In the second year after the change of the chairman, FAW became fond of buying.

FAW Group's November sales figures are out. The total vehicle sales of 306,000 units consist of 85,000 units of self - owned brands and 220,000 units of joint - venture brands. The cumulative sales from January to November reached 2.995 million units, a year - on - year increase of 4.8%.

Putting it nicely, this performance shows a steady improvement. More bluntly, it's just mediocre, especially when the self - owned new energy brands of "national team" peers like Dongfeng, Changan, and SAIC are starting to make breakthroughs and setting new sales records.

Looking back at the past two years since Qiu Xiandong took over as the chairman of FAW Group. When he took over in 2023, the annual sales of this state - owned automobile enterprise were 3.373 million units. One year later, the sales decreased instead of increasing, with the cumulative annual vehicle sales in 2024 reaching 3.2 million units.

This year, FAW Group has sold a cumulative total of 2.995 million new vehicles from January to November. To reach the sales level of about 3.4 million units two years ago, the sales in December need to increase by 30% month - on - month to approximately 400,000 units.

If the new chairman wants to present a more impressive report card in his third year in office (2026), FAW Group needs to make changes. At this juncture, "buying spree" has become an option.

1

Spending Billions on "Shopping"

FAW Group is a strong candidate when it comes to automobile enterprises with the most investment actions in the recent automotive industry.

On November 21st, Zhuoyu Technology, a supplier of assisted - driving solutions formerly known as DJI Automotive, announced that it had received a strategic investment of over 3.6 billion yuan from FAW Group. According to Qiu Xiandong, this strategic investment will further enhance FAW Group's technological competitiveness in the field of intelligent driving.

About a week later, Zhu Jiangming, the founder, chairman, and CEO of Leapmotor, revealed to the media after a new - car launch event that Leapmotor and FAW Group were also in the process of discussing cooperation in terms of equity. Previously, media reported that FAW Group planned to initially hold about 5% of the shares. Based on Leapmotor's closing price on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on December 2nd, 5% of the shares are worth about HK$4 billion.

On December 2nd, a source close to Leapmotor told Yuan Auto that the cooperation between Leapmotor and FAW Group at the equity level could be finalized as early as this year.

If FAW Group successfully invests in Leapmotor this year, combined with the 3.6 - billion - yuan investment in Zhuoyu Technology, it will make up for its shortcomings in electrification and intelligence at a cost of billions in just two months. For an automobile enterprise that spends tens of billions on R & D every year, this can be regarded as "achieving great results with little investment".

It's worth noting that FAW Group's cooperation with both Zhuoyu Technology and Leapmotor started before the above - mentioned investment actions and has achieved certain results.

Take Zhuoyu Technology as an example. The three models of the Hongqi Tianggong series launched this year are all equipped with the Sinan Intelligent Driving system empowered by Zhuoyu Chengxing 3.0, which can achieve map - less urban navigation assistance and highway navigation assistance in terms of functions. In addition, the IQ.Pilot assisted - driving systems of many new fuel and plug - in hybrid vehicles under FAW - Volkswagen are also based on Zhuoyu's binocular solution.

With the technical support of Zhuoyu Technology, although the assisted - driving capabilities of the above - mentioned new vehicles under FAW Group still lag behind the industry's first - tier players, they already have the confidence to compete among models in the same class. In particular, many new models of FAW - Volkswagen have formed differentiated selling points in the joint - venture pure - fuel vehicle market.

As for Leapmotor, after FAW Group signed a "Memorandum of Understanding on Strategic Cooperation" with it in March this year, reports said that a model based on Leapmotor's electronic and electrical architecture is on the verge of being launched. This model, with an internal code name of Hongqi G117, is expected to be launched in 2026.

2

Needs to Play the Ace Card Better

Looking specifically at FAW Group's sales composition, it can be found that Hongqi, as a golden signboard of Chinese high - end vehicles, has always maintained a good momentum.

According to third - party terminal retail data, Hongqi's cumulative sales from January to October this year exceeded 367,000 units, higher than that of Huawei's Hongmeng Zhixing AITO Wenjie, which has been in the spotlight in the automotive circle.

Data shows that as of November this year, the comprehensive average transaction price of Hongqi vehicles exceeded 200,000 yuan. Although it is inferior to AITO Wenjie, in the current era of fierce price wars, it is still a level that many automobile enterprises envy.

However, Hongqi also has its bottlenecks.

Currently, most of Hongqi's sales come from fuel vehicles. In contrast, in the new - energy field, many of the E - QM5, the model with the highest sales, are sold to the ride - hailing market. Among the three new pure - electric vehicles of the newly launched Tianggong series, only the Tianggong 08 once exceeded 1,000 units in monthly sales in June. The overall sales contribution of this new series to Hongqi is quite limited.

"Many people who have seen and test - driven the Tianggong series can be converted into car owners, but the problem is that not many people know about this car, and there are few customers visiting the store." On December 2nd, a salesperson at a Hongqi 4S store told Yuan Auto that many customers come for the fuel vehicles of the H and HS series and only learn about the pure - electric vehicles of the Tianggong series after arriving at the store. Some of them will choose the plug - in hybrid versions of the H and HS series. "(The Tianggong series) may still lack some gimmicks."

To further expand Hongqi's brand influence in the new - energy track, FAW Group needs to find a breakthrough. A new vehicle using the same electronic and electrical architecture as Leapmotor, the sales champion among new - energy vehicle startups, is a good start. However, to truly match Hongqi's high - end positioning, it may still depend on Huawei.

It is reported that currently, there is a new vehicle in Hongqi's R & D process that is planned to adopt Huawei's full - stack intelligent solutions. From assisted driving to the cockpit, it has a high "Huawei content". The model is positioned as the flagship of the "9 Series" and is expected to be unveiled in 2026. However, in this cooperation project, Huawei is more involved as a technology supplier and does not participate in sales - related links.

Looking forward to 2026, a new batch of vehicles highlighting Huawei's elements will enter the domestic automotive market. In particular, models like Qijing and Yijing from the "Jing" series have attracted wide attention as soon as their brands were launched. Perhaps Hongqi can learn from Baojun under SAIC - GM - Wuling and name the flagship of the "9 Series" a "Jing" - series new vehicle based on the technological cooperation with Huawei to achieve twice the result with half the effort in marketing.

Playing the Hongqi brand better is FAW Group's top priority in 2026 and the key for Qiu Xiandong to present an impressive report card in his third year as the group's chairman.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Yuan Auto", written by Yuan Meihui, and published by 36Kr with authorization.