AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)08/22 Report--

A few days ago, the Beijing property right Exchange disclosed the name of the project, "Land use rights, above-ground structures and related equipment and other assets, No. 18 Modern Avenue, Yuzui Town, Jiangbei District, Chongqing." the transferor is the Chongqing branch of Beijing Hyundai Automobile Co., Ltd. the reserve price is 3.684 billion yuan. This means that Beijing Hyundai Chongqing factory is officially listed for sale.

It is understood that the Beijing Hyundai Chongqing plant is the fifth vehicle manufacturing plant built by Beijing Hyundai in China, which was officially completed and put into production in August 2017, with an annual production capacity of 300000 vehicles. Beijing Hyundai Chongqing Factory is located at No. 18 Modern Avenue, Yuzui Town, Jiangbei District, Chongqing, covering an area of 1.872 million square meters with a total investment of 6.223 billion yuan. According to the plan, the Chongqing factory will put into production models such as Reina, Onchino, Festa and ix25. After the Chongqing plant was put into production, Beijing Hyundai's annual production capacity increased from 1.35 million vehicles to 1.65 million vehicles.

In 2022, there is a lot of news that the factory in Beijing Hyundai Chongqing has stopped production. As early as February 2022, China Business quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that most of the employees at the Hyundai Chongqing plant in Beijing were on holiday or had stopped production. In response to the above reports, Beijing Hyundai responded that it had not received any internal documents about the suspension of production.

With the sale of Hyundai's Chongqing plant in Beijing, Hyundai will have only its last factory in China. According to the official website of Beijing Hyundai, only Beijing Renhe Factory is left for factory visits.

Beijing Hyundai Motor Co., Ltd. was established in October 2002, jointly funded by Beijing Automobile Investment Co., Ltd. and Korea Hyundai Automotive Co., Ltd., 50% each of China and South Korea, and the duration of the joint venture is 30 years. It is understood that Beijing Hyundai is the first Sino-foreign joint venture project in the field of automobile production approved after China's accession to the WTO, and has been identified as a leading project and demonstration project for revitalizing Beijing's modern manufacturing industry and developing the capital's economy, while with Sonata, Elantra, Festa and other models, Beijing Hyundai has become the fastest auto manufacturer to reach production and sales of one million.

In 2016, Beijing Hyundai sold 1.142 million vehicles, ranking sixth among domestic manufacturers, second only to SAIC-Volkswagen, SAIC-GM, FAW-Volkswagen, SAIC-GM Wuling and Changan Automobile. Hyundai began to speed up factory construction in China to meet market demand, including Beijing Shunyi No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, Hebei Cangzhou and Chongqing plants, with an annual output of 1.65 million vehicles.

In June, Hyundai CEO Zhang Zaixun announced that it would sell two factories in China. Before that, Beijing Hyundai sold a factory in Beijing in 2021, which was taken over by an ideal car. Since then, there has been news of a shutdown at the Chongqing factory, but it has been officially denied, and the disclosure of the Chongqing plant sale project means that Beijing Hyundai will have only one factory, the Beijing Hyundai Renhe Factory, located at 99 South Ring Road, Shunyi District, Beijing. It mainly produces Sonata, Langzo and Tusheng models with an annual production capacity of 300000 vehicles.

Both Beijing Hyundai and Hyundai Motor Group are well aware of the current dilemma. Wu Zhoutao, permanent general manager of Beijing Hyundai, said, "since 2017, sales of Beijing Hyundai have gradually declined. The real reason is that Beijing Hyundai has been over-pursuing sales in the past and has not improved the competitiveness of its products." it is also not really a brand, so when the market changes, Beijing Hyundai's sales decline is inevitable. "

From January to July 2023, Beijing Hyundai sold a total of 139400 vehicles, of which 60900 were the Elantra, 26200 were Tusheng and 24100 were ix35, and the other models were less than 10,000, according to the CAC data.

At the beginning of this year, Beijing Hyundai released a new plan to fully realize the hybrid of fuel vehicles in 2025, building a hybrid product matrix including one MPV model, two cars and three SUV models. Beijing Hyundai plans to achieve its annual sales target of more than 500000 vehicles by 2025. At the same time, exclusive EV models will be launched this year, and 4-5 pure electric models will be launched in the next three years.

With the release of Beijing Hyundai's new strategy, Hyundai Motor Group's layout of the Chinese market is also changing. Zhang Zaixun, CEO of Hyundai Motor Group, said, "in recent years, China's business has become difficult due to a variety of negative factors at home and abroad. In order to enhance the damaged brand image, we will focus on high-performance models. It is understood that Hyundai Motor Group will reduce the number of products provided to China from 13 to 8, focusing on SUV models and the Genisse brand.

The plight of Hyundai in the Chinese market is not only due to political factors and the slow transformation of new energy, but also due to the lack of product competitiveness. Beijing Hyundai's living space is constantly being squeezed, and the cost-effective product operation mode is no longer workable. at the same time, Hyundai's brand power in China continues to decline, which is also one of the reasons why Hyundai Motor Group adjusts its product structure in China. However, with the increasing competition in the market, there is not much time left for Beijing Hyundai.

"if you are poor, you will change, and if you change, you will understand". Today's Beijing Hyundai is at the crossroads of fate. Even if the Elantra once had more history, even if it had an admirable highlight moment, it still needs to proceed from reality. After all, it is only based on market demand that it can bring more possibilities.

Beijing Hyundai reflects the "dilemma" of joint venture brands in China's auto market. After entering 2023, the market stock competition and price war make a lot of joint venture brands miserable. Joint venture brands of the top 10 car companies by sales in the first half of the year, with the exception of FAW Toyota, saw a year-on-year decline in sales, according to the Federation of passengers.

In the era of new energy vehicles, the decline of joint venture brands seems inevitable, and there will only be more and more layoffs by GAC-Mitsubishi, capacity cuts by Changan Ford and factory sales by Hyundai in Beijing.

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