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Wang Fengying, former general manager of Great Wall Motor, joined Xiaopeng Motor, and Great Wall Motor also ushered in personnel changes today. According to media reports, Chen Siying, former deputy general manager of LinkedIn Automobile sales Co., Ltd. has joined Great Wall as Wei brand CEO and general manager of tank brand marketing.

In response to this personnel change, Great Wall Motor said, "Mr. Chen Siying has officially joined Great Wall Motor as CEO of Wei brand and general manager of tank brand marketing. Mr. Chen Siying has rich experience in automobile brand operation and management, and his participation will further help Great Wall continue to deepen brand innovation and development. "

Chen Siying, a marketing veteran in the traditional automobile industry, joined the Nanjing Yafite Commerce Department as the brand promotion minister in 2001, and later held important positions in Nanjing Mingjue Automobile sales Company, Shanghai Automobile passenger car sales Company, Beijing Automobile Co., Ltd., Shanghai ES Company and Beijing Automobile sales Co., Ltd. In May 2016, Chen Siying was appointed Vice President and General Manager of Guanzhi Automobile sales Company. In April 2019, Chen Siying joined Geely as Deputy General Manager of Lecker Automobile sales Company, in charge of market public relations.

With the adjustment of brand structure, how can Great Wall Motor solve its worries? In December 2022, Great Wall announced an adjustment to the brand structure of its products, with the full integration of the two major brands of Euler and salon, with salon brand CEO Wenfei serving as CEO of both salon and Euler brands. In addition, Wei Brand and Tank brands are also fully integrated. Tank brand CEO Liu Yanzhao also serves as Wei Brand CEO, fully responsible for the operation and management of Wei Brand and Tank brands. According to Great Wall Automobile, after the completion of the integration of the two brands, they will operate independently.

Such a drastic reform shows the eagerness of Great Wall Motor to "seek change". Looking back on 2022, the market performance of Great Wall Motor is not optimistic. According to the data, the total sales of Great Wall cars in 2022 were 1.0675 million, down 16.67% from the same period last year, and there is a huge gap from its 1.9 million sales target, with a completion rate of only 56.19%.

Poor overall sales are closely related to the decline in sales of Great Wall brands. Among them, Harvard's total sales were 616600, down 19.93% from the same period last year; Wei's total sales were 36400, down 37.24% from the same period last year, making it the brand with the biggest decline; the total sales of Great Wall pickup trucks were 186700, down 19.87% from the same period last year; Euler's total sales were 104000, down 22.98% from the same period last year; and total tank sales were 123900, up 46.45% from the same period last year, making it the only brand to achieve growth.

Why can't Great Wall cars sell any more? In the domestic SUV market, Great Wall has always had a high market position, and the sales of Harvard H6 prompted Harvard to become the first domestic SUV brand with a sales volume of over one million. However, the once-hot Harvard brand stagnated in 2022, and the Harvard H6 lost its SUV title for many years, prompting negative growth for the Harvard brand and Great Wall. It is undeniable that the SUV products in the domestic market are becoming more and more abundant, the product configuration is getting higher and higher, and the competition is becoming more and more fierce, which has shaken the market position of Harvard H6, which was once a "butcher", and the sales volume began to weaken. The deeper reason is that the stacking of Harvard brand's new models, including first Love, Red Rabbit, KuGou and Immortal Beast, does not achieve the cluster effect, but accelerates the internal friction of the same level of products.

As the first high-end brand of Great Wall, Wei Brand's market performance in 2022 is really unflattering. Data show that in 2022, Wei brand sales fell 37.66% compared with the same period last year, becoming the largest decline brand under Great Wall Motor for two consecutive years and the biggest "encumbrance" of Great Wall Motor. Since the second half of the year, the decline of Wei Brand has been expanding, with sales falling by 24.26%, 31.40%, 49.51%, 58.54% and 66.43% respectively from July to December, while the decline in December reached an all-time high of 86.39% year-on-year, with monthly sales of only 1380 vehicles.

In 2021, Wei Brand abandoned its position as a hardline off-road SUV and made a comprehensive transformation to a high-end intelligent new energy brand, launching mocha, Macchiato and lattes named after coffee, all featuring the lemon-mixed DHT technology that Great Wall is proud of. Li Ruifeng, chief executive of Great Wall Motor, said bluntly: "Great Wall lemon hybrid DHT technology is the best new energy technology in the world, and it is the new energy technology that truly represents China." However, the performance of Wei brand "three cups of coffee" in the terminal market is not satisfactory, with monthly sales of more than 1,000 vehicles at most. In the eyes of industry insiders, the overall transformation of Wei Brand is inevitable, but the design of these models for reference elements are obvious, naming is also gaudy, each car is just a flash in the pan.

Two years ago, Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall Motor, issued a warning on the company's 30th birthday that the situation of Great Wall cars is endangered. Some people may still not think that Wei Jianjun's warning is too exaggerated, but for a private car company, the crisis is everywhere all the time, especially at a time when new energy vehicles have become a development trend, while other car companies are getting bigger and stronger. And if Great Wall Motor "remains the same", the crisis will continue to intensify. In the coming 2023, it will be an extremely important test for Great Wall Motor.

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