Beijing Hyundai has spent this year maintaining stability.
After years of struggle, Beijing Hyundai has gradually slipped from the first echelon with annual sales of one million vehicles to the marginal echelon, and this trend is still increasing.
In order to turn the situation around, Beijing Hyundai has been trying to transform into the field of new energy in the past two years.
However, as the results of the transformation will take time to show, during this period, Beijing Hyundai also needs to do everything in its power to get through the transition period smoothly.
On the one hand, it is to reduce costs and increase efficiency, including selling factories and reducing product lines, and on the other hand, it is to stabilize the basic sales volume, from the price war at the beginning of the year, to the continuous introduction of new generation fuel vehicles, to increasing exports, and finally to shareholder capital injection.
However, from the point of view of the industry, most of these measures are helpless measures to stabilize sales, although the effect is limited, but also better than nothing.
Seeing that 2024 is coming to an end, according to Beijing Hyundai’s previous plans, next year will be a critical moment for it to demonstrate the results of its transformation.
In early February, Beijing Hyundai put forward the slogan that oil is stronger than electricity.
However, relevant staff of Beijing Hyundai explained to Galaxy: “this is a regional marketing poster.
The official website and official account may not be posted.
” It added: “the minimum Elantra naked car may be this price, but few people will buy the minimum.
” At present, Beijing Hyundai at that time was not thorough enough.
As a result, sales in February were even less than in the same period last year.
In addition to price cuts, Beijing Hyundai is also trying to maintain sales with new-generation fuel cars.
As Beijing Hyundai is in the transition period, its products are still in a period of disconnection, almost all the main models launched this year are replacement fuel vehicles, without pure electricity and mixed models, such as the 11th Sonata, the fifth generation Shengda, the new Tusheng L, the new Elantra and so on.
However, in the auto market where new energy products account for volume and sales, although fuel vehicles are still favored by customers, the fuel vehicle market is shrinking.
According to the Federation of passengers, retail sales of conventional fuel vehicles in November were 1.
155 million, down 7 per cent from a year earlier. 10.663 million conventional fuel vehicles were sold from January to November, down 15 per cent from a year earlier.
Moreover, there are not a few joint venture brands with Beijing Hyundai’s idea of “protecting fuel vehicles and developing new energy vehicles”, so this has further aggravated the volume of the fuel vehicle market.
It is obvious that it will be a difficult task for Beijing Hyundai to rely solely on the replacement of fuel vehicles to maintain sales.
Exports are a big weight for Beijing Hyundai to make up for the decline in sales.
It is worth mentioning that the “Brother” brand Yueda Kia took the lead in setting an example for Beijing Hyundai.
After Yueda Kia ended its cooperation with Dongfeng in 2021, it began to expand export sales.
Last year, Yueda Kia sold more than 166000 vehicles at home and abroad, an increase of 31.
2 percent over the same period last year.
Of these, exports exceeded 86000, an increase of 125% over the same period last year.
With the successful example of Yueda Kia, Beijing Hyundai has also begun to develop its export business in the past two years, and has made some achievements.
Beijing Hyundai exports exceeded 50,000 vehicles in 2024, an increase of 400 percent, according to Beijing Hyundai officials.
At present, Beijing Hyundai’s export business territory has covered Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and other regions.
In addition to launching measures to directly stimulate sales, Beijing Hyundai is also trying to use capital injections from both shareholders to stabilize domestic market confidence in its brand.
Recently, shareholders of both sides of Beijing Hyundai have jointly injected 1.
095 billion US dollars, or about 7.
953 billion yuan, into Beijing Hyundai.
After the completion of the capital injection, Beijing Hyundai’s registered capital will increase to 4.
074 billion US dollars.
However, according to a survey of Beijing Hyundai conducted by Galaxy, nearly 70% of people believe that the capital increase is not enough to support the development of the joint venture.
As a matter of fact, as early as 2022, Beijing Hyundai received a joint capital increase of 942 million US dollars, or about 6 billion yuan, from shareholders of China and South Korea.
The purpose of capital increase is to enhance Beijing Hyundai’s cash flow, increase product layout and enhance market confidence at the same time.
However, judging from the declining sales in the past two years, the capital increase has not fundamentally reversed the decline.
On the whole, Beijing Hyundai has played all its cards this year, but obviously, the result is not optimistic.
According to sales statistics of the Global Automotive Research Institute, Beijing Hyundai’s cumulative sales from January to November were 138364, down nearly 30% from the same period last year.
In addition to trying to maintain sales volume, Beijing Hyundai is also trying to reduce expenditure in terms of production capacity, products and so on in order to get through the dismal years.
As a representative of Korean cars, Beijing Hyundai has also created a peak, with sales of millions of vehicles for four consecutive years.
In 2013-2016, sales were 1.
03 million, 1.
16 million, 1.
06 million and 1.
14 million, respectively, and reached a peak in 2014, becoming the automaker to achieve production and sales of millions in the shortest time.
Since then, however, Beijing Hyundai’s sales have plummeted.
In 2017, Beijing Hyundai’s annual sales fell to 820000 vehicles, and by 2023, Beijing Hyundai’s sales in 2023 had fallen to 242400 (according to the Galaxy Automotive Research Institute).
This year, Beijing Hyundai’s sales are still not optimistic.
As mentioned above, Beijing Hyundai’s cumulative sales fell by nearly 30% from January to November compared with the same period last year.
Why the sales volume of Hyundai in Beijing continues to decline, according to the survey of Gesco, more than 30% of the respondents believe that it is because its products are not competitive, and the votes for the slow transformation of new energy and the failure of marketing are also close to 30%.
According to analysts at the Global Automotive Research Institute, the significant decline in sales of Hyundai in Beijing is mainly the result of a combination of factors: fierce market competition, high price-to-performance ratio and good quality after the rise of independent brands.
Beijing Hyundai has taken away most of its share of the cost-effective Beijing Hyundai.
At the same time, the rapid development of new energy vehicles has also affected the slow transformation of Beijing Hyundai.
The analyst further pointed out that in terms of products, there is a gap between Beijing Hyundai and its competitors in terms of intelligence, some model quality problems affect brands and product reputation, and upgrading is not timely enough.
In terms of brand image, the positioning is vague, the influence is declining, and consumers’ sense of identity and loyalty are decreasing.
Lack of innovation in marketing strategy and slow response to market changes lead to underexposure of brands and products.
In terms of business strategy, the transformation of new energy is slow, unable to quickly launch competitive new energy products, and it is difficult to adapt to the market demand for new energy vehicles.
These factors cause Beijing Hyundai to gradually lose its edge in the auto market.
The decline in sales brought about a direct financial loss.
Judging from the financial data, Beijing HyundaiThe loss was as high as 6.
284 billion yuan in 2020, and although the loss narrowed in the following years, it remained at a high stage until 2024, according to the data of the first nine months, the loss dropped to 2.
576 billion yuan.
According to the data, Beijing Hyundai’s loss did not expand with the continued decline in sales.
The reason is that Beijing Hyundai has implemented the strategy of reducing cost and increasing efficiency in the past two years.
Last June, Zhang Zaixun, CEO of Hyundai Motor Group, said he would close another factory in China and sell two factories in China.
Today, Beijing Hyundai Shunyi No.
1 Factory has been picked up by an ideal car.
At the beginning of this year, after many failed auctions, Beijing Hyundai Motor Chongqing factory was also successfully sold, and the final transaction price was only 1.
62 billion yuan.
It is understood that the total investment of the Chongqing factory is as high as 8.
39 billion yuan.
According to the official website of Beijing Hyundai, Galaxy Motor Co., Ltd. can only book a factory in Shunyi, Beijing.
It is understood that the factory mainly produces Sonata, Tusheng and other models, with an annual production capacity of 300000 vehicles.
However, judging from today’s annual sales, the capacity is enough to cover its annual sales.
Hyundai is also adjusting its product lineup in China, reducing its current 13 models to eight to focus on profitability.
For example, the pillar products of the past few years, including Mingtu, Yuejin, Ruina, lead, and so on, have been abandoned by Beijing Hyundai because of low prices, sharp decline in sales and other reasons.
In response to the adjustment, Hyundai said, “for its Chinese business, Hyundai is seeking to improve its brand image and profitability by optimizing production capacity and managing the regional lineup.
” To learn from the Chinese market and seize the Chinese market, in the past two years, Beijing Hyundai has taken various measures to stabilize sales, such as cutting production capacity and reducing expenditure on products, or continuously pushing fuel cars and exports.
in fact, it is more like preparing for the launch of new energy competition next year.
In 2022, Beijing Hyundai released the “2025 New Plan”, which put forward three important goals.
One is to realize the full mixing of fuel vehicles in 2025.
The second is to speed up the introduction of the world’s best-selling modern pure electric brands, and strive to sell 200000 electric vehicles annually.
Third, the new products of the whole department will be equipped with OTA technology in 2025.
This year, new changes have taken place in these plans.
According to newly disclosed plans, starting from 2025, Beijing Hyundai will launch its first pure electric model based on a platform developed in cooperation with BAIC, strengthening the research and development of electric, intelligent and forward-looking technologies.
In 2026, five new models will be developed one after another, covering power forms such as pure electricity and extended range.
From the above two plans, it is not difficult to see that Beijing Hyundai has shifted the focus of the transformation of new energy from simply introducing modern pure electricity brands to relying on China’s localized development.
In the recent capital increase incident, Beijing Hyundai revealed that in accordance with the strategy of “in China, for the world”, both shareholders will continue to increase investment in Beijing Hyundai brands, technology, products, talents, capital, etc.
, change the current mode of joint ventures simply introducing mature products in the international market, and help Beijing Hyundai develop products that are more in line with the Chinese market by increasing investment and opening up products and technology platforms.
According to Wu Zhoutao, chairman of Beijing Hyundai, the thinking of Beijing Hyundai China and South Korea has completely changed, and everyone is clearly aware of the importance of the Chinese market.
Photo source: Beijing Hyundai, in order to adapt to the development pace of the Chinese market, develop products that are more in line with the Chinese market.
At this year’s Shanghai Auto Show, Korean Hyundai Automobile leaders even asked all personnel involved in research, styling and products to come to the Shanghai Auto Show to observe the trends of various models, as well as the changes in the needs of the Chinese market and consumers, and based on this to develop its follow-up products.
Hyundai Motor has also built R & D centers in Shanghai, Yantai and other places, realizing the omni-directional R & D layout of forward-looking technology research and development, vehicle research and development and commercial vehicle research and development.
Hyundai Motor China foresight Technology Research and Development Center plans to open a UX Studio (user experience Studio) in Jing’an Temple in Shanghai next year, according to Xu Zaihao, Hyundai Motor’s chief technology officer in China.
In the aspect of smart driving, it will focus on the forward-looking research and mass production development of L2-L4 at all stages.
In addition, Hyundai Motor China revealed that Robotaxi has been granted a demonstration operation license in Shanghai and will carry out demonstration operation.
As for the cockpit, it will land the application scenarios that Chinese users like in the new platform, and at the same time dig deep into the leading research in the field of AI.
With regard to Beijing Hyundai’s transformation strategy, Cui Dongshu, secretary general of Beijing Hyundai, pointed out: “Beijing Hyundai is an excellent joint venture, which has performed very well in previous years, and has slowed down in product launch and technological upgrading in recent years.
Under the background of the accelerated development of electric intelligence, with the rapid launch of electric products and gradually adapt to the market, Beijing Hyundai still has a huge space for development.
” Beijing Hyundai will also take advantage of the Chinese market to seek increment through resale at sea.
According to BAIC, Beijing Hyundai will build a global export base for Hyundai cars.
In the future, all products produced by Beijing Hyundai will be oriented to the global market, with an annual production capacity of 500000 vehicles, of which the export volume is planned to increase to 100000.
With the achievements of Beijing Hyundai’s transformation about to usher in a market test, Li Shuangshuang, the new permanent deputy general manager of Beijing Hyundai, said: “looking forward to 2025, Beijing Hyundai’s direction has been clear, that is, a comprehensive change in strategic thinking.
We are determined to be the leader of the ‘new smart electricity era and the new joint venture era’.
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