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According to media reports, Wuhan is considering measures to support Dongfeng Motor, the largest local carmaker. Potential measures include subsidies for new car buyers, new government orders to Dongfeng Motor and plans to take advantage of idle factories in Dongfeng's joint venture with Renault.

The draft, dated April 28, highlights the help provided by Wuhan to support Dongfeng Motor, but the document does not provide specific costs and points out that these policies may be adjusted after further discussions by the government. Wuhan municipal government, Wuhan Economic and technological Development Zone and Dongfeng Motor did not immediately respond to media reports for comment.

Dongfeng Automobile Group is one of the four major automobile groups in China, with its headquarters and main production base in Wuhan, Hubei Province. Dongfeng Motor was the first to bear the brunt of the outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020. According to data released by Dongfeng Motor, cumulative sales in the first four months of 2020 were 606801, down 32.69 per cent from 901511 in the same period last year, while sales of some subsidiaries still fell more than 70 per cent in the same month.

On January 17th, Dongfeng Group set a sales target of 3.158 million vehicles in 2020, an increase of 7.5 per cent over 2019. Of this total, passenger vehicle sales are targeted to grow by 7.5 per cent to 2.655 million and commercial vehicle sales by 7.4 per cent to 503000. According to the current development trend, it is difficult for Dongfeng Group to achieve its 2020 sales target, and Dongfeng Group has only achieved 19.74% of its target by April. On April 28, Dongfeng Motor released its 2019 and first-quarter results, showing that its operating income fell 6.24% to 13.52 billion yuan in 2019, and its net profit fell 20.12% to 442 million yuan. In the first quarter of this year, Dongfeng Motor's total revenue fell 33.7% year-on-year to 2.07 billion yuan, and net profit fell 124% to-27.647 million yuan.

The loss of first-quarter performance and sales means that Dongfeng Motor needs the development of the other three quarters to fill the gap, but for Dongfeng Motor, which continues to decline in sales, this is undoubtedly a difficult task. At the earnings conference, Dongfeng Motor Chairman Zhu Yanfeng said that Dongfeng Motor, as a headquartered enterprise in Hubei Province, a number of production operations have been greatly affected. In addition, Dongfeng Motor said that the company strives to recover losses after the end of the epidemic and tries to catch up with the full-year operating target set at the beginning of the year.

As the worst-hit area of the epidemic happens to be located in the main battlefield of Dongfeng Motor, not to mention the steady development of sales, it is difficult for factories and dealers to resume work and production. However, from an objective point of view, only when the epidemic is effectively controlled can car sales grow substantially. Therefore, for Dongfeng Motor, the epidemic resistance has also become another major event in addition to Dongfeng Motor's sales target.

After the outbreak, Dongfeng Motor was the first car company to respond. On January 23, Dongfeng Motor announced a donation of 10 million yuan to help the epidemic in Wuhan. On January 26th, Dongfeng Motor and its enterprises donated another 26 million yuan to Wuhan. On Feb. 7, Dongfeng Motor and its auto companies donated another 20 million yuan for epidemic prevention and control work. So far, Dongfeng donated money and goods up to 61.18 million yuan. In addition, Dongfeng Motor also organizes its travel company to provide travel services for community residents and provide services such as food delivery for citizens.

In a sense, Dongfeng Motor is not only fighting the epidemic, but also providing space for the recovery of sales. In the whole process of fighting the epidemic, Dongfeng Motor has also paid a lot of energy. Under the background of depressed sales and performance of Dongfeng Motor, Wuhan plans to support Dongfeng Automobile, but some netizens said that Dongfeng Automobile, as one of the four major car companies, commercial vehicles have a certain strength in China without help. Passenger cars do not have much status in China, even if they help, they will fall down, so it is better to help emerging industries. In addition, there are views such as "Dongfeng Motor is not strong", "protecting localism", "A Dou who can't afford it" and so on.

In fact, it cannot be denied that Dongfeng Motor is weaker than other passenger car companies in terms of passenger cars, but it cannot be denied that Dongfeng Motor made efforts during the epidemic. Hubei Province, as a major automobile province second only to Guangdong, Jilin and Shanghai, Dongfeng Motor and its affiliated car companies have an absolute position. In addition, Dongfeng Motor, as a state-owned enterprise, can give better play with the help of the Wuhan government and speed up the economic development of the province. Of course, as Dongfeng Motor, we should also think about how to improve its own production capacity and have the ability to compete with mainstream car companies in terms of passenger cars.

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