"Failure" or giving up voluntarily?
Obviously, defining GM's actions as "failure" is only a superficial view. In fact, GM voluntarily gave up the opportunity to expand its business in Southeast Asia, which is part of GM's global contraction strategy.
As early as 20 15, GM withdrew the Chevrolet brand from Europe and left the Russian market in the same year. In 20 17, they sold Opel and vauxhall to PSA and withdrew from South Africa and other African markets. Therefore, Chevrolet withdrew from Thailand this year, not surprisingly.
The purpose of GM's crazy closure of the factory is well known-cutting costs and operating expenses, and promoting the transformation of electrification and autonomous driving to save the downturn.
▲ The American trade union system, which has suffered a lot, has greatly restricted the development of GM. You know, the 20 19 strike, just one month, GM's market value evaporated by 4 billion US dollars, and its profit loss was nearly 650 million.
On February 5, General Motors CEO Mary? When Barra released the 20 19 financial report, he also said sourly: "The company's investment in electrification and autonomous driving deserves a higher market value." Why do you say sour? It is because since June last year, the share price of Tesla, which focuses on these two aspects, has risen by more than 300%, and its current market value is about 2.5 times that of General Motors.
So from 20 15, GM's global contraction strategy has involved the Southeast Asian market. Not only announced the suspension of production in Bekaxi plant in Indonesia, but also cut production capacity and stopped production of some models in Thailand. At present, only Chevrolet Colorado (pickup truck) and Chevrolet Pioneer (SUV) are produced.
In short, there are many reasons for GM's factory to open global sales and withdraw from the Thai market.
It is not so much that you are not optimistic about the Thai market and lose the Thai market. It's better to say that the backyard is on fire and has no intention of expanding territory.
Great Wall Motor's Opportunity
Then, why does Great Wall Motor take a fancy to the Thai market, because the Thai market is really a blue ocean with great potential:
1.？ Thailand is a major automobile exporter among the ten ASEAN countries.
Thailand is the largest automobile manufacturer and exporter among the ten ASEAN countries and the fifth largest automobile market in the world. Thailand's automobile export business therefore accounts for more than 50% of Thailand all the year round. This feature is reflected in the statistical forecast chart of Thailand's automobile market export sales released by AutoBook 2065 438+05.
▲ Thai? AutoBook is a well-known automobile media in Southeast Asia.
Thailand has a lot of automobile export business because it relies on the zero-tariff advantage of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), and the Thai government has given great support to automobile export, directly promoting Thailand to become a big automobile exporter among the ten ASEAN countries.
It is reported that in the future, Great Wall Motor will rely on the factory in Luo Yong, Thailand, and radiate the whole ASEAN region with Thailand as the center, covering the market of at least 600 million people, indicating that they have already seen the extended advantages of the Thai market.
▲ Some people may ask, hasn't Great Wall Motor already acquired GM's Indian factory? In fact, India does not belong to one of the ten ASEAN countries. The ten ASEAN countries refer to Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Cambodia, Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. So it is necessary to March into Thailand.
2.？ There is a strong demand for automobiles in the market.
The development prospect of Thailand's automobile market is worthy of recognition. Located in the core of Southeast Asia, automobile manufacturing is its first pillar industry (about 12% of GDP). Even though the international economic environment was poor in 20 19, Thailand's automobile market achieved sales of 1 10,000 in that year.
In addition, there are about 8.5 million overseas Chinese in Thailand today, which is the largest ethnic minority in Thailand. The presence of domestic brands in the Thai market will certainly stimulate the attention of overseas Chinese.
In addition, in the composition of overseas Chinese, Chaoshan descendants and Yunnan descendants are the main ones. Corresponding to the domestic market, in Guangdong Province, Great Wall Motor sold well in the face of attacks from Japanese brands and local domestic brands (Guangzhou Automobile Passenger Cars and BYD). For example, during 20 19 and1-May, the sales volume of Great Wall Motor ranked fifth in Guangdong Province.
3.？ The GM plant has always been a quality asset.
We say that we should look at things dialectically. In order to transform, the other side of selling all over the world is that the GM factory has the ability to quickly change hands and realize cash.
The reason has a lot to do with the fact that GM's factory has always been a quality asset. For example, Tesla has always favored the general factory. I still remember 2065438+20081October 26th, 165438, GM announced that it had just closed five factories in North America for less than two weeks, and Musk was very interested in taking over.
I have to say that GM is really good at factory construction and quality control, which I deeply feel. With the help of global manufacturing management system and BIQ manufacturing quality certification, SAIC-GM Wuhan factory has been built into a world-class factory in a short time, and even front-line operators can know a little about the quality system process requirements.
▲ It can be said that GM is a global master in system construction and factory construction. This is related to GM's valuable experience in buying many factories around the world in its early years.
Luo Yongfu factory is at an advanced level in both process production line and space facilities. Great Wall Motor also said:
The vehicle and engine production capacity of Luo Yongfu factory, the operation ability of localization team and its superior geographical location meet the strategic layout requirements of Great Wall Motor entering the Thai market. In other words, actually the Luo Yongfu factory acquired by the Great Wall? Actually, I found a treasure.
Great Wall Motor's Challenges and Opportunities
Opportunities and challenges coexist, and the Thai market is no exception.
Although there are not many automobile brands in Thailand, the strong advantages of Japanese brands are in front of us. For example, Toyota Motor Corporation, as the market leader in Thailand, sold nearly 320,000 vehicles in 20 19, with a market share of 30.75%.
For the Great Wall, in the Thai market, it can be said that opportunities and challenges coexist. Tian Yajun believes that there will definitely be opportunities in an incremental automobile market with huge export demand and favorable resources. Now we are not trying to grab food, but to expand the market together.
From this perspective, Great Wall Motor has the following resources and advantages in R&D, production and sales.
1.？ Great Wall Motor has a full set of research and development capabilities for SUVs and pickups.
Due to the Thai government's tax incentives and diesel subsidies, pickup trucks have always been the market leader. With the economic recovery, the market share of SUVs is also increasing. Great Wall Motor will not miss this opportunity. They have long-term world-class R&D equipment and systems, and have the ability to develop and design SUVs, pickups and powertrains.
Needless to say, Great Wall Motor's technical advantages and years of accumulation in the SUV field naturally became the ace enterprise in the domestic SUV market early. Because of the domestic restrictions on pickup trucks, the Great Wall can't compete directly with many world-class pickup trucks, but the launch of the Great Wall gun series makes us believe that it can compete with it.
▲? Great Wall Gun series pickups include passenger cars, off-road vehicles and commercial vehicles, which are positioned higher than Feng Jun series.
Compared with the hot Isuzu D-MAX in Thailand, the latter focuses on space, cost performance and off-road. Comparatively speaking, the Great Wall Gun is more rigid in design, larger in model size, more luxurious in interior (except for more advanced materials and smarter in configuration), and its power is not lost (maximum power 140kW, maximum torque 360N·m, d-max130kW/430 N m).
2.？ Supported by powerful parts suppliers.
According to statistics, 50% of the global 100 auto parts enterprises invest in production in Thailand. After years of operation, Great Wall Motor has established a good cooperative relationship with leading parts suppliers. Great Wall Motor is also developing its own parts supply system. From June, 2065438 to June, 2008, Honeycomb Arts & Innovations began to operate independently in the market, with independent supporting capabilities of power, transmission, electric drive and intelligent steering of the core components of each plate.
3.？ Great Wall Motor has sufficient overseas market operation experience.
Great Wall Motor has rich experience in dealer network construction and has established more than 500 distribution networks in more than 60 countries around the world. As long as the ammunition (output) is replenished quickly enough, the future can be expected. For example, when the Otto factory was officially put into production, Great Wall Motor took out an ultra-high growth rate of 289%, ranking first among automobile brands in China.
abstract
In fact, as early as 20 13, Great Wall Motor intended to invest 300 million US dollars to build a factory in Thailand. The acquisition of GM factories in India and Thailand is obviously an important step in Great Wall's well-thought-out globalization strategy.
From Russia to India to Thailand, the goal of the Great Wall is obviously not just these three countries, but to lead more emerging automobile markets in the future through the success of these three places.
For example, the Tula factory in Russia shoulders the task of entering the European market, while the Indian factory faces a huge blue ocean market close to the China market, while the Luo Yong factory in Thailand can radiate 10 ASEAN countries, thus realizing the globalization strategy of the Great Wall step by step.
We can see that Great Wall Motor's overseas strategy is being realized step by step. It carries not only the dream of Great Wall Motor itself, but also the hope of China brand going global.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.