Changan Automobile will steadily improve its overseas operation capabilities, rapidly promote the layout of overseas production capacity, solidly consolidate its position in the trade market, and strive to achieve overseas sales of 400,000 units in 2025.
38 years of car manufacturing accumulation, 14 global production bases, 33 vehicle, engine and transmission factories, "6 countries and 9 places" global design and development center, more than 11,000 engineering and technical personnel...... Changan Automobile, one of China's four major automobile groups, is moving forward towards the beautiful vision of "building a world-class automobile enterprise". The development of globalization is the only way for Changan to build a world-class automobile enterprise.
Diversification of export forms
Shen Mingjun, assistant to the president of Changan Automobile and general manager of the overseas business development department, said in an interview with Auto Zongheng that Changan Automobile's exploration of overseas markets has mainly experienced three stages: vehicle trade, KD trade and overseas production capacity investment. With the continuous improvement of localization capabilities, Changan Automobile's globalization process has basically realized the transformation from "selling cars" to "operating brands".
Shen Mingjun, assistant to the president of Changan Automobile and general manager of the overseas business development department
In the vehicle trade stage from 2006 to 2011, Changan Automobile's export products are mainly commercial vehicles, and the export markets are Chile, Peru, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Algeria and other countries and regions, and gradually explore a set of sales measures suitable for their own reality.
From 2012 to 2018, in the KD trade stage, passenger car products represented by Yidong and CS35 were hot in China, and Changan Automobile seized the opportunity to introduce overseas markets in a timely manner, and optimized the production model on this basis, and promoted a number of CKD projects in the Middle East, Russia, and Vietnam. From 2017 to 2018, Changan Automobile's share of CKD products sold to the Middle East and Russian markets accounted for about 40% of the annual sales. The export method of CKD has greatly increased Changan Automobile's overseas sales.
Since 2019, in order to further enhance Changan Automobile's international capabilities. Based on the goals of Changan's overseas strategic planning, Changan Automobile began to promote the transformation of the Changan brand from trade to localized operation. In 2019, Chang'an's first overseas joint venture project, The Master Chang'an Factory, was put into operation, marking the completion of Chang'an's first overseas factory. In 2021, Master Changan sold 18,000 vehicles, an increase of 293% year-on-year, ranking first in the export of local Chinese brands and fifth in the world. At present, Changan Automobile has more than 20 4S sales channels in Pakistan, covering 10 key cities. In the future, Changan Automobile strives to build Pakistan into its new 50,000-vehicle core market overseas. The Pakistani joint venture project has accumulated experience for Changan to build overseas bases, and has also laid a solid foundation for Changan Automobile to further expand overseas markets and realize global operation.
Today, Changan Automobile's export footprint covers more than 70 countries around the world, of which 91% are countries along the "Belt and Road". At the same time, with the world's leading product synchronous development system, many of Changan Automobile's products have performed well in overseas markets and are favored by overseas consumers. Relying on the market strategy of "one country, one policy" and the product quality of excellence, Changan Automobile has created a number of global classic products. For example, CS35 PLUS has won the "Crossover of the Year" award in the Saudi market and the "Most Cost-Effective SUV of the Year" in the Qatari market; Yidong has won the Saudi Arabian "Car Star of the Year Award". High-quality automotive products have become the core competitiveness of Changan Automobile's rapid overseas development.
With the improvement of Changan Automobile's passenger car product strength and market development efforts, Changan Automobile's overseas sales and operating quality have increased year by year. 2021 is the 30th year that Changan Automobile has gone overseas. Changan Automobile's export volume reached 115,000 units in overseas markets, rising from 12th to 4th in the export ranking of China's automotive industry from the beginning of the voyage; the value of export goods increased from 1 billion yuan in 2016 to 7 billion yuan in 2021, maintaining profitability for six consecutive years.
According to Shen Mingjun, Changan Automobile has a number of 10,000-class core markets overseas, including important economies and market regions such as the Middle East, North Africa, Central and South America, Southeast Asia, and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Among them, in Pakistan, Changan Automobile exported 18,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 293%; in Saudi Arabia, Changan Automobile exported more than 30,000 units, an increase of 81% year-on-year. In many markets such as Peru, Saudi Arabia, Chile and Pakistan, Changan Automobile ranked first among Chinese brands in sales.
R&D layout is global
The process of globalization requires a global vision. Shen Mingjun said that as early as 2003, Changan Automobile began the journey of global research and development with a global vision and open thinking, integrating and utilizing the world's superior resources. In addition to the domestic design and R&D centers in Chongqing, Beijing, Dingzhou, Hebei and Hefei, Anhui, Changan Automobile has also established overseas R&D centers in Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany, and built a global collaborative R&D system with a focus on Europe, Asia and the Americas.
Changan Automobile European Design Center was established in Turin, Italy in 2006, focusing on automotive styling. As the capital of fashion, Italy is home to some of the world's top stylists. Mi Mengdong, General Manager of Changan Automobile Styling Design Institute & Chairman of Changan European Design Center, said at the event a few days ago: "Changan Automobile European Design Center is the largest design company in Italy; the design team brings together many designers who have worked for well-known car companies such as BMW and Audi. Changan Automobile takes the sincere recruitment of global talents as its own use, and constantly consolidates the strength and original intention of Changan Automobile in the field of design. ”
Established in 2008 in Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, Changan Automobile's Japan Design Center specializes in the styling and engineering of automotive interiors and exteriors. Yokohama is rich in design resources, with automobile companies such as Honda, Nissan, Fuji Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi and Isuzu and many first-class design companies, with a dynamic interior R&D style and development system. Relying on the mature concept and technical means of Japanese automobile design, Changan Automobile has rapidly improved its design capabilities while also cultivating a batch of R&D talents with international design vision and leading level.
Changan Automobile's UK R&D Center in Birmingham, central England, was established in 2010. Birmingham is the second largest city in the United Kingdom after London, one of the major manufacturing centers in the United Kingdom, and also the golden development area of the British automobile industry, known as "Detroit in the United Kingdom". Here brings together a number of the world's high-end car companies, such as Jaguar Land Rover, Ford and so on. The location of Birmingham as an R&D center has brought great convenience and talent advantages to the long-term development of Changan Automobile, and also provided strong support for Changan Automobile in the research and development of power systems.
Shen Mingjun said that Changan Automobile's American R&D Center was established in 2011 in Detroit, the "City of Automobiles", specializing in automotive chassis performance development, chassis engineering design, chassis technology research and manufacturing process research, focusing on chassis system development for mid-to-high-end cars and SUVs, and at the same time, with the help of senior chassis talent resources in the United States, technical training for domestic chassis engineers, comprehensively enhance the company's global competitiveness in the field of chassis design. Changan Automobile's U.S. R&D Center is a technical exploration of changan and even Chinese brand cars occupying the commanding heights of science and technology in the world's automotive industry in the future.
On December 14, 2021, on the investor interactive platform, Changan Automobile said that based on brand positioning and concept, Avita Technology will set up its global design center in Munich, Germany, and chief design officer Nader Faghihzadeh personally leads a team of senior designers from international diversified backgrounds. With the establishment of Avita Technology Global Design Center, Changan Automobile's R&D layout of "6 countries and 9 places" was completed. These "tentacles" all over the world will collect the latest information resources of the global automotive industry for Changan Automobile for the first time and transform them into product forces, focusing on enhancing Changan Automobile's global competitiveness.
The company aims to sell 400,000 units overseas in 2025
Shen Mingjun believes that under the current industrial situation, China's independent brands are expected to maintain an export growth rate of more than 25% in 2022. China's own brands face three major opportunities. First of all, the production order of foreign automobile brands has not yet been fully restored, while the global automobile market maintains the expectation of recovery, providing growth space for Chinese brands. Secondly, Chinese auto brands have gradually changed from "physical output" to "intellectual output" when they go global, and the differentiated competitive advantage of independent brands has been further strengthened. The continuous improvement of product strength has allowed Chinese brands to launch high-end luxury brands, which can attack the high-end market upwards and make up for the shortcomings of the brand. Third, the export of new energy vehicles has obvious driving effect, the wave of automobile electrification has provided Chinese auto brands with the opportunity to "overtake in curves", and the ever-increasing demand for new energy vehicles has provided a broad and lasting growth momentum for Chinese auto brands.
In order to seize the opportunity and accelerate the expansion of overseas markets, Changan Automobile issued the overseas "14th Five-Year Plan", with "strategic traction, focus on key points, construction of systems, and rapid breakthroughs" as the guiding ideology, which will steadily improve overseas operation capabilities, rapidly promote overseas production capacity layout, solidly consolidate the position of the trade market, and strive to reach 400,000 overseas sales in 2025.
Shen Mingjun said that in the future, Changan Automobile will continue to keep up with the pace of the national "Belt and Road" development strategy, integrate resources, innovate models, accelerate the construction of overseas bases, and promote the construction of Changan Automobile's overseas bases in a gradient manner in multiple mainstream markets. At the same time, on the basis of ensuring the full blossoming of the trade market, Changan Automobile continues to focus on classic products, create high-end products, and form a variety of 10,000-vehicle products; and lean market management to improve channel quality. In addition, as the world's automobile brand highland in the European market, Changan Automobile will take new energy products as the starting point, seize the opportunity of electrification in Europe, pilot market operation first, accumulate experience, improve risk estimation, gradually expand channels from point to point, and accelerate access to developed markets such as Western Europe and Northern Europe.
Changan Automobile is accelerating its pace towards the world in an all-round way. As Zhu Huarong, chairman of Changan Automobile, said: "In the next ten years, the world will definitely give birth to world-class Chinese brands", and Changan Automobile will be among them.
Note: This article was first published in the "Cover Story" section of the April 2022 issue of Auto Magazine, so stay tuned.