AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)09/28 Report--

On September 28, according to the Financial Associated Press, people familiar with the matter said that Beijing Hyundai plans to optimize personnel in two batches, of which the first batch will end around November this year, and the first batch of staff optimization talks are under way; the second batch may be completed by February next year, involving about 30% of the total number of employees in Beijing Hyundai.

In response to the news, Hyundai China said: "I have not heard of it"; Beijing Hyundai did not respond positively.

Data show that Beijing Hyundai was founded in October 2002, jointly funded by Hyundai Group and BAIC Group, each holding 50% of the shares. As one of the earliest joint venture brands, Beijing Hyundai also had a highlight moment in the domestic market. Data show that from 2013 to 2016, Beijing Hyundai sold 1.03 million vehicles, 1.16 million vehicles, 1.06 million vehicles and 1.14 million vehicles respectively, and reached an all-time high in 2016, joining the "million Club" and successfully ranked sixth among domestic automakers. Unfortunately, such moments of highlights do not last. The following year, Beijing Hyundai sales began to fall to 756000 vehicles, followed by a slight increase to 782000 in 2018, but since then, Beijing Hyundai sales have declined year after year, with cumulative sales of 685000, 385000 and 360000, respectively, from 2018 to 2021.

Up to now, the models on sale in Beijing Hyundai include Elantra, Sonata, Festa, Tusheng, Shengda, Musa and so on, but except Elantra, the sales of other models are very mediocre. Retail data show that Beijing Hyundai sold 236000 vehicles in 2023; from January to August this year, it was 114200, with the highest sales of the Elantra, with 59700, followed by Tusheng L and Beijing Hyundai ix35, with 22700 and 12500 respectively, and less than 7, 000 of the rest.

It is worth mentioning that due to the continuous decline in sales, the capacity of Hyundai's factories in Beijing is seriously underutilized. In January this year, by lowering the reserve price for many times, the Beijing Hyundai Chongqing factory was finally sold for 1.62 billion yuan, a reduction of 2.064 billion yuan compared with the initial transfer reserve price. In addition, a month ago, a document from dealers in Hunan Province to Beijing Hyundai showed that in view of the great inventory pressure of all dealers in Hunan Province, very difficult to operate, serious losses and other factors, all dealers in Hunan unanimously demanded that picking up cars to Beijing Hyundai will be temporarily suspended from August 8, 2024, and will no longer accept automatic distribution of vehicles. Beijing Hyundai will immediately resolve the existing inventory of dealers in Hunan and fulfill all previous commitments and incentive policies.

Industry insiders believe that the dilemma faced by Beijing Hyundai is related to its product layout. At present, there are very few new energy vehicles on sale, which can be said to be one of the most slowly transformed joint venture brands, while fuel vehicles are less competitive compared with their counterparts. According to the plan, Beijing Hyundai will realize the full hybrid of fuel vehicles in 2025, and build a hybrid product matrix of one MPV, two cars and three SUV models in the next 3-5 years, reaching the annual production and sales scale of 300000 hybrid products.

It is worth noting that in the current fierce competition in the automobile industry, Beijing Hyundai is not the only joint venture facing declining sales and personnel optimization. in June this year, Nissan decided to cut its production capacity in China by about 10%. And close its passenger car plant in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province. Then in July, Honda China announced that it would close two factories. GAC Honda plans to close its fourth production line with an annual capacity of 50, 000 units in October 2024, and Dongfeng Honda plans to shut down the second production line with an annual capacity of 240000 units in November 2024. After the adjustment, Honda's total car production capacity in China has been changed from 1.49 million to 1.2 million.

As of press time, it is not clear whether the news of Beijing Hyundai's proposed layoffs in batches is true. But what is certain is that with the sharp decline in the market share of fuel vehicles, many traditional car companies are facing electric transformation, and layoffs in the automobile industry have become part of the transformation measures. on the one hand, it can solve the impact on employment in the process of energy and technology transformation, on the other hand, it can cut costs for enterprises. Earlier this month, it was revealed that Dongfeng Honda had made a large number of layoffs, which is expected to affect 2000 employees, and the laid-off employees will receive compensation. Dongfeng Honda said in a post: "in order to ensure the sustainable operation of the enterprise and accelerate the electrification transformation, Dongfeng Honda further improves personnel efficiency in the production field."

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