In the second half of the battle for smart electric vehicles, the situation has not gradually become clear, but has become a chaotic situation of close fighting. Overseas car companies are struggling to survive in China, and Chinese companies are also struggling to find a way out when going overseas. Behind the smoke of war, there will be cruel restructuring and elimination.
GAC Honda's layoff quota is in short supply
Event Overview : Recently, some media reported that the layoff quotas of GAC Honda were "in short supply". Initially, the company planned to lay off 900 employees voluntarily, and more than 1,000 layoffs passively. However, due to the layoff compensation reaching N+2+1.8, the first batch of layoff quotas of GAC Honda employees were "snapped up". Subsequently, GAC Honda chose to directly open up layoff quotas in the future.
Comment : At a time when the Chinese auto market is in a state of internal competition, layoffs have become the most direct and effective way for companies to reduce costs and increase efficiency. But most of the time, layoffs are never seen as positive news on a social level. This time, GAC Honda employees "fighting for layoffs" reflects two problems from the side - one is that the welfare system of joint ventures is relatively complete, and the other is that practitioners are pessimistic about the development prospects of joint ventures in China.
Looking at the layoffs of auto companies this year, GAC Honda is the auto company that paid the most compensation, with a total compensation amount of N+3.8. Tesla's Shanghai factory, GAC Toyota and NIO, which began laying off employees in April this year, also paid N+3.
In comparison, the compensation offered by FAW-Volkswagen, Jaguar Land Rover, Ideal and Feifan are all the conventional N+1.
On the other hand, as one of the representatives of joint venture automakers, GAC Honda has been affected by China's intelligent electric transformation trend. The more successful it is in the traditional automobile era, the less motivation it has for transformation in the new era, and the more vulnerable it is to shocks.
The capacity utilization rate of GAC Honda has declined significantly in recent years, making it difficult for some employees to reach normal working hours, seriously affecting their salaries. According to GAC Group's 2023 financial report, last year's capacity was 651,200 vehicles, with a capacity utilization rate of 84.57%, which is lower than the full production capacity of nearly 100% in 2022.
As the saying goes, "A moving man lives, a moving tree dies." With the bleak prospects of joint venture car companies and the market trend of new forces gradually becoming the mainstream, some practitioners also regard "being laid off" as an opportunity to usher in a second spring in their careers.
CATL adjusts its structure, with Zeng Yuqun in charge of procurement and operations
Event overview : Recently, some media reported that CATL adjusted its organizational structure.
Before the adjustment, CATL's more than 40 factories were divided into 6 regions, each of which was managed by a regional manager. The regional manager reported to Feng Chunyan, co-president of CATL's supply chain and operations system, and Feng Chunyan reported to Zeng Yuqun, chairman of CATL.
After the adjustment, all of CATL's factories were reorganized into two major regions, domestic and overseas. An Guoping and Hua Xia, two of the former regional managers, were appointed as heads of overseas and domestic manufacturing operations respectively, reporting directly to Zeng Yuqun.
Comment : In the era of smart electric vehicles, leading power battery suppliers such as CATL are even more important than automakers in the global new energy transformation.
This time, CATL has placed its overseas regions on an equal footing with its domestic regions, demonstrating its determination to expand its domestic industries overseas.
In fact, the high tariff barriers and control measures on Chinese electric vehicles imposed by Europe and the United States, such as the “Chinese content” of parts, are more targeted at domestic parts suppliers rather than domestic car companies. CATL is determined to break through the barriers and occupy the overseas market.
According to the financial report, in 2022, CATL's overseas revenue will be 76.92 billion, accounting for 23.41% of its revenue. In 2023, the proportion of overseas revenue will increase to 32.67%. It can be said that overseas business has become CATL's new growth engine.
According to media statistics, CATL has a total of 8 factories that have been built, are under construction, or are being prepared overseas, including factories in Germany, Indonesia, Spain, the United States, etc.
Among them, the US market is particularly important because it has the greatest potential. In 2022, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in the US market was only 6.9%; in 2023, it increased to 17%. If we refer to the speed of China, then we can say that the current US new energy vehicle market is on the eve of an explosion.
However, the United States recently listed CATL and Gotion High-tech as "overseas entities", which blocked CATL's path to invest in building factories in the local area. However, CATL has opened up a new cooperation model - technology licensing.
The technology licensing model means that CATL provides technology, capacity construction and production operation services, and the car company is responsible for investing in battery capacity and has full property rights. For example, in the cooperation between CATL and Ford Motor Company, CATL assisted the latter in building the supply chain and provided production technical support, but did not hold the actual assets of the factory.
In this way, CATL did not enter the United States at the legal level, but entered the United States at the actual business level, which provides a new idea for Chinese companies to save the country in a roundabout way.
However, the US market is so big that there are definitely more competitors than just CATL.
South Korea's LG Energy Solution, Samsung SDI and Japan's Panasonic all have plans to build factories in the United States, and none of them will be "choked". On the contrary, the joint venture battery factory between LG Energy Solution and General Motors has received US$2.5 billion in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy.
As the U.S. new energy industry is suppressing and surpassing China, and Japanese and Korean battery giants are rapidly expanding in the U.S., CATL, as a leader, is under great pressure.
Chery withdraws from IMSS management
Event overview : On June 20, a news was announced at a meeting in Jaguar Land Rover China's office - Chery will completely withdraw from the management of Jaguar Land Rover China and Chery Jaguar Land Rover Joint Marketing Sales and Service Organization (IMSS).
Comment : On June 19, Jaguar Land Rover and Chery announced the signing of a letter of intent for strategic cooperation, authorizing Chery Jaguar Land Rover to use the "Freelander" brand on its new electric vehicles. The model is built on Chery's pure electric platform, produced at Chery Jaguar Land Rover's Changshu plant, and sold with the Freelander logo. One party provides technology, the other party provides production capacity, and the cooperation is pleasant.
Combining the two pieces of news, the cooperation between Chery and Jaguar Land Rover has expanded from comprehensive production, operation, and sales to production and technology sharing.
In fact, this is also a microcosm of the rise of Chinese car companies in the era of smart electric vehicles.
On the one hand, IMSS, a joint organization in which both Chery and Jaguar Land Rover have sent their own management, is in charge of the marketing of all Jaguar Land Rover's imported and domestically produced vehicles, and has had six presidents in nine years.
On the other hand, Chery has been focusing on the field of smart electric vehicles since last year, and its market share has increased rapidly, almost becoming the "second domestic automaker" in the industry after BYD. Chery has also been the number one Chinese automaker in terms of exports for many years.
After reaching a certain level of technology and brand strength, Chery does not need to follow in the footsteps of foreign parties. The licensing of Chery's platform to the Freelander brand is a pure commercial cooperation between the two parties, and it is great to earn technology licensing fees.
The only problem is that behind every reorganization, there are inevitably job changes and personnel adjustments.
