SAIC Chief Engineer Departs from Traditional and New Construction Forces to Launch a Talent War

With the continuous rise of new construction vehicles, it also gathered a large number of talents from traditional car companies.

Recently, Cheng Jinglei, the chief engineer of SAIC, left SAIC Motor. This is the third senior executive to leave after Zhang Hailiang, vice president of SAIC, and CFO Gu Feng left. In this regard, SAIC internal staff conservatively responded to reporters: "I don't know." But there is news that Cheng Jinglei is likely to go to new forces to build cars next.

In response, an auto analyst who declined to be named told the China Business News reporter: “Perhaps these executives have encountered a 'ceiling' in the work of traditional car companies.” For them, adding new car power means more More returns, such as option incentives.

The cross-border industry of automotive technology and science and technology continues to innovate, and new carmakers have also entered the eve of mass production. In this period of change, it seems that the entry of the core talents of traditional auto companies into emerging auto companies is becoming a new normal.

Rely on new forces

As early as August 2014, Chen Hong was promoted to the chairman of SAIC, and Cheng Jinglei was deputy chief engineer of SAIC Motor Co., Ltd. to become the chief engineer of SAIC. The position is equivalent to the vice president of the group. Cheng Jinglei is mainly responsible for SAIC's independent brand technology management. The departure of Cheng Jinglei may have certain influence on the self-owned brand business of SAIC Motor.

Before Cheng Jinglei, two executives of SAIC Motor Group had gone to build a new car. In March 2016, Zhang Hailiang, the former vice president of SAIC, went to LeTV, and in October this year, he became the chairman and CEO of the Beijing-based electric car company. In January, the former CFO Gufeng of SAIC Motor Group made a move to the new force of the company, Ai Chi Yiwei, as co-founder and CEO.

In fact, the phenomenon of the traditional auto makers shifting to a new force in the manufacturing industry began as early as 2015. Cross-border car makers represented by music attracted former general manager of Infiniti China, Lu Zhengyu, and former vice president of SAIC. Ding Lei, GAC Toyota's former deputy general manager, Guangqi GIO original general manager Gao Jingshen and several other traditional car giants joined. Although LeTV's current situation is hard to be optimistic, Zhang Hailiang, who currently holds a position in Leica while retaining LeJi's position, believes: “The concept of LeTV is not too big, but it has encountered difficulties in funding.”

In addition to the highly controversial LeTV, the emerging carmakers such as Weilai Automobile, Hefei Futian, Aiqi Yiwei, and Dianjiao have also attracted many talents from traditional car companies. After leaving LeEr, Ding Lei currently serves as chairman of the East Coast Fund and also serves as a director of China Express Holdings Limited. Zheng Xiancong, former general manager of GAC Fiat Auto Co., Ltd., went to Wei Lai’s executive vice president and former deputy general manager of Lexus China, Zhu Jiang, to Wei Lai’s vice president in February. At present, Weilai Automobile already owns more than 20 executives of car companies including BMW, Volkswagen, Ford, and General Motors. It is worth noting that the traditional auto makers who have basically changed jobs are generally responsible for a single area in the original car enterprises, and are basically the number one or second hands or co-founders after entering the new forces.

An auto analyst who declined to be named said: "The departure of traditional executives, first of all, the space for the increase in positions may have reached the ceiling; followed by the upper limit of pay; the third is the current vigorous new carmakers to provide them with some opportunities , Including positions, salaries and future development plans, etc..” Insiders said that from another point of view, the traditional car companies executives switch to Internet car manufacturers, a great threat to the traditional car companies, the brain drain will cause the traditional car The enterprise is in a more unfavorable position.

In Zhang Hailiang's view, "Internet companies focus on iterative thinking, and products can be iteratively updated after they come out. However, traditional companies tend to make repeated trials and push down a product for many years, but often miss the opportunity."

Eruption Eve

The new car-building forces that have assembled a large number of traditional constructors have begun to enter a new stage. On December 4th, the 11th batch of "New Energy Vehicle Recommended Model List for Promotion and Application" was released in 2017, including many high-profile new construction vehicles. The promotion catalogue includes Weilai Automobile and Xiaopeng Automobile. Entering the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Catalog means that the speed of full-scale mass production and market introduction of these new-build vehicle models will be greatly accelerated. In addition, on December 5, the new carmaker Weima Motors announced the completion of a new round of financing led by Baidu Capital, Baidu Group and others. It is noteworthy that the founder is also the former vice president of Geely Holding. .

“The first is policy support. The government will continue to develop a new energy industry for the next 10 or even 20 years. This is a good opportunity. There will be high growth in the future; followed by the favor of capital, the car itself is The money-burning industry.Currently, various capitals have entered the market, and new construction vehicles have been able to absorb a lot of funds. The third is that the threshold for the electric industry is relatively low, and the process is simple compared with traditional car companies." The reason is that the cause of the rapid development of new car forces.

However, in the process of the continuous development of new car manufacturers, the fight with the traditional industry did not stop. “Traditional car manufacturers cannot make smart cars.” Lu Zhengyu, who has been separated from the traditional car industry, once spoke bluntly. However, Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Automobile, once stated clearly: “In the future, the automotive industry will be led by the automotive companies, not the IT companies.”

The above-mentioned automobile analysts admitted frankly: “The future is not a flourishing situation. Although there are a lot of new emerging vehicle manufacturers, but considering that the automotive industry is an industry that continues to burn money for a number of years, it should only have 2 to last. 3, LeTV is a typical example, and Tesla is not profitable.” How to complete the cost of amortization and profit release will be the greater challenge of post-production new car forces.