AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)02/25 Report--

On February 23, according to the official website of China first Automobile Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "FAW Group"), the Central Committee decided that Comrade Xu Liuping would no longer serve as chairman and party committee secretary of China first Automobile Group Co., Ltd. the appointment and removal of relevant posts shall be handled in accordance with the provisions of relevant laws and articles of association.

On the same day, the Workers' Daily published that the CPC Central Committee decided that Xu Liuping, chairman and secretary of the party committee of China first Automobile Group Co., Ltd., would be transferred to the all-China Federation of Trade unions as party group secretary. Domestic media have previously reported that after Xu Liuping takes office, the original job may be temporarily presided over by Qiu Xiandong, managing director and deputy party secretary of FAW. So far, FAW has not responded to the news.

At present, Xu Liuping is no longer in the introduction of the group leaders on FAW's official website. So far, the FAW leadership has been adjusted to Qiu Xiandong, Wang Guoqiang, Dong Yunpeng, Lei Ping, Liu Yigong, Zhou Zhiping and Liang Guiyou, with a total of seven members.

Xu Liuping was born in October 1964 in Yangzhong, Jiangsu Province. he graduated from Beijing Institute of Technology, majoring in Management Science and Engineering, with a doctorate degree in Management and a senior engineer at the research level. He joined Communist Party of China in January 1987 and worked in June 1988.

Looking back at Xu Liuping's past work experience, he has held a number of positions, including the deputy director and director of the Development Planning Department of China Arms equipment Corporation; the chairman of Luoyang North Enterprise Group Co., Ltd.; the director of the automobile department of China Arms equipment Group Corporation; the assistant general manager of China Arms equipment Group Corporation; and the deputy general manager and party member of China Arms equipment Group Corporation. Deputy general manager and member of the party group of China Arms equipment Corporation, president, chairman and secretary of the party committee of Chongqing Changan Automobile Co., Ltd., chairman and secretary of the party committee of China Changan Automobile Group Co., Ltd.; deputy general manager and deputy secretary of the party group of China Arms equipment Group, with rich experience in the past.

Since then, Xu Liuping has also been in charge of Changan Automobile Group and China first Automobile Group. In October 2013, Xu Liuping served as director, general manager and deputy secretary of the party group of China Arms equipment Corporation, as well as chairman of China Changan Automobile Group Co., Ltd., and chairman of Chongqing Changan Automobile Co., Ltd. in August 2017, he was formally transferred to chairman and party committee secretary of China first Automobile Group.

Among them, in the five years when Xu Liuping was in charge of FAW Group, less than two months after he took office, he carried out drastic changes to FAW Group, including major changes from organizational structure to personnel adjustment, and adjusted the heads of the core business sectors of the group, such as functional departments, R & D, Red Flag, Pentium, FAW-Volkswagen, involving the top leaders of 28 departments, which shocked the entire automobile industry at once. At that time, the industry generally believed that Xu Liuping's reform measures were more radical, and of course, under the leadership of Xu Liuping, FAW Group also had a significant improvement. ‍

From 2018, FAW Group began to make large-scale adjustments to its own brand business, including FAW Senya and Tianjin FAW merged into FAW cars; abolishing the liberation and Pentium enterprise headquarters, of which the Pentium enterprise headquarters was established less than a year; since then, FAW Senya and Tianjin FAW once again spun off FAW cars, from the establishment of the division to the passenger car company directly managed by FAW Group headquarters. Subsequently, FAW cars and FAW Jiefang carried out a stock exchange.

In addition, as a high-end automobile brand directly operated by FAW, Red Flag is also the focus that Xu Liuping attaches most importance to. It is reported that Xu Liuping was not absent from all the activities related to the red flag in the past.

In 2016, FAW Group officially stripped the Red Flag brand from FAW cars and operated independently. Brand positioning is the concept of "Chinese-style new noble refinement", with the layout of L, S, H and Q product series. it covers ultra-luxury, sedan, mainstream and business positioning. But before 2018, Red Flag brand sales were so mediocre that it was on the verge of delisting. Figures show that the Red Flag brand sold only 4702 vehicles in 2017.

Until January 8, 2018, China FAW released the new red flag brand strategy, with "Chinese-style new noble refinement" as the brand concept, sales began to improve, and quickly become the dark horse of the car market. At that time, Xu Liuping issued a "military writ" at the press conference: to build the new red flag into a "new noble brand" that is "the first in China and famous in the world", and put forward the goal of selling 100000 units of the red flag by 2020, 300000 units by 2025, and 500000 units by 2035.

During the reign of Xu Liuping, Hongqi's product matrix has formed two major product systems: the car family and the SUV family, covering the middle and high-end market of 15-700000 yuan, of which SUV includes LS7, HS5, E-HS9 and E-HS3 models, and cars include H9, H7, H5, E-QM5 and other models, and sales are growing rapidly.

The wholesale sales show that the cumulative sales of Red Flag brand are 26665 in 2018, 99331 in 2019, 196684 and 299684 in 2020-2021 respectively, showing a trend of increasing year by year and increasing rapidly. After entering 2022, affected by the epidemic and the supply of spare parts, Hongqi brand declined slightly, with wholesale sales of 295691 vehicles in 2022.

At the Red Flag New Energy vehicle Global Strategy Conference held on January 8 this year, Xu Liuping said at the scene that under the main brand of "Red Flag", four sub-brands of "New Energy vehicle", "Energy efficient vehicle", "Red Flag Top car" and "Super Sports car" will be built. In the next three years, the Red Flag New Energy brand will intensively launch 15 new energy smart products at high frequency, covering all market segments of A, B, C, D cars, SUV and MPV respectively. And once again announced that the Red Flag brand will achieve its sales target of 1 million vehicles by 2025, of which 500000 vehicles will be sold by new energy, with an average annual growth rate of 138%. By 2030, FAW Red Flag sales target will exceed 1.5 million vehicles, of which new energy vehicles will become the main body of sales.

For short-term sales expectations, at the 2023 FAW and Red Flag Brand News Annual meeting, Qiu Xiandong, managing director and deputy secretary of the party committee of FAW, said that FAW aims to achieve 4 million vehicle sales in 2023, an increase of 24.8% over the same period last year. Among them, sales of new energy vehicles are expected to reach 384000, which is planned to increase by 113.3% over the same period last year; at the same time, the revenue target of 750 billion yuan will be achieved.

It is undeniable that Xu Liuping has contributed to the rapid growth of a car brand from annual sales of less than 5000 to 300000. However, from the perspective of the group as a whole, it is not ideal. Data show that during the period from 2020 to 2022, FAW Group's sales were 3.7 million, 3.5 million and 3.2 million respectively, showing a downward trend year by year, of which only 78.04% of the 4.1 million vehicle sales target was achieved in 2022. According to the plan, FAW Group will sell more than 5.9 million vehicles this year, its operating income will exceed 900 billion yuan, and its profit will exceed 80 billion yuan.

With Xu Liuping transferred to the all-China Federation of Trade unions as party secretary of the all-China Federation of Trade unions, it means that a new chairman and party committee secretary of FAW will be selected, but as of press time, FAW has not yet announced who will be the next leader. At present, the original work of this position is temporarily presided over by Qiu Xiandong, managing director and deputy secretary of the party committee of FAW.

It is understood that Qiu Xiandong, who temporarily presided over the work, was born in November 1969 and worked in the Dongfeng Automobile Industry Finance Company in 1993. He has successively served as the fund manager and deputy section chief of the Financial and Accounting Department of Dongfeng Company, the business director and director of the Planning and Finance Department of the Dongfeng Company, as well as the director of the financial branch of the Financial Planning Department of the Dragon Company, deputy general manager and finance minister, executive deputy general manager, general manager, and vice president of Dongfeng Automobile Group Co., Ltd. He was appointed member of the standing Committee and Deputy General Manager of the Party Committee of China FAW in May 2017 and Director, General Manager and Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of FAW in July 2020.

As for who will be the next head of FAW Group, "Automobile Industry concern" will also continue to pay attention.

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