AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)02/08 Report--

On February 8, Great Wall Motor announced a major personnel change. Great Wall Motor announced that Guo Tiefu will join Great Wall Motor and take the position of General Manager of Brand Public Relations, responsible for Great Wall Motor's corporate brand and technical brand building and external media public relations related work.

It is understood that Guo Tiefu graduated from Ghent University, Belgium, one of the world's top 100 universities, with a master's degree in management. His past resume shows that Guo Tiefu once served as executive deputy general manager of Baowo Automobile Group Marketing Company, and then served Audi, Bentley, Jaguar Land Rover and other automobile enterprises in charge of marketing planning. Joined Chinese Express in 2018 as Senior Director of Marketing and Public Relations Communications of Gaohe Automobile. Joined Lotus in October 2022 as general manager of Lotus China and senior director of marketing. Great Wall Motor said that Guo Tiefu's addition will further strengthen Great Wall Motor's marketing management team.

Entering 2023, there have been a number of personnel changes at the top of Great Wall Motors. On January 30, Xiaopeng Automobile officially announced that Wang Fengying joined Xiaopeng Automobile as President, effective from January 30,2023. Wang Fengying was once regarded as the "No.2 figure" in the Great Wall after Chairman Wei Jianjun, and his departure was equivalent to the loss of the second-in-command of Great Wall Motor. In addition, media reports said that Yuan Zhancheng, former vice president of sales of Great Wall Motors, or joined Jianghuai Automobile. It is understood that Yuan Zhancheng has worked in Great Wall Motors for nearly 20 years. He is a native of the old Great Wall. He has served as regional manager, regional general manager, advertising department manager and sales vice president successively. Before leaving the Great Wall, he led the overall marketing of Haval H series. According to the data, Haval H6 achieved global cumulative sales of 3 million from its launch in 2011 to the end of December 2019. At the end of January, Chen Siying, former deputy general manager of Linke Automobile Sales Co., Ltd., joined Great Wall Motor as CEO of Wei Brand and general manager of tank brand marketing. Great Wall Motor said: "Mr. Chen Siying has rich experience in automobile brand operation and management, and his participation will further help Great Wall Motor to continuously deepen brand innovation and development."

Before this, Great Wall Motor also merged the management teams of Euler and Salon, Wei Brand and Tank, which were managed and coordinated by a new leader respectively, implemented dual-brand operation under their respective systems, focusing on pure electric market, among which Salon brand CEO Wen Fei served as CEO of Salon and Euler double brands, tank brand CEO Liu Yanzhao concurrently served as CEO of Wei Brand, while Haval brand and Great Wall pickup brand continued to operate independently.

"Auto Industry Concern" believes that a series of changes in Great Wall Motor or its poor sales performance are related. On the evening of February 7, Great Wall Motor released January 2023 production and sales express. Data show that Great Wall Motor sales in January were 61,500 vehicles, down 44.96% year-on-year.

According to the breakdown of major brands, the five brands of Great Wall Motor all experienced different degrees of decline, among which Wei brand and Euler all fell by 79.29% and 72.21% year-on-year respectively. In addition, Haval and tank brands also experienced 44.19% and 42.92% declines respectively. Great Wall Motor said that the reason for the decline in sales was affected by the New Year's Day and Spring Festival holidays.

Haval is the main sales force of Great Wall Motors, with sales of 39,000 vehicles in January, down 44.19% year-on-year. At present, the models sold under Haval brand include Haval H6, Haval Big Dog, Haval Divine Beast, Haval Red Rabbit, Haval First Love, Haval H9, Haval Cool Dog, etc., among which H6 is the most important vehicle model of Haval brand. Taking the data of new vehicle traffic insurance in 2022 as an example, the annual sales volume of Haval H6 in 2022 is 242,500 vehicles, accounting for 48.79% of the total sales volume of Haval brand.

In the field of domestic SUV models, Great Wall Motor has always had a high market position, among which Haval H6 can be called "National God Car", and it is also with the excellent market performance of Haval H6 that Haval has become the first SUV brand with sales exceeding one million in China. According to statistics, from 2011 to 2021, Haval H6 became the SUV sales champion in China for 11 consecutive years, among which Haval H6 ranked first in SUV of the year with 360,100 vehicles in 2021. However, in 2022, Haval H6 has fallen to the altar, and sales are not as good as before. According to the 2022 SUV Top 20 sales list compiled by Auto Industry Focus, the Haval H6 multi-year sales champion was replaced by Model Y in 2022 and fell to No.3 on the list. The loss of this SUV title also directly led to negative growth of Haval brand and Great Wall Motor in 2022.

On February 8, Haval officially announced its new model H-DOG named "Haval Second Generation Big Dog" in Chinese. The estimated price may be in the range of 150,000 - 200,000 yuan. It is powered by a powertrain composed of 1.5T engine +2-gear DHT-PHEV. The maximum power is 240kw, the peak torque is 530N·m, and the pure electric range is 50- 150km. According to the plan, the new two-wheel drive version will be launched in the first quarter, and the four-wheel drive version will be released within the year.

Although Haval has many models, except Haval H6, the competitiveness of other models is not high. On the one hand, it is more and more abundant domestic SUV products, and consumers have more choices; on the other hand, it is the positioning reason of Haval's own brand models, including the accumulation of first love, red rabbit, cool dog, god beast and other models, which intensifies the internal friction of products at the same level. Data show that in 2022, the cumulative sales volume of Haval Big Dog is 89861, Haval M6 is 73427, Haval Red Rabbit is 25419, and the sales volume of the latest Haval Cool Dog is only 6377. As Haval's first new energy SUV, Haval II Big Dog is also the third new car launched by "Dog Series" after Haval Big Dog and Haval Cool Dog. From the sales analysis, Haval big dog sales are still OK, but cool dog performance is average, as for Haval second generation big dog after the market can play a role in boosting Haval sales, large probability is also more difficult.

In terms of other brands, the sales volume of Euler brand, the only new energy automobile brand owned by Great Wall, was 3676 in January, down 72.21% year-on-year. With the suspension of the two models of Euler Black Cat and White Cat, sales of Euler have shrunk dramatically. At present, there are three models of Euler good cat, ballet cat and lightning cat under Euler brand, but only one of the main models is Euler good cat. Ballet cat and lightning cat are models launched in 2022. However, considering that the price of both models is 200,000 yuan and brand popularity and other factors, the sales promotion of Euler brand is very limited in the short term.

As for Wei brand, as the first high-end brand owned by Great Wall Motor, poor sales performance has been a common topic. Data show, January Wei brand sales for 1056 vehicles, Year-on-year decline 79.29%, For the Great Wall Motor five brands of the highest decline, But this is not surprising, Before Wei brand has become the Great Wall for two consecutive years the biggest decline brand. According to the official website, at present, Wei brand's models on sale include Mocha/Mocha DHT, Macchiato DHT/Macchiato DHT-PHEV, Latte DHT/Latte DHT-PHEV and Blue Mountain DHT-PHEV. According to the plan, from 2021 to 2023, Wei brand will launch 16 brand-new models including cars, MPVs, etc. as well as brand-new platforms and technologies. Among them, Wei brand's first car "Dream" has been unveiled at last year's Chengdu Auto Show and is expected to be launched in the second quarter of this year. The price may reach 300,000 yuan level. At that time, the brand-new platform and technology will also extend the price range of Wei brand from 150,000 - 200,000 yuan to 150,000 - 300,000 yuan.

In the past brand sales, tank brands almost all achieved year-on-year growth, but January fell 42.92% year-on-year to 5915 vehicles, a decline similar to Haval. So far, the tank brand has only two models, Tank 300 and Tank 500, of which Tank 300 accounts for most of the sales sources. In 2022, the cumulative sales volume of tank brands was 123,900, of which the cumulative sales volume of tank 300 was 105,900.

From the data level analysis, Great Wall Motor is falling into the growth slowdown situation. "Auto Industry Concern" believes that in addition to the impact of the traditional Spring Festival, the collective decline of the five brands of Great Wall Motors in January may be related to the adjustment of the organizational structure of the whole brand announced by Great Wall in December last year. It is understood that Great Wall Motor will launch more than 10 new energy products in 2023. With a series of adjustments of Great Wall Motor, Great Wall Motor is bound to usher in new changes in 2023. In view of the significant decline in sales volume of Great Wall Motors in 2022, Great Wall Motors announced that it would lower its annual sales target for 2023. The sales target of Great Wall Motors in 2023 has been adjusted from no less than 2.8 million vehicles to no less than 1.6 million vehicles, a decrease of 1.2 million vehicles by comparison. Of course, this also means that Great Wall Motors '"2025 Strategy" may not be realized as scheduled.

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