Chery, a self-owned brand that is almost well-known in China, has gone from the hard years when it was not justified to build a car, to the hesitation of the newborn calf not afraid of the barbaric growth of tigers and seeking to upgrade, and then slowed down the pace of chasing sales and returned to rationality. Its growth is the epitome of the growth of independent brands, and it is also the development road of China automobile industry from "OEM" to autonomy. In that era when foreign brands were on top of each other, only looking for OEM and not importing technology, Chery's appearance lowered the entry threshold for cars to enter China families, and also promoted the prosperity of supporting markets. However, Chery has made some mistakes in recent years, and its growth may not be as fast as expected by the outside world. Today, I want to look back with you, see the road Chery has traveled, and feel the course it accompanied China Automobile along the way.
Hard years (1992-2)
In p>1991, there was a flood in Anhui Province. In the post-disaster reconstruction, a village-run factory built hundreds of cars a year with original production equipment, creating an output value of more than 1 million yuan, which attracted the attention of the economically backward Wuhu government at that time, and thus the idea of building cars came into being. However, in that planned economy era, without a "birth permit", how easy was it to build a car? What's more, they need people and no one, and they want money and no money. Wuhu found the Anhui fellow who was then the chairman of FAW, and asked the other party to help start the car-making business.
in p>1993, after many efforts, faw and Wuhu jointly established faw Yangzi automobile chassis factory, and located in Wuhu. At this point, Wuhu's obsession with building a car can be considered a start. However, things still didn't go as expected. Two years later, in 1995, due to poor management, FAW withdrew from the cooperation with Wuhu and chose to operate FAW Yangzi independently.
In p>1995, Wuhu decided to go it alone, starting with digging people. In 1996, Yin Tongyue, then the workshop director, took several people to bid farewell to FAW Group, one of the "Big Three", and came to Wuhu with nothing, just to "create China people's own automobile brands". The first sum of money they got was 3, yuan. In order to save money, they planned the first generation of cars in a thatched house in an abandoned factory. It was hot in Leng Xia in winter, which was what Chery used to talk about later. Eight people who participated in this initial venture were later called "Eight donkey kong" in Chery.
in p>1997, led by the governments of Anhui province and Wuhu city, Anhui auto parts industrial company was formally established with a registered capital of 1.752 billion yuan. In order to solve the problem of lack of technology, the startup company first thought of buying it. After several twists and turns, Chery bought Ford's second-hand engine production line from Wales, England, and spent $29.8 million. In October of the same year, the engine workshop broke ground.
However, the "technology" that Chery bought at a huge sum of money, the crooked fruit people don't want to "teach people to fish", and the foreign engineers who installed the production line have repeatedly delayed. Yin Tongyue recognized the situation clearly and decided to go on his own. As a result, it took 13 and a half months to complete the installation and debugging. At the same time, in March 1998, the whole vehicle technology factory was started, with a production capacity of 5, vehicles. The chassis development and body design were planned separately.
They have many difficult problems to solve, but the most difficult problem is the "birth permit". In 1994, the National Development and Reform Commission set the basic policy of "three big and three small" as the key development of the automobile industry, and it was difficult for other manufacturers to enter the new car catalogue, so they were not qualified for national sales. Chery, which is determined to build a car at this time, also has a headache for entering the catalogue.
In May, 1999, the first engine was off-line and successfully ignited at one time; It passed the product appraisal in September.
in December p>1999, the first car of Anhui auto parts industry company rolled off the assembly line, and was later named Fengyun. Because of the background of the people involved in the start-up, the chassis of this car imitated the old Jetta at that time, while the body design imitated the SEAT TOLEDO on the same platform as Jetta, and the mold was contracted by Taiwan Province Fuzhen Industry.
In the blink of an eye, in 2, the car was built, but it could only be used as a taxi in Wuhu, but it could not be sold nationwide. To this end, Chery tried its best, and finally caught up with SAIC and sold 2% of its shares in exchange for a catalogue. Little known is that this year Chery also harvested a technical team from the Second Automobile Company, and their participation accelerated the development of the second generation products of Chery.
The editor said: In the early days of Chery, it was a patchwork of "takenism", but in China at that time, even if a car was built in this way, it was still an all-out effort.
in the 199s, after more than 1 years of reform and opening up, China's economy developed to a certain extent, people's living standards improved, and the demand for automobiles increased day by day, which gave birth to a "new force to build cars". Not only Chery, Great Wall and Geely were also brewing in this period. Some people smell the huge business opportunities, and some people embrace the ideal of building cars. In that hard time when the material foundation was not good, they devoted themselves to pushing the cars of big countries forward slowly.
You know, it has been 1 years since the first joint venture factory started construction in 1984. The idea of "exchanging market for technology" is still too slow to promote the development of the automobile industry. Old foreign models are produced and sold for more than 2, yuan, which does not meet the needs of the people. What Chery is doing conforms to the requirements of the times.
Now, some people like to say that Japanese cars started from imitation, but they soon went out of their own way, stepped onto the world, got recognition, and the level was really high. However, China brand, which also started from imitation, still lags behind others after so many years of development. I think they have probably overlooked some important factors. China has missed the process of industrial and scientific development for more than 2 years. Although the people's food and clothing have been gradually solved and the economy has developed since the founding of New China, the industrial base, scientific system and talent pool are still far behind, not to mention the devastation of the Cultural Revolution. To put it in an inappropriate analogy, the children of doctors and farmers go to school, can the starting point be the same?
but I'm not saying that Chery has made great strides in the past 2 years. They have had eventful years and detours. Let's go on.
barbaric growth (21-23)
In 21, Fengyun started Chery's car sales with the tail label of "SAIC Chery", and the price was 88, yuan, which was comparable to the hot "old three" Santana and Jetta at that time, but the price was one third cheaper. The annual sales of 28, vehicles brought Chery more than 2 billion yuan in revenue and a profit of 1.3 billion yuan. Chery tasted the sweetness of building a car.
This year, Chery also welcomed its own "design team". Shen Haojie, a former designer of Dongfeng Citroen, took the team to Wuhu to set up Jiajing Company to provide design solutions for Chery. At this time, they began to prepare for the design of QQ.
in 21, Chery "passively" ushered in the first batch of export business. A Syrian businessman saw Fengyun, which had just been listed, and took the initiative to find Chery to purchase 2 Fengyun for export. Yin Tongyue only agreed to sell him 1. Who would have thought that export later became a major income pillar of Chery.
in p>22, Chery commissioned AVL company of Austria to develop as many as 18 engines with displacement of .8-4.2L, and sent people to study, thus starting the original accumulation of automobile engine technology and high-end talents. Chery believes that in order to develop automobiles in China, it is necessary to break the technological monopoly and have the ability to develop core technology products. At the same time, Fengyun continued to sell well in the market, selling 5, vehicles and more than 4 billion in sales, ranking among the top eight domestic cars.
In p>23, Chery ushered in a bright moment of career development, achieving sales of 9,376 vehicles and exporting 1, vehicles, breaking the zero export of China automobiles. Chery, with its rising income, began to improve its capabilities in many fields. In February, SKT Company of Iran was signed, and the technology transfer of the first overseas full-process factory was finalized, with an annual production capacity of 3, units; In March, Chery Engine No.2 Factory began to build; In May, Fengyun II and QQ were listed one after another; In June, Chery's first B-class car, Oriental Son, was launched; In September, Chery spent hundreds of millions of yuan to ask Italy Broadcom to design Chery A1 model. At this time, Chery also began to set up an automobile research institute, with an investment of 25 million yuan in the first phase.
In the same year, when Yin Tongyue was visiting and negotiating in Mitsubishi, Japan, he met an on-site management expert and took the opportunity to go to the bathroom to get the other party's phone number. When he came back, he invited an international headhunter to help Chery with quality management. During this period, Chery was also actively absorbing international talents from GM and Ford, such as Gu Lei, who was later the dean of Chery passenger car engineering research.
At this time, Chery's three-year triumph made SAIC look red, and the latter sought further investment. Chery certainly refused, and the two sides broke down. In September 23, SAIC announced its withdrawal from Chery. Chery has since embarked on the road of independence. One year later, Chery entered the announcement of the National Development and Reform Commission, obtained the qualification of car production, and changed its name to Chery Automobile Co., Ltd.
the editor said: around 2, the arrogant attitude of joint venture brands and the market demand brought by the booming domestic economy gave Chery these independent brand enterprises the opportunity to enter the market. Most of them adopt a low-price attitude to realize primitive accumulation. Low price has become a magic weapon for new independent brands to tap the first bucket of gold, but it has also formed the inherent impression that independent brands are low-end and cheap, which has become a label that they can't get rid of so far.
after making the first bucket of gold, Chery adopted reverse outsourcing for many times, trying to accelerate its own technology accumulation and personnel training on the basis of backward industry. This way, in essence, is still the doctrine of taking, but it is better than buying directly, which is equivalent to asking a teacher to take care of it. In fact, its own strength is still not enough, which is also the fundamental factor that restricts the development of independent brands later.
21-23 can be said to be the golden time in the history of Chery's development. No matter the increase of sales profit or the improvement of various capabilities, all the development has made great strides. However, things have never been smooth sailing. When the sea is calm, it may be the time when the wind and waves are brewing. Around 23, 13 joint venture automobile enterprises were established in China, including Dongfeng Nissan, Beijing Hyundai and Changan Ford, which later grew into millions of big factories. The joint venture vehicles were put into operation one after another, which squeezed the living space of independent brands.
For Chery, after three years of rapid development, some problems have surfaced. For example, the rumor that "Chery is waiting in line to repair cars" appears on the Internet next year, which has a certain impact on Chery's sales, and Son of the Orient and Qiyun are forced to stop production. For various reasons, Chery has entered the stage of development and adjustment.
Development with Adjustment (24-27)
In 24, Chery's sales volume declined for the first time since its establishment, and only over 8, vehicles were sold in the whole year, a slight year-on-year decline, compared with the 15% growth rate of China's automobile market that year. The reason is that Chery has suffered from the "black swan" incident: at the beginning of the year, the national media bombarded Zhan Xialai, the former chairman of Chery, as a "red-top businessman" and Zhan Xialai resigned; At the same time, South Korea's Daewoo, a subsidiary of GM Group, sued Dongfang Son and QQ for "infringement of intellectual property rights". As a result, Dongfang Son was disqualified from the designated car of the "two sessions" in March; At this time, there were rumors of "Chery, Chery, repairing cars and queuing up" on the Internet. After three years of use, quality problems broke out. Poor sales met with credit contraction, and the annual profit dropped from 1.3 billion three years ago to 188 million yuan. Yin Tongyue, who just took over as chairman of Chery, felt that 24 was a "very bad" year.
After learning from a painful experience, Chery began to "attend classes every day, and every day is like an exam", and learned how to carry out basic operational knowledge such as financial control, investment analysis and risk management. In fact, this year was not all bad news. In June, Chery and TAO Company, the largest body and chassis supplier in the world, jointly established TAO (Wuhu) and began to establish a supporting parts industry cluster in Wuhu. In the following years, enterprises including johnson controls, Delphi, PPG Group and Echlin Mobil successively settled in Wuhu.
in 25, Chery's challenges are still constant. South Korea's GM daewoo motor and Technology Company sued QQ for plagiarism, demanding compensation of 75 million yuan, confiscating relevant illegal income, and stopping selling QQ; Tencent also found the door and sued QQ trademark infringement; In the same year, Chery recalled 18,673 cars; The listing of the Tiggo SUV that Chery gave high hopes to, under the impact of rivals such as Great Wall Haval, Shuanghuan CEO and Lufeng X6, the market response was deserted.
however, in 25, Chery sold 189, vehicles, up 118% year-on-year. In fact, Chery has done a lot to achieve this goal. First of all, adjust the marketing model, in order to encourage dealers to dig deep into the market potential, try to divide the sales channels into networks in some cities, and achieve good results; Secondly, the price of the whole line of products has been greatly reduced throughout the year. QQ has dropped by 3, and sold by 29,8, while the son of the Orient has dropped by 27,, a decrease of 15.7%. While the joint venture and independence "hurt each other", Chery's bicycle profit has dropped to 52 yuan this year, while its surface sales have soared, but its profit has dropped to 95 million yuan. In addition, Chery began to use marketing means to boost sales, and QQ Automobile Culture Festival attracted 15, fans to participate in the whole country.
At the same time, Chery has not stopped developing core technologies. In March 25, Chery invested more than 3 billion yuan in the second engine factory, which mainly produced ACTECO series engines. Chery believes that this series will shorten the gap between the research and development level of independent engines and the world's advanced hydraulics by 3 years. The following year, ACTECO Engine won the engine orders of two European companies for Chery, one of which was Fiat, and the other placed an order of 8, units at a time. On this basis, Chery ACTECO has now launched the third generation products, with a thermal efficiency of 37.1%.
in p>26, Chery achieved a sales volume of 35, vehicles and exported 5, vehicles, and continued to be the export leader. Senior domestic autobots are worried that Chery will go too fast. Yin Tongyue said, "Only by having more children to fight can we win." This year, Chery launched six new cars, including Chery A5, QQ sedan QQ6, and the first MPV model Chery V5. Later, the sales volume was not good, and it was renamed Cross, the son of the East.
However, the main sales models are still low-priced products such as QQ, which urgently needs to improve the market recognition of new products. Chery tries to adjust the naming method to improve its cognition. The tail label of Chery A5 is A52, which stands for A-class cars, and the series ranks 5th, 2.L displacement, carrying ACTECO? 2.L engine. This year, Chery identified "production consistency" as one of the comprehensive key basic tasks of the quality assurance department to avoid the recurrence of quality problems.
under the principle of "having more children", Chery started its horizontal development. In April 26, Chery acquired FAW Yangzi, renamed it "Chery Commercial Vehicle", obtained the market access qualification of commercial vehicles, launched the Kairui brand, and began to develop multi-brands. Referring to Volkswagen's Kaidi, Kairui entered the market at a low price of 558-68, and almost made the steps of entering the passenger car as planned.
in p>27, Chery did not slow down the pace of development, put forward the goal of 393, vehicles, and finally achieved sales of 381, vehicles, an increase of 24.8%. In August, Chery produced a total of 1 million cars, ending the stage of expanding domestic market share and entering the stage of "building an independent international famous brand". Yin Tongyue demanded "slowing down the pace of expansion and improving product quality and technical level". However, the products put on the market this year are still products like QQ6.