AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)06/24 Report--

On June 24, according to the latest declaration catalogue of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, domestic Kia marked the end of the updated models as "Yueda Kia", which also means that "Dongfeng Yueda Kia" will become a thing of the past.

At present, domestic Kia models for sale include KX5, Zhirun, K3, K5, Huanchi, Jiahua and other full-product passenger cars covering sedans, SUV and MPV. According to the latest declaration chart change information, Kia models will be replaced with brand-new "KIA (Kia)" English car logo in the future, and the body tail mark will also be changed from the original "Dongfeng Yueda Kia" logo to "Yueda Kia".

On March 22nd this year, Dongfeng Yueda Kia Automobile Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "DYK") officially changed its name to "Kia Automobile Co., Ltd.". The legal representative is Zhang Naiwen, and the company's registered capital has increased from US $624 million to US $1.224 billion. Since then, the 19-year joint venture between Dongfeng Group and Yueda Kia has officially ended. In response to the name change, the person in charge of Kia Automobile said: "the company name is not important, the key is the company strategy."

According to the concerned inquiry information of the automobile industry, as one of the oldest car manufacturers in South Korea, DYK was established on September 12, 1992. at the beginning, Yueda Kia was established by Jiangsu Yueda Group and Kia Co., Ltd. at 50:50 and began to produce cars. On March 29th, Dongfeng, Yueda and Kia held a signing ceremony for the joint venture contract and the articles of association of DYK in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. The equity was finally determined to be 25% each held by Dongfeng and Yueda, and 50% by Kia. The term of the joint venture between the three parties will expire in September 2022.

After the establishment of the three-party joint venture, Dongfeng Yueda Kia also had a lot of highlights. Relevant data show that the period from 2014 to 2016 was the highlight of Kia's sales in China. Kia's annual sales exceeded 600000 in the past three years, of which 650000 in 2016. This figure can be said to be difficult for many enterprises to reach at that time, but this highlight moment is only a brief moment, and its sales began to decline sharply since 2017.

Affected by the "THAAD entry into Korea" incident in 2017, the sales of Korean car companies in China suffered a serious setback. Dongfeng Yueda Kia's sales plummeted from 650000 to 359000 in 2017, rebounded slightly to 370000 in 2018, and fell again to 289800 in 2019. By 2020, under the influence of the epidemic, its sales were only 249000. Dongfeng Yueda Kia also quickly lost its sense of existence.

By 2021, the annual sales volume was only 152500 vehicles, down 37% from the same period last year. The continued collapse in sales volume has also led to idle production capacity in some factories in Dongfeng Yueda Kia and frequent changes in the company's personnel structure. It is understood that since 2015, Dongfeng Yueda Kia has experienced six general managers, of which, in December 2019, Dongfeng Yueda Kia announced that four senior Kia executives had been transferred, according to the company's oriental personnel arrangement. Mr. Li Zhijun, Deputy General Manager and head of Management Department appointed by Yueda side, Mr. Jin Xuantui, Minister of Purchasing Department appointed by Asia, Mr. Min Yuanzai, Director of the Research Institute appointed by Asia, Mr. Ye Lei, Deputy sales Department Minister appointed by Yueda, will no longer hold relevant positions in Dongfeng Yueda Kia Automobile Co., Ltd., and will be transferred back to Dongfang.

In addition, the company has also fallen into a state of continuous losses. According to the annual financial report of Jiangsu Yueda Investment Co., Ltd., the net loss rates of Dongfeng Yueda Enterprises from 2017 to 2020 were 1.123 billion yuan, 492 million yuan, 1.299 billion yuan and 4.75 billion yuan respectively, with a cumulative loss of 7.664 billion yuan over four years. Affected by this, Dongfeng Motor Group finally decided to let go, with the launch of Dongfeng Motor, Kia has also undergone major reforms in China.

On November 19, 2021, Dongfeng Automobile Group Co., Ltd. publicly listed its 25% stake in Dongfeng Yueda Kia Automobile Co., Ltd. through the Shanghai United property Exchange at a listing price of 297 million yuan. On January 12, 2022, Dongfeng Automobile Group Co., Ltd. closed its 25% stake in Dongfeng Yueda Kia Automobile Co., Ltd., with Jiangsu Yueda Automobile Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yueda Automobile Group") as the sole bidder. On January 21, 2022, the investors of Dongfeng Yueda Kia Co., Ltd. were changed to Jiangsu Yueda Investment Co., Ltd., Kia Co., Ltd., and Jiangsu Yueda Automobile Group Co., Ltd., holding 50%, 25% and 25% respectively. On February 7, 2022, Kia Co., Ltd. signed an expanded investment agreement with the people's Government of Yancheng and Jiangsu Yueda Group. Kia and Yueda will set up a new joint venture in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province as a base for future development. expand investment to introduce more global models and new energy models, and rapidly improve vehicle sales and capacity utilization. On March 1, 2022, Yueda Investment announced that due to the continued loss of Dongfeng Yueda Kia performance in 2021 and the fierce competition in the domestic automobile industry, the company gave up to participate in the capital increase of DYK. On March 18, 2022, Dongfeng Yueda Kia's registered capital changed from US $624 million to US $1.224 billion, and its shareholding ratio was changed to 50% of Kia Co., Ltd., 45.8% of Yueda Automobile Group and 4.2% of Yueda Investment.

Since Dongfeng Group announced its formal withdrawal from Dongfeng Yueda Kia, Kia also began its own "reform". Kia previously said that after the establishment of the new joint venture between Kia and Jiangsu Yueda Group, Kia will expand its investment to introduce more global models and new energy models, while Kia will gradually stop producing models with less than 100000 yuan. Dongfeng Yueda Kia is selling models under 100000 yuan, including Yi run, Huanchi and Freddy models.

According to the plan, the total production and sales target of Asia in China will exceed 4 million in the next decade, and six new electric vehicles will be launched in China one after another by 2027. Among them, this year is the first year for Kia to start electrification. In addition to the introduction of HEV hybrid models, the pure electric model EV6 will also be introduced into China soon.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat