New second-tier brandsHechuang Automobile, it has not been peaceful recently. First, new modelsHechuang V09It was questioned that the 800V overcharging technology was fake when it was launched. Later, it was announced that the sales volume of Hechuang V09 ranked among the top three pure electric MPVs in China. In fact, there were only 555 units, and the annual sales volume of the entire brand did not exceed20,000 vehicles. And the beautiful CEO who was hired with high profile beforeDuran, recently resigned in a low-key manner. What happened to Hechuang Automobile?
Recent changes in Hechuang Automobile
Not long ago, the beautiful vice president of iFlytek joined Hechuang Automobile as co-president. She not only released an introductory video on Douyin to promote the innovative model Hechuang V09:
Don’t forget to attract traffic to Hechuang V09 in the comment area:
But now, this video has disappeared from Dulan’s account. Also deleted were other content related to Hechuang Automobile.
Currently, there are no videos related to Hechuang Automobile in the content released by Dulan.
He obviously just hosted the Hechuang V09 press conference, is this his resignation?
However, Hechuang Automobile officially did not issue any statement related to Duran's position change.
However, this generation of netizens is still the most powerful. Rumors have leaked out on other platforms, indicating that Duran has indeed resigned.
On the job recruitment software Maimai, a certified"Employees of Hechuang Automotive Technology Co., Ltd."Users broke the news that Du Lan, who became co-president in April, resigned in October.
And in her revelations, she also mentioned that Hechuang had recently carried out a purge of senior management.
In addition to President Dulan, the management who served as marketing director, deputy general manager of sales, and vice president of sales also resigned one after another at the end of last year.
Smart Car Reference sought confirmation from Hechuang regarding this news, but as of press time, had not received a reply.
It's understandable that a single senior executive leaves the company due to personal reasons, but it's really strange for multiple managers to leave collectively.
What is going on?
Hechuang V09: Waterloo launch conference, mediocre sales
If you carefully observe the time when these management teams join and leave, you can find a pattern: they all join in 2023 and all leave in 2023.
Moreover, they are responsible formarketingRelated work.
So during the period when they joined and left the company, what new products did Hechuang Automobile have on the market?
One is Hechuang’s first pure electric MPV——Hechuang V09, which is the key model that Duran once vigorously promoted on Douyin.
This model was launched on October 13 last year and is positioned as a medium to large MPV.318,800-438,800It is available for sale starting from five models with 7 seats.
In addition to the "sofa refrigerator and large color TV", all Hechuang V09 series are equipped with an 800V platform as standard. The super-charged version also supports 800V high-voltage fast charging. The official claims that charging takes 10 minutes and the battery life is increased by more than 100%.400km.
It is on the same level as Denza D9 and Jikrypton 009, but it is the first to use 800V high-voltage fast charging, which is not supported by these two models. It is not difficult to find that this is the differentiated selling point that Hechuang V09 wants to create.
However, within three months of its launch, Hechuang V09 has not achieved the expected sales, with the highest monthly sales not exceeding 600 units.
According to the official announcement, it will enter the top three sales of pure electric MPVs in December. It can also be seen from the picture that there is some or even a large gap between the top two.
More importantly, the biggest selling point of Hechuang V09, the 800V high-voltage fast charger, was overturned at the press conference.
Although the video of this press conference can no longer be found on the entire Internet, according to reports from the Daily Economic News, when the press conference wanted to demonstrate the power replenishment capability of 800V supercharging from outside the venue through on-site connections, there was a charging period.camera switch, the battery life after charging is increased butThe time doesn't matchsituation.
Therefore, many netizens questioned whether the charging process at the Hechuang V09 launch conference was faked?
Subsequently, Hechuang released a one-shot charging video through its Weibo account, which showed that after 10 minutes of charging, the battery life of the Hechuang V09 increased by 419km, which was equivalent to a disguised response to doubts about charging capabilities.
But judging from sales, it is likely that it was still affected by the press conference.
During the tenure of these executives, they also experienced the joint creation of an updated model, the A06 Plus, which was launched with a starting price of 139,800 and was positioned as a mid-size sedan.
Also based on sales performance, these two models did not significantly promote the overall sales growth of Hechuang.
And Hechuang’s sales volume in 2023 will be only18559 vehicles, a slight decline compared with 18,941 vehicles in 2022.
There was a big problem in the marketing process and the sales performance was poor. It seems likely that the marketing team took the blame and resigned.
Who is Hechuang Automobile?
Finally, let’s briefly introduce Hechuang Automobile.
The company attracted much attention when it was first established, because it was also calledGAC NIO, jointly established by GAC New Energy (i.e. GAC Aion) and NIO in 2018, is jointly held by GAC Group, NIO and its management.
The background of traditional car companies + new forces does not make it easier for Hechuang.
Although the first car Hechuang 007 was launched with high efficiency more than two years after its establishment, the annual sales volume is less than 1,000 units. Among the subsequently released Hechuang Z03 and Hechuang A06, only the Hechuang Z03 can be considered a somewhat famous model.
At the same time, the company's senior management, shareholders, and company name also experienced major changes.
NIO's shareholding was first reduced to 4.46%, and then completely withdrawn, and Li Bin also resigned as the company's legal person.
Corresponding to this isPearl River Investment ManagementWith a large amount of capital to invest in shares, and GAC Group to jointly increase capital by 2.405 billion yuan, Zhujiang Investment ManagementLi ZhihongHe served as legal person and company president, and the company's former CEO Liao Bing announced his resignation.
The company name was later changed from GAC NIO to Hechuang Automobile.
Zhujiang Investment Management's largest shareholders, Guangzhou Automobile Group and GAC Aian, only hold a small shareholding structure in the company until today.
According to information from Qichacha, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Zhujiang Investment ManagementZhutou IntelligenceStill the largest shareholder of Hechuang, with a shareholding ratio of68.5594%, followed by GAC Aian, Yaoyu Investment and GAC Group.
Moreover, the actual controller and beneficial owner of Hechuang Automotive Technology Co., Ltd. is also the son of Zhu Mengyi, the founder of Zhujiang Investment ManagementZhu Yihang.
So it can be seen from this that although Du Lan joined the company with a high profile as president, he was actually still a part-time worker. He was only responsible for marketing management and did not gain control of the company.
If business performance is poor, the company naturally wants to replace people.
So, who was replaced?
On November 2 last year, Hechuang Automobile issued an announcement announcing that,Zhang YueseBecame the company's new president (legal representative) and was fully responsible for the company's production, operation and management. Lou Qiaoping served as the financial director. Li Zhihong will no longer serve as the company’s president (legal representative), and the appointment will take effect with immediate effect.
Zhang Yuesai has a profound background in the automotive industry and has more than 35 years of working experience in GAC Group. He has served in GAC Honda, GAC Passenger Cars, and GAC Mitsubishi. His last position was the director of the vehicle business division of GAC Group, director of the Economic and Management Committee, and general manager of GAC Passenger Vehicles.
This is also the biggest difference between the new president and the previous presidents. After all, Du Lan and Li Zhihong can be said to have "zero experience" in the automobile industry.
After several executive changes, Hechuang Automobile has returned to its original configuration: it is helmed by veterans of the automotive industry.
I just don’t know if Hechuang Automobile can open up a new path under the leadership of the new president.