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According to the incomplete statistics of Automotive Industry concern, more than 20 car companies announced personnel changes in the third quarter of 2024. Under the impact of the price war, most car companies have fallen into the plight of flagging sales, many car companies have carried out internal reform and organizational optimization, and strive to achieve a comprehensive breakthrough at this stage, in order to cope with the more voluminous car market in the second half of the year.

In the personnel changes in the third quarter, nearly half of the personnel changes took place in traditional car companies and joint ventures, and they are all among the top automobile groups in China.

Among the traditional car companies, SAIC has acted particularly frequently, changing the management of its own companies almost everywhere. On July 10, the official of Shanghai Automobile Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "SAIC") announced the decision of the main leaders to adjust: Chen Hong, the former chairman, resigned as chairman and other positions due to his retirement age. Wang Xiaoqiu was appointed chairman of SAIC and Jia Jianxu was appointed president of SAIC.

According to public data, Chen Hong was born in March 1961 and is now 63 years old. he has worked in SAIC for 40 years, from the liaison of the car project team under SAIC Tractor Factory to technician, workshop director, deputy factory director and factory director. It took 30 years to go to the general manager of Shanghai GM, the president of SAIC Group and the chairman of SAIC Group. In May 2014, SAIC official Xuan and Chen Hong served as party committee secretary and chairman of Shanghai Automobile Group Co., Ltd., which lasted for 10 years.

Chen Hong took over from Hu Maoyuan, 63, in 2014, when SAIC was the largest auto group in China. Over the past 10 years, with the vicissitudes of life, Chen Hong has witnessed many historic moments in the automobile industry, such as the peak of China's automobile market, new energy vehicles are about to exceed fuel vehicles, and independent brands have become the protagonists of the market.

Immediately after that, the enterprises owned by SAIC also began to change their management. On July 18, SAIC announced that Jia Jianxu, president of SAIC, would no longer serve concurrently as general manager of SAIC-Volkswagen, and Tao Hailong, former general manager of Huayu Automotive Systems Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Huayu Automobile"), would take over as general manager of SAIC-Volkswagen. The next day, Huayu Automobile announced that the meeting elected Wang Xiaoqiu as chairman of the company's 10th board of directors, by-elected Jia Jianxu and Xu Ping as non-independent director candidates of the company's 10th board of directors, and appointed Xu Ping as general manager of the company.

On August 9, SAIC GM announced that Lu Xiao, former deputy general manager of Pan-Asia Automobile Technology Center, succeeded Zhuang Jingxiong as general manager of SAIC GM, Wang Conghe, former deputy general manager of Pan-Asia Automobile Technology Center, took over the post of executive deputy general manager of SAIC GM, and Cai Bin, former assistant president of SAIC Group, rejoined SAIC GM as party committee secretary of SAIC GM. At the same time, Xue Haitao, former deputy general manager of SAIC GM Wuling, replaced Lu Yi as deputy general manager of the company, responsible for marketing related work.

On August 14, SAIC-Volkswagen officials announced the latest personnel changes. Tao Hailong, general manager of SAIC-Volkswagen, was also the party committee secretary of SAIC-Volkswagen. Fu Qiang, former executive director of SAIC-Volkswagen brand marketing, succeeded Yu Jingmin as deputy general manager of SAIC-Volkswagen sales and marketing and general manager of Shanghai SAIC-Volkswagen Automobile sales Co., Ltd. It is understood that Yu Jingmin was transferred to SAIC passenger car and served as executive deputy general manager of SAIC passenger car Branch; in addition, Zhu Yong, former Executive Director of Power Drive platform of Shanghai Automobile Business Planning and Project Management Department, was appointed Deputy General Manager of Shanghai Automobile passenger vehicle Branch.

SAIC Volkswagen and SAIC General Motors are the profit sources of SAIC, but their profit performance has changed due to the decline in sales and the continuation of the price war. According to the financial report, SAIC's net profit in the first half of 2024 was 6.627 billion yuan, down 6.45% from the same period last year, of which SAIC Volkswagen made a net profit of 865 million yuan, while SAIC General Motors lost 2.275 billion yuan.

In addition to SAIC, large automobile groups such as FAW and BAIC have also undergone large-scale personnel adjustments.

On July 11, China FAW officially announced that Chen Bin was appointed member of the standing Committee of the Party Committee and Deputy General Manager of China first Automobile Group Co., Ltd. It is understood that Chen Bin is also a veteran of the automobile industry. After graduation, he joined Dongfeng Company and stayed for 20 years. Before entering FAW, he served as general manager of DPCA and was in charge of DPCA for more than three years. With the transfer of Chen Bin, the new general manager was replaced by Song Hanming.

As a holding subsidiary of BAIC Group, BAIC Langu has also changed its boss. Liu Yu, former deputy general manager of BAIC Group and chairman of BAIC New Energy, is no longer chairman of BAIC New Energy; Dai Kangwei, former party committee secretary and general manager of BAIC New Energy, was promoted to deputy engineer and chairman of BAIC New Energy; Zhang Guofu, former deputy secretary of BAIC New Energy Party Committee and executive deputy general manager, was promoted to party secretary and general manager of BAIC New Energy. Liu Guanqiao, former head of operation and management of BAIC, was transferred to executive deputy general manager of BAIC New Energy.

It can be seen that the above personnel changes basically involve the first and second leaders, and the scale is not small.

In the new power car companies, the third quarter involves brands such as Weilai and Xiaopeng. In early July, it was revealed that Jiaoqing, the former head of Xiaopeng Automotive Technology Center, had been in charge of Xiaopeng Automotive Technology Center and was also the project manager of Xiaopeng H platform. It is understood that after Jiao Youth leaves, Yu Peng will become the head of the organization of the Automotive Technology Center. According to public data, Yu Peng joined Xiaopeng Motor in 2015 and was an early employee of Xiaopeng Motor's founding team.

Independent brands, including Great Wall Motor, Geely Holdings and so on, have also been adjusted. In early September, Great Wall Chairman Wei Jianjun posted on his personal social platform that Wang Yuanli, chief technology officer, would officially retire on Sept. 30, and Wu Huixiao would succeed Wang Yuanli as CTO of the company. Before being promoted to CTO, Wu Huixiao's external title was the vice president of intelligence of Great Wall Automobile. After replacing Wang Yuanli this time, Wu Huixiao will become the first female CTO of the Great Wall. According to the data, Wu Huixiao graduated from Nanjing University of Science and Technology. After graduation, he joined the Great Wall Motor. Now he has worked in the Great Wall Automobile for nearly 20 years and is a real veteran.

Personnel changes may bring a certain degree of vitality to the enterprise. After entering 2024, under the background of the rapid development of the new energy vehicle market and the continuous upgrading of the price war, replacing the first and second leaders has become one of the strategic choices for traditional / joint venture car companies to cope with market changes and accelerate the transformation of new energy. Fundamentally speaking, the transformation of traditional car companies requires new leaders to change the relatively old internal organizational structure and management system in the past, and to create a new team to lead the company to go on better. Industry insiders say that startups are willing to learn from the experience of some mature companies, just as mature companies will also introduce the ideas of start-up car companies to understand each other's different views and enhance their horizons.

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