Dan. Who is Oman?
As the first female leader in the history of global automobile to take charge of a multinational automobile company, General Motors "Iron Lady" Mary Bora (Marry? Barra's legendary experience must be familiar to people in the industry, but his former partner dan ammann is often underestimated by the outside world. Of course, simply mentioning this person at the beginning of the article is not only to pay attention to his general career itself.
Dan ammann is one of the youngest leaders in GM's history. 20 14 years, he is only 42 years old. As a compound talent with financial, product, technology and management advantages, he not only successfully led the large-scale restructuring of GM's global business, including selling GM's Opel division in Europe and comprehensively reforming the loss-making Korean business, but also acquired the self-driving startup Cruise in 20 16.
In fact, for dan ammann, the new cruise ship doesn't mean "losing real power" within GM, but it is the most critical node in the transformation of the new four modernizations, and the company chooses to entrust the most critical business to him. Cruise is the core position at the forefront of GM's autonomous driving business, and it has placed the highest expectation of GM's transformation vision in the new era. It can even be said that Cruise is the future of GM.
Success or failure is at stake.
The tough battle of autonomous driving and electrification transformation represented by Cruise not only represents GM's long-term vision, but also represents the development direction of the entire American automobile industry. Dan ammann's post adjustment is a mirror, reflecting that GM, and even the entire American automobile manufacturing industry, are betting very long-term. Of course, smelling an opportunity naturally means another adventure.
At present, in the United States, the symbol of its manufacturing industry has changed from steel cars to ICT, and the holy land has changed from Detroit to Silicon Valley. However, compared with Ford and FCA, GM has a bigger bet on the new four modernizations and a more advanced strategic layout. In 2020, when the global automobile industry encountered an "eventful autumn", the old Detroit manufacturer also ushered in another important turning point on the track of transformation of the four modernizations.
China market has officially accelerated its development.
In the past 20 years, the China market has contributed nearly one-fifth of GM's profits, and its importance is self-evident. However, in recent years, GM's performance in China is not satisfactory. According to the data, the company's sales volume in China has dropped from a record-breaking 4 million vehicles in 20 17 to 3.09 million vehicles in 20 19, with a drop of nearly10 million vehicles in two years. In addition to Cadillac, brands including Buick and Chevrolet are collectively declining.
Like Ford, which belongs to the Detroit camp, GM has "stalled" in China.
In March this year, GM announced the personnel changes in China, and Qian Huikang (Matt? Tsien) will be the global chief technology officer and former senior vice president of international operations Julian? Blissett) will take over from the former and take charge of all GM's operations in China. Taking Bailey as an opportunity, General Motors made a new round of comprehensive adjustment to its product line in China, focusing on electric vehicles and intelligent driving technology to curb the sales decline in China market.
19 In August, GM officially announced its development strategy for China in the next five years. After gradually withdrawing from several markets with weak sales and sustained losses, and focusing on high-profit return areas such as China and the United States, the company concentrated its firepower for the first time, and officially accelerated the China market under the heavy injection of electrification, autonomous driving and car networking industries.
"China market is the largest single market of GM, and it is also the global R&D and innovation center of GM. The success or failure here determines the key to the company's vision. " Mary Bola came straight to the point, and in the nearly two-hour press conference, she directly expressed the importance of the China market to GM's current break.
On the whole, GM will re-focus on Cadillac's layout in China in the future, introduce larger and more environmentally-friendly SUV models into China, and focus on the entry-level market, with low-priced micro electric vehicles as the main ones. In the next five years, more than 40% of the new cars that GM plans to launch in the China market will be new energy vehicles, and even Baojun and Wuling will move towards a new route of electrification.
According to Wang Yongqing, general manager of SAIC-GM, the company will launch nine electric vehicles in 2020-2025, covering Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac. On the day before the conference, Berry revealed to Reuters and other foreign media that in the next five years, more than 50% of GM's capital and engineering deployment will be used for the transformation of electrification and autonomous driving technology.
In the China market, GM hopes to return to the track of 4 million vehicles. From 20 17, GM's market share in China was still 14.3%, but by 20 19, this figure had dropped to 12.2%.
Li Bai added that GM's main goal in China is to restore the annual sales of 4 million vehicles as soon as possible. "The transformation of the new four modernizations has increased the company's overall R&D and manufacturing investment. At the moment of high cost, it is difficult to make money without scale. GM really needs to go back to this point. "
As the recovery process of the global economy from New Crown Pneumonia is still full of variables, Berry can't announce the exact time and overall framework of GM's recovery target in China for the time being, but in his view, the China market is undergoing tremendous changes, and it is absolutely impossible to stagnate. Toyota, Volkswagen and Honda have been nibbling at GM's market in China, Tesla's offensive is also aggressive, and China's local excellent brands such as Geely and Great Wall are gradually rising. This is the biggest reality of GM in China, and it takes time to catch up.
Regarding the latest process of the transformation of the new four modernizations, Bailey particularly emphasized the unique advantages of the China market. In his view, China consumers like technology very much, whether it is smart phones, e-commerce, autonomous driving technology or electrification, and their acceptance is very high. Although regional markets such as Europe and America are planned from the government and market level, the electrification process of China automobile market will be faster.
Electrification revival of Cadillac
In early August, GM launched Lyriq, Cadillac's first pure electric SUV model, marking the official opening of the brand's electrification lineup. For GM, Cadillac's "all-round electric shock" is ambitious, but it is full of difficulties and challenges. The significance of Lyriq's introduction to the market is not only a breakthrough in sales dimension, but also a strategic hope for brand premium upgrade and an attempt to "transform" electrification.
All along, GM has been trying to improve Cadillac's brand image in the world, but in recent years, it has not achieved the expected results in North America or China. North American analysts believe that if Lyriq can compete with competitors, it will help promote Cadillac to move forward faster in the strategic direction of "brand up".
So far, the market segment of luxury pure electric SUV is not large, and Lyriq's main competitors are also concentrated in Tesla models? X, jaguar I-Pace and Audi e-tron However, in the first half of this year, the cumulative sales of these competing products, which were one step ahead of the market, were less than 1.2 million. Even the 2065,438+09, which didn't appear in COVID-19, the global sales of these models were only about 654,38+03,000.
Taking Lyriq as a new starting point, Cadillac is resolutely bidding farewell to the "ice age" of traditional fuel in the past. General Motors President Kyle Reese (Mark? Reuss) admitted at the electrification transformation technology conference in the first half of this year that Cadillac is currently in trouble, but it is still ahead of other brands in technological innovation; Most consumers of luxury car products are more open to electrification, and GM's luxury car division will also usher in a new investment portfolio.
Kyle Reith is the main supporter of Cadillac's full embrace of electrification. As early as 5438+ 10 last year, when he was promoted from the original product development director of General Motors to the president of the company, he made it clear that Cadillac would take over Chevrolet and transform itself into a pioneer brand leading the electrification revolution under General Motors.
By the end of 20 19, the news of Cadillac's "electric shock" was further confirmed. According to GM's plan, all models of the brand will be converted into pure electric vehicles around 2030, and the important turning point of the sales dimension will appear in 2025. With the gesture of electrification, Cadillac has entered the most critical next decade.
In the China market, several major brands under GM, especially Chevrolet, have been really slow to launch new SUVs in recent years. GM's marketing of Cadillac in China is at the expense of Buick and Chevrolet brand premium, which eventually leads to a decline in terminal sales. In the luxury car market, Cadillac has been unable to compete with its competitors with more fashionable designs.
In Boli's view, GM will sell larger SUV models in the future, and more and more versions will be pure electric. In the company's product planning, they hope to adjust the positioning of Wuling brand, carry out transformation, and focus on positioning the low-cost micro-electric vehicle field for ordinary people to travel.
The electric vehicle business may be divested.
Reuters and other foreign media reported recently that since the second half of this year, Wall Street has been putting pressure on GM to divest its electric vehicle business to better cope with the rise of new electric forces such as Tesla.
According to the calculation of Deutsche Bank analysts, if GM divests its electric vehicle business, it is likely that the new electric vehicle company will be valued at at least $654.38+05 billion to $20 billion, or even as high as $654.38+00 billion. The spin-off of electric vehicle business can create value, and the less electric vehicle business GM keeps, the more value it can create. At present, the market value of GM is $43 billion.
Since GM announced its financial report in the second quarter of this year, speculation about the possible spin-off of its electric vehicle business has been circulating in the industry.
Did Morgan Stanley analysts ask Mary on the earnings conference call? Bora, in the context of investors' pursuit of electric vehicle manufacturers such as Tesla, Nicola and Weilai, will GM consider divesting its electric vehicle business? Mary Bola's answer at that time was that GM was willing to study and evaluate any option that could promote long-term shareholder value. In other words, in her view, there is not much obstacle to splitting the business.
However, not all shareholders and analysts agree with Fred and Morgan Stanley, and some insiders disagree, pointing out that some investors are too radical. At present, there is no evidence that GM's market value will skyrocket after divesting its electric vehicle business.
In fact, GM is not the only company urged by financial institutions to divest its electric vehicle business. Volkswagen has also been repeatedly suggested by European institutions such as Deutsche Bank to do so, which not only helps to further release value, but also makes it easier for the company to raise funds in its future-oriented core business.
Take General Motors as an example, they have separated the autonomous driving department from the parent company, and the subsidiary has raised billions of dollars from investors such as Softbank.
Regardless of whether GM's electric vehicle business is ultimately divested, it is betting on whether the long-term transformation of the new four modernizations can achieve the expected success in the new era. In 2020, this old Detroit manufacturer has already ushered in an important turning point.
The characteristics of American manufacturing industry gave birth to the long-term idea of GM betting. Since the bankruptcy of Bethlehem Iron and Steel Company, on the one hand, the United States has been highly dependent on the finance represented by Wall Street, on the other hand, the focus of manufacturing has shifted, and the ICT high-tech industry represented by Silicon Valley has replaced the traditional heavy industry represented by Detroit, concentrating the most resources and talents.
This is also why American car companies are not as good as Germany and Japan in traditional fields such as power, fuel consumption and failure rate, but autonomous driving is one of the reasons. It is hard to say whether it is really right for GM to choose "do what it thinks is right" as the slogan, and to some extent, to exchange today for tomorrow's play.
However, thinking about the long-term future of the automobile on behalf of the whole automobile industry and even the whole mankind needs someone to think after all. Obviously, General Motors has rushed to the distance on this road.
Text/Jason
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