AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)12/18 Report--

On December 17, Hyundai Motor Group announced the appointment of senior personnel in China. Li Hecheng, vice president of Hyundai Motor Group China, will succeed Li Guangguo as president of Hyundai Automobile Group (China). Fully responsible for the operation and management of Hyundai Automobile Group (China) Investment Co., Ltd., the new personnel appointment will take effect on January 1, 2022.

According to official data, Li Hecheng graduated from the School of Economics and Management of Jilin University and received his doctorate from EMBA of Peking University and School of Business of Renmin University of China. Since 2001, he has served as representative of Hyundai Motor Company in Beijing, director of operating support room of Hyundai Automotive Co., Ltd., executive deputy general manager of Hyundai Motor (China) Investment Co., Ltd., vice president of Hyundai Motor Group in China, chief government affairs officer, chief strategic officer and chairman of Hyundai Automotive hydrogen fuel Cell system (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd.

As early as 2002, Hyundai Motor Group entered China and successively set up three vehicle production enterprises in China, namely, Beijing Hyundai, Dongfeng Yueda Kia and Hyundai commercial vehicles. it took only five years to enter the era of total output of 1 million units. However, the current development of Hyundai in China is not smooth, and sales continue to decline, and it has been reduced from the original first-tier joint venture brand to the third-tier joint venture brand. The most direct goal is to improve the depressed performance of the Chinese market.

In the passenger car market, Beijing Hyundai and Dongfeng Yueda Kia undertake the development direction of Korean Hyundai in China, but the current development of both Beijing Hyundai and Dongfeng Yueda Kia is not optimistic. Take Beijing Hyundai as an example, it has the first, second and third factories in Beijing Shunyi, as well as five major passenger car production bases in Cangzhou and Chongqing, with an annual output of 1.65 million vehicles.

Until 2016, Beijing Hyundai dominated the domestic passenger car market with high performance-to-price ratio, with sales of 1.03 million, 1.16 million, 1.06 million and 1.14 million vehicles respectively from 2013 to 2016, all of which remained at the level of millions, reaching an all-time peak in 2016. However, after entering 2017, Beijing Hyundai's sales began to decline, with annual sales falling 31.3% year-on-year to 785000 vehicles in 2017 and 790000 vehicles in 2018, basically the same as the same period last year. At this time, according to Beijing Hyundai's annual production capacity of 1.65 million vehicles, at least half of the capacity is idle. Sales in the Beijing Hyundai market were 716000 in 2019, down 5.7% from the same period last year, and fell to 502000 in 2020 under the influence of the epidemic. The cumulative sales volume in the first 11 months of 2021 was 320129, with an annual target completion rate of 560000 vehicles of 57.16%. If according to the existing market sales, Beijing Hyundai's sales and capacity utilization hit a new low, spare capacity may exceed 1.2 million vehicles.

To this end, at the beginning of this year, Beijing Hyundai sold the first factory in Shunyi and was taken over by ideal Automobile, a new brand of car building. It is understood that the first Hyundai Factory in Beijing is the earliest vehicle manufacturing plant established by Hyundai Automobile Group in China. it was put into operation in 2002, with an annual output of 300000 vehicles, mainly producing Sonata, Tusheng, Renna, Elantra and other models.

In October this year, the factory of ideal car in Shunyi, Beijing has been opened, and the first factory of Hyundai in Beijing is officially classified as ideal car. In addition to the first factory, foreign media have previously reported that Hyundai Motor Group plans to list its second factory for sale, and Hyundai will shift its focus to electric cars and luxury models. It hopes to reverse years of sluggish sales in China, the world's largest car market. However, Hyundai did not give a clear response to the above reports.

Entering 2021, Beijing Hyundai's market sales are still difficult to improve, with a total sales of 320100 vehicles in the first November, only 57.16% of the annual sales target. In the face of declining sales, insufficient product competitiveness, weakening brand influence, idle production capacity and many other problems, what measures should Beijing Hyundai take? Can the appointment of a new leader change this situation?

Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the Federation of passengers, once said, "the sales volume of Hyundai in Beijing continues to decline, and the gap between production capacity and sales is still widening. I think it is a problem of disobedience between soil and water." Hyundai has performed well in the global market, but it is not satisfactory in China. Brands still have to face the problem of how to improve product strength and how to quickly adapt to changes in the Chinese market. "

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