news

Our reporter Chen Yannan reports from Beijing

"Our automobile industry has developed to this day, and it is indeed a bit chaotic, and now it is a bit floating." Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall Motors, is a determined technical leader. After 34 years of hard work, he has a deep love and responsibility for the automobile industry. Recently, Wei Jianjun once again stepped forward to speak from the heart of a veteran in the automobile industry, recalling his own experience in car manufacturing and reflecting on the industry's "involution".

"I am lucky to have caught up with the great era of reform and opening up. Great Wall Motors and I are both beneficiaries of reform and opening up. We should cherish this era, have great ideals and a big picture, and also have greater responsibility to jointly develop and maintain this industry." Wei Jianjun said with emotion.

At present, the waves of involution have broken through the bottom line of costs, and many automakers have fallen into a "prisoner's dilemma" with falling volumes and prices. "We must strengthen industry self-discipline and prevent 'involutionary' vicious competition." This requirement put forward at the meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held on July 30 sounded the alarm for related industries and triggered widespread attention and reflection.

Along with this alarm bell, the behavior of car companies releasing weekly rankings has brought the controversy over this exacerbation of industry involution to a peak. Wei Jianjun believes that if car companies want to achieve sustainable development, they cannot just focus on sales, but should also evaluate in multiple dimensions such as quality, complaints, profits, and taxes.

Recommend public audits for the automotive industry

At present, the Chinese auto market has ended the era of rapid growth and entered the era of inventory. At the same time, the auto industry is also facing a transition period between fuel vehicles and new energy vehicles. The industry generally feels anxious, followed by price wars, unfair competition and other phenomena.

Wei Jianjun also expressed his views on the current chaos in the industry, such as the pursuit of quick success and instant benefits and the infringement of consumer rights. He said that the development of our automobile industry is indeed a bit chaotic today, and we must not do things that are malicious, fraudulent, and deceptive to users, or even take shortcuts by falsifying and using unfair means to compete and deceive consumers.

Wei Jianjun said: "Our 40 years of reform and opening up have not come easily, and our companies have the responsibility to maintain and protect it. We should speak out, crack down on these unfair competitions, and maintain our economic order."

In Wei Jianjun's view, the current chaos in the domestic auto industry is more related to the country's image. "If the government needs it, we will audit the entire auto industry, starting with Great Wall (Auto). We are open and transparent, and Great Wall will cover the audit fee. This is China's business, not the industry's business."

Wei Jianjun said: "I cherish this era very much. As a leader of an enterprise, everyone should regulate their own behavior. I must be a defender of order and justice. I must not do anything that harms the interests of the country or consumers, otherwise it will deviate from our original intention."

Benefit from healthy competition and cooperation

In fact, Wei Jianjun is not averse to competition within the industry, but he is more willing to see and actively promote healthy competition and orderly and compliant development of the entire industry. Because in a large industry that is changing with each passing day, no car company can fight alone in technology. There is competition, but there must be cooperation.

On the Internet, the video of Wei Jianjun and Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi Technology Co., Ltd., giving cars to each other has been widely circulated. In the video, Wei Jianjun also did not hesitate to praise Xiaomi Automobile and Lei Jun.

"I am also learning from Lei Jun. There is nothing shameful in learning as long as it is healthy competition." Wei Jianjun said that it only took Lei Jun three years to build a car, which can be rated 95 points.

It is understood that since Xiaomi Automobile was listed in 2024, it has set off a wave of enthusiasm, and many car company executives have followed Lei Jun's example and opened social media accounts and started live broadcasts.

"Everyone thinks that we are now bosses or founders, but I don't think that's the right thing to do. This is something we must learn in this era. We must be proficient in using these platforms so that we can have better interactions with users." Wei Jianjun said, "Due to changes in media and communication paths, founders and corporate management have been pushed to the Internet, so we must come out and do this, especially founders or company leaders. I think this is a required course."

He also mentioned that Great Wall Motors has benefited a lot from its cooperation with BMW. "We have learned a lot from them (BMW), including R&D, management, processes, product verification, and especially quality management. The robustness of their (BMW) products is really good."

Wei Jianjun also said that the proportion of domestically produced chips in automobiles is still very small, mainly from Europe and the United States. In addition, high-precision machine tools, testing equipment, and measurement equipment for automobiles are still mainly from developed countries.

In Wei Jianjun's view, Chinese automakers, which are moving towards the international market at an accelerated pace, must be both independent and self-reliant while complementing the resources of foreign companies. While learning from others' strengths, they must rely on the continuous accumulation of technological strength and build their businesses steadily to better help Chinese cars develop in a broader global market.

"Gain quality market share"

"There is a voice that believes that Great Wall's electric vehicle sales are low and development is slow, but this is actually a misunderstanding," said Wei Jianjun. "We don't take subsidies so seriously. Sometimes over-reliance on subsidies can lead to deviations in business decisions."

In Wei Jianjun's view, the company's sustainable development is more important. "We didn't rush to make electric cars, but we invested in batteries, motors, and electronic controls, and we have mastered some core technologies. We must adhere to long-termism rather than short-term thinking."

Wei Jianjun said that the threshold for pure electric vehicles is not high and the competition is very fierce. "Last year, we did a simple statistics and found that our industry lost 160 billion yuan. I think if a company does not have the ability to generate revenue and make a profit, it will not go far."

"Our principle is to gain quality market share and we try not to do anything that will cause losses," said Wei Jianjun.

It is understood that in response to the unprofitable industry problem of pure electric vehicles, Great Wall Motors will first avoid price wars, and secondly, will moderately reduce sales of models with particularly serious losses. For example, Great Wall Motors discontinued the production of the best-selling Ora Black/White Cat in 2022 due to serious losses on each vehicle.

"The Black/White Cat sold more than 20,000 units per month, but each car lost 13,000 yuan. We chose to stop production, which is a decision that other companies would find difficult to make," said Wei Jianjun. Although this decision brought a lot of criticism to Great Wall at the time, it also enabled Great Wall Motors to maintain high-quality revenue.

"I think the most important thing in running a business is to be realistic, so we chose to withdraw from the competition. We have temporarily chosen to develop in places where we have more advantages," said Wei Jianjun.

Although the automotive industry is currently experiencing a period of pain, Wei Jianjun believes that this is also the best era. "I think it is right for our country to position new energy vehicles as a national strategy. We should provide global users with cost-effective products with different power, different configurations and different prices, create value for users and meet their needs. This is how we should position ourselves."

(Editor: Zhang Shuo, Reviewer: Tong Haihua, Proofreader: Yan Jingning)