Facing the "Fierce Battle for Existing Market Share", Chery is a Bit "Ruthless"!

Introduction:

Zhang Guibing has taken the post of Executive Vice President of Chery Automobile, with the main brand being integrated into the global market system. This is a significant move. While some car companies are still living by the "outdated practices", Chery has already started a new "revolution". The determination and strategy behind this are worth learning for the industry.

The Chinese automotive market has entered the stage of "fierce competition in the existing market". Many car companies have turned to overseas markets to seek incremental growth opportunities. This has become an acknowledged trend within the industry. However, understanding the trend does not mean the strategy is correct, nor does it mean having the determination to do this well. After all, Chinese car companies going global are moving from the era of "competing on products and channels" to the era of "competing on organizational capabilities". The prerequisite for success is to boldly reform when change is needed to seize the initiative in the next round of competition. And "reform" itself is not easy.

Chery has placed Zhang Guibing, a 27-year veteran of overseas markets, as Executive Vice President of the Joint-Stock Company, and decided to integrate the main brand into the global market system. This serves as a model for many car companies still watching from the sidelines. Of course, this also means they are actively striving for greater discourse power in the global market. Some say Chery's performance in overseas markets has always been good, and such changes do not affect the enterprise's survival. Why not choose to maintain the status quo to "stabilize", instead of going the "reform" path?

Indeed, in terms of overseas achievements, Chery is among the elites among Chinese car brands. But some facts are cruel. Market competition is too fierce, and car companies have actually lost the environment to "lie flat". In the existing market, being passively consumed, no car company can afford it, and Chery is no exception. Only by proactively seeking change, breaking through outwardly, and solidifying the ability to run the global market can they be nourished and used to support the domestic market, thereby establishing a long-term foothold.

As a car company that has cultivated the industry for many years, Chery naturally understands this principle. Therefore, even though overseas markets have already become the core engine of group growth, Chery still chose to proactively promote changes in organizational structure to achieve "domestic and international integration" of global operations, and ultimately face the upcoming competition with a way of "balancing domestic and international".

Worth exploring is, having the person "most familiar with the global market" stand in the position of operation, upgrading the institutional advantages accumulated from years of going global from "departmental assets" to "group core competencies". Is this move by Chery correct?

01

Zhang Guibing Takes Over, "Internal and External Cultivation" is More Guaranteed

Personnel reform in car companies is not rare at present. However, not many car companies can actually use people correctly. In economics, there is a concept called "Specificity of Human Capital". What does this mean? That is to say, when a person's knowledge and abilities are highly bound to a specific industry and specific market, they cannot be easily replicated or transferred. This "specificity" itself is a scarce asset. Judging from Zhang Guibing's takeover, Chery understands how to maximize talent value.

Zhang Guibing joined Chery in 1999, starting as an on-site quality engineer, and has worked through more than a dozen positions. He has a deep understanding of Chery. Under his leadership, Chery built a global dealer network, regional spare parts centers, localized after-sales systems, and even independently developed OMODA and the global light off-road brand JAECOO targeting young global users. The overseas achievements Chery has made today are attributable to Zhang Guibing from a talent perspective.

Such talents as Zhang Guibing are not available to everyone. In overseas markets, time is also competitiveness. Chery has been doing overseas longer than anyone else, and its sales volume is larger than anyone else. Therefore, Chery's overseas operation system is more mature and perfect than most car companies, which gives it enough soil and time to train top global operators like Zhang Guibing. This talent thickness is exactly what other car companies do not have.

Of course, Chinese independent brands in recent years have all wanted to make achievements overseas and are trying to break through in talent. But at present, it is actually difficult to train another "Zhang Guibing". Why can't others train them? The core lies in that they mostly do not have the overseas system and talent density like Chery. Looking at the current situation, apart from BYD, which is racing fast in new energy vehicle overseas export, most car companies have just started going global in the past two years, and their foundation is shallow. Even for car companies like Great Wall that have gone overseas relatively early and performed well, they mainly focus on a few markets such as Russia and Thailand, lacking the national density like Chery.

Lack of overseas national density and sales density means limited training opportunities, and it is difficult to train truly top overseas operators. In contrast, new EV players are even less likely to win. Chery's time overseas is even longer than the time new car manufacturers have survived in the domestic market. While others are still exploring the start of the overseas market, Chery has used more than 20 years to turn the combination of "national density + sales density + talent thickness" into an insurmountable barrier.

In media interviews and reports, Chery international employees' evaluation of Zhang Guibing is mostly "result-oriented and decisive and swift" in these 8 words. Some people say Zhang Guibing is "very capable", and overseas performance is driven by this kind of energy. At the same time, he is also generous to his subordinates, willing to pay high salaries. He belongs to the type of "high requirements, high pay". What Chery wants is internal and external cultivation. If Zhang Guibing can bring the "methods that work overseas" back to the domestic market, at least a few points are worth looking forward to.

First, the possibility of "global products supporting domestic" has increased. Zhang Guibing led the growth of OMODA and JAECOO brands overseas. His ability is undeniable. If these models tested by the most picky markets in the world are brought back to the domestic market, the product competitiveness of Chery in the mainstream youth and high-end markets is expected to be further improved.

Second, Zhang Guibing has formed a clear management style in international business. A Chery international employee once said: under his management, Chery International takes sales results as the goal. Regardless of the position, it is to empower sales. See if you can help the front-line market solve problems and achieve monthly sales targets. If this management idea is moved to the domestic market, there is also a high possibility for the business capability improvement of Chery's domestic team.

Third, after including the main brand in the global market system, the efficiency dividend of "one system, global operation" is considerable. When global large-scale procurement, spare parts and channel resources start serving the domestic market, Chery's domestic operating cost structure will also improve accordingly.

Even though there are still powerful opponents like BYD in the current domestic market, however, Zhang Guibing comes with the "Specificity" premium of human capital. Once his method is effective in the domestic market, the superposition of product, technology, management, system and other dimensions will have a very positive significance for Chery to further impact the domestic market in the future. To further extend, if Chery changes its approach in the domestic market, the competition in the domestic market will add a variable worth observing, and the market pattern may also change as a result.

To look further, Zhang Guibing's promotion has also advanced the first-mover advantage of this global competition again. The Chinese automotive market has long been an existing market, and overseas is the new incremental growth that everyone is fighting for. Since everyone wants to do it, pushing a ready-made operator like Zhang Guibing to the forefront by Chery makes the first-mover advantage brought by talent more obvious.

Other car companies want to obtain a global operator like Zhang Guibing. Internal training takes too long, and external introduction carries greater risks. Even if some foreign talents have overseas market experience, the time required to understand the enterprise system, culture and management logic is too long. The industry competition may not wait. While others are still spending time on coordination, Chery has already put a "plug-and-play" Zhang Guibing on the table. No need for familiarization, no need for transition, can fight now. It is equivalent to striking first.

02

Adhering to the "Deep Cultivation" Route, Chery Has Its Own Method

Seizing territory in overseas markets has never been that easy. Especially in recent years, more and more car companies have joined, and overseas markets are already full of competitors. External gaming has become a problem that car companies going global must face. For Chery, it is the same. BYD attacked like a "lightning war" relying on the intergenerational leading advantage of new energy technology and the vertical integration advantage of the whole industry chain. Overseas sales growth has been rapid. The beautiful results brought by this rhythm make many car companies envious. It is also a method currently used for reference.

Chery does not plan to follow the trend. It always chooses the "Deep Cultivation" route. What can reflect the value of this route is not only more than 20 years of time, but also the depth of Chery's rooting in overseas markets in recent years. Sales networks covering more than 130 countries and regions, and the layout of 16 overseas factories are evidence of Chery's steady progress and deep cultivation.

At a time when more car companies are chasing "speed", Chery's overseas density and sales density show higher value. In October 2026, Chery's single-month export reached 200,618 vehicles, ranking first among all Chinese car brands in terms of export volume; in the first three quarters of 2026, Chery exported 1.5512 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 65.6%, surpassing the total annual export volume of 2025.

More importantly, these sales are not concentrated in a few markets, but are distributed in CIS, Middle East, Europe, Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa and other parts of the world. Recently Chery has also entered the Canadian market. With the landing of the China-Canada Electric Vehicle Tariff Quota Agreement, Chery was the first to ship the first batch of vehicles to Canada for testing and showroom arrangement. About 1,000 vehicles will be added in the next three months. The first 10 dealers plan to put into operation one after another. In the early days of layout, Chery had already submitted trademark registrations for multiple brands such as Exeed, OMODA, JAECOO, iCar, and Luxeed, and started the establishment of local teams for the Canadian market.

This extensive coverage and high-density global layout is the direct result of Chery's years of "Deep Cultivation" route. Some people may think that this deep cultivation approach will bring too high sunk costs. From the perspective of investment, this cost is indeed not small, but the advantage of sunk costs is now visible to the naked eye. In these years, Chery has accumulated enough overseas experience. The accumulation of nearly 7 million vehicles, channels and compliance experience in more than 130 countries, are car companies that just started overseas business in recent years cannot catch up with and cannot be copied in the short term.

Zhang Guibing's promotion has also brought new variables to this game. Including the main brand into the global market system, and having him directly manage the domestic business group means that Chery is systematically supporting the domestic market with overseas verified system capabilities. The decision of "one system, global operation" also represents the dimension upgrade of organizational capabilities. It can be seen that Chery thinks very comprehensively in the domestic and international markets.

In this industry, things that appear "slow", when accumulated enough, speed is actually no longer a problem. Like Chery, the time in the past has won a moat with more corporate thickness. Now turning "thickness" into organizational capabilities and competing with opponents on the dimension of "global operations", it is possible to run to the front of the track faster.

03

Technology "Never Relaxed", This is the Real "Solid Foundation"

Not getting the right general direction does not mean this war can be won. In this increasingly clear consumer market, technology is always the real "Solid Foundation". In this matter, Chery has always been reassuring. As a car company widely recognized as "Engineering-focused", its emphasis on technology has never changed. Over the past five years, Chery's cumulative R&D investment has exceeded 110 billion yuan, built 313 Guangxuan Laboratories, and has more than 30,000 R&D personnel.

Dedicated investment in technology has also reinforced Chery's moat in technology. In the five major technology fields of Mars Architecture, Kunpeng Power, Lingxi Smart Cockpit, Falcon Smart Driving, and Galaxy Ecosystem, Chery has already formed more than 400 core technology reserves. Many car companies are now talking about "Long-termism", but few have actually put it into practice. Chery's valuable point is that it really throws money and energy into the bottom-layer research and development. The investment in technology is large enough, and Chery's forward pace is also faster.

At a recent Chery Global Innovation Conference, it officially released the Guangxuan 2035 strategy. CheryMind Physical AI Vertical Large Model, Ziwei Series Automotive Grade Chips, Rhino Solid-state Battery and other core technologies made a centralized appearance. From edge-side computing power to cloud-side intelligence, from energy technology to intelligent driving, this is already a complete technology system. The value of the four words "Technology Chery" is evident.

As the saying goes, where you invest, you harvest there. The accumulation of technology has already been reflected in sales. The all-new QQ 3 sold more than 10,000 units per month continuously for 6 months, holding 100,000 global orders waiting for delivery; Fengyun A9 took the champion of pure electric medium-sized car sales in the 100,000-150,000 yuan segment, delivering more than 7,000 vehicles in September, and monthly orders broke through 20,000; Luxeed V9 has won the number one in the MPV market with a price above 400,000 yuan for four consecutive months.

In the current automotive market, many car companies are still relying on single cars to support sales, but Chery's blockbuster models have emerged in batches. It has to be said that the explosive power brought by deep cultivation of technology is still very strong. Today's market competition is not simply sales expansion. The market is now asking car companies to upgrade in all aspects from products to technology, from manufacturing to systems. Looking at the current situation, Chery's direction is very correct.

04

Conclusion

When overseas markets are already going great, Chery still chose to settle down to think about how to achieve "internal and external cultivation", instead of holding the report card self-satisfied. Just this point is already very rare in the entire industry. From the domestic market, when the generals who are best at fighting overseas return to the main brand operation frontline, the room for imagination for this reform is even more not to be underestimated.Whether Zhang Guibing can cope with the upcoming "fierce battle for existing market share"? This question still needs time to test. However, a car company that always has a reform mindset and is willing to use time to cultivate the market and technology, a manager whose strength has been verified, is highly unlikely to disappoint.

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