A former BYD executive is helping Chery sell cars. Three months after leaving BYD, ZHAO Changjiang announced his appointment at Zhijie.
The rumor has finally settled.
On January 13, Zhao Changjiang, the former general manager of Denza, a brand under BYD, announced that he would join Zhijie Automobile and serve as the executive director and executive vice president of Zhijie Automobile. "I will work with the team to whole - heartedly build a truly user - centered global benchmark intelligent brand and construct a unique 'User - friendly System in the AI Era' that runs through products, services, and experiences," Zhao Changjiang said.
△Image source: Zhijie
Zhijie Automobile is a selected car brand jointly launched by Chery Automobile and Huawei. Currently, two models are on sale, and the first MPV model will be launched soon. On January 9, Zhao Changjiang began to repost relevant promotional content of the Zhijie brand. At that time, there were reports that Zhao Changjiang had been appointed as the executive deputy general manager of Chery Group's sales department, mainly in charge of the sales of the Zhijie brand.
Before joining Chery Automobile, Zhao Changjiang had worked at BYD for nearly 16 years, successively serving as a regional sales manager, the general manager of BYD's sales company, and the general manager of Denza. On October 24, 2025, Zhao Changjiang announced his departure from BYD. After that, there were reports that he would join Chery Automobile and be responsible for relevant work of the Zhijie brand.
Chery Automobile Group told reporters from Time Weekly that this appointment is made by Zhijie Automobile, not by Chery Group. Zhao Changjiang will be responsible for brand building, market sales and other work of Zhijie.
The "Key Figure" of Denza
Zhao Changjiang can be regarded as a young and energetic automotive professional.
After graduating from university in 2009, Zhao Changjiang joined BYD's sales system and was responsible for the sales of regions such as Beijing and Tianjin and brands such as BYD. In 2017, he became the youngest general manager of BYD's sales company at the age of 31.
In December 2021, BYD acquired 40% of the equity of Denza, a joint - venture brand between BYD and Mercedes - Benz (Daimler), achieving a 90% stake in Denza. Then it began to restructure Denza Automobile and positioned it as a high - end new energy brand. At this time, Zhao Changjiang stepped onto the main stage of Denza, serving as the brand's general manager.
△Zhao Changjiang (Image source: Zhao Changjiang's Weibo)
During Zhao Changjiang's tenure as the general manager of Denza, Denza Automobile launched multiple models such as the D9, N7, N8, N9, and Z9 series. However, for a long time, the MPV model Denza D9 has been the brand's main model, with a monthly sales volume of about 8,000 units. The market performance of models such as the N7 and N8 has not been optimistic, with monthly sales ranging from dozens to hundreds of units.
From the overall brand perspective, the monthly sales volume of the Denza brand has long hovered around 10,000 units and has not yet exceeded 20,000 units. When Zhao Changjiang left BYD in October 2025, the monthly sales volume of Denza was only 8,575 units. Compared with the performance of Fangchengbao, another sub - brand under BYD, which exceeded 30,000 units during the same period, Denza's market performance was not outstanding.
Nevertheless, many industry insiders highly affirm Zhao Changjiang's ability. In their view, Zhao Changjiang completed the construction of the sales system for the new Denza brand. Reporters from Time Weekly learned from BYD that when Zhao Changjiang left in October last year, the number of Denza stores across the country had exceeded 600, which laid a considerable foundation for the brand's development.
Regarding the reason for his departure, neither BYD nor Zhao Changjiang himself gave a specific explanation. At that time, Zhao Changjiang said that he would "make a slight adjustment and hoped to find a new rhythm between work and life."
To Build a Sales Channel for Zhijie?
Zhao Changjiang's work in building the sales channel and high - end brand at BYD may be exactly what Zhijie needs at present.
Chery Automobile and Huawei launched the Zhijie brand in the second half of 2023 and successively released two models. However, affected by multiple factors such as production capacity and internal communication, the monthly sales volume of the Zhijie brand has mostly been in the thousands in the past two years. Since October 2025, the monthly sales volume of the Zhijie brand has reached the level of 10,000 units. However, compared with the performance of Wenjie, which exceeded 40,000 units during the same period, there is still a large gap.
In order to improve the brand's performance, Chery Automobile, Huawei, and Zhijie itself have made multiple adjustments since 2024.
As early as the second half of 2024, Chery Automobile established an independent Zhijie division, adopting the methods of independent accounting and autonomous operation. In January 2025, Zhijie was upgraded to an independent subsidiary - Anhui Zhijie New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. Huawei leads the integrated operation of production, sales, and service of Zhijie, and Chery, as the controlling party, fully cooperates.
Later, on August 7, 2025, Chery Automobile and Huawei signed a strategic cooperation agreement 2.0 for the Zhijie brand. The two parties clearly stated that they would invest more than 10 billion yuan and a R & D team of 5,000 people in Zhijie, and simultaneously adjust the operation structure to achieve independent integrated operation of production, sales, and service. The most crucial part is that Zhijie will build a dedicated sales network.
In the view of industry insiders, compared with selling in the Huawei system together with other selected car brands such as Wenjie, an independent sales network is more conducive to Zhijie's sales and service experience. Zhao Changjiang, who has been engaged in the automobile sales field for many years, is exactly the talent that the Zhijie brand currently urgently needs - before leaving BYD, Zhao Changjiang had led the construction of a national - wide Denza sales network.
Against this background, the sales network of the Zhijie brand is expected to be expanded at an accelerated pace, which is of positive significance for its market performance.
This article is from the WeChat public account "Time Weekly" (ID: timeweekly), author: Wu Kai. Republished by 36Kr with authorization.