Renault-made: Ghosn waits to see the east wind

In Renault's domestic production, the strange attitudes of the Chinese and foreign parties are rather dramatic.

On July 26th, CARLOS GHOSN, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., who came to China to participate in the 2011-2015 "New Mid-Term Business Plan", led a limited number of senior officials of the Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. to visit the National Development and Reform Commission of the automotive industry. , once again for Renault domestic "pave the way."

On the afternoon of accepting visits by Chinese media in the afternoon, Ghosn, who was quick to whisper, frankly confirmed Renault’s domestic plans and gave a timetable for the first time: it was finalized before 2015 and it had a production base in China in 2016.

However, just one hour before Ghosn set forth a clear timetable, Xu Ping, chairman of the Dongfeng Motor Group, who was interviewed by the media in the same room, had a taiji on Renault’s homegrown problems: “There is no news at this time.”

After Dongfeng’s high-level meeting, it said to the newspaper: “General Xu said that Renault’s domestically-made things are not in a hurry. This aspect has only just begun. It hasn’t reached the point where the rumors of the certain models of the outside world were first made.”

Dongfeng's "supernatural" attitude is not difficult to understand. Dongfeng has long been not the east wind when it came to a joint venture with Nissan and Renault 10 years ago. Whether it is a passenger car or a commercial vehicle, it is no longer an early stage in which Sino-foreign joint ventures do not need to be upgraded. In the Dongfeng Motor Group's "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" and Dongfeng's limited new mid-term business plan, self-owned brands, new energy vehicles, and overseas market expansion are important propositions.

Although Renault’s most ideal plan to re-enter China is to set up a new joint venture with Dongfeng, the joint venture company of Dongfeng and Nissan will use the joint The introduction of a brand may be Renault’s most realistic choice.

Ghosn is anxious that “Renault's domestic production is very likely to be finalized before the completion of the Dongfeng Limited Mid-Term Business Plan. Renault will have a production base in China in 2016.” In the afternoon of July 26th, Ghosn officially made Renault domestically for the first time. Give a timetable.

This may be due to Ghosn’s meeting with the National Development and Reform Commission in the morning. Sources said that before attending Dongfeng’s limited “new mid-term business plan” on the 26th, Ghosn’s limited executives in Dongfeng met with relevant persons from the National Development and Reform Commission in Beijing, and submitted Renault’s domestically produced new plan.

In addition to Nissan Motor’s president and CEO, Ghosn is also the chairman and CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance. Eight years ago, through the establishment of Dongfeng Nissan, a joint venture with Dongfeng, Ghosn introduced the Nissan brand to Chinese production.

After its establishment, Dongfeng Nissan has developed rapidly and entered the mainstream camp of Chinese joint ventures in just five years. In 2010, Dongfeng Nissan’s sales reached 660,000 units, ranking seventh in sales of single-vehicle enterprises.

In 2004, under Nissan’s lead, Nissan’s other joint venture company in China, Zhengzhou Nissan, was included in the Dongfeng system, and later became Nissan’s global light commercial vehicle (LCV) base, assuming a 20% share of Nissan’s global LCV sales. In recent years, Nissan’s production has also accelerated. The speed of the introduction of light commercial vehicle products.

The sound development of the Chinese market has also contributed to Nissan’s global rejuvenation. The Chinese market’s contribution to Nissan’s global sales has increased to 25%, making it the largest market in the world.

In the newly announced Dongfeng Limited "New Mid-term Business Plan" for 2011-2015, Nissan plans to jointly invest RMB 50 billion in the next five years to launch more than 30 new vehicles, so that the Dongfeng joint venture will achieve a target of 2.3 million vehicles, continuing. Maintain the status of the largest joint venture in the world.

In the interview, Ghosn revealed the specific goals for the expansion of the Japanese product brand in China: “In 2015, the Japanese product brand (including the joint-venture brand Qi Chen) had sales of 1.3 million units in China, and the Chinese market’s contribution to Nissan’s global sales volume has increased to 30%.”

With the successful development of emerging markets such as China, Nissan Motors, which had almost bankrupted more than 10 years ago, has achieved "great turnaround." Nissan's global sales volume in 2010 was 4.08 million units, which was a year-on-year increase of 20%. It is the largest increase in the top 10 car companies in the world. In contrast, Renault Motors, which had formed an alliance with Nissan in its capacity as the "savior," has been rather obsolete in recent years.

In 2010, Renault sold 2.309 million vehicles worldwide, ranking ninth among the world's top ten car companies. Compared with the size of 2.39 million units in 2003, it is almost standing still, and Nissan's global sales have increased from nearly 3 million units to more than 4 million units.

In recent years, Renault’s market share in the French domestic market and Western Europe has continued to decline. According to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, Renault’s market share in Western Europe has fallen from the previous 11% to less than 10%. In addition, Renault’s expansion in emerging countries in India, Russia, Brazil, and Eastern Europe has not been successful in recent years.

In the commercial vehicle sector, foreign heavy truck giants set off a wave of new arrivals in China. Daimler and Beiqi Foton formed an alliance. Mann Commercial Vehicles shares in China National Heavy Duty Truck and launched a new joint venture brand in China. North American heavy truck giant Navistar and Jianghuai teamed up. . Renault heavy trucks face great pressure both globally and in China.

In this context, Renault Automobile’s largest shareholder and the French government holding a 15% stake in Renault Motors has already urged Renault to fully enter the Chinese market.

Prior to Ghosn’s arrival in China, Renault’s executive vice presidents responsible for sales, marketing and light commercial vehicle business, Jerome Stoll, Renault’s executive vice president and chief executive officer of Asia and Africa, Nakamura Kataki, etc., recently visited China frequently. , lobbied the government authorities on Renault’s domestic issues.

Another sign that Renault has to make it "real" is that, starting in June, Renault began to withdraw from the former joint venture Sanjiang Renault. This news has been confirmed by Sanjiang Renault's Chinese parent company China Sanjiang Aerospace Group. It is said that the Development and Reform Commission and other competent authorities have stated before Reynolds re-entered China: "First, we must properly resolve the problems of the previous joint venture."

Renault-made twists and turns In 1994, Renault and Sanjiang Aerospace Group of China jointly established Sanjiang Renault, a foreign car company that entered the Chinese market earlier. At that time, GM, Honda, Toyota, Nissan and other multinational car companies were watching the Chinese market.

However, after more than 10 years have passed, and after the late entrants earned a pity in the process of becoming the world’s largest automotive consumer market, Renault, the first unsuccessful joint venture, has been on the edge of China for many years, and has repeatedly missed opportunities.

The Sanjiang Reynolds, which was established in 1994, was the largest civilian joint venture project of the aerospace system at the time and Renault's only light passenger vehicle joint venture in China. It was initially favored by all parties. However, due to serious differences between the Chinese and foreign parties in major decisions such as engine-made, Sanjiang Group once withdrew. Sanjiang Renault’s Chinese shares subsequently flowed between Brilliance China and the Hunan Torch. Affected by this, Sanjiang Reynolds set up sales of more than 4,000 passenger cars for 8 years and was officially suspended in 2004.

After the loss of Sanjiang Renault, Renault began looking for new partners in China. After 2000, Renault and Nissan, which had already formed alliances, had a joint venture with Dongfeng to negotiate a joint venture to prepare for entry into China and form a “Golden Triangle” with Dongfeng. However, Dongfeng hopes to have a full-scale joint venture with Renault. Renault insists on the establishment of a separate joint venture for passenger vehicles. In addition, both parties have differences in the location of Guangzhou or Shiyan. In the end, Nissan and Dongfeng entered into a joint venture. Renault missed the best opportunity for domestic production.

Renault has not given up on domestic production. In 2004, it was reported that Renault would co-operate with Dongfeng Liuzhou Auto and first cooperated in the field of commercial vehicles. In that year, Renault signed a joint venture agreement with Dongfeng for commercial vehicles in France and planned a plan to produce 50,000 heavy trucks in 2010. . However, since Renault Trucks was sold to Volvo Group in 2001 (Renault received a 21.8% stake in Volvo), the Volvo Group has already established Shanghai Sunworth Bus, Xi'an Volvo Buses and two bus joint ventures in China and China. The Huawa Heavy Truck Co., Ltd. joint venture, the joint venture quota has been "overcrowded." Renault’s domestic efforts failed again.

In 2008, Renault planned to reorganize Sanjiang Renault and incorporate Sanjiang Renault into the Dongfeng system. However, due to serious disagreements between the parties on asset disposal, they also failed.

While approaching Dongfeng, Renault also took turns to contact the auto groups such as Beijing Automotive and Guangzhou Auto, but ultimately failed to bear fruit.

In 2009, Dongfeng was disappointed with the long-delayed Renault project and announced that it had terminated the Renault-made project negotiations.

In addition, as a French government-held company, Renault has a closer relationship with the government than private companies, and its domestic process is inevitably hampered by the relations between the Chinese and French governments.

The superposition of many factors also makes Renault's domestic plans "decrease points" in the government approval process. It has been alleged that in recent years, the Development and Reform Commission has made a strong attitude towards Renault’s domestic production, allowing it to “clean up the previous mess”.

As a result, Renault decided to withdraw from Sanjiang Renault this year, clearing the way for China.

In the domestic situation where it is difficult to break through, Renault has increased the promotion of imported passenger vehicles in the past two years. By accelerating the introduction of new products and other measures, the sales of Renault's imported passenger cars have rapidly increased from 893 in 2008 to 1.5 in last year. 10,000 cars. This made Renault firmer in its domestic determination.

According to sources close to Dongfeng, the recently restarted Renault-made plans are mainly focused on Renault passenger vehicles. There are two options: First, Renault passenger vehicles produce on Dongfeng Day, and the second is to establish Dongfeng Renault alone under the framework of Dongfeng Limited. Passenger car company.

Ghosn frankly stated that Renault’s domestically-optimized plan is to establish a separate joint venture with Dongfeng, but “it all depends on the attitude of the government authorities”.

However, the best time for foreign car companies to enter China has passed. For the new joint venture projects, the attitude of the NDRC and other competent authorities has changed from the active introduction 10 years ago to today's "strict control." It is very difficult for Renault to re-establish joint venture approval with Dongfeng.

People in the industry believe that the way of importing through Dongfeng Nissan is relatively simple. Renault does not invest in equity and only introduces it as a brand. This method does not require the strict approval procedures for joint venture projects. It only needs to go to the NDRC for filing. There are precedents for this practice. For example, Shanghai Volkswagen introduced the Skoda brand and GAC Fiat plans to introduce the Chrysler brand.

The detached east wind compared to Ghosn's eager attitude, Xu Ping's attitude is very detached. The personal attitude of the Dongfeng people “We are not in a hurry and everything is just beginning” shows that both Chinese and foreign parties have a totally different attitude towards Renault’s domestic production.

“Now the east wind is not the east wind ten years ago. It has already passed the stage of relying on the introduction of foreign brands to develop.” The above sources explained the reasons why Dongfeng was not enthusiastic.

When Dongfeng was in negotiations with Nissan and Renault in 2000, Dongfeng was in a difficult stage. The heavy-duty truck business had a sluggish growth. The joint venture had only one dragon and was in danger of being surpassed by Shanghai GM, Guangzhou Honda, and other joint ventures. In 2000, Dongfeng Group as a whole Only 210,000 vehicles were sold. From the perspective of operating efficiency, the headquarters and major production bases are located in Shiyan, where transportation is inconvenient.

In the ten years, Dongfeng Group has become the most profitable car company in China thanks to the sound development of the overall Chinese automobile market and the improvement brought by the full-scale joint venture with Nissan. Not long ago, Fortune magazine published the World Top 500 rankings, US$55.7 billion in operating revenue and US$2.48 billion in profits led the domestic automobile industry. In 2010, Dongfeng Group's sales reached 2.615 million units. Dongfeng's limited sales volume was close to 1.3 million units. From the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” formulated by Dongfeng Group last year, Dongfeng Group plans to break sales volume of 5 million vehicles in 2015 and impact the first camp of global auto companies.

From the perspective of joint venture brands, the current joint venture with Dongfeng includes Citroen, Peugeot, Nissan, and Honda. Together with Dongfeng Yulon, which was established last year, the product line has already covered mainstream segments such as cars, SUVs, and MPVs, and Dongfeng Nissan The two joint ventures, Dongfeng Honda, are also actively planning joint ventures for their own brands. Regardless of the number of joint ventures or the richness of product lines, Dongfeng’s joint ventures are the most abundant among the domestic large groups.

In Dongfeng Group's "Twelfth Five-Year Plan", joint ventures and cooperation are not the primary issues. Instead, they are independent brands, overseas market expansion and new energy vehicles.

If joint ventures with Renault alone are difficult to apply for approval and government public relations efforts are needed, the enthusiasm of Dongfeng will not be high and Renault will not be able to afford time. Therefore, the introduction of Dongfeng Nissan is a more realistic option. For Dongfeng Nissan, the Renault brand focuses on romantic, personalized models, and complements Nissan models that focus on practicality and cost performance.