Changan's New Leadership Team is in Place, What Is the Real Test Ahead?

With the completion of the 10th Board of Directors election of Changan Automobile, Zhu Huarong was re-elected as Chairman, and Zhao Fei was appointed as President. This combination of "Veterans steering, Core strength exerting effort" is officially in place.

The team includes: Ye Pei as Executive Vice President, Yang Dayong, Zhang Xiaoyu, Wang Xiaofei, Wang Hui as Executive Vice Presidents, Ni Erke as Chief Accountant. There are 7 Vice Presidents in total: Zhang Fatiao, Deng Chenghao, He Gang, Mi Mengdong, Chen Zhuo, Di Zhirui, and Foreign Executive Klaus Zyciora.

For Changan, which is in the critical stage of intelligent electrification transformation, the significance of this election is not just a management adjustment. More importantly, after experiencing dense transformations in the past few years, Changan has entered a new stage of "how to transform transformation results into business results" from the multiple-choice question of "whether to transform".

1 Mechanism Breakthrough: After "Cutting" the Central Enterprise System, Facing the Decisive Test with "Agile Operation"

Evaluating Changan's performance in the past few years, we cannot simply look at sales data; we must also look at the courage of this management team to "cut" the traditional system.

Traditional large car enterprises are prone to problems such as long decision chains and many departmental barriers, while the product iteration and competition pace in the new energy market have significantly accelerated, increasing the pressure on traditional organizational models.

Therefore, Changan established independent operating entities such as Avatr and Deepal, and also implemented Amoeba project incentives and direct executive-user connection mechanisms internally.

The value of this change, compared to the changes in the organizational structure itself, is more importantly that it can be transmitted to products and markets faster. Quickly converting the results of institutional reform into the response speed of market offense and defense.

1 Revenue Harvest: Saying Goodbye to "Multi-line Deployment", Advancing to Scale Profitability Relying on "Architectural Collaboration"

In the past few years, Zhu Huarong led Changan to complete a large-scale brand reconstruction.

On one side, UNI, CS series and other traditional fuel vehicle businesses continue to bear the basic plate, on the other side, Avatr, Deepal, and Changan Qiyuan have formed three major new energy brands. From the high-end market Avatr to the larger mainstream market covered by Deepal and Qiyuan, Changan has completed the multi-brand layout in the new energy market.

But the more brands there are, the greater the resource investment. Facing the common dilemma of the new energy industry of "increasing revenue without increasing profit", how to achieve "scale profitability" after multi-brand deployment is the core proposition.

Therefore, internal synergy is important. Changan takes SDA Digital Intelligence Architecture and full-stack self-developed platform as the grip, implementing "Architectural Generalization and Intensive Control". By allowing Deepal, Qiyuan, and even Avatr to deeply share underlying technology, supply chain procurement, and R&D platforms, marginal costs are greatly reduced; at the same time, pushing Avatr to increase brand premium through high-end product matrix, while Deepal reduces costs through scale volume, truly converting sales offensives into healthy cash flow.

1 Ecological Control: In Cross-boundary Cooperation, Using "Capital Link + Full-stack Foundation" to Hold Dominance

In the past few years, the deep cooperation between traditional car enterprises and ICT companies such as Huawei has become an important trend in the industry.

Changan jointly created the classic "CHN Model" with Huawei and CATL, and seized strategic initiative on key nodes such as investing in Huawei Yinwang, successfully allowing Changan to cut into the first echelon of intelligence.

But after the cross-boundary circle of friends expands, another question will become more important: How can car enterprises maintain their own product definition capabilities in cooperation?

Changan's response strategy is "Grasping with both hands": On one hand, enhancing cooperation stability with core intelligent industry chain partners through deep binding at the capital and strategic level; on the other hand, accelerating the promotion of technologies such as TianShu Large Model, self-developed high-level intelligent driving, and TianShu Architecture.

These two paths are not contradictory.

Cooperation solves capability acquisition, while self-development solves long-term product definition rights.

For traditional car enterprises, the real competition in the future is not "doing everything yourself", nor "giving everything to suppliers", but whether they can establish new industrial division of labor methods: converting external mature capabilities into their own product experience, while retaining core definition capabilities of the whole vehicle products.

1 True Globalization: Breaking Trade-type Exports, Focusing on "Localization Roots" to Attack High Grounds

In the past few years, under Zhu Huarong's leadership, the "Harbor Rivers and Seas" Going Out Strategy has changed from a blueprint into solid actions.

The full-year overseas sales in 2025 have already reached 637,000 vehicles; the overseas exports in the first half of 2026 further reached 455,000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 51.9%.

At the same time, changes in the global trade environment, tariff policies, and geopolitical environment are also changing the competition logic of Chinese car exports.

Today's car exports, the real threshold is no longer just selling products overseas, but whether they can operate long-term locally.

Since 2026, Changan's factory in Anápolis, Brazil officially went into production, the first batch of Changan UNI-Ts locally manufactured in Brazil went off the line; the Rayong factory in Thailand delivered the cumulative 20,000th vehicle, while continuing to promote the construction of channel and service networks in the European market.

Product power is just an entry ticket, local manufacturing, supply chain, channels, services, and compliance capabilities ultimately determine whether an enterprise can truly establish long-term operation capabilities in the overseas market.

1 New Leadership Team is in Place, the Real Test Has Just Begun

The elimination race of the automotive industry is a relay marathon testing endurance and comprehensive quality.

For a large traditional car enterprise, transformation has never been something that can be accomplished through a product launch or an organizational adjustment. In the past few years, Changan has completed a series of high-intensity structural adjustments in transforming from a traditional car enterprise to new energy and intelligence enterprises.

They won the ticket to the finals for Changan with decisive institutional reform and clear tactical layout.

But still facing a series of questions that cannot be ignored: For example, after organizational reform, can efficiency be truly improved? After multi-brand layout, can scale be further converted into operational efficiency? After deep cooperation, can product definition rights continue to be grasped? After going overseas, can we gradually move from an "export enterprise" to real global operation?

None of these questions can get an answer in the short term, but together they form the realistic proposition Changan needs to face next: How to truly convert "transformation results" into "business victory position".

The elimination race is ruthless, but Changan's second half has just begun.