China's first wholly foreign-owned commercial vehicle enterprise

At the beginning of the new year, Sichuan Hyundai Motor Co., Ltd. became another wholly foreign-owned automobile enterprise in China after Tesla. The author understands that recently, Sichuan Hyundai Motor Co., Ltd. has completed the equity change from a Sino-foreign joint venture to a wholly foreign-owned enterprise. Hyundai Motor became the sole shareholder with a share of 100%, which also means the birth of the first wholly foreign-owned commercial vehicle enterprise in China.

Sichuan Hyundai is a commercial vehicle enterprise jointly invested by Sichuan Nanjun Automobile Group Co., Ltd. and Hyundai Motor of Korea in 20 12. It mainly produces commercial vehicles, engines and spare parts, and has two production bases, Ziyang Truck Factory and Chengdu Bus Factory.

At the beginning of the establishment of Sichuan Hyundai, both companies had high hopes for it. At that time, they planned to achieve the grand goals of producing and selling 200,000 vehicles in 2065, 400,000 vehicles in 438+03, 400,000 vehicles in 438+07 and 700,000 vehicles in 2020. However, in view of the domestic market situation at that time, Sichuan Hyundai still lacked some strength to achieve this goal, so in 20 17, Sichuan Hyundai lowered its sales target to? 45,000 vehicles, but unfortunately, even so, it failed to achieve the expected goal of that year. Last year, Lin Nianze, director and general manager of Sichuan Hyundai, said in an interview: "Sichuan Hyundai is in an' extraordinary period' and its operation is quite difficult. This year's production and sales figures are somewhat shameful. "

Under the premise of poor sales and difficult development, this equity reform is logical and seemingly sudden, but the timing is just right and the motivation is sufficient.

Why is the timing just right? In April of 20 18, the national development and reform commission announced that the share ratio limit of special purpose vehicles and new energy vehicles would be cancelled in 20 18. In June of that year, in the "Special Management Measures for Foreign Investment Access (Negative List)" promulgated by the National Development and Reform Commission and official website of the Ministry of Commerce, the specific time of opening restrictions was stipulated for the automobile manufacturing industry. It is determined that in 2020, the restriction on the ratio of foreign shares in commercial vehicle manufacturing and the restriction on no more than two joint ventures will be abolished. Stepping on this time node, Hyundai Motor can't wait to open the way for its development of fuel cells.

In terms of motivation, Hyundai Korea has repeatedly offered olive branches to seek cooperation in the field of commercial vehicles in China, and its unsatisfactory development is one of the important reasons why Hyundai Korea decided to develop independently. Taking the road of fuel cell vehicles is the future development direction of Hyundai in Korea and the core of Hyundai Group's sole proprietorship.

In fact, Hyundai has held close negotiations with JAC and GAC in the field of commercial vehicles in China, and has been looking for stable partners to achieve the goal of opening the commercial vehicle market in China. Hyundai Korea and JAC have always had technical cooperation before, and they have had relatively successful cooperation. The initial cooperation between the two parties was in 1998. At that time, Hefei Bus Factory, a wholly-owned subsidiary of JAC, signed a contract with Hyundai Motor to produce modern buses through technology introduction, and sold more than 1000 vehicles in more than three years, thus turning losses into profits. Jianghuai Automobile has produced a modern "Ruifeng" commercial vehicle through technology introduction. Once listed, it was well received and the sales data was also surprising. This has increased the confidence of cooperation between the two sides. In order to introduce technology to achieve development, Hyundai can also take this opportunity to open the commercial vehicle market in China as soon as possible. Hyundai and JAC signed a letter of intent for joint venture, and the two sides plan to invest 750 million US dollars to set up a joint venture commercial vehicle production enterprise. This cooperation seems to be certain. But after only two months, the answer given by Jianghuai became "there is no progress in the joint venture negotiations at present". When Hyundai sought the intention of commercial vehicle joint venture in China, JAC, which succeeded hand in hand immediately, was abandoned by Hyundai Korea, and finally Hyundai Korea signed a joint venture agreement with GAC.

The relationship between Hyundai Motor and Guangzhou Automobile Group dates back to September 2004. At that time, Hyundai took the initiative to negotiate with Wei Jun Bus under Guangzhou Automobile Group, hoping to cooperate fully in commercial vehicle projects. On June 2, 2005, KLOC-0, Hyundai Motor and GAC executives signed the Basic Agreement on Guangzhou Hyundai Commercial Vehicle Project Cooperation in Guangzhou. Guangzhou Automobile Group and Hyundai Motor will carry out all-round cooperation in the field of commercial vehicles. The initial planning of Guangzhou modern commercial vehicle base construction was very grand, but the project did not develop as expected, but gradually disappeared from public view. Hyundai Group did not give up or even want to continue to join hands with GAC through technical cooperation, but the cooperation between GAC and Fiat and Hino was also in full swing at that time, and GAC seemed to have no extra energy to take into account the cooperation projects with Hyundai. Modern South Korea's attempts in the field of commercial vehicles in China were very unsuccessful, and the goal of deepening the China market through joint venture was not realized, which also made modern South Korea learn a lesson, which is also an important reason for choosing sole proprietorship to take the initiative in its own hands.

What is hidden behind the high-profile development of fuel cell vehicles?

South Korean government develops fuel cell vehicles with high profile. Why did it choose hydrogen fuel cell vehicle as the development direction of Hyundai Motor in the future and even the whole of Korea? There are many factors behind this * * * that contribute to this result.

External objective reasons?

In a big way, South Korea's policy of developing hydrogen energy economy is the environmental and guiding sign of its development of fuel cells. A senior expert in the automobile industry once said: The strategic choice of automobile enterprises follows the national strategy. For example, in China, electric vehicles have become the main force to promote development. It is not difficult to see the development direction of promoting electric vehicles in China from the emerging new forces like mushrooms after rain. In South Korea, the government has determined the development direction of hydrogen energy. As a leading enterprise in Korean automobile industry, Hyundai Motor is duty-bound to develop fuel cell vehicles in line with the trend.

The Korean government has done a lot of homework and preparation for the development of hydrogen energy. In 20 18, the Korean government designated the hydrogen energy industry as one of the three strategic investment fields, and formulated the "Road Map for the Development of Hydrogen Energy Economy". It is planned that by 2040, the cumulative production of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will increase from the current 2,000 to 6.2 million, and the number of hydrogen fuel cell vehicle filling stations will increase from the existing 14 to 1200.

In order to achieve this goal of hydrogen energy economic development, the Korean government has broken the goal one by one in stages. First of all, by 2025, we will strive to build a production system with an annual output of 654.38+10,000 vehicles, and the price of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is expected to drop? 30 million won (about 65.438+89 million yuan), about half of the current price. There are 16 hydrogen refueling stations in Korea. In order to accelerate the development of hydrogen-powered vehicles, the Korean government plans to increase the number to 365,438+00 by 2022. Moreover, South Korea's National Assembly also allows Hyundai Motor Company to build a hydrogen refueling station for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the National Assembly Building and two hydrogen refueling stations in the south of Seoul. A series of measures are enough to show that the Korean government attaches importance to the development of hydrogen energy economy and hydrogen energy vehicles.

Internal subjective motivation

Although Hyundai Motor is one of the top ten automobile companies in the world, it has no obvious irreplaceable advantages in the traditional automobile field, and with the continuous development and maturity of the automobile industry, Hyundai Motor is facing pressure and competition from many aspects. 20 18 revenue and profit decreased by 47. 1%, and net profit decreased by 63.8%. Looking at the new energy field, the new energy vehicle field of Hyundai Motor involves EV, HEV, PHEV and FCV. From the perspective of hybrid vehicles, Toyota's patent barriers are beyond the reach of modern times. From the point of view of pure electric power, without the initiative of power battery, we can only find a breakthrough from power battery, which is also an inevitable choice for developing FCV under the current situation.

Hyundai Motor has made a lot of efforts in the field of new energy. According to public information, Hyundai Motor (including Kia) has launched two versions of pure electric vehicles, 40kWh and 64kWh, on the KONA platform. Kia Motors has built Niro series HEV, PHEV and EV models on the third generation platform technology. Soul? EV is also constantly improving the iteration. Although the new model has won some market share for Hyundai Motor, if it is still far from Tesla and has little impact, these "big brothers" who have a place in the new energy market will not waver in a short time. Since it has little effect, the new hope lies in the hydrogen fuel cell car, and with the original convenient conditions, it seems to be an established choice to devote itself to the development of hydrogen energy cells.

One more thing, Hyundai is eager and determined to take the initiative in batteries. The three battery companies in South Korea obviously have a certain market all over the world. Such convenience can provide a set of supporting services for Hyundai, but Hyundai still insists on independent research and development of hydrogen fuel cells. Why? In South Korea, due to the influence of social culture and corporate relations, the core businesses of several Korean consortia are very competitive, so there is little overlap. Hyundai Group is involved in automobile, construction, shipbuilding and other fields, but the battery companies involved in the core of electric vehicles are lacking. In order to relieve future troubles, the development of fuel cells is also due to the forward-looking reserve guarantee of Hyundai Group.

Modern efforts

Determined the direction of efforts, South Korea Hyundai began to act. In order to develop fuel cell vehicles, Mobis, a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor, set up a factory in 20 17 to realize mass production of hydrogen fuel cell vehicle parts. The construction cost of this project is about 70 billion won (about 4160,000 yuan), covering an area of nearly130,000 square meters. Power system fuel cell kit (power system? Fuel cell? The annual production capacity of complete (PFC) modules is 3000 units. In 20 18, Hyundai motor announced the prospect of fuel cell electric vehicles in 2030 (FCEV? Vision? In 2030), Hyundai Motor and its supplier system will invest 7.6 trillion won in fuel cell system research and development and related supporting facilities. It is estimated that by 2030, Hyundai Motor can reach the annual production capacity of 500,000 fuel cell new energy vehicles.

Many car companies want a piece of this big cake in China market, so Hyundai Motor turned its attention to Sichuan. 2065438+On April 23, 2008, the director of Hyundai Motor Commercial Overseas Production Support Office announced his visit to Sichuan Nengtou, and conducted in-depth study and discussion on the development of Sichuan Hyundai. On September 3rd, 20 18, Hyundai signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Sichuan Energy Investment Group to expand its commercial vehicle business in China. At the same time, it was announced that Nanjun Automobile, the original partner, officially withdrew, but the equity change was ultimately unsuccessful, and Sichuan Energy Investment Group failed to become one of the shareholders. However, this does not mean the end. On September 2, 20 19, the Sichuan provincial government announced that it had signed a hydrogen strategic agreement with Hyundai Motor of Korea, and a special group was set up by Sichuan province, Hyundai Motor and Sichuan Hyundai to promote infrastructure projects such as hydrogen fuel vehicle production and gas filling stations.

Why was Sichuan elected?

Sichuan's unique energy advantages and existing hydrogen energy industry chain have attracted the attention of Hyundai in Korea. In addition, a series of well-known enterprises in the field of hydrogen energy, such as Houpu, Cryogenic and Dongfang Electric, are also in Sichuan, which provides many conveniences and supply guarantees for the future development of hydrogen energy batteries in South Korea.

Sichuan Energy Investment Group, which has frequent cooperation with Hyundai, is one of the main driving forces of Sichuan's hydrogen energy industry, and acts frequently in the field of hydrogen energy. 2065438+On February 28th, 2008, the first skid-mounted hydrogen refueling station in Southwest China, designed and built by Sichuan Nengtou, was officially put into use. Sichuan Nengtou indicated that it would invest 50 million yuan to continue to build the first fixed hydrogen refueling station in Sichuan. 2018 65438+February 1 1, Sichuan energy investment co., ltd. estimated investment/kloc-0.00 billion yuan to jointly promote the hydrogen energy equipment manufacturing base and hydrogen energy industry investment construction and operation projects with Zigong city. This has also become an important factor for Hyundai to join hands with it. ?

It seems accidental, but it is inevitable.

It is inevitable for South Korea Hyundai to acquire 100% equity and become a shareholder in Sichuan Hyundai. As an important production base of modern commercial vehicles in China market, Sichuan Hyundai's production capacity is not only far worse than that of that year, but also its market share is not satisfactory in terms of overall sales volume. In the domestic commercial vehicle market, almost all independent brands are in the forefront of sales. Hyundai will consider changing the core of future development, positioning hydrogen energy and intelligent driving as the core direction of future development, in order to achieve its interest goals.

One of the disadvantages of joint ventures is that in many decisions, if it is difficult to reach an understanding of * * *, it will affect or even limit the development of enterprises. This is a problem existing in many joint ventures at present. It is bound to catch up with China's policy of canceling the restriction on the foreign share ratio of commercial vehicles, and take this opportunity to fully own Sichuan Hyundai Motor. Li Zeng, an analyst of Korean investment securities, said: Whether Hyundai Motor opened a hydrogen fuel exhibition hall in Shanghai, cooperated with Tsinghua University to open a research institute, or this time, Sichuan Hyundai grasped the limit of share ratio, all of which reflected the key development of the "new four modernizations" and became the internal knowledge of Hyundai Motor. For Sichuan Hyundai Motor, once Hyundai Motor obtains a share ratio of 65,438+000%, it is expected to be in a leading position in hydrogen fuel vehicle technology. ?

At present, domestic commercial vehicles are also showing a steady development trend. According to the data of China Automobile Association, in 20 19, the production and sales of commercial vehicles in China were 4.36 million and 4.324 million respectively, which increased by 1.9% and decreased by1. In the domestic commercial vehicle market, Korean commercial vehicles can compete with European commercial vehicles in many aspects and have the advantage of low price. South Korea has been paying attention to the development of commercial vehicle market in China for a long time. The foundation depends on how to use it in the hands of Hyundai Group to maximize its advantages. We also look forward to the revitalization of Sichuan Hyundai and even the breakthrough development. And from the current development of China's hydrogen energy industry, commercial vehicles, as the starting point of China's fuel cell vehicles, are undoubtedly a wise choice.

Now, the implementation of the National Sixth Standard gives new energy vehicles an advantage in the whole passenger car and commercial vehicle market. Hyundai can make full use of this trend and expand the market of hydrogen energy battery vehicles according to the situation.

As the most potential clean energy, Hyundai Motor Group is still upgrading its hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to more models.

For Sichuan Hyundai's sole proprietorship, we see more opportunities and development of South Korea Hyundai. South Korea's modern multi-directional product layout and advanced energy technology have better promoted South Korea to explore the China market now. From laying out the future to realizing the development goals step by step, it seems that the conditions of good weather, geographical location and human harmony are at work, but in fact, more is the road secretly paved by modern times for themselves. At the same time, this sole proprietorship has also inspired domestic joint venture brands. In such a fiercely competitive market, only by constantly expanding ourselves and having sufficient strength can we win our own share of the cake in the market.

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.