Changjiang Automobile has not ended its money-burning model despite unsatisfactory profits

Chen Guozhang's "transfer" from a senior executive of the PSA Group to a private new energy vehicle company that has just obtained production qualifications seems very sudden. "Chen Guozhang joined the company this month and has already started working!" said a person in charge of Hangzhou Changjiang Automobile Co., Ltd. at 10:30 am on December 26.

Recently, there was news that PSA Group executive Chen Guozhang has officially left and has become a director of Hangzhou Changjiang Automobile Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Changjiang Automobile), in charge of management and international business. This has made this controversial DS executive return to the industry's attention after a period of silence. In response to this, the reporter immediately called Changjiang Automobile and Chen Guozhang himself. The relevant person in charge of Changjiang Automobile told the reporter that the news is true, Chen Guozhang has now assumed his new position, and "the relevant specific information will be announced in two days." As of press time, Chen Guozhang himself has not responded to this.

The reporter believes that the reason why Changjiang Automobile chose Chen Guozhang may be because of his work experience in multiple multinational automobile companies. Public information shows that Chen Guozhang entered the automobile industry after graduating from university in 1991, joined PSA in May 2014, and officially became the general manager of DS China and Southeast Asia and the general manager of the DS brand department of Changan PSA Sales Branch in September. During his tenure, DS's sales in 2015 were only 27,000 vehicles, and it did not achieve the target of 50,000 vehicles, which made Chen's promised "54321" plan dim. In November 2015, PSA transferred Chen Guozhang to the group management, focusing on the business restructuring of PSA's three major brands in the Australian market and PSA's in-depth research and response plans in the new energy field in the Chinese market. The industry believes that he has been "transferred from the front-line position."

The predecessor of Changjiang Automobile was Hangzhou Public Bus Factory. In 2013, it was restructured by Hong Kong Wulon Electric Vehicle (Group) Co., Ltd. and changed its company name to its current name. Changjiang Automobile became the core vehicle manufacturing factory of Wulon Electric Vehicle. In May this year, it obtained the pure electric new energy passenger vehicle production qualification approved by the National Development and Reform Commission, and launched four products: Changjiang pure electric minibus "Yi Ge", Changjiang pure electric commercial vehicle "Yi Sheng", Changjiang pure electric bus "Yi Zhong" and Changjiang pure electric SUV "Yi Ku".

According to Hu Dongbin, general manager of Hangzhou Changjiang Automobile Sales Company, as of December 23, more than 1,000 commercial vehicles have been sold this year, "We are absolutely the first in the field of pure electric commercial vehicles in the country." According to the announcement of Wulong Electric Vehicle, the group's electric vehicle production plant in Hangzhou has started large-scale production since April 2016. As of September 30, 2016, the group has received sales orders for no less than 2,200 electric vehicles, with a total contract value of approximately HK$1.7 billion; more than 600 electric vehicles have been delivered to customers, with a total sales amount of approximately HK$366 million.

Changjiang Electric Vehicle is still in the layout stage of "burning money". Some media disclosed that the profitability of Wulong Electric Vehicle in the past few years was not ideal: from 2010 to the end of 2015, the company had accumulated losses of HK$5.116 billion. Miao Zhenguo, vice chairman of the board of directors of Wulong Electric Vehicle Group, also admitted in an interview with domestic media that "since 2010, we have been laying out the entire industrial chain of electric vehicles." He revealed that since 2010, 2 billion yuan has been invested in the research and development of core technologies for pure electric vehicles. It is also worth noting that Wulong Electric Vehicle, which has the background of Li Ka-shing, has also reduced its holdings of some shares this year. According to the information of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Li Ka-shing reduced his holdings of Wulong Electric Vehicle by 111 million shares on September 23 and 28 this year, with a price of 0.445 yuan and 0.408 yuan per share, with a total value of 47.2 million yuan, and the latest shareholding has dropped to 4.93%.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.