On September 3, GAC and BYD executives appeared in Conghua, unveiling the new energy vehicle project of Guangzhou Automobile BYD.
GAC started a new energy vehicle R&D project at the Guangzhou Automobile Research Institute a few years ago. It has already produced several passenger car products and has exhibited at the Detroit Auto Show two years ago, but there is currently no mass production product.
"BYD is at the forefront of domestic and international new energy vehicles, and has considerable technical and market experience." Zhang Fangyou, chairman of Guangzhou Automobile Group, revealed that GAC's original interest in the alliance is the technology gap.
In addition, GAC Bus, a subsidiary of Guangzhou Automobile Group, needs BYD's support in the process of new energy transformation. After the project enters the second phase, GAC will invest in the equity and cash of GAC, and BYD will invest in cash. GAC will be included in GAC BYD.
Like other state-owned auto companies, GAC has a relatively late start and initial investment in new energy vehicles. Under the current state of vigorously promoting the new energy auto industry, how state-owned auto companies chase the leading new energy auto companies is a problem.
The commercial vehicles of Guangzhou Automobile Group are mainly produced by GAC Hino, GAC Bus and GAC Gonow. The main products are light and heavy trucks, engineering vehicles, large and medium-sized buses (including new electric vehicles such as pure electric and hybrid vehicles) and pickup trucks. Wait.
Guangzhou Automobile Bus is the smallest automaker in Guangzhou Automobile Group. According to the sales and marketing report released by GAC on September 6, the sales volume of GAC buses in the first eight months of this year was 586, which was 17.6% lower than the 711 vehicles in the same period last year.
After the country vigorously promoted new energy vehicles, in addition to the substantial subsidies for pure electric buses, local governments also used new energy vehicles as key vehicles for the replacement of buses and other vehicles. The sales of traditional fuel bus companies continued to decline. GAC needs to introduce mature electrification technology on the bus to quickly adapt to market changes.
Guangzhou team BYD also has a real appeal. Because most of the passenger cars are purchased by the group, the local government has a greater impact on the market. In the early days of promoting the pure electric bus K9, BYD often encountered local protection. "It can be understood in a certain sense, because the price of the bus is higher and the local subsidy is larger. A pure electric bus will subsidize hundreds of thousands of yuan. If the enterprise does not contribute to the local economy, the subsidy will be distributed to the local taxpayer. It’s not reasonable.†A local government official explained local protection.
This is also the logic behind why public opinion and the national government are opposed, and local governments still protect privately. BYD adopted the “investment for market†and established a joint venture bus factory in several cities across the country.
The total rolling investment of Guangzhou Automobile BYD New Energy Bus Company is estimated to be 3 billion yuan, which is expected to be completed in September 2015. According to the agreement, the two parties will vigorously develop new energy buses and related technologies, and develop and produce pure electric or pure electric drive passenger cars, LNG passenger cars, plug-in hybrid buses, business CMB and related parts and components.
Guangzhou plans to promote 10,000 new energy vehicles by the end of next year, including the promotion of the use of 2,000 new energy buses. Like other cities, BYD will enter these orders in Guangzhou and will purchase 300 new energy buses by the end of this year.
However, the GAC BYD project is different from its BYD in other cities. Wu Jingsheng, senior vice president of BYD and chairman of GAC BYD, said: “Investing in the market is not a good measure at present. BYD and GAC are strategic cooperation.â€
GAC BYD is not only targeting the Guangzhou market, but also surrounding cities and even Guangdong. In addition, more importantly, it serves as the export base for BYD's new energy bus. "The reason why we set up the southern base of the bus production in Guangzhou is because it has a large ro-ro terminal and convenient export." Wu Jingsheng said.
The GAC BYD project will be constructed in two phases. The first phase of the project is expected to invest 850 million yuan. By September next year, the production capacity of 5,000 new energy buses will be built.
Do not hesitate to give up the controlling stake GAC Group released its first half of 2014 earnings report on August 27, its net profit increased by more than 40% to about 1.7 billion yuan, an increase of about 41.61%. The Japanese system has been sluggish in the past few years, and the profit crisis caused by GAC has been resolved.
In order to diversify its product line, GAC has invested a lot of energy, including deepening the GAC Fiat project and further cooperating with Chrysler to produce JEEP. Investing huge amounts of money and engaging in self-owned brands, the product lineup of GAC passenger cars will be supplemented in the short term, and it is expected that 20 to 30 models will be launched within five years.
Although the Guangzhou Automobile Research Institute also displayed some new energy vehicle products, at the 2013 Detroit Auto Show, GAC brought three new energy vehicles including the E-JET extended-range electric concept car, the Chuanqi GS5 pure electric car and the Chuanqi four-wheel drive hybrid. However, at present, there is no mass production of new energy vehicles, lagging behind SAIC, BAIC, BYD, Geely and other car companies, so that GAC executives are very anxious.
GAC executives are increasingly aware of the shortcomings of new energy products. Since last year, GAC has not only asked Chuanqi to come up with new energy vehicle market products as soon as possible, but also requires joint ventures such as GAC Gonow, Guangben, Guangfeng, GAC Mitsubishi, and Guangzhou Automobile Fiat to seize the new energy market segments in their respective advantageous fields as soon as possible. .
GAC BYD is a typical project of the above strategy. According to the agreement, the two sides should build GAC BYD into a new energy bus headquarters and R&D center. Wu Jingsheng also told the 21st Century Business Herald on September 3rd: "We will not retain our technology for strategic partners."
The first phase of the joint venture of Chinese car companies is a joint venture with international brands. Based on policy regulations, most of them are 50:50 shares. With the implementation of new energy vehicle promotion and subsidy policies, the future development advantages of China's auto industry are concentrated in the hands of independent brands, and the new joint venture era has become a joint of domestic auto companies.
This type of joint venture has no policy constraints, but depends on technological advantages, and the form of joint venture has undergone a fundamental change. The ratio of GAC to BYD's joint-stock share is 49:51, breaking the previous practice of joint-stock comparison. Jiang Ping, deputy general manager of Guangzhou Automobile Group, said: "The first is that we are trying to mix ownership reform; the second is that BYD is leading the domestic and even international in the accumulation of new energy vehicles."
GAC is very urgent for the development of new technologies. After years of hard work, GAC has formed a complete automobile industry chain from research and development to after-sales service, which is also considered to be its biggest advantage. But the future of new energy vehicles is a brand new industry chain, which may completely subvert the advantages of the original traditional cars. In February of this year, GAC and the Chinese Academy of Sciences jointly researched new energy driverless cars; at the end of August, GAC issued a notice saying that it increased capital of 101 million yuan for Guangzhou Automobile passenger cars for the construction of new energy vehicles.
The Guangzhou Automobile Passenger Vehicle Plan will introduce a variety of hybrid, pure electric vehicles and extended-range electric vehicles. “At present, it is mainly based on hybrid power. Our extended-mix hybrid fuel consumption is only 2.2L per 100 kilometers. Kilometers. We plan to build new energy vehicles. We also focus on creating quality products. There are not too many products, there are 3-5 models.†Jiang Ping said.