Lu Hu seeks domestically-made Chery, Tianqi or Zhongcheng Partners

The localization process of two high-end brands, Jaguar and Land Rover, affiliated with the Tata Group in India, is a step forward for Land Rover.

A few days ago, sources revealed that two Chinese companies are negotiating a joint venture with Land Rover for domestic matters and have been negotiating for some time.

The two Chinese automobile companies are Anhui Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. and Tianjin Tianqi Group Meiya Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd. The negotiation contents include the joint venture of China-made Land Rover in China and the initial capacity planning is 40,000 units.

At the end of May, Jaguar Land Rover shareholder, Karl-Peter Forster, Chief Executive Officer of Tata Group of India, said at a press conference in London that Tata will produce Jaguar Land Rover in China and plan to use In the past two years, the selection of Chinese partners and the establishment of a factory site has opened the Jaguar Land Rover domestically produced curtain.

Driven by the rapid development of the Chinese automobile market, niche brands such as Land Rover and Subaru have opened up a new wave of Chinese joint ventures. However, in the new situation, the niche brand joint-ventures have made approval for the “three big mountains” on top of their heads.

Land Rover Competition

According to the above sources, as early as the Chief Executive Officer of the Tata Group in India, Karl Peter Foster, stated clearly that before China started to build Jaguar Land Rover, there were already many Chinese auto companies negotiating joint ventures with Tata. With the clear statement in May, the process accelerated.

Chery and Tianqi are in the process of negotiating, highlighting the encirclement and becoming the two most important negotiating targets for Jaguar Land Rover. The content of the negotiations was to set up a joint venture company and establish 40,000 domestically-made bases in advance.

"Chery and Tata talk more about Jaguar Land Rover two brands of joint venture domestic." The source revealed. The reason, the person analyzed, on the one hand, after years of development of independent brands, met the ceiling of the high-end car market. Chery, on the other hand, has also been developing micro-markets, commercial vehicles, and other markets in recent years. It has been able to develop the embryonic form of group development, and the advantages of high-end car joint ventures are even more advantageous.

Unlike Chery, Tianqi's negotiations are more focused on the Land Rover brand. The in-depth negotiating party is Meiya Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd., subordinate to Tianqi Group. It has its own SUV production qualification and strong will. At the end of last year, the first phase of the relocation and transformation project of Tianqi Group Meiya Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd., with a total investment of 550 million yuan, was started. An annual output of 150,000 vehicle manufacturers was planned and 50,000 vehicles in the first phase, focusing on the production of MPV and SUV models.

After the quality assets of Tianqi Group are restructured with Xia Li and FAW, as the profit of FAW Xiali shrinks in recent years, the zero-matching industry is replaced by more FAW companies. At present, the income of Tianqi Group mainly depends on about 10% of indirect holdings of FAW Toyota. Shares. The Tianjin municipal government is in urgent need of restoring Tiansteel's own profitability, while re-supporting Tianjin's local parts and components industry.

In recent years, the Tianjin Municipal Government has had a strong desire to develop the automotive industry. As early as Geely's acquisition of Volvo's first round of negotiations in London, Tianjin had sent a person to accompany him on the tour, and he was interested in joining it, eventually giving up due to multiple reasons. Moreover, the figure of Tianjin has also appeared in the domestic object of Yang Rong's second-time constructor.

Approval of "Three Mountains"

The above source also revealed that since Land Rover is favored by Chinese consumers in the SUV field, it has grown rapidly. Therefore, Land Rover’s domestic production may take the lead.

Statistics show that at present all Land Rover models have entered China. Land Rover's annual sales when it first entered China in 2003 were only 23, and it increased to 11,547 last year. In the first half of this year, the number reached 10,983, a year-on-year increase of 135%. In the first half of this year, China has become the world’s third-largest market after the United States and the United Kingdom, and is expected to soon surpass the United Kingdom.

Since August of this year, Jaguar and Land Rover have carried out a series of personnel and sales adjustments. First, on August 3, Jaguar Land Rover announced that Robert, who has served in the company for many years, will assume the role of president of China in order to further strengthen the Chinese management team and support the development of China's business. The former executive director of Jaguar Land Rover in China, Rudolf, was promoted to executive vice president, responsible for company operations. Redford will form a new team in Beijing to handle corporate and government affairs, auto industry organizations, and media communications.

However, the above source believes that both Jaguar and Land Rover are the same niche brands as Subaru and other brands. For those brands that sell less than 50,000 vehicles in China each year, they face “three big mountains” in joint venture approval.

“Three big mountains” refers to the relevant joint venture policies that require the foreign party to establish a sales network in China that includes an R&D center, an engine factory, and production and sales.

“Comparing to domestically-made bases, these three aspects require the investment to be even larger and more complex.” The source analyzed that “comprehensively, niche brands’ joint ventures in China will be very difficult and long, and even some are not expected to be available. begging."