Dongfeng makes major changes to its self-owned brands: Multiple departments of the R & D headquarters are merged into Yipai, following the model of Voyah.

The newly established Dongfeng Yipai Technology will follow the model of Voyah, building a complete set of automotive enterprise functions, especially in R & D. Wang Junjun, the CTO of Voyah, will be transferred to Dongfeng Yipai Technology to serve as the general manager. In addition, AutoPix has exclusively learned that many core executives and backbones from the direct R & D General Institute of Dongfeng Motor, as well as the entire staff of multiple departments, will be incorporated into the newly established Yipai Technology.

It can be said that this is the largest - scale integration of self - owned brands in the history of Dongfeng Motor.

Multiple R & D Departments of Dongfeng Split into Yipai

On June 26th, Dongfeng Motor Group first announced the news of establishing "Dongfeng Yipai Automobile Technology Co., Ltd." (hereinafter referred to as Yipai Technology). 

Yipai Technology represents the hope of the self - owned passenger car brands under Dongfeng Motor Group for the transformation to new energy. Three in - house brands, Fengshen, Yipai, and Nami, are all included in the new company. Regarding the operation and function allocation of this new company, "Yipai's independence" has been a hot topic among Dongfeng employees this weekend.

The adjustment not only involves the Dongfeng Passenger Vehicle segment but also multiple departments and company entities including R & D, manufacturing, and sales, with R & D being the core item.

AutoPix has exclusively learned that Cheng Jun, the deputy dean of the R & D General Institute of Dongfeng Motor (hereinafter referred to as the R & D General Institute), will join Yipai Technology and serve as the chief engineer of the new company. Most of the R & D teams related to passenger cars will be split from the R & D General Institute and incorporated into the newly established Yipai Technology. Specifically, these include the Passenger Car Development Center and the Overseas Model Platform Project Team.

In addition to the complete establishment of the above two departments, Dongfeng Motor will also transfer technical elites from other centers of the R & D General Institute to Yipai Technology to quickly meet the needs of the new company. The Passenger Car Development Center is one of the largest departments in the R & D General Institute. A person in charge close to Dongfeng Motor told us that ultimately, one - third to nearly half of the personnel in the R & D General Institute may be assigned to Yipai Technology.

The parent company, Dongfeng Motor, hopes to endow Yipai Technology with independent R & D capabilities, integrate it with the manufacturing and sales systems, and ultimately improve the R & D efficiency of self - owned brands. Therefore, many key positions in the new company are held by persons in charge with technical backgrounds.

▍Wang Junjun, General Manager of Yipai Technology 

We have learned that Wang Junjun, the CTO of Voyah, will be transferred to Yipai Technology to serve as the general manager. Wang Junjun was transferred to Voyah in 2022. He had previously worked at the Dongfeng Passenger Vehicle Technology Center (the predecessor of the R & D General Institute) for 14 consecutive years. He is a meritorious leader of many core engine technologies at Dongfeng and later participated in the early R & D of Mengshi and Voyah.

A person in charge close to the senior management of the R & D General Institute told us that Yipai Technology will follow the Voyah model. Among the five main self - owned brands of Dongfeng Motor, Voyah is the only one that has independently established R & D, production, supply chain, sales, and service systems. For the other four brands, half of the R & D team of the Mengshi brand is self - owned, and the other half relies on the R & D General Institute. The three brands of Dongfeng Fengshen, Yipai, and Nami completely rely on the R & D General Institute for product and technology support.

This distribution method has led to the R & D, sales, and manufacturing of the three brands being divided among different companies and departments. Some are in the parent company, Dongfeng Motor, some are in Dongfeng Passenger Vehicle Company, and others are in other subsidiaries.

Now, with the establishment of Yipai Technology to be fully responsible for the three brands of Dongfeng Fengshen, Yipai, and Nami, a person in charge close to Dongfeng Motor Group told us that another purpose is to clarify the business entity, and it may be self - supporting in the future.

Complex Management System of Self - owned Brands

Before the establishment of Yipai Technology, Dongfeng Passenger Vehicle Company was the core of Dongfeng Motor's self - owned brands. Over the past decade or so, Dongfeng's self - owned brand strategy has changed several times. The brands included in the concepts of Dongfeng's "grand self - owned" and "self - owned passenger vehicle business" have been adjusted several times, but Dongfeng Passenger Vehicle has always been its most important in - house brand.

However, from the perspective of the company's organizational structure, Dongfeng Passenger Vehicle is actually a very complex system. After several leaders over more than a decade, there has not been a strong focus.

The Dongfeng Passenger Vehicle Manufacturing Headquarters, which is responsible for production coordination, is affiliated with "Dongfeng Motor Group Co., Ltd. Passenger Vehicle Company", but the company entities involved in vehicle manufacturing also include Dongfeng Motor Nami Technology (Xiangyang) Co., Ltd. The complex manufacturing systems of the three brands have historical reasons. Some of the factories currently used for the production of Dongfeng's self - owned brands previously belonged to the declining joint - venture company, Dongfeng Peugeot Citroën Automobile, and also included Yijiete, a joint - venture between Dongfeng Motor and Nissan and Renault.

The Dongfeng Passenger Vehicle Sales Co., Ltd. is responsible for sales, which includes the Fengshen Marketing Division, Yipai Marketing Division, and Nami Marketing Division. Each of the three divisions has a general manager position and operates as an independent system.

The R & D General Institute, which is responsible for the technology of self - owned brands, is a direct department of Dongfeng Motor. The above - mentioned company entities are also directly controlled by Dongfeng Motor and report to the group.

This organizational structure requires Dongfeng Motor to have strong control at the group level to coordinate the resources of self - owned brands. However, according to the convention, the core management of Dongfeng Motor generally only controls the strategy and direction and rarely participates in actual business decisions.

Dongfeng Motor is determined to solve the problem. At 3 p.m. on June 26th, Dongfeng Motor held the establishment meeting of Yipai Technology at its headquarters. According to Yang Qing, the chairman of Dongfeng Motor at the meeting, the company "needs to clarify the market entity and gather brand resources" to cope with the competition in new energy and intelligence. Therefore, the establishment of Yipai Technology is to "clench the fist again in the field of self - owned passenger cars and provide resource support for winning the battle."

Now, the general framework has been set up, but to integrate the scattered self - owned brand resources of Dongfeng Motor, Yipai Technology still needs a strong management core to mobilize the large and complex resource pool. In particular, it is about how to effectively integrate the three independent marketing divisions and ensure the efficient operation of the newly established R & D system.

AutoPix has learned that regarding the establishment of the new company, each department of the R & D General Institute has gradually started to publicize it to employees, but the publicity within Dongfeng Passenger Vehicle Sales Company regarding the three brand divisions has not been carried out yet.

▍Yipai 008 

In the first five months of this year, the three brands of Yipai Technology delivered a total of 84,500 vehicles, a year - on - year increase of 36.3%, showing a growth trend. As the cooperation between Yipai and Huawei deepens, more competitive models will be gradually launched.

Even though continuous growth is expected, the comprehensive strength of the three brands is still weak. Nearly a dozen of their products are distributed in different manufacturing systems, and there is room for improvement in the efficiency of integrating R & D resources and the generalization rate of the parts system. In addition, none of these models has a stable monthly sales volume of over 5,000 vehicles. Most models have a monthly sales volume of less than 1,000 vehicles in most months.

Not only Dongfeng Motor, but the organizational structures of various functions, from R & D, manufacturing to sales, of the self - owned brands under several established state - owned automotive enterprises are quite complex. In the era when China's domestic automotive industry was weak, state - owned automotive enterprise groups had almost no upper limit on their investment in self - owned automotive technology and brands. The direct result of the complex structure was that the amount of invested resources was not strictly calculated. What state - owned self - owned automotive brands needed was the possibility of breakthrough.

Now that China's domestic automotive industry has gradually become stronger, state - owned self - owned brands need certainty and need to measure results and efficiency. Therefore, several state - owned automotive enterprise groups are all conducting integration. SAIC's approach is the "grand passenger vehicle segment", and GAC's direction is "group business management and control".

Dongfeng Motor has also assembled an experienced senior management team for Yipai Technology to integrate self - owned brand resources. However, it may need to integrate more quickly and focus on the strategy to have a hope of winning.

This article is from the WeChat public account "AutoPix", author: AutoPix, published by 36Kr with authorization.