“Invest 4 billion in Thailand to establish a right-hand-drive vehicle production base!” On April 18, the 2023 Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition kicked off. Changan Automobile’s entire range of new energy products was strongly assembled, and innovation was at the forefront. All technologies are on display.
Zhu Huarong, Chairman and Party Secretary of Changan Automobile, revealed Changan Automobile’s plan to set up a factory in Thailand when he announced the overseas strategic “Inclusiveness to All Rivers” plan.
The plan to set up a factory in Thailand is also a key step for Changan Automobile to expand overseas. Changan Automobile is moving towards becoming a world-class brand at full speed.
Strategy for overseas expansion
The Changan booth at the Shanghai Auto Show focuses on the Shangri-La Plan, the Beidou Tianshu Plan, the Changan Innovation Design Label and the newly released "Hainan Baichuan" plan. The main line unfolds. It comprehensively demonstrates Changan Automobile's strong technical reserves and product capabilities, and conveys to customers at home and abroad the confidence and strength to resolutely transform and accelerate overseas expansion.
Changan Automobile’s overseas strategy of “opening up to all rivers” has attracted special attention. Changan, which grew up in the hinterland of southwest China, now has sufficient market scale, technical reserves, system strength and brand influence to support Changan Automobile’s global layout. develop.
Zhu Huarong also revealed the specific overseas layout at the auto show. Changan Automobile will focus on promoting the "five major layouts".
The first is to accelerate the layout of products and production capacity. Changan Automobile will deploy high-quality intelligent and low-carbon products globally. By 2030, no less than 60 global products will be launched. First, promote the combination of "global product simultaneous development and regional differentiated development". In the future, the same model will have multiple versions such as Chinese version, American version, European version, etc., to achieve "one region, one policy, one country, one policy" ". For example, South America and the Middle East will still focus on traditional cars, Europe and ASEAN will mainly promote new energy models, and launch pickup trucks in South America, ASEAN, Australia, New Zealand and other regions; secondly, we are committed to creating "global classic models", By 2030, we will strive to create two products with global sales exceeding 500,000 units. Create no less than two products with global sales exceeding 300,000 units; third, deploy overseas production capacity of more than 500,000 units. The Thailand base has a production capacity of 100,000 vehicles in the first phase and will increase to 200,000 vehicles in the second phase. We will also lay out manufacturing bases in Europe, America and other places in due course and improve production capacity planning.
The second is to strengthen the brand building layout. Overseas markets will focus on the Changan brand, continue to create brand labels such as intelligence, low carbon, and design, and continue to strengthen the linkage between corporate brand and product promotion, strengthen the Deep Blue brand, Avita brand overseas construction. At the same time, it will increase investment in publicity resources in overseas markets and collaborate with partners to participate in large-scale global brand events to enhance Changan Automobile's brand influence.
The third is to strengthen the marketing service layout. By 2030, Changan Automobile will build more than 20 localized marketing organizations in overseas markets, and the number of overseas outlets will exceed 3,000. And will actively explore new direct marketing models with high efficiency, low cost and good user experience.
The fourth is to accelerate the improvement of market layout, and will accelerate the layout of the five major regional markets of Europe, America, Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific, and CIS. Before 2030, it will enter more than 90 markets around the world. In 2024, Changan Automobile will complete its entry into the two key regional markets of ASEAN and Europe. It will also invest 4 billion yuan in Thailand to lay out a global "right-hand drive production base" covering global right-hand drive product markets such as Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and South Africa. It will take 2-3 years to complete the layout of major European markets. By 2030, Changan Automobile's sales in the European market will exceed 300,000 vehicles.
The fifth is to strengthen the organization, talent layout, and organizational construction. Based on the market layout, Changan Automobile will establish a Southeast Asian business unit and a European regional headquarters. It will also establish regional headquarters in the Americas, Africa and other regions in due course. At the same time, we will strengthen talent introduction and training, introduce international talents from around the world, and increase the recruitment of local talents in overseas regions.
Zhu Huarong said at the press conference: By 2030, Changan Automobile's overseas markets will achieve the "Four Ones" development goals, that is, investment in overseas markets will exceed 10 billion US dollars, and annual sales in overseas markets will exceed 1.2 million vehicles. , the number of overseas business employees exceeded 10,000, and Changan Automobile was built into a world-class automobile brand.
Starting the critical year for overseas expansion
Investment and establishment of factories in Thailand is an important step in the critical year for overseas expansion. During "Rim Visibility"'s inspection in Thailand this year, we learned that Changan Automobile had set up an office in Bangkok as early as last year to promote the launch of Changan Automobile.
Going overseas has now become the common sense of car companies, and Changan Automobile is also going overseas based on its own strength.
The latest sales data shows that in March 2023, Changan sold 209,000 Chinese brand cars, an increase of 28% month-on-month, becoming the sales champion of Chinese brands in March. In recent years, the sales of Changan brand cars have increased significantly year by year. In 2022, production and sales will exceed 1.875 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 6.8%, accounting for 80% of the group's sales. It is expected that Changan brand vehicle sales will exceed 2 million units in 2023.
At the same time, the Changan brand automobile market share has increased year by year, rising from 5.17 in 2019 to 6.98 in 2022. In the first quarter of this year, the market share accounted for 8.54 of the entire industry. The quality of operations continues to improve, with the Changan brand accounting for 85% of the profit, becoming a new profit pillar. The enterprise has transformed from scale growth to high-quality development of "scale efficiency and value improvement".
Not only that, Changan Automobile’s innovation capabilities continue to increase, and its research and development level ranks among the best. It has established a "six countries and ten locations" global R&D layout, built 16 technology and product R&D centers, and has an engineering and technical team of more than 17,000 people from 30 nationalities around the world.
There will be 4,910 new patent applications in 2022, including 3,548 invention patents, a year-on-year increase of 195. In 2022, Changan Automobile ranked first in the number of patent disclosures in the field of intelligent technology. The R&D capability has ranked first in the industry in the evaluation of the National Enterprise Technology Center for 12 years. Rapidly develop new products such as intelligence and new energy, launching 40 new products per day in the past three years.
In recent years, Changan Automobile’s brand layout has been continuously optimized, and its brand value has been moving forward. Changan Automobile launched the Deep Blue and Avita electric vehicle brands, forming a mutually supportive brand structure with the Changan brand. The average price of Changan's passenger car products has increased year by year, with a *** increase of 22.9% in the past five years. Among them, the selling price of Avita products has exceeded 400,000 yuan, and Deep Blue SL03 has become a rising star among the 200,000-class new energy products. .
At the same time, Changan Automobile has been committed to improving customer experience. As Changan's most important strategy, the customer service "Project No. 1" is promoting Changan Automobile's development from product success to "products and services". Changan has ranked first among Chinese brands in the J.D. Power China New Car Quality Study (IQS) for two consecutive years, and ranked first among Chinese brands in the satisfaction ratings of the China Consumers Association and China Quality Association for two consecutive years.
On the road of firmly transforming into an intelligent and low-carbon travel technology company, Changan Automobile has made steady steps and has a clear strategy. Based on China, we are ready to make a leap forward and anchor the world to start a new chapter. At an important juncture for domestically produced cars to go overseas, the overseas strategic "Inclusiveness to All Rivers" plan was released at the right time, using the good domestic momentum to lead overseas markets and planning for future development with a global layout.
It is reported that in addition to the establishment of the Thailand factory, Changan Automobile will also establish a Southeast Asia business department according to the market layout. This means that Changan Automobile may have more initiatives in Southeast Asia in the future.
Showing “all-electric” strength
Three years after the epidemic, the Shanghai Auto Show has a different flavor than usual.
A few years ago, fuel vehicles still took the leading role, but now it is the new energy show. Some traditional car companies even choose to bring a full range of new energy vehicles to the exhibition, while the main sales of fuel vehicles are hidden deep in the attic.
At this Shanghai Auto Show, empowered by new energy and intelligent technologies, Changan Automobile’s latest products and innovative technologies were all unveiled. The third-generation CS75 PLUS smart electric iDD and UNI-V smart electric iDD family The four star models of electric iDD, UNI-K smart iDD, and Auchan Z6 smart iDD are gathered together in a "group". The twin product matrix of Deep Blue S7 and Deep Blue SL03 are on the stage together, as well as the electrification of all series of electric vehicles such as Changan Lumin and Lanton EV. The product goes all out.
In addition, there are two dazzling concept cars on the stand. Among them, the concept car VIIA releases the power of verticality from future cars through Changsha's new design language of "vertical and horizontal", creating the most unique five-sense immersive experience for users, and building a changeable and open free space. The other is the Changan CD701 prototype built based on the SDA architecture. It has been fully upgraded from bionic design to pure digital design. The appearance design is a "new species" that combines the majestic and powerful feeling of an SUV and the cool off-road elements of a pickup truck. The decorative design is a "mobile home" that brings a new "five senses" experience, focusing on Changan Automobile's future direction of intelligence and aesthetics.
At the auto show, Zhu Huarong announced Changan Automobile’s overall development goals: by 2030, it will strive to achieve group sales of 5 million vehicles, of which 4 million will be sold under the Changan brand and 1.2 million will be sold overseas.
To achieve this goal, the importance of promoting overseas strategies becomes even more prominent. Changan's actions in Southeast Asia and other places may further speed up! According to "Rim Visibility", regardless of left-hand drive or right-hand drive, if the market demands it, it will be made by Changan.
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