The long-distance running between Foton Motors and Daimler-Benz has finally come to an end. After obtaining approval from the relevant authorities of the country, both parties will sign a formal joint venture agreement.
August 18, deputy secretary of the Foton Motor Party Committee Zhao Jingguang told this reporter that the joint venture between Foton and Mercedes-Benz was different from the previous joint venture model. The newly formed joint venture company only produces Auman a brand.
On the surface, this is an ordinary joint-venture cooperation between Chinese commercial vehicle companies and multinational giants, but the difference is that the 50% to 50% reciprocal joint venture between Foton and Mercedes-Benz, which subverts the history of joint ventures of commercial vehicles in China, has changed. The model of joint ventures was introduced by foreign partners.
Dongfeng Commercial Vehicles, which are in joint venture with Volvo, also paid close attention to the joint venture approach of Futian. Dongfeng Motor related persons said in an interview with this newspaper: “We have saved our own brands and we have been able to obtain Mercedes-Benz’s technology, at least in the national race. Brand's complex, Futian won."
At present, one of the reasons why commercial vehicle giants including Volvo and Germany are not able to successfully promote a localized joint venture process in China is that they have serious differences in the development of domestic brands' own brands.
Commercial vehicle joint venture expects successful sample
The Futian Auman heavy-duty automobile plant in Huairou, Beijing, is in a state of intense asset assessment. The final assessment will determine how much "Euro" Daimler-Benz will take to form a joint venture with Foton.
“This project also has to wait for the approval of the relevant national authorities, but he believes this approval should be very fast,†said a senior official at Foton Motor, who declined to be named. “Because this time the joint venture is different from the past, the joint venture will use The technical resources of foreign parties produce products of independent brands, and foreign parties do not import brands."
The announcement of Foton Motor (600166) showed that Foton Motor and Daimler AG had signed a Letter of Intent for Cooperation and the two parties will hold a joint venture company, each holding 50% of the shares.
Fukuda's joint venture with Mercedes-Benz has completely changed the previous joint venture route of China's commercial vehicles, because it was completely equivalent to the 50% joint venture model of Chinese and foreign companies in the field of passenger cars, and has proved to be inapplicable in the commercial vehicle sector.
The first joint venture project of the heavy truck industry in China was Shandong Huawo, a joint venture between China National Heavy Duty Truck and Volvo, each holding 50% of the shares. However, this project almost completely duplicated the joint venture model in the field of passenger cars, and exported its technologies and brands to localize its high-end products.
Analysts believe that in the current commercial vehicle market environment, the high-end products of multinational giants do not have the space to survive in the Chinese market. However, when foreign companies negotiate with the Chinese side, they often want to block the brand of Chinese companies, only hope that Produce foreign brands in joint ventures.
However, it turns out that Volvo’s sales of high-end heavy trucks in China are very limited, and Shandong Volvo’s annual sales volume is only about 100 vehicles in the later period, which eventually led to the stagnation of the project.
Therefore, the suspension of the Volvo Shandong project, the joint venture negotiations between MAN Germany and Shaanxi Automobile Co., Ltd., and the suspension of the Dongfeng Volvo project, all without exception, reflect the difficulty of co-existence between the independent brand and the foreign brand.
The joint venture negotiations between Dongfeng and Volvo's commercial vehicles and the joint ventures between Germany's Mannheim and Shaanxi Auto all involve the disposal of independent brands. Foreign parties hope to weaken or not retain their own brands in the joint venture company, but they have all suffered from the Chinese side. The rejection of the business.
"I feel that the joint venture model is still very good, at least to give the Chinese auto industry a play in the joint venture issue." Dongfeng Motor stakeholders said, "Fukuda is still very smart on the issue of joint ventures. â€
However, Yuan Yue, chairman of Zero Consultation Group, who had participated in joint venture negotiations between the two parties, did not agree with the view that “Foreign does not import brandsâ€. He believes that the company’s name and the engine all reflect the “Benz†brand, but only Vehicle products use the Auman brand only.
In any case, for the Auman brand in terms of a qualitative change, once the joint venture between Foton and Mercedes-Benz is approved by the state, the Auman brand will be formally incorporated into Mercedes-Benz's global operating system, and the value of the Auman brand will also be improved. It is obvious.
The joint venture model between Foton and Mercedes-Benz is creating a new generation of joint ventures. Compared to previously unsuccessful joint ventures of commercial vehicles, the joint venture model that does not use foreign brands and uses foreign technology to create its own brand may become a joint venture of commercial vehicles. Way.
Mercedes leaning over
More than two years ago, after the Volvo Shandong truck project was stopped production, Volvo attributed the reason to repeated changes in government policies, which caused the company to be caught off guard and eventually led to the obstruction of the project.
In fact, the stagnation of the Volvo Shandong project, in addition to many accidental factors, played a decisive role in the irreversible market laws, and Mercedes-Benz's approach seems to have learned lessons.
An international commercial vehicle company executive told this reporter that the entire vehicle joint venture project in the field of commercial vehicles has been difficult to succeed so far, mainly because the joint venture partners are all vehicle manufacturers and are reluctant to abandon their own brands. At present, China Under the commercial vehicle market environment, foreign high-end products are difficult to become the market leader, which has caused a special phenomenon in China's commercial vehicle market.
Different from the passenger vehicle industry, the domestic commercial vehicle market has been monopolized by independent brands, and the self-owned brand products in the truck industry account for more than 90% of the market share. In the production of commercial vehicle engines, domestically produced engines also occupy the same market share. With a monopoly share of more than 80%, although transnational giants have long planned to divide power in the commercial vehicle sector, they have never been able to change the domestic market environment.
So this time, Mercedes-Benz has changed itself on the premise that it is difficult to change the market environment. In the joint venture cooperation with Foton, the technology output is still the mainstay, and the introduction of the Mercedes-Benz brand has become a "recruitment plan."
Although the joint venture negotiations between Futian and Daimler-Benz started in 2003, the five-year-long “marathon†joint venture negotiation has become very low-key at the last moment, in the August 8th Letter of Intent for Cooperation. At the signing ceremony, both parties did not even invite the government leaders and the media to attend, but announced the intention of cooperation in the form of an announcement after the meeting.
Obviously, Mercedes is not willing to mention too much about the technical details of this joint venture.
Analysts believe that as the world's first commercial vehicle, the cooperation with Fukuda can be seen as Mercedes-Benz's "lean over", which is difficult to see in the cooperation experience between previous vehicle manufacturers This also shows that any strong company has to lay down its "body segment" in the face of market laws.
Tang Jun, an auto analyst at GF Securities, said that high-end trucks do not have much market share under current conditions. This is mainly because the users of commercial vehicles in China are mainly transport companies, and the cost of car purchase is the most important factor to consider. Therefore, high-end trucks with more than RMB 700,000 have a very limited market share in China, and the domestic market is still at the low end. Truck-based.
"For domestic commercial vehicle companies, this kind of joint venture is a quicker way without technical accumulation," Tang Jun said.
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