A few days ago, Stellantis issued an announcement on its official website stating that shareholders of GAC Fick , GAC Group and Stellantis have approved the resolution and agreed to authorize GAC Fick to apply for bankruptcy to the court when they are in a loss. From the official articles, it can be seen that Stellantis's finances in the first half of 2022 also focused on comprehensive impairment of GAC Fick's related businesses.
This means that GAC Fick, founded in 2010, officially ended after experiencing a short 12-year market ups and downs. As early as July this year, GAC Fick has been rumored to have gradually withdrawn from the Chinese market, and the formal announcement of bankruptcy this time can be regarded as the official confirmation of GAC Fick's "say goodbye" to the Chinese market.
It is reported that as an important production asset of GAC Fick in China, the factory in Guangzhou, Guangdong has been transferred to GAC Aion; and the factory in Changsha, Hunan may be "taken over" by BYD . The information of the latter has not been confirmed yet. However, as an advanced factory with a very high degree of automation, the Changsha factory is a high-quality choice for any vehicle manufacturer to strengthen the existing production line.
Why didn’t GAC Fick gain a foothold?
GAC Fick's most important business in China is to localize the Jeep brand. As a "SUV expert" who is well-known in the international automobile market, in the Chinese market where SUVs are very popular, Jeep's brand domesticization process is very popular, and GAC Fick Jeep has also ushered in a "honeymoon period" after its domesticization.
With the successive launch of three models, Liberty Light, Compass , and Free Hero , Jeep has achieved good market performance in the home SUV market with extremely high recognition design language. In the popular multi-seat SUV layout, Jeep has also launched two medium-sized and above-large products, Big Commander and Commander, which can be said to have a very complete product camp.
However, quality control capabilities have become the key point that affects GAC Fick Jeep brand reputation. In 2018, the phenomenon of "burning engine oil" has become a "black history" that GAC Fick cannot be erased after its domestic production; and strangely, since it was named by the "315 Gala" due to the engine oil problem, Jeep's sales have declined year by year. According to relevant data statistics, in the past four years, GAC Fick's sales have begun to decline year by year from 125,000 in 2018: 73,900 sales in 2019 and 40,500 sales in 2020; and by 2021, the sales volume was 20,100 vehicles, and in the first half of 2022, GAC Fick was almost shut down. There was only one production and sales in March and May, and even zero in April and June, resulting in only 1,861 sales in the first six months.
In addition to the defects in product quality, the insufficient update rate of on the end of the product is also the reason why Jeep's attractiveness has declined in the minds of consumers. Since 2018, the domestic automobile market in China has ushered in a period of rapid transformation of new energy transformation and automotive intelligence. Jeep obviously cannot keep up with market demand in the launch of new products, and only makes "squeezing" modifications on existing models. Relying on the brand sentiment with deep historical accumulation is obviously not suitable for the current automobile market dominated by young people.
On the corporate side, the conflict between GAC Fick brand joint ventures, GAC Group and stellantis may also become the last straw for GAC Fick to finally end; since the beginning of this year, the "verbal battle" between GAC Group and Stellantis Group has never stopped. The two sides have had serious differences in equity , market voice and business philosophy for the Chinese market. From the perspective of the enterprise, the long-term failure of the decision-making level to reach a consensus often represents the beginning of an executive level enterprise crisis . Therefore, it can be said that GAC Fick's bankruptcy path is not a unilateral impact, but an inevitable result under the joint pressure brought by the company itself, the market elimination mechanism and the shortcomings of the product side.
Conclusion: This will not be the last brand to withdraw from the Chinese market
In recent years, the number of joint venture car brands that withdraw from the Chinese market is gradually increasing. There were Suzuki , Acura , and now there are GAC Fick. Of course, there are French cars that have "delisted rumors" every now and then; in fact, tracing the root causes, these delisted brands are not because they "do not pay attention to" China, the world's largest automobile consumer market, but because their brand development concepts, corporate planning and marketing styles are difficult to adapt to the rapidly changing Chinese automobile market.
Today's Chinese consumers have made great changes in their understanding and cognition of cars from the past. The intelligent and electrified industrial structure has developed rapidly in the Chinese passenger car market, which has also made the role of cars from a single travel tool to a carrier of various diversified life scenarios. The unchanging and stubborn thinking may be the consequences that can be encountered in advance for car brands.
Regarding Jeep's future actions in the Chinese market, according to more reliable information, it can be seen that the Jeep brand is seeking to continue to operate in the Chinese market in a light asset manner, including but not limited to continuing to sell its models in China in the future through import. In recent times, Jeep has also frequently made progress in new energy mass-produced cars. How Jeep will develop in the future can also be regarded as an industry trend worthy of attention in the future.
