A new round of adjustments has been made to the main leading cadres of BAIC New Energy.
It is reported that Liu Yu, former deputy general manager of BAIC Group and chairman of BAIC New Energy, will no longer serve as chairman of BAIC New Energy; Dai Kangwei, former secretary of the Party Committee and general manager of BAIC New Energy, was promoted to deputy engineer of BAIC Group and concurrently chairman of BAIC New Energy; Zhang Guofu, former deputy secretary of the Party Committee and executive vice general manager of BAIC New Energy, was promoted to secretary of the Party Committee and general manager of BAIC New Energy; Liu Guanqiao, former director of operations and management of BAIC Group, was transferred to executive vice general manager of BAIC New Energy, mainly responsible for marketing.
The above personnel adjustment means that Zhang Guofu has become the latest helmsman of BAIC New Energy. According to reports, Zhang Guofu has served in BAIC Foton, Beijing Hainachuan Auto Parts Company, and BAIC Group. Since 2019, he has served as the executive vice president of BAIC Off-Road, executive vice president of BAIC Group, general manager of BAIC Off-Road, and executive vice president of BAIC New Energy. He has rich experience in marketing, product planning, and parts supply chain.
According to outside analysis, the main purpose of BAIC New Energy's replacement of management is to strengthen BAIC Arcfox's market performance.
Currently, BAIC BluePark, a listed company under BAIC Group, has two new energy brands, one is BEIJING brand and the other is Arcfox brand. Among them, BEIJING brand can be understood as "old BAIC New Energy", and its EU and EX series focus on the low-end new energy market. Arcfox is a high-end new energy brand created by BAIC, hoping to compete with the current mainstream new forces and the "second generation" new energy brands of traditional car companies.
BAIC Arcfox's sales are on the rise this year. According to the latest data in June, Arcfox's monthly sales exceeded 8,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 314.77%. Among them, Alfa T5's monthly sales were 3,702 units, and Arcfox Koala's monthly sales were 3,250 units. From January to June, Arcfox's cumulative sales were 18,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 110.24%.
However, this number is still far behind mainstream new energy brands. It is worth noting that the original mission of BAIC Arcfox was to help BAIC achieve high-end development in the new energy market. However, its main selling models, Alpha T5 and Koala, are currently in the 120,000-170,000 yuan range, which is still in the mid-to-low price segment. The higher-positioned Alpha T and Alpha S, although the price range has exceeded 250,000 yuan, have few sales.
Therefore, strictly speaking, Arcfox has not achieved BAIC's goal of making a breakthrough in the high-end new energy field.
Now, this wish is placed on a new fulcrum - the Xiangjie brand, a joint venture between BAIC and Huawei's Hongmeng Intelligent Driving, will take on this task.
According to the plan, in addition to the currently launched Xiangjie S9, the Xiangjie brand will also build a medium-to-large pure electric luxury station wagon and a medium-sized SUV in the future.
