting for 0. 13% of the operating income. In contrast, research and development costs are only a quarter of BYD's. Not to mention, in 20 17, BAIC New Energy received 4.959 billion yuan of national and local new energy subsidies.
Perhaps because of this, in June of 20 19, 10, Xu Heyi announced that it would invest 20 billion yuan in R&D expenses in the next five years after BAIC independently determined the parallel development strategies of Beijing, Beijing off-road vehicle and ARCFOX.
This may be Xu Heyi's last effort for his brand.
Now, Xu Heyi's career in BAIC has ended, but the investment of 20 billion yuan has just begun.
It's not easy for BAIC to get here by himself. I hope this 20 billion yuan will make BAIC's independent post-Xu Heyi era brilliant again.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.