BAIC opens a new chapter with the first snowfall of 2020. On January 6, 2020, the group announced its operating performance in 2019 as well as the strategic plan for 2020 and the “Big BEIJING” brand strategy as Season 4 of its large-scale brand experience campaign themed “Travelling around the World” was in full swing in Changbai Mountain. In 2019, BAIC produced and sold 2.26 million vehicles, ranking the 4th in the industry; it achieved an operating revenue of RMB501.23 billion, up 4.26% year-on-year, and thus became the first State-owned enterprise in Beijing with an annual operating revenue topping RMB500 billion. Although the auto industry is undergoing a period of adjustment with generally declining profits, BAIC maintained a positive growth in operating revenue, with the operating indicators expected to outperform the industrial average, and kept the momentum of quality development.

In 2020, BAIC will still pursue quality development, build the industrial structure characterized by the development of high-end, new and distinctive products, bolster the growth driven by new energy vehicles and intelligent and connected vehicles, and march towards the goal of “selling 2.26 million vehicles and realizing RMB520 billion of operating revenue”. Meanwhile, it will continue the efforts to make the “Big BEIJING” brand a world-class green and smart travelling brand.

High-end, New and Distinctive Products

the Source Power of Quality Development

In 2019, BAIC ushered into a new era characterized by the development of high-end, new and distinctive products. The data indicates that all the business segments of the group worked to develop high-end, new and distinctive products. With a clear direction for quality development, effective execution of operation measures and actual implementation of development strategies, BAIC once again demonstrated its character of honoring what it is committed to.

High-end manufacturing and products: In 2019, Beijing Benz recorded a sales volume of more than 550,000 vehicles, keeping a two-digit growth year-on-year, refreshing Daimler’s global production record and maintaining the leading position by the sales volume of home-made luxury vehicles. Fujian Benz sold over 25,000 vehicles annually, achieving growth despite the adverse market situation. BAIC unveiled its high-end intelligent and pure electric vehicle brand ARCFOX at Geneva International Auto Show, and the first trial-produced vehicle has come off the production line.

New energy and technologies: According to the latest statistics, BAIC BJEV registered a sales volume of 114,000 vehicles from January to November 2019, with the share of medium and high-end products rising to 90%; it completed upgrading of the product structure, with the core model BEIJING-EU5 topping the segment at home by sales volume. The hydrogen fuel cell passenger vehicles, co-developed by BAIC Foton, was debuted at the CIIE. With zero carbon emission and the environmental-friendly design, it will serve the green Winter Olympic Games. BAIC also vigorously advanced the move of the municipal government to replace fuel powered taxes with electric taxes, completing construction of 90 charging stations and selling 6,000 electric taxes.

Distinctive products: In 2019, BAIC Off-road Vehicles and BAIC Foton successfully completed the mission at the 70th anniversary of the founding of P.R.C.; BAIC Off-road Vehicles realized a sales volume of 36,000 vehicles, further cementing its image as a time-honored off-road vehicle brand; BAIC Foton registered a sales volume of 594,500 vehicles, with both passenger vehicles and cargo vehicles outperforming the market average.

Besides the whole vehicle business, BAIC also enjoyed notable advantages in the industrial chain ecology, and developed steadily with a strong power. Its auto part platform BHAP ranked the 61st among the world’s top 100 auto part suppliers and the 3rd among China’s top 100 auto part suppliers, with an annual operating revenue of over RMB65 billion. Its auto service trading platform ROCAR steadily advanced key businesses like dealership and logistics and worked to build a more complete ecological circle for the after-market industry, with the annual operating revenue reaching RMB38.1 billion. Its travelling service platform BAIC Mobility has presence in fifty cities, with more than 40,000 vehicles, 4.9 million registered members and a vehicle rent rate of 80%. Other segments, including BAIC Finance, BAIC Capital, BGAC and BAIC Data, were all aggressive, jointly fostering the advantages across the industrial chain and promoting the transformation of the group.

Dual Powers for Industrial Upgrading

Improving core competence with technological innovation is a secret behind BAIC’s outstanding performance. In 2019, BAIC further moved forward the implementation of the strategy of driving development with new energy vehicles and intelligent and connected vehicles, outputting a series of technological innovation results that represent the development trends of vehicles, and becoming a mainstay advancing the industrial upgrading of China’s auto industry.

In terms of the technologies related to new energy vehicles, BAIC invested RMB2.05 billion in building the domestically leading and globally first-class BAIC New Energy Vehicle Experiment Center, which sets a new benchmark for the industry that leads technological progress and quality upgrade; it launched National NEV Tec Innovation Center-BAIC Foton New Energy and Intelligent Logistical Vehicle Lab, the first of its kind at home, with the aim to advance the R&D and transfer of the new energy technologies for commercial vehicles; it successively put in market core intelligent and pure electric vehicle models, such as BEIJING-EX3, BEIJING-EU7 and Beijing Benz EQC, showing the initial results of the strategy of upgrading products and brands; the hydrogen fuel cell passenger vehicles, co-developed by BAIC Foton, was granted the first prize of “China Automotive Industry Awards for Science and Technology”. In terms of intelligence and connectivity technologies, guided by the “Dolphin Plus” strategy, BAIC Foton accelerated ecological prosperity in multiple aspects including intelligent technologies, products, ecology and transport; its advanced technologies like remote valet parking and 5G-V2X were demonstrated in important events like the 100th anniversary ceremony of the Shougang Park and the World Expo; in collaboration with Huawei, it set up the 1873 Davidson Innovation Lab to develop the next generation intelligent and connected electric vehicle technologies; BEIJING-EU5 and BEIJING-EU7, which are equipped with technology like Internet of Vehicles, big data and senseless connectivity, got good word of mouth in the market; Toano autonomous driving technology shone brilliantly at international events like WICV 2019 and 1st World 5G Convention, not only winning praise from leaders and audiences at the site, but also laying a foundation for the popularization and large-scale development of intelligent and connected vehicles.

Centering on new energy as well as intelligence and collectivity technologies, BAIC also carried out extensive corporation with an open approach to promote the cross-sectional integration of technologies. Based on BAIC’s investment in Daimler, both sides pursued deeper integration at technological, business and capital levels; BAIC beefed up cooperation with Hyundai on technological innovation, focusing on the demand of Chinese consumers and launching new products like the first pure electric SUV ENCINO, Elantra HPEV and the fourth generation Santafe; it set up Weilan investment platform, technology and manufacturing joint venture together with Magna to improve the competitiveness in the high-end new energy vehicle field; the globally leading new energy electric core project it launched with SK will be seen in its high-end brand ARCFOX; it reached strategic cooperation with enterprise giants and research institutes in fields like auto parts, digital technologies and vehicle regulation level chips. The constantly enlarged circle of friends will help the group advance technological innovation, industrial complementation and sharing of fruits under the philosophy of “big opening and deep integration” and accelerate the evolution of the auto industry.

“Big Beijing”, the New Blueprint for Brand Upgrading

2019 was also a year in which BAIC refreshed its brands, with the off-road vehicle brand “BEIJING” and the brand-new self-developed passenger vehicle brand “BEIJING” successively unveiled. On such a basis, BAIC released the “Big BEIJING” brand strategy on January 6. Upholding the “Big BEIJING” brand strategy is an active move that BAIC takes to inherit the history and continue with innovation, as well as a core measure it adopts to accelerate future development. Relying on the said two brands, the “Big BEIJING” brand will become a new name card for BAIC to go global. In particular, as BAIC enters the new stage characterized by quality development driven by high-end, new and distinctive products, the “Big BEIJING” brand will continue to play its role as a key carrier of the strategy of developing high-end, new and distinctive products, and become a core force that helps the century-old group forge its golden brand and switch to the fast lane of independent development.

Based on building “BEIJING” into an off-road vehicle brand that’s “No.1 at home and leading in the world” and building “BEIJING” into a domestically leading and globally first-class pure electric vehicle brand, the “Big BEIJING” brand is aimed to become a “world-class green and smart travelling brand”, with 500,000 vehicles sold in 2025 and 1 million sold in 2030.

BAIC has defined six tasks for 2020, that is, focusing on the main business and driving quality development with brand orientation, speeding up the development driven by “dual powers” and empowering products with continued innovation, actually deepening the reform in an all-round way and stimulating the vigor to promote transformation, steadily advancing ecological integration and embracing the new future of the industry with an open approach, pushing forward internationalization and expanding the market with a focus on the main business, and vigorously advancing industrial transformation and accelerating model innovation. By highlighting high-end, new and distinctive products and strengthening the development driven by dual powers, BAIC has a clear direction and firmer steps. In 2020, BAIC will continue to forge ahead, in a bid to achieve a perfect end for the 13th Five-year Plan period, make a good start for the 14th Five-year Plan period, accumulate strength for the continued and healthy development of the century-old group, and make greater contribution to realizing the dream of building China into a country with a strong auto industry.