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A few days ago, Changan Automobile released its 2023 interim results report. According to the financial report, the operating income of Changan Automobile in the first half of the year was 65.492 billion yuan, an increase of 15.76% over the same period last year; the net profit belonging to shareholders of listed companies was 7.652 billion yuan, an increase of 30.65% over the same period last year; the net profit belonging to shareholders of listed companies after deducting non-recurrent profits and losses was 1.509 billion yuan, down 51.32% from the same period last year.

Revenue and profit growth is inseparable from the support of sales volume. According to the financial report, Changan Automobile sold a total of 1.2157 million vehicles in the first half of the year, up 7.99 percent from the same period last year, of which 768100 independent passenger cars were sold, up 22.07 percent from the same period last year, while joint venture brands all declined, including Changan Ford down 12.57 percent to 98500 vehicles. Changan Mazda fell 49.42% to 32200 vehicles.

The decline of joint venture brands has had little impact on Changan Automobile. According to the financial report, the operating income of Changan Ford in the first half of the year was 21.761 billion yuan, down 6.92% from the same period last year, and the net profit was 799 million yuan, down 23.53% from the same period last year, accounting for 10.45% of Changan's total profit.

Entering 2023, the life of Changan Ford is not easy. In mid-to-late May, a number of domestic media reported that Changan Ford cut its production capacity by one million due to a decline in sales, and its current production capacity has plummeted to 670000 vehicles. In addition, Changan Ford has also been exposed layoffs, layoffs of more than 1300 people, will be compensated in accordance with Ninten3. In response, Ford responded that it was building a more streamlined and flexible organizational structure to devote resources to core businesses with advantages.

Changan Ford fuel car market share continues to decline, electric vehicles are not surprising. On August 1, Changan Ford announced that it would formally take over the operation of Ford Electric Horse in the Chinese market starting from today in accordance with Ford's strategic transformation and business adjustment in the Chinese market. It is understood that the Ford Electric Horse went on sale in December 2021 and was produced at the Changan Ford Factory, but sales of the Standard Tesla Model Y were average, with only 1182 vehicles delivered in the first half of 2023.

Changan Lincoln, as an important part of Changan Ford's profit, launched a new generation of navigators and medium-term redesign adventurers in the first half of the year, but in the face of an increasingly competitive luxury market, Changan Lincoln sales also declined, with a cumulative sales of 29999 vehicles in the first half of the year, with the highest sales of 15563 vehicles.

As for Changan Mazda, it has not paid much attention in the Chinese market, launching only one new car in CX-50 line in the first half of the year, and invited Liang Jiahui as the brand model spokesman. 4158 vehicles were sold in the first month, but only 1051 were sold in July. Mazda still does not have much advantage over competitors such as Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4 Rongfang. In addition, the new Mazda 3 Unksera went on sale on June 30, starting at 89900 yuan. although the Mazda 3 is the best-selling model in Changan Mazda, the price reduction does not seem to have much of a boost, with sales of 2891 vehicles in July.

Compared with joint venture brands, independent brands pay more attention to it. According to the plan, Changan Automobile plans to stop selling fuel vehicles in 2025, which means that time for electrification transformation is running out, and judging from the current market performance, Changan vehicles still fuel vehicles maintain the tone of the market, while the layout of the new energy vehicle market has not yet reflected the due market effect.

It is understood that Changan Automobile mainly operates passenger car brands including Changan, Deep Blue and Avita, of which the electrification transformation at this stage depends most on Deep Blue cars. It is understood that SL03, the first model of Deep Blue Automobile, was delivered in August 2022, covering add-on hybrid and pure electric, with a total delivery of 29316 vehicles in the first half of the year. Compared with BYD and Tesla's influence in the new energy market, the price advantage sought by Deep Blue Automobile also seems to be weakening. When Deep Blue Automobile is unable to form a differentiated development, its profits have also been seriously eroded. In the first half of the year, Shenzhen Blue Automobile had an operating income of 8.828 billion yuan and a net loss of 1.059 billion yuan.

At the same time, Avita, which focuses on the high-end market, is not optimistic. According to the financial report, Avita's operating income in the first half of the year was only 2.245 billion yuan, with a net loss of 1.756 billion yuan. Although Avita 11 combines the advantages of Changan, Huawei and Ningde era and carries the important task of the development of Changan automobile high-end new energy brand, it does not have an absolute advantage compared with extreme krypton 001, Lulai ES6, Zhiji LS7 and other models in the 300000 yuan market. In the first half of the year, Avita 11 delivered a total of 8534 vehicles, with an average monthly sales of less than 1500, compared with 1200 in July and 1786 in August.

In the new energy vehicle market, Changan Automobile has played another card-Changan Qiyuan. Changan Qiyuan is a brand-new product series of Changan Automobile, which belongs to the first class with Changan, UNI and Auchan. In other words, Changan Qiyuan is absolutely controlled by Changan Automobile, and the profits and losses generated by Changan Automobile are borne by Changan Automobile, while Avita belongs to a joint venture (41% owned by Changan Automobile), and Deep Blue Automobile belongs to a holding subsidiary (51% owned by Changan Automobile). The income generated has to be shared out, which is also the reason why Changan Automobile launched Qiyuan.

On July 20, Changan Qiyuan A07 was officially unveiled as a medium and large car. In terms of power, the new car is built on the Changan EPA1 platform, providing add-on hybrid and pure electric version for consumers to choose from. The former augmenter uses a 1.5L Atkinson cycle engine, which is consistent with the current dark blue SL03 extended range version, in which the maximum power of the engine is 66kW and the maximum power of the drive motor is 160kW; the pure electric version is equipped with a XTDM27 drive motor with a maximum power of 258hp.

In the past few years, Changan Automobile has not had a good life, and like other large automakers, it needs to rely on joint venture brands to maintain market development, but in the context of declining joint venture brands and shrinking profits, Changan Automobile has to speed up the development of independent new energy vehicles. In the new energy vehicle market, Changan Automobile has covered the low, middle and high end market, in which the main market is Avita, the middle and high end market is Deep Blue Automobile, and the mainstream market is Changan Qiyuan, but according to the current development of domestic new energy vehicles, the road for the transformation of Changan new energy vehicles will not be very smooth, and the more bloody market competition is still in front of Changan Automobile.

For Changan Automobile, the approaching schedule of the "Shangri-La Plan" means that the electrification transformation needs to be accelerated. Under the background of the increasingly fierce competition for domestic new energy vehicles, it is also worth looking forward to whether Changan New Energy can stand out.

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