Wang Chuanfu takes advice: Denza has changed its leadership.

BYD's "BBA" and the most cutting - edge intelligent brand, Denza, has a new leader.

Zhao Changjiang, who once created a "myth" in sales performance and was once the fastest - rising post - 80s within BYD, has left Denza, which he had led for three years.

He successfully "restarted" the Denza brand, and its new energy MPV became an instant hit and remained the long - term sales champion. However, for several subsequent models, the cutting - edge technologies failed to be transformed into product competitiveness, and they successively became the "foils" of competitors.

Car owners and netizens were anxious seeing this situation, and there were continuous criticisms and doubts on the Internet.

Wang Chuanfu also rarely expressed his anxiety about the Denza brand last month, and finally made the decision to change the leader.

Denza Changes Its Leader

At 0:00 this morning, Zhao Changjiang posted a farewell Weibo:

He reviewed the achievements since he took charge of Denza, such as successfully restarting Denza from the brand, channels to positioning, and the sales of Denza started to recover this year... He also previewed the upcoming Denza N8L.

However, Zhao Changjiang's Weibo certification still hasn't been changed:

Zhao Changjiang will swap positions with Li Hui, the current general manager of the Direct Sales Division of Denza and Fangchengbao in an internal peer - to - peer position exchange.

He has returned to his most familiar sales field from being the person in charge of a high - end brand within BYD.

It is said that this is the rotation system for middle and senior management personnel initiated by BYD this year, emulating Huawei. However, there is no accurate information on the scope of the rotation and the duration of each rotation.

Therefore, the most common interpretation from the outside world regarding the position swap between Zhao Changjiang and Li Hui is to break through the current sales bottleneck of Denza.

BYD's brand sales channels vary, but at the new car R & D level, especially in terms of which "cutting - edge technologies" are used for which models and which models are placed under which brands, the "central" department still dominates the distribution. Brand managers will of course participate in the decision - making, but they do not have 100% decision - making power. Their responsibilities are more like being the "front - line sales force" responsible for selling cars well.

During the three years when Zhao Changjiang led Denza, although his title was "General Manager of the Sales Division", what he did most was to frequently appear in public to support the products and technologies and tell the story of Denza.

However, Zhao Changjiang, who was once the fastest - rising "hero in a popular novel" within BYD, did not get a happy - ending script at Denza.

Zhao Changjiang Leaves

Zhao Changjiang was born in 1986 in Liuyang, Hunan. He graduated from Central South University and is an alumnus of the boss Wang Chuanfu.

Right after graduation in 2009, Zhao Changjiang joined BYD and became a regional sales manager of BYD cars.

In BYD's first official book, The Soul of Engineers, when Zhao Changjiang first appeared, he was the regional sales champion of BYD's first high - end model, the Tang.

After years of hard work and with experience in various regions across the country, and because of his youth, eagerness to learn, and boldness to take action, Zhao Changjiang was appointed as the marketing director of the Beijing - Tianjin region of BYD in 2015.

At that time, driven by favorable policies, the new energy vehicle market in core big cities represented by Beijing was booming in both the 2B and 2C sectors, and new energy passenger cars began to enter people's daily lives on a large scale.

A number of new car - making forces, including NIO, Li Auto, and XPeng, also emerged around that time.

In this position, Zhao Changjiang accumulated the most important performance capital for his promotion - he led the BYD sales in this region to increase tenfold in just over a year.

Thanks to his excellent performance in the Beijing - Tianjin region, just two years later, at the age of 31, Zhao Changjiang had a "three - level jump" in his position and became the youngest general manager of the sales company in BYD's history in 2017.

This made a group of "veterans" in the sales system who were four or five levels older than Zhao Changjiang and joined BYD right after graduation become his subordinates.

In early 2021, BYD announced that its sales company would be split into four. Four key figures who joined BYD around 2003 and 2004, namely Lu Tian (for Dynasty series), Zhang Zhuo (for Ocean series), Li Yunfei (for public relations), and Gao Zikai (for after - sales service), were each responsible for a division.

Zhao Changjiang, who previously managed the entire sales business, was entrusted with a new important task by Wang Chuanfu - to establish a high - end brand, which is now Yangwang.

However, BYD's internal strategy changed, and Zhao Changjiang was quickly transferred to Denza to shoulder the heavy responsibility of "restarting" it.

Denza was jointly founded by Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes - Benz, and BYD in 2011. It was one of the earliest pioneers in the mid - to - high - end new energy vehicle market.

The two parties invested in a 50:50 ratio. Although it was a cooperation between BYD and Daimler, it was more like Daimler's attempt to test the new energy market in China. At that time, although the delivery volume of Denza was not large, consumers who bought the cars were more willing to call it a "Mercedes - Benz product".

Indeed, in 2011, Daimler's brand was more well - known and prestigious than BYD.

However, limited by the objective factors in the early stage of the industry's development, Denza's market performance fell far short of the expectations of the two major shareholders. In 2014, the first model, the Denza 300, was priced at 360,000 yuan, which made consumers who had little trust in pure - electric vehicles hesitant, and the market response was mediocre.

After that, the two parties also made several adjustments and attempts. From 2016 to 2018, Denza successively launched models such as the Denza 400 and Denza 500. However, the slow model iteration, relatively high prices, and lack of breakthrough innovation caused Denza to remain on the fringes of the market.

From 2014 to 2018, Denza accumulated losses of over 3.5 billion yuan in five years. In fact, both BYD and Daimler had made attempts. Daimler even promoted the Denza X through the Mercedes - Benz sales channels, but problems such as overstocked inventory and low profit margins led to resistance from Mercedes - Benz dealers, and the attempt ended up in vain.

Therefore, before 2022, although Denza combined BYD's battery technology and Mercedes - Benz's chassis tuning, due to the situation at that time and the new electric strategies determined by Mercedes - Benz and BYD respectively, it finally became a "forgotten brand".

It was not until 2021 that BYD began to "revive" Denza.

In December, BYD and Daimler each increased their capital investment in Denza New Energy by 1 billion yuan. At the same time, they signed an equity transfer agreement to adjust the structure of their joint - venture company. After the transfer, BYD and Daimler will hold 90% and 10% of the equity of Denza respectively (in 2024, BYD completed 100% control of Denza, and Mercedes - Benz withdrew).

This was the year when BYD split its sales division, as mentioned above, and the year when Zhao Changjiang was transferred.

Zhao Changjiang's restart of Denza was actually a new - force startup within BYD, reconstructing every aspect of Denza, such as a new logo:

Then came a new concept: "A new luxury car brand featuring intelligent safety", and under this concept, the first new car, the Denza D9, was launched:

It quickly became the sales champion in the MPV market after its launch. Data shows that the sales volume of Denza vehicles exceeded 120,000 in 2023, and it won the sales championship in the MPV category that year. As of June this year, the 250,000th new Denza D9 rolled off the production line, reaching a milestone for domestic new energy MPVs.

Before the Denza D9, not only new energy brands but also the entire MPV market had long been "dominated" by the Buick GL8, and there were few challengers.

Therefore, the Denza D9 was not only the MPV sales champion but also a pioneer that brought many domestic MPVs, such as the Voyah Dreamer, GAC Trumpchi M8, and Great Wall Wei brand Gaoshan, into consumers' view.

However, in the three years since the D9, Denza has not had a single hit model.

The medium - sized SUV Denza N7, which can be regarded as BYD's first intelligent vehicle, was the first to be equipped with a lidar and urban NOA. It also had BYD's dual - gun super - charging technology, a Qualcomm customized in - vehicle chip, and a Devialet - customized audio system... However, it was quickly ignored after its launch.

After the N7 received 10,000 orders within 24 hours of its launch, the subsequent delivery volume was far from what was expected, with an average monthly delivery volume of only a few hundred units. Even the two consecutive model upgrades and price cuts in 2024 and 2025 could not attract consumers.

Later, the Denza N8 was "erased" from the official website's model introduction soon after its release.

In the second half of 2024, Denza once again attempted to move upmarket by launching the Z9 and Z9GT, targeting luxury models priced over 350,00