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Since 2018, China's auto market has bid farewell to the era of rapid growth, entering the stock competition has caused a series of chain reactions, independent car brands have also entered a difficult time. In the process of the new energy spring tide, there are many independent brands to achieve transformation, but now the state has substantially tightened subsidies, some brands that do not fully adapt to the market, life is more difficult to sustain, facing reshuffle, unpaid wages, stop production news frequently exposed.

A few days ago, according to media reports, Changfeng Cheetah has been exposed to implement measures to cut employees' wages and stop production in the factory because of serious operating losses.

According to an internal meeting minutes issued on May 29, Changfeng Group decided to implement "employee pay adjustment and reduction". The content of the document said that in view of the rapid changes in the automobile industry, the company's serious production and operating losses, and serious underoperation of the production base, the meeting ensured survival and tide over the difficulties by means of salary adjustment, burden reduction and salary reduction.

The salary adjustment includes a 50% pay cut for some senior executives in the headquarters, a 50% reduction in the salary of the staff of the research institute, and a 30% reduction of the salary of the staff in the production base.

Recently, some internal employees also revealed that manufacturing employees have gone home to work for only a few days a month, and there is no formal written notice of the pay cut, and most ordinary employees have not signed up for the pay cut.

Changfeng Group can be traced back to 1950 and has a history of nearly 70 years. In September 2001, it was handed over by the army to the people's Government of Hunan Province. It is mainly engaged in the research and development, manufacture and sales of complete vehicles, and its headquarters is located in Changsha, Hunan Province. In 1995, the company cooperated with Japan's Mitsubishi Motors to introduce Mitsubishi Pajero automotive technology. In the process of later development, Changfeng established the "Cheetah" off-road vehicle brand, and now has four vehicle production bases: Yongzhou in Hunan, Chuzhou in Anhui, Changsha in Hunan and Jingmen in Hubei.

In addition to the four vehicle manufacturing bases, Changfeng Cheetah also has two research institutions (Beijing Automotive Research Institute and Changsha Institute of Engineering), three key parts companies (Power Company, Sino-German Company and Fengshun Company), and a headquarters with an annual production capacity of 500000 SUV and pick-up trucks, the main products are Cheetah brand series SUV and pickup trucks.

The main reason for the current situation of Cheetah is that sales continue to decline. Data show that Cheetah sold only 77630 vehicles in 2018, nearly halving from a year earlier, and cumulative sales fell to 28331 from January to June this year.

Cheetah currently has six models on sale, namely, the CS10, CS9, CS9EV and Mattu Mai Tu, the hard SUV Q6 and the pickup Cheetah CT7. Due to intensified market competition, cheetah sales continued to decline. Cheetah CS9 sold only 793 vehicles in June, down 66% from a year earlier, with a total of 14325 in the previous month. Mattu sold only 349 units in June, down 88.7% from a year earlier and 7377 in the first six months.

With the rapid changes in the market, the pace of enterprises can not keep up, the operation will be more and more difficult. Some analysts believe that many independent brands miss valuable opportunities in many aspects, such as product research and development, brand promotion, or the development of new energy vehicles.

In addition, there are many independent car brands in operational difficulties, including BAIC Yinxiang, Changjiang Automobile, Huatai Automobile have been exposed to arrears to stop production, and even employees directly put up wage banners in front of the factory. Among them, since BAIC Yinxiang stopped production in July last year, dealers and suppliers have been coming to collect debts.

In the process of rapid market change, the low-end backward enterprises will face elimination, which is also the stage experienced by China's automobile industry at present. There are many unknowns about how long these enterprises can last and whether they can survive.

According to statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, sales of passenger cars from January to June in 2019 were 10.127 million, down 14 percent from the same period last year, of which 3.998 million were sold under Chinese brands, down 21.7 percent from the same period last year, accounting for 39.5 percent of the total passenger car sales. down 3.9 percentage points from the same period last year. With the decline in sales and the decline in share, Chinese brands are facing increased competition and are entering a difficult time.

No matter the new power of car building or the traditional automobile enterprises, 2019 is the year of differentiation, and next year may be the year of collapse.

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