AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)10/14 Report--

Changjiang Automobile, which was once favored by Li Ka-shing and holds "dual qualifications", has finally found a breakthrough in the face of various crises. A few days ago, Changjiang Automobile officially released information that the parts orders previously reached with European customers have entered the delivery period.

On October 7th, Changjiang Automobile's European partners visited Changjiang Automobile and, accompanied by the relevant head of the Changjiang Automobile Project, conducted a pre-delivery inspection of the first batch of core components of the Changjiang G08/V8100 platform electric vehicles to be delivered. Through the inspection of the whole process, European customers appreciate the first batch of key parts of Changjiang Automobile and ask for shipment as soon as possible.

According to reports, the products to be delivered to European customers are the three core components of Changjiang Automobile with independent intellectual property rights, including 32-bit vehicle controllers, powertrain systems, dual motor controllers and other key core components of the G08/V8100 platform.

Founded in 1954, Hangzhou Changjiang Automobile Co., Ltd., formerly known as Hangzhou bus Factory, is the first batch of designated bus production enterprises of the Ministry of Construction, and is the largest in the system of the Ministry of Construction. the earliest manufacturing base for the development and production of city buses, trams and their special chassis has more than 60 years of professional experience in automobile production.

In August this year, Changjiang Automobile officially announced its successful entry into the European market and successively reached important cooperation with European customers in the field of complete vehicles and core parts. According to the purchase agreement between the two sides, Changjiang Automobile will provide European customers with core parts of electric vehicles for the production and manufacture of commercial models for sale in Europe from this year.

Changjiang Automobile, the partner company, was not disclosed, saying only that it is one of the largest commercial vehicle manufacturers in Europe and has a sales network throughout Europe.

Changjiang, which was founded early, is not only favored by Li Ka-shing, but has invested in Wulong electric cars since 2010 and continued to spend about 340 million yuan to increase its stake in 2015, with a total shareholding ratio of 7.96%. And bet on the electric car industry in many places, but also won the national new pure electric passenger car enterprise access qualification. And Wulong Electric vehicle is the largest shareholder of Changjiang Automobile.

Changjiang Automobile, with dual qualifications, displayed three concept cars and six pure e-commerce vehicles at the 2018 Beijing Auto Show, as well as plans for hydrogen fuel cell technology. But the new product has not appeared for a long time, in which a small pure electric SUV Yiku, has not really entered the market.

As the performance becomes less and less satisfactory, Wulong electric vehicles lost money for seven consecutive years from 2011 to 2017, according to public data. According to the annual report released in July 2019, Wulong's revenue from electric vehicles was HK $346 million, down 64% from a year earlier; gross profit was HK $26.7 million, down 76% from a year earlier; and profits lost HK $2 billion in 2018.

And with the tightening of the environment and the decline of the industry, the enterprises of Wulong electric vehicles, such as Guizhou Yangtze River, Hangzhou Yangtze River, Chengdu Yangtze River and so on, have been reported to be in arrears of wages and stop production. In the first half of this year, several Changjiang Automobile employees left messages on the government website saying that their wages were in arrears for several months.

In order to improve operating conditions and increase production capacity utilization, in early January this year, Changjiang Automobile also reached a contract manufacturing cooperation with Zero Automobile, a new force in car building, and Zero running S01 will be assembled and produced by Changjiang Automobile.

Judging from the current news, Changjiang seems to be using a "self-help" approach to expect the company to reverse. However, at a time when the global car market is facing difficulties and challenges, can Changjiang Automobile really turn losses into profits just by expanding overseas markets and working together to build new forces?

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat