The article is from WeChat public account: BusinessCars (ID: BusinessCar01) , author: Ganfang Li

As major global car companies have successively disclosed their sales in 2019, financial report data linked to sales have also surfaced one by one. As of press time, except for the Volkswagen Group, which has not announced its 2019 financial results, Toyota, GM, Ford, Hyundai, Daimler and other mainstream global multinational auto companies have released financial data.

In terms of the increase and decrease in profits among these 10 auto companies, including Ford, Renault, Nissan, Daimler and other auto companies have seen double-digit declines, only Hyundai, Toyota and Volvo have achieved profit growth .

If counted by department, the entire US Department will be destroyed. The profits of Ford, FCA, and General Motors, the three giants of American auto companies, have declined, with ranges of 98.7%, 19%, and 17.4%, respectively. The Japanese are slightly better, with Toyota supporting the facade with a 41.4% increase, while Nissan and Honda fell by 87.6% and 22.1% respectively.

Hyundai Motor, a subsidiary of Hyundai Kia Motors Group, the most mainstream car-making force in Korea, has an operating income of 105.79 trillion won in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 9.3%; operating profit has increased 52% year-on-year to 3.68 trillion won. Net profit almost doubled, from 1.65 trillion won to 3.26 trillion won. This is mainly due to the lower profit of Hyundai in 2018, and of course, it cannot be separated from the efforts of 2019.

However, anyone who hasn’t worked hard will know at a glance.

Who will pay the bill

If you win or lose on the “loss” theory, it must be Ford.

In 2019, Ford’s full-year revenue was 155.9 billion US dollars, down 3% year-on-year. In terms of net profit, from US $ 7.7 billion in 2017 to US $ 47 million last year, it took Ford only two years to “slip out” all profits. In addition, Ford sold 5.386 million vehicles last year, down 10% year-on-year.

This makes one wonder, who should bear this responsibility? Is it Bill Ford or CEO Hankate?

Because of Ford’s dedication and love for autonomous driving, Ford can say that the cost is huge. Ford executives have stated that Ford will invest more than $ 4 billion in autonomous driving by 2023 (about 28.3 billion yuan) , including Significant capital investment in autonomous driving startup Argo AI.

Hanket said that “Ford must change”, and Ford will balance the electric vehicle and autonomous driving technology in the future. So even in the face of a sharp decline in net profit, Ford never thought about giving up autonomous driving technology.

Of course, Ford’s performance in 2019 is also related to the great victory of the American Workers’ Union (UAW) . In November last year, Ford, after reaching a new agreement with UAW, faced up to $ 600 million in costs. Coupled with the redesigned Explorer and problems with the launch of the Aviator, Ford faces more costs. It can be said that this way, Ford this year is still not optimistic.

If you think the profit-losing car companies are similar, then Daimler will never agree with this view.

From the data of these seven profit-losing car companies, it can be seen that Daimler is the only car company with positive revenue growth in 2019, reaching 172.7 billion euros, an increase of 3%. Daimler Group’s total sales last year were 3.34 million units, almost the same as 3.35 million units in 2018.

In this regard, Conlin Song, Chairman of the Board of Daimler and Global President of Mercedes-Benz Automotive Group, (Ola Kaellenius) stated, Although our 2019 results demonstrate continued strong customer demand for our attractive products, we are not fully satisfied with our final earnings performance. Overall, the main adjustment factors have affected our financial performance last year. ”

Since Daimler’s revenue has increased by 3% and sales have remained the same as in 2018, Daimler Group’s net profit in 2018 was 7.6 billion euros, which is a difference from the 2.7 billion euros in 2019. Nearly 5 billion euros, where did the money go?

This is related to what Conlinson called “the main adjustment factor.” Of course, the main adjustment does not include the huge fine of 870 million euros for the “emissions gate” last September. Facing different emission policies in different countries and regions, Daimler has made reforms-transition to electrification. Although profit margins may not meet expectations, Daimler Group is very firm in its investment in electrification.

According to the plan, the Group will invest up to 10 billion euros in the “EQ electrified brand” (about 77.06 billion yuan) . It is expected that more than 10 pure electric vehicles will be launched by 2022. By 2030, the total sales volume of electrified models of the Mercedes-Benz brand will reach 12.7 million, accounting for more than 50% of the total sales. There is no return without payment. Daimler understands this reason, so transformation is imperative.

While car companies are constantly struggling to transform themselves for survival, Renault Nissan is well known for its “internal contradictions.” These two car companies have made rare losses in the past ten years, and the pace of decline in net profit has been surprisingly consistent, 88.1% and 87.6%, respectively. To say that this has nothing to do with Ghosn, it is really difficult to convince. After Ghosn repaid 7.3 million euros in wages and bonuses, will Nissan’s net profit decline slightly better?

Compared to the decline in net profit brought by Ford and Daimler’s huge investment in transformation, Toyota does not seem to have such troubles. It is like a plum blossom opened by Ling Han alone. The sharply rising profits make Han Dong refreshing .

According to the data released by Toyota Motor for the first three fiscal quarters of fiscal 2020, its operating income was 22.83 trillion yen. (about RMB 14,500) Billion) , a year-on-year increase of 1.6%, and a net profit of 2.01 trillion yen (Approximately 1.87 trillion yuan) , net profit will reach 2.35 trillion yen

For a long time, Toyota has the reputation of “the highest profit in the industry”, especially the sales growth in the past two years, which has unexpectedly and steadily increased. Of course, the advanced production concept of the TNGA architecture has helped a lot. In the future, as more models are launched on TNGA, Toyota’s profit will not be a dream.

Although Hyundai ’s net profit is growing close to 100%, the main reason is the low base in 2018, especially compared with the fourth quarter, the gap is huge. Hyundai Motor’s net profit in the fourth quarter of 2019 reached 851.2 billion won, compared to a loss of 203.3 billion won in the same period in 2018. Hyundai Motor said that this was due to cost innovation measures and a favorable exchange rate environment.

Global “change”

In the face of a sharp decline in net profit, Fords will not hold back. Even Toyota, which has a rising net profit, will not be satisfied with the status quo and look forward to a better future. In the era when the global auto market is touching the ceiling, car companies use their actions to adapt to new trends and trends.

If mergers and reorganizations, or layoffs or change of coaches, or abandon competitive identity and win-win cooperation, use various means to reduce costs, share risks, and continue to move forward.

When the entire industry is uncertain about the start time due to the epidemic, on February 10, KyrgyzstanThe news of the integration and reorganization of Lily and Volvo’s business came from all over the world, and Volvo will realize its global capital through Hong Kong Geely’s listed entity (HK.0175) The docking of the market can be said to be an “open source” move of Geely and Volvo.

“The epidemic-free battle continues, and the profound impact on all walks of life will gradually emerge. We must be fully prepared to actively embrace change and seize strategic opportunities in the face of challenges.” Geely Holding Group was about Geely restructured Volvo’s internal communication letter to employees.

Similar to Geely and Volvo’s approach, there was the “marriage” between PSA and FCA last year, but the merger of the two was more like “throttling.” On October 31, 2019, the two parties are committed to achieving a full integration of business by a 50:50 merger. FCA and PSA believe that in today’s fast-changing environment, intelligent networking, electrification, sharing, and autonomous driving all pose new challenges to travel. The combined new entity will make use of the strong global R & D layout and ecosystem of both parties. To promote innovation and address these challenges with speed and capital efficiency.

Perhaps the forecast of “there are only 5 to 10 car companies left in China / the world in the future” will be realized one by one, and in order to survive, there may be more similar to FCA-PSA and Geely-Volvo in the future. The combination appears. Of course, mergers and reorganizations are just a normal result of the mainstreaming of the automotive industry.

Merger and reorganization is not the only way for auto companies to “open source and reduce expenditures”, and layoffs have also become one of the important means.

Since the global auto market entered negative growth in 2018, car company layoffs have been common. Facing the confusing 2020, car companies have taken unified actions since 2019, that is, layoffs and lower costs to ensure profits. It can be said that 2019 has ushered in the car brand reshuffle period and a wave of layoffs.

According to statistics, in 2019, the world’s leading car companies have announced at least 100,000 layoffs, including Daimler, Ford, Nissan, Honda, FCA, Volkswagen, and General Motors. After the German Volkswagen first announced in March 2019 that it would reduce its management staff by 10%, the BMW Group announced that it will cut 5,000 to 6,000 employees by 2022. In December, Daimler and Audi followed suit and both said they would Significant layoffs and nearly 10,000 employees.

Nissan plans to lay off 125,000 employees worldwide by 2022 and reduce its production capacity by 10%. Nissan’s CEO Makoto Uchida said, “In the future, fixed expenses and other expenses will be completely reduced. Based on the situation from October to December, we will take further measures.”

Ford, which has the largest loss, not only has a layoff plan, it is also a direct change. On February 8th, Ford announced that Jim Farley (Jim Farley) will serve as the company’s chief operating officer, and current automotive business president Han Ruiqi (Joe Hinrichs) was officially retired after serving Ford for 19 years.

In order to cope with the continuous slowdown of the global automotive market and the threat to the revenue and profits of automakers, increasing cooperation between car companies has also become a trend.

Benz and BMW announced the establishment of a joint venture travel group, jointly investing 1 billion euros (about 7.58 billion yuan) , the establishment of five joint ventures, Each holds a 50% stake in the joint venture; Geely and Daimler jointly build an online car “Yao Travel” to target Didi Travel’s luxury car business; Volkswagen and Ford cooperate in the deployment of autonomous driving and electric vehicle fields.

The transformation of the global automotive industry is imminent, and 2020, which was not favored, will become more uncertain with the outbreak of China. However, even if the environment is worse, there will still be optimists who seize opportunities in crises, while pessimists will only see crises. … p

The article is from WeChat public account: BusinessCars (ID: BusinessCar01) , author: Ganfang Li