AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)07/22 Report--

On July 18th, Stellantis Group announced: "Stellantis will adopt a light asset approach to develop the Jeep brand in China, and negotiate with GAC GROUP to terminate the local joint venture. Since then, the Stellantis Group will focus on the distribution of imported Jeep-branded cars in China. " On the same day, GAC GROUP responded: "Guangzhou Auto Fick has been losing money in recent years and has been unable to resume normal production and operation since February this year. GAC GROUP and Stellantis are negotiating to terminate the joint venture in an orderly manner, and will properly handle matters related to the joint venture in accordance with the law and regulations.

GAC GROUP and Stellantis Group have been in a state of equity game, Guangzhou Auto Fick has obviously become a victim. In March 2010, Fiat Group and GAC GROUP jointly established GAC Fiat Automobile Co., Ltd. at that time, GAC Fiat was in high spirits and successively made Fiat brand models such as Fixiang and Zhiyue. In January 2014, Fiat Group acquired Chrysler Group and announced that it would change its name to Fiat Chrysler. A year later, GAC Fiat changed its name to GAC Fiat Chrysler and launched the first Jeep model, Free Light, in November 2015, priced between 229800 yuan and 315800 yuan. Since then, Jeep has successively expanded the product camp, such as domestic Freedom Man, Guide, Big Commander and so on. According to the data, GAC Fick sold 179900 vehicles in 2016, up 23.57% from the same period last year to 222300 vehicles in 2017, the highest since its inception.

When Fiat announced its withdrawal from the Chinese market in 2018, GAC Fick, which had only Jeep, had an increasingly difficult life, with sales of 125200 vehicles, 73900 vehicles, 40500 vehicles and 20100 vehicles respectively from 2018 to 2021, a decline for four consecutive years. Under the background of the delisting of Fiat and the decline in Jeep sales year after year, both GAC GROUP and FCA Group want to get the voice of GAC Fick and hope to adjust their strategy according to their own ideas, but as a result, the two companies quarrel for control.

On January 27th, Stellantis Group unilaterally announced that it had increased its stake in GAC Fick, a joint venture company, and planned to increase its stake in GAC Fick, a joint venture company of GAC GROUP, from 50% to 75%, but then GAC GROUP announced that this behavior had not been approved by us, which GAC GROUP expressed deep regret. On March 1, GAC GROUP and Stellantis Group both issued strategic plans, but both avoided mentioning Guangzhou Auto Fick, which was also completely shut down from then on.

In fact, Stellantis Group has not been able to understand the Chinese market from beginning to end, but is reluctant to give up the Chinese market. As we all know, Stellantis Group is jointly founded by FCA (Fiat Chrysler Group) and PSA (Peugeot Citroen Group). It has many well-known automobile brands, including Peugeot, Citroen, DS, Opel, Maserati, Jeep, Fiat, Chrysler, Dodge, etc., but the car brands introduced into China are more or less unaccustomed, and the early Chrysler, Fiat and DS will not be talked about for the time being. In recent years, Peugeot and Citroen, owned by Citroen, have also spent a lot of time.

Judging from the statements of both shareholders, the delisting of GAC Fick is a foregone conclusion, but related matters are still under further negotiation, including the disposal of the factory. It is understood that Guangzhou Auto Fick has two major vehicle production bases, Changsha factory and Guangzhou factory, with an overall design capacity of 328000 vehicles, of which Changsha factory mainly produces free light, big commander, Guangzhou factory mainly produces free man and compass. In September 2021, Stellantis announced the closure of Guangzhou Auto Fick plant, which was taken over by GAC Ean and used to produce pure electric models. According to the latest report of the Financial Associated Press, BYD, Zero and other car companies are discussing with GAC GROUP the possibility of taking over the GAC Fick Changsha plant, but there has been no response as of press time.

BYD is the world's largest manufacturer of new energy vehicles. BYD produced a total of 644700 new energy passenger vehicles in the first half of the year, up 321.87% from the same period last year, and sold 638200 new energy passenger vehicles, an increase of 324.84% over the same period last year. It is not difficult to see from the data that BYD's production and sales are basically the same, so for the current BYD, the biggest problem is a serious shortage of supply and demand.

It is understood that BYD has production bases in Shenzhen, Xi'an, Changsha, Changzhou and Fuzhou, and production bases in Hefei, Jinan, Zhengzhou, Shanwei and Xiangyang will be put into production one after another this year. According to the query of "Automotive Industry concern", GAC Feike Changsha factory is located at No. 18 Yingxia Road, Changsha County, Changsha City, Hunan Province, while BYD Changsha plant is located at 88 Environmental Protection East Road, Yuhua District, Changsha City, Hunan Province, the distance between the two places is only 25 kilometers, and BYD's production capacity continues to be in short supply. if it directly takes over the GAC Feike Changsha plant, it will significantly alleviate the capacity pressure.

As for Zero car, it is one of the new brands in China, which was established in December 2015. the first mass production model Zero S01 was officially launched in January 2019, followed by Zero running T03, Zero running C11, Zero running C01 and other models. It is understood that zero-running cars did not have the production qualification in the early stage, and mass production was achieved through Yangtze River automobile contract manufacturing, and the production qualification of new energy vehicles was not obtained until April 2021, and the vehicle tail mark was changed from "Yangtze River zero-running" to "zero-running car." at present, it has a factory in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, producing zero-running T03, zero-running C11, zero-running C01 models. Data show that a total of 43748 new cars will be delivered in 2021 and 51994 from January to June in 2022.

When foreign investors enter the Chinese market, they must be high-spirited and want to make a difference in the Chinese market. After all, China is the largest automobile market in the world, but many joint venture car companies have only achieved a "good beginning" but no "good end". However, everything has consequences for a reason, GAC Fick's outcome is not unexpected, in the context of independent brands upward, mainstream joint venture brands squeeze, GAC Fick will not be the last.

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