16 | MOTORING Monday, March 23, 2020 HONG KONG EDITION | CHINA DAILY Nio bullish about its Short Torque BYD transforms lines business performance to support masks Many companies in China have transformed their businesses to despite coronavirus cater to the rising demand for masks amid the coronavirus epi­ demic, and leading new energy By LI FUSHENG vehicle manufacturer BYD has [email protected] joined them. On Feb 17, BYD pro­ duced its first batch of masks. Chinese electric car startup We are pleased to Each of its production lines can Nio is confident about its see encouraging make 50,000 masks a day, and in prospects this year despite the total five million masks and coronavirus outbreak, expecting results to date, and 300,000 bottles of disinfectant its gross profit margin to become expect around 35 can be made on a daily basis, positive in the second quarter. making the company one of the “Based on the current trend, percent expense biggest mask manufacturers in we would hope the daily new reduction compared the world. The company plans to order rate to return to the level of expand its production lines to a last December in April,” said to the prior quarter daily capacity of up to 10 million William Li, founder and chair­ even under the masks. The masks will also be man of Nio, on an earnings call pressure of the provided to other countries hit last week. hard by the virus, after meeting He expected production, outbreak.” GAC showcases its Aion LX model in Shenzhen, Guangdong province last July. domestic demand. which resumed in late February PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY , founder and at its plant in Hefei, Anhui prov­ William Li chairman of Nio Toyota partners up with ince, to return to normal in April as well. Momenta for mapping Due to the coronavirus out­ Toyota Motor Corp is partnering break, Nio delivered 2,305 vehi­ with Chinese autonomous driving cles in January and February, Chinese carmakers 2,305 startup Momenta to develop a high­ which was lower than the com­ vehicles definition mapping platform in Chi­ pany’s target set prior to the out­ delivered by Nio in January na for autonomous­driving vehicles. break. and February Toyota’s research arm is develop­ Li expected 1,100 to 1,300 vehi­ slash sales targets ing its so­called Automated Map­ cles to be sold in March, bringing ping Platform to generate data for sales in the first quarter to accurate and updated maps, around 3,500. 81 Auto industry hit hard in extraordinary crisis which it said will also be accessi­ “Facing the pressure of the percent ble to industry develop­ outbreak, we are still confident year­on­year increase for sales ers.Momenta was established to achieve the preset sales target of Nio last year By CAO YINGYING showrooms and check vehicle three years ago and is backed by for 2020,” Li said. [email protected] 8 information. Germany’s Daimler. It is testing He did not make public the percent Carmakers SAIC Maxus, Welt­ autonomous cars in Beijing and sales target though. In 2019, the Chinese carmakers have lowered cut in the sales target for 2020 meister, Nio and JMC have Suzhou and will provide its cam­ company delivered 20,565 vehi­ battery producer CATL, and their sales targets for 2020 and are by Great Wall Motors early this reduced staff pay to lessen the era­based HD mapping technolo­ cles, up 81 percent year­on­year. reducing manufacturing costs as reducing costs, as the already month impact on the companies during gies to help commercialize Nio’s new models are hoped to it ramps up production. depressed market has been further this period. Toyota’s AMP in China, according help drive sales. In April, it will The company has also become affected by the novel coronavirus Cui Dongshu, secretary­general to a statement. start the delivery of the updated stricter about expense control outbreak. of the China Passenger Car Associ­ ES8 SUV. and further improved its effi­ Great Wall Motors, one of the top ation, said whether pay adjust­ Xpeng aiming to build In September, the EC6 SUV, ciency, with its headcount cut to SUV makers in China, cut its sales 82.67 ment or a target reduction, there percent advanced electric cars which is expected to take on Tes­ around 7,000 from 100,000 in target by 8 percent early this year­on­year decrease in are ways to cut costs to ensure la’s Model Y, will roll off the early 2019. month. The carmaker now aims to production at GAC last month normal operation during this Chinese electric vehicle startup assembly line. “We are pleased to see encour­ sell 1.02 million units in 2020, down due to the novel coronavirus unique period. Xpeng Motors is one of a new In the fourth quarter of 2020, aging results to date, and expect from a previous target of 1.11 mil­ outbreak He said the key to relieve the group of electric vehicle startups its 100 kw/hour battery pack will around 35 percent expense lion. pressure on auto companies is to looking to follow Tesla’s lead by hit the market. reduction compared to the prior Great Wall also lowered its target boost consumption and promote building highly advanced elec­ Li said the company will con­ quarter even under the pressure for net profit by around 14 percent car sales. tric vehicles. The company, tinue to expand its sales network of the outbreak,” said Li. to 4.05 billion yuan ($570.8 million) 310,000 Manufacturers need to broaden which was founded in 2014, is by building more NIO Spaces, Nio has made steady progress in from 4.7 billion yuan. The carmaker vehicles consumption channels and also developing an advanced with an estimated 200 of them by financing efforts over the past didn’t change its sales and profit sold in China in February, strengthen contact with consum­ autonomous driving system for the end of this year. months. It has issued $435 million target for 2021 and 2022. according to the China ers so that orders can be converted its vehicles. Xpeng announced Gross margin improvement is convertible notes this year to sever­ Wei Jianjun, chairman of the car­ Association of Automobile into sales. last week that it was granted one of Nio’s top objectives in al unaffiliated Asia­based invest­ maker, said it is sensitive for a listed Manufacturers According to the China Associa­ permission from the National 2020. Last year, its gross margin ment funds, which are to support company to cut its sales target in tion of Automobile Manufactur­ Highway Traffic Safety Adminis­ was negative 15.3 percent, with the company’s daily operations and this period, but he is also optimistic. ers, vehicle sales in February tration to test its new P7 fully­ net loss standing at $1.62 billion. business development. The carmaker still ranks top among break in China. With that being the slumped 79 percent from the same electric sedan on public roads in Li said the gross margin will In late February, it inked a 10­bil­ Chinese brands in term of sales. case, it has been hard for them to month in 2019 to 310,000. the United States. The permis­ turn positive in the second quar­ lion­yuan framework agreement Great Wall sold 1.06 million cars totally reopen in the short term. In the first two months, vehicles sion ensures that the P7 has met ter and reach the two­digit level with the Hefei city government in last year. In the first two months, it The carmaker said they will work sales totaled 2.24 million, down 42 all the requirements for import­ by the end of the year as it has Anhui province, and Li said the sold 90,284 units, down 50 percent overtime to promote production to percent year­on­year. ed vehicles. been optimizing the supply definitive deal will be signed in from a year earlier. Production and make up for the drop in capacity. A total of 285,000 vehicles chain, winning a better deal with April. sales slumped 85.44 percent and The group has 2,546 suppliers rolled off assembly lines in Febru­ US automakers shutter 85.48 percent respectively last and 2,562 dealers in total, most of ary, plunging almost 80 percent month. which are small and medium­sized year­on­year. production nationwide Another Chinese carmaker, GAC enterprises. Meanwhile, SAIC Volkswagen US automakers announced they Group, narrowed sales growth tar­ During the outbreak, those deal­ sold around 10,000 units, a will temporarily shut down North get for 2020 from 8 percent to 3 per­ ers were placed under severe eco­ decline of 91 percent year­on­year. American production as the eco­ cent on March 16. nomic pressure, bearing labor costs BYD’s sales fell 79.5 percent nomic hit from the coronavirus GAC Chairman Zeng Qinghong and rent without any income. year­on­year to 5,501 units. And spreads to manufacturing. The “Big said that because of the novel coro­ To avoid breaking capital chains Mazda saw a drop of 79 percent to Three” carmakers ­­ General navirus outbreak, production stag­ for dealers, GAC canceled February 2,430 units. Motors, Fiat Chrysler and Ford ­­ nated last month. target assessments and provided The CPCA has scaled down its will halt operations throughout Its production fell 82.67 percent subsidies for new dealers. estimate for vehicle sales this year, North America through the end of to 17,300 units with the sales down Some other carmakers also predicting a fall of 8 percent from the month, the companies 81.08 percent to 19,300. released policies to reduce pressure 2019 earlier this month. announced in conjunction with Zeng stressed that GAC will not on dealers, including Volkswagen, The association forecast that the United Auto Workers. The cut pay but adopt other cost control Ford, Jaguar Land Rover and production and logistics will move comes only hours after the measures, including reducing Hyundai canceling first quarter resume normal operation and companies said the plants would administrative costs, travel, accom­ sales assessments. consumer demand will be be kept open with modified pro­ modation and transportation costs. Due to the coronavirus outbreak unleashed in April if the novel coro­ cedures to employ social distanc­ Production has returned to 60 keeping people away from show­ navirus outbreak is firmly under ing.But that plan quickly fell by percent of its capacity currently. rooms, carmakers have launched control. the wayside as the number of cor­ Zeng said GAC has around 180 online marketing using virtual­re­ The CAPA estimates sales in the onavirus cases in the US rises. Potential customers take in a Nio SUV at its dealership in dealers in Hubei province, the epi­ ality and online purchases, allow­ first quarter will be around 2.99 UAW officials admitted privately Shenzhen, Guangdong province. LI FUSHENG / CHINA DAILY center of the novel coronavirus out­ ing customers to browse digital million vehicles. they were facing a situation where absenteeism was increasing as schools closed in states such as Michigan and Ohio. In addition, Ride­hailing companies can improve service during outbreak employees were refusing to work after co­workers tested positive for the virus. By ZHANG DANDAN five to 10 minutes, while 36 percent of [email protected] orders take more than 10 minutes to Italian auto giants to find a car. For 16 percent of users it The novel coronavirus outbreak takes one to five minutes to have their produce ventilators has inflicted heavy losses on the car­ orders picked up. Italian carmakers Ferrari and Fiat hailing industry, but it is a window Moreover, results unveiled by JD Chrysler are in talks with the of opportunity for players to sharp­ Power show 53 percent of passengers nation’s biggest ventilator manu­ en their business practices, accord­ must wait for five to 10 minutes for facturer to help it boost produc­ ing to JD Power. their drivers, once the drivers have tion of the life­saving machines The global market research com­ picked up their requests. Only 1 per­ which are urgently needed in the pany shared the results of a report cent are picked up within a minute. coronavirus crisis, company offi­ on ride­hailing service quality on The ride­hailing platforms have a cials said on Thursday. Italy is at Thursday. “golden” five­minute time frame to the epicenter of the pandemic “The epidemic is a big test for the fulfill a ride, beyond which, Pei said, and its government has embarked (online ride­hailing) industry, users may elect to cancel their rides. on a big expansion of intensive which plummets the travel demand Suggestions for online car­hailing care beds many of which will and piles heavy operating pressure operators included improving real­ require ventilators, machines that upon car­hailing runners,” said Pei time traffic­status updates and the keep patients alive by taking over Lin, head of automotive digital time­prediction algorithm, according the function of breathing for product experience with JD Power A staff member disinfects a vehicle at a Beijing service center of car­hailing service Didi Chuxing, as the to JD Power. them. Siare Engineering, based in China. country is hit by an outbreak of the new coronavirus. CARLOS GARCIA RAWLINS / REUTERS Frequent complaints about drivers, the northern Italy, the heart of “However, it is also where oppor­ include unsafe driving habits and no the crisis where deaths are nearing tunities dwell.” assistance with passenger luggage, Pei 3,000 and climbing sharply, is in Industry players can use this ces show that the overall situation is tation of just a few simple meas­ from far away, long waiting times for said. He added that driver service is an talks with Fiat Chrysler, Ferrari and “window period” to reinforce less than desirable. ures, others not so simple. The orders received, unreasonable naviga­ important part of online car­hailing Italian parts maker Marelli to make brand­building, increase invest­ According to the research compa­ complaints center on issues of car­ tion routes, unreliable estimated time service, which directly communicates some parts, source others and to ment in advanced technologies and ny, customer satisfaction in China’s hailing efficiency, vehicle condition of arrival at the destination and a brand’s values to consumers. possibly help in assembly of ventila­ improve their service, Pei added. ride­hailing industry is far from ide­ and driver service. unsafe driving habits of drivers. A complete induction training tors. The results released by JD Power al, however many of the complaints The top complaints collected by JD Forty­eight percent of ride­hailing mechanism for drivers should be on the quality of car­hailing servi­ could be resolved by the implemen­ Power include drivers that take orders users get their requests picked up in established, Pei said. MOTORING­AGENCIES