The interview with Xiao Yong, deputy general manager of GAC New Energy, is the seventh in this series. The following is an interview record, which has been deleted after examination.
First Electric: Has your company resumed work? February 10 can you fully resume work?
Xiao Yong: The state attaches great importance to this epidemic, and has launched a first-level response mechanism for major public health emergencies and introduced a series of prevention and control measures. GAC New Energy strictly abides by relevant national, provincial and municipal regulations and actively does a good job in epidemic prevention and control. At present, it is tentatively scheduled to resume work in February 10, which will be arranged according to the epidemic development and government prevention and control requirements.
First motivation: How many confirmed or suspected cases do employees and their families have? What percentage of people are trapped in epidemic areas and can't get out?
Xiao Yong: GAC New Energy has always adhered to the principle of "people-oriented". In this special period of the epidemic, both GAC Group and GAC New Energy have taken great care of all employees and their families, strictly managed and publicized employees, and paid close attention to their health status. At present, employees of GAC New Energy have not found any confirmed or suspected cases.
Thanks to the timely arrangement in the early stage and the guidance for employees to reduce travel, most employees of GAC New Energy stayed in Guangdong Province. At the same time, the company has set a strict quarantine observation period for those who return to Guangzhou in different regions to ensure their health before returning to work.
The first strength: what is the mood of the team? Apart from the epidemic, what do you talk about most now?
Xiao Yong: With regard to this epidemic, the company has made many detailed deployment arrangements, and conducted publicity and training on epidemic prevention and control for all employees. The employees' mood is basically stable. Although we haven't officially resumed work yet, many employees have been working online, and the overall state is still good. Apart from the epidemic, what everyone talks about most now has actually shifted to work. Of course, these tasks are also how to do our products and services well under the background of the epidemic.
First motivation: How much did your company donate to the epidemic area? Have these donations reached the medical institutions or people in the epidemic areas?
Xiao Yong: After the outbreak, all sectors of society actively fought against the epidemic. Guangzhou Automobile New Energy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Guangzhou Automobile Group, and actively carries out all aspects of work according to the overall deployment of the Group.
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the accumulated donations and materials of enterprises affiliated to Guangzhou Automobile Group have exceeded 22 million yuan, and donations from all parties have been put in place one after another. At the same time, enterprises also actively carry out epidemic prevention activities in combination with their own business. For example, our logistics enterprises actively participate in the transportation of medical materials. As a vehicle enterprise, GAC New Energy actively cooperates with dealers all over the country to carry out free vehicle cleaning and disinfection activities for the majority of car owners, donate epidemic prevention equipment such as masks and disinfection supplies for the majority of car owners, and at the same time use the APP platform to cooperate with relevant institutions to carry out free epidemic prevention clinics online, spread epidemic prevention knowledge, and contribute to national epidemic prevention and control.
The first motivation: what is the current inventory situation of the enterprise? To what extent are R&D, production and sales affected?
Xiao Yong: Last year, the sales volume of GAC New Energy reached 42,000 vehicles, exceeding the annual task. At the same time, GAC New Energy organizes production according to market demand through GAC production mode, and the overall inventory is always controlled at a reasonable level, without too much inventory pressure.
At present, the epidemic situation has not had a great impact on research and development, especially in recent years, we have also strengthened the research and development of more new technologies such as disinfection in cars. According to the unified requirements of the government, production has not been resumed at present, and the specific impact depends on the next development of the epidemic and the government's arrangements. Due to the changes in the overall consumption environment of the epidemic, automobile sales have been affected to some extent. At present, we are actively cooperating with dealers to strengthen the innovation of online marketing and provide consumers with a car purchase and service experience without leaving home.
First Electric: What are you most worried about at present?
Xiao Yong: At present, we still look at the current situation rationally. Although the epidemic has brought many impacts, we are still full of confidence in controlling the epidemic and returning the social order to the normal track. At the same time, as an enterprise, it actively does its own work and assumes its own responsibilities.
First Electric: What countermeasures are arranged at present? What other measures will be arranged?
Xiao Yong: As mentioned above, we have taken many measures to ensure the health and safety of employees and their families, and actively fulfill our social responsibilities. So far, the effect is good. In terms of production, we also worked with suppliers to formulate linkage measures during the epidemic period to actively prepare for the gradual recovery of subsequent production.
At the same time, how to do a good job in marketing and customer service during the epidemic is our top priority. GAC New Energy has been committed to creating a new ecology of marketing services. This epidemic will not only promote the change of products, but also accelerate the change of marketing service model. You may also find that our new marketing service ecosystem meets the needs of users during the epidemic in many ways. To some extent, our preparations are actually ahead of schedule. At the same time, in view of the epidemic situation, we have also taken various strengthening measures to provide good service to our customers.
Marketing strategy. GAC New Energy has opened up online and offline through APP, bringing consumers a convenient car purchase and service experience. In this epidemic, we take online marketing as the main position, and the APP platform has played a very important role. At the same time, we also strengthened the online exhibition hall and door-to-door test drive. Let customers realize online car purchase service without leaving home, and provide customers with half-price car delivery, three-year zero interest, battery rental and other financial support!
Customer service. Since the Spring Festival, our service team has been providing 24-hour online service. Aian's one-button exclusive service includes valet charging, one-button assistance and one-button maintenance, so that users can enjoy the service of GAC New Energy without leaving home. At the same time, we also specially carry out car cleaning activities, help users disinfect and clean cars for free, and give away masks and disinfection supplies needed for epidemic prevention, so that everyone can use the car with peace of mind. Our APP is specially equipped with a many-to-one service group for each car owner. What needs do you have, including masks and food delivery, can be done through the APP. Moreover, the APP has opened up online medical services, which can be free. So this is a lifestyle change.
Generally speaking, the product revolution and the marketing service model revolution will accelerate this process. How to seize the opportunity depends on the thinking and action of the enterprise, and ultimately accelerate the survival of the fittest.
The first motivation: Apart from your enterprise, what targeted work do you want the government, financial institutions, supply chain and media to do respectively?
Xiao Yong: The government should first focus on this epidemic prevention war. At the same time, for the automobile industry, it is hoped that the policies on the automobile industry in 2020, including subsidy policy, double-point policy and license plate policy in various regions, can be clarified as soon as possible. At the same time, as the demand for "health" becomes more and more important, it is hoped that the country will speed up industrial guidance in new energy vehicles, especially the improvement of basic supporting facilities, and jointly build green mountains and green waters.
In view of the social and economic impact of the epidemic, financial institutions hope to formulate more active and effective measures to help everyone tide over the difficulties. Supplier is the previous process of our production. As mentioned above, we will work together to make positive preparations for the resumption of production. The media has a strong guiding force for public opinion. For this epidemic, major media have done a lot of work, which played a very important role in the stability of social emotions and the spread of positive energy.
The first motivation: optimistic prediction, the epidemic will basically end at the end of February. If so, how much loss is expected to your enterprise? Pessimistically predict that the epidemic will be completely controlled in May, will this lead to a cliff-like decline in the production and sales of electric vehicles in the first half of the year? If so, what emergency arrangements will your enterprise make? Can you predict the overall situation of the electric vehicle market this year?
Xiao Yong: If the epidemic basically ends at the end of February, the overall impact will still be controllable. If it lasts until May, it depends on the severity of the epidemic and the government's control measures in this regard. Of course, I still feel confident to win this battle against epidemic prevention as soon as possible. In the face of this epidemic, it seems that it will curb market consumption in the short term and have a certain impact on automobile production and sales, but in the medium and long term, the impact of the epidemic is temporary.
If the epidemic continues until May, the first thing that enterprises should do is to cooperate with the government's deployment and do their best to do their own epidemic prevention work. At the same time, it is our unchangeable creed to adhere to the above marketing service measures, constantly innovate and change, adapt to the changes in the situation, and always provide products and services that meet the needs of users.
The epidemic came suddenly. At the end of last year, we predicted that if the policy support is good, it may usher in a big growth, conservative and micro-growth. However, the impact of this epidemic on sales in the first half of the year is very direct, but it is expected that the suppression of consumption during the epidemic may lead to the rebound of consumption after the epidemic, especially the growth of private car purchases, which may form an overall trend of low before and high after.
First Electric: What changes do you think consumers will make in car purchase after the epidemic?
Xiao Yong: I think the epidemic has made consumers pay more attention to healthy travel, and having healthy exclusive space will become a universal psychological appeal. After the epidemic, it is expected that the demand for private car purchase will increase. GAC New Energy has always attached great importance to the development of "healthy cars". Since its birth, Aion series products have invested more than 500 million yuan to develop health-related functions, including air filtration, noise reduction, radiation protection, fatigue monitoring and so on. And built a "smart ecological cockpit", hoping to bring consumers a healthier life as much as possible. Investment in this area will continue to increase in the future. In the face of this epidemic, our R&D team will act quickly, introduce more scientific and technological means, and accelerate the research and development of anti-virus air filtration technology and vehicle owner health detection technology to serve the majority of users.
First Electric: Is there a timetable for the launch of new cars this year?
Xiao Yong: GAC New Energy is committed to providing consumers with "advanced technology enjoyment". In 2020, we will continue to build high-quality products based on GAC's leading R&D and manufacturing capabilities. We will launch two pure electric SUV models this year, which are positioned as medium-sized pure electric SUV and cross-border pure electric SUV respectively, and will be combined with Aion? S and Aion? LX has formed a more complete product matrix to meet the travel needs of different consumers. I hope everyone will continue to pay attention to GAC New Energy.
Source: First Power Grid
Author: Deng Ya
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.