In today’s automotive industry, the wave of change is surging. In particular, the gears of the automotive industry have entered the fast lane of electrification and intelligence, and a storm about resource restructuring is sweeping the entire industry.
From Geely Holding Group’s announcement that Geely Automobile and Zeekr Intelligent Technology signed a merger agreement, to SAIC’s integration of five companies to form a “large passenger car sector”; From GAC Group’s drastic restructuring of the R&D system to NIO’s integration of sub-brands into the main brand system; From Chery’s establishment of four major business groups to build a clear brand matrix, to Great Wall Motor’s brand identity and Dongfeng Motor’s establishment of Yipai Automotive Technology Company……
The intensive integration actions of car companies outline the survival picture of the industry during the transition period. The actions of these car companies are not isolated, but strategic choices made to adapt to the new market pattern and technological trends in the context of the transformation of the global automobile industry.
01The wave of car company integration: a strategic choice under multiple factors
The integration of the automotive industry is never an accidental event, but the inevitable result of the combined effect of the market environment, technological change and corporate strategy. atNew energyIn the intelligent industrial revolution, car companies are facing unprecedented survival pressure, and at the same time, they also have a strong demand for future development, and these factors are intertwined to jointly promote the arrival of the wave of integration.
The fierce market competition is the primary factor that forces car companies to integrate. WithNew energy vehiclesThe rapid expansion of the market, the acceleration of electrification by traditional car companies, the continuous rise of new power car companies, the number of market participants has surged, and the competitive dimension has extended from simple product competition to technology, service, ecology and other levels.
Taking the domestic market as an example, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, domestic new energy in 2024Car salesContinuous growth, but market concentration is constantly changing. In order to occupy a place in the limited market space, many car companies have to improve their competitiveness by integrating resources.
In this context, increasing the scale of single products and reducing costs has become the core demands of car companies.
For example, last year, Geely issued the “Taizhou Declaration” to reduce the internal consumption of resources between internal brands through strategic focus and integration. The merger of the geometric brand into Geely Galaxy is to concentrate resources to create a more competitive mainstream new energy product brand, avoid repeated investment and internal friction in the low-end new energy market, and go head-to-head with competitors such as BYD with a stronger lineup.
SAIC Motor has integrated five companies, including SAIC Passenger Car Company, SAIC International, Innovation Research and Development Institute, Zero Beam Technology, and Overseas Travel, to form a “large passenger car sector”, the core purpose of which is to reduce costs by concentrating resources to increase the scale of single products.
Similarly, NIO integrated the Ledao and Firefly brands into the main brand system and revoked the status of independent business units, which is also to open up the whole chain of products to the market, improve the efficiency of cross-departmental collaboration, and maintain an advantage in the fierce competition in the high-end new energy vehicle market.
The automotive industry is in a critical period of technological transformation of electrification, intelligence and networking. The research and development of new energy technologies requires huge financial investment, from the breakthrough of battery technology to the iteration of autonomous driving technology, the research and development of every key technology tests the financial strength and technical reserves of car companies. The accelerated iteration of technological change has forced car companies to improve R&D efficiency through integration.
At the same time, in the era of software-defined vehicles, cars are no longer simple mechanical products, but intelligent terminals integrating hardware, software and services, which puts forward higher requirements for the R&D capabilities of car companies. The continuous rise in R&D investment makes it difficult for a single department or company to undertake all R&D tasks, and integrating R&D resources and achieving collaborative innovation has become an inevitable choice.
SAIC’s software company “Zero Beam Technology” has completed the integration with SAIC R&D Institute, and the intelligent driving teams of the two sides have merged and coordinated to promote R&D work, which has broken down R&D barriers and made the chain of technological innovation smoother.
GAC Group announced the restructuring of the R&D system, splitting the GAC Research Institute into three independent research institutes of vehicle, platform and styling, and integrating it into the product headquarters of GAC Group to form a new “big R&D system”.
The focus and upgrading of corporate strategy is an important driving force for integration. In the past development process, some car companies have diversified their layout and expanded their business scope. However, with the changes in the market environment, some car companies realize that they need to return to their core business and concentrate resources to enhance the competitiveness of their automotive business.
At different stages of the development of the automobile industry, the strategic focus of car companies will continue to adjust. When the industry enters a critical period of transformation, focusing on core business and clarifying brand positioning has become a strategic choice for many car companies.
Dongfeng Motor announced the establishment of Yipai Automotive Technology Co., Ltd., which includes three brands: Dongfeng Yipai, Dongfeng Fengshen and Dongfeng Nano, carrying Dongfeng Motor’s expectations for further development in the field of independent passenger cars.
This strategic adjustment of returning to the core main business will help car companies focus more on the research and development, production and sales of automotive products, improve product quality and service levels, and create differentiated competitive advantages in the fierce market competition.
02The deep impact of integration: reconstructing the competitive landscape
A series of integration actions of car companies are not simple institutional adjustments or brand mergers, but will have a profound impact on the ecological and competitive pattern of the automobile industry, which is reflected in multiple dimensions such as brand positioning, resource allocation, and technological innovation.
The clarity of the brand matrix is a direct impact of integration. Before the integration, the brand positioning of some car companies was vague and even overlapped, resulting in the dispersion of resources and the difficulty of forming a joint force. Through integration, car companies can sort out the brand system, clarify the market positioning of each brand, and achieve differentiated competition.
For example, after Chery established the four major business groups of Chery, Fengyun, Aihu and QQ, the Xingtu brand continued to position itself in the high-end market, the Aihu division focused on the classic product lines Arrizo and Tiggo series, the Fengyun division focused on the new energy brand Fengyun, and the QQ division focused on the small car market.
Geely Galaxy was officially upgraded to the Geely Galaxy brand, further clarifying its positioning within the Geely Group, Yizhen Automobile was merged into Geely Galaxy to become a high-end MPV series, and the geometric brand was merged into the GEOME series, making the product matrix of the Galaxy brand more complete and clearly positioned.
Great Wall Motors released a new brand logo GWM, and the new Euler Good Cat GT and Haval Big Dog tail label were replaced with the “GWM” logo, which strengthened the unity of the group’s brand to a certain extent and laid the foundation for its sub-brands to clarify their own positioning under the unified group brand framework.
In the future, the brand pattern of the automobile market will show a trend of concentration and differentiation. On the one hand, through the integration of large car companies, the number of their brands will decrease, but the brand influence and market share will be further enhanced, forming a few brand groups with strong competitiveness.
On the other hand, within these brand groups, each brand will pay more attention to differentiated positioning to meet the needs of different consumer groups. After the establishment of ZEEKR Technology Group, ZEEKR focuses on the model market of 300,000 yuan and above; Lynk & Co is positioned as a “global new energy high-end brand”, focusing on the model market of 200,000 yuan and above. Through differentiated positioning, the coordinated development of the two brands will be realized and the overall competitiveness of the group in the high-end automobile market will be enhanced.
Of course, integration helps car companies optimize the allocation of market resources, and the optimization of resource allocation is the core value of integration. The automobile industry is a capital-intensive and technology-intensive industry, and the rational allocation of resources is directly related to the competitiveness of enterprises. Through integration, car companies can concentrate scattered R&D, production, sales and other resources to achieve sharing and collaboration, and improve resource utilization efficiency.
The integration of Zero Beam Technology and SAIC R&D Institute allows the intelligent driving team to work together, avoiding the duplicate investment of R&D resources and accelerating the R&D process. The construction of GAC Group’s “large R&D system” has reorganized and integrated R&D resources, making R&D links such as vehicles, platforms, and styling more coordinated, which can quickly respond to changes in market demand and improve the input-output ratio of R&D resources.
The acceleration of technological innovation is an important result of integration. In the competition between intelligence and electrification, the speed of technological innovation determines the market position of enterprises. After the integration, car companies can concentrate more human, material and financial resources on core technology research and development, and at the same time promote technology integration and breakthroughs through cross-departmental and cross-company collaboration.
The horizontal “model product line” organization established by NIO integrates key links such as product design and development, industrialization, user experience and service, and this integration of the whole chain helps to quickly transform technological innovation into product competitiveness and improve the efficiency of technology implementation.
It can be said that the upgrading of industry competition is the inevitable result of integration. With the deepening of the integration of car companies, the industry concentration will continue to increase, and car companies with resource advantages and technical advantages will occupy a more advantageous position in the competition, and the industry competition will be upgraded from a single product competition to a comprehensive strength competition of the whole industry chain.
SAIC, GAC, Geely, NIO, Chery, Great Wall, Dongfeng and other car companies continue to enhance their strength through integration, and the competition between them will be more intense, and at the same time, it will also form greater pressure on other car companies and promote the entire industry to continuously improve its competitiveness. This competitive upgrade will prompt car companies to continue to carry out technological innovation and service upgrades, and the ultimate benefit will be the majority of consumers, who can enjoy better, smarter and more diverse automotive products and services.
Judging from the current integration actions of car companies, splitting and integration are only means, not ends. This wave of integration continues, and it will reshape the ecological pattern of the automotive industry and promote the development of the industry in a more efficient, innovative and high-quality direction.
For car companies, whether they can find their own positioning in the integration and achieve effective coordination of resources will determine their position in the future automobile industry map. For the entire industry, this integration may be the only way to move towards a new stage of development, which will inject new vitality into the continued prosperity of the automotive industry.