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On January 8th, CEO of smart China was held by Yi Han, and the scope of work was mainly responsible for the sales and marketing of smart China.

Relevant data show that Yi Han has rich experience in the automotive industry. Previously, he worked in Geely Group for many years and served as deputy general manager and marketing director of Geely Automobile sales Company, vice president of Volvo Motor China sales Co., Ltd., and executive deputy general manager of Lecker Automobile sales Company. At the beginning, Geely Group was mainly responsible for the market management of Geely Automobile domestic sales Company. In 2016, Yi Han was transferred to Volvo as vice president of marketing, mainly responsible for Volvo's product sales, promotion, channel development and market communication in China.

At the end of May 2017, Yi Han left and transferred back to Geely Group as executive vice president, in charge of Lecker brand. In July 2022, Yi Han became the chief business growth officer of Geely Group to launch a new mid-to-high-end new energy vehicle brand, Radar Automobile. In January last year, Yi Han officially left Geely Group. Then he joined Xiaopeng Automobile as vice president, responsible for Xiaopeng automobile marketing and public relations communication.

It is worth noting that in December last year, there were rumors in the market that Yi Han would join smart. In addition, there are automotive media articles revealed that Yi Han's return to Geely system is mainly affected by family and environmental factors. In fact, it is not the first time to come into contact with smart brand Yi Han. As early as 2019, Yi Han was responsible for the marketing and promotion of smart brand in China. This time, it is also an easy job for smart to be responsible for the sales and marketing of smart China.

However, although the smart brand is backed by Mercedes-Benz and Geely, the Mercedes-Benz design department is responsible for styling, and Geely holding Zhejiang Honor Automobile is responsible for vehicle manufacturing, but its sense of market presence is not strong.

The brand's first model, smart Spirit # 1, went on sale in June 2022 and is based on Geely's vast SEA architecture with a price range of 18.16-226600 yuan. The data show that the cumulative sales of smart Elf # 1 in 2022 were 9026, an average of about 1500 per month. In order to boost sales of the brand, in June last year, officials launched a second model, smart Spirit # 3, which is located in the pure electric SUV, with a price range of 20.99 yuan to 289900 yuan. Unfortunately, the launch of smart Genie # 3 has not led to an increase in sales. The latest monthly sales of smart Elf # 3 are 869, with a cumulative sales of 6621 in 2023.

At the same time, the loss is also increasing. According to the data, the operating income of Smart Motor in 2022 is 1.856 billion yuan, the net profit is about 1.459 billion yuan, and the total debt is 7.07 billion yuan. In the first half of last year, the operating income of Smart Motor was 5.211 billion yuan, the net profit was 661 million yuan, and the total debt reached 13.36 billion yuan. To this end, the authorities also have to speed up the pace of financing. In July last year, smart launched a round of financing, with plans to raise $250 million to $300m to accelerate the global development of the brand. On September 13 of the same year, smart announced that it had cooperated with the domestic lithium mining giant and won an investment of 150 million US dollars from Tianqi Lithium Industry.

Judging from the performance of smart brand in China in recent years, the development is relatively slow. Compared with the sales volume of the new power of head car building, there is still a big gap. With the arrival of easy cold, it remains to be seen whether it can help the smart brand open the sales door in the Chinese market.

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