Introduction

"Unite forces to win the battle."

The automotive industry is currently in a crucial phase of electrification and intelligent transformation, characterized by intense market competition. Especially after the tumultuous past two years in the automotive market, most automakers have come to realize that China's automotive industry is shifting from scale expansion to quality enhancement. Resource integration and strategic focus have emerged as industry consensus.

Competition among automakers has escalated from a mere technology race to a comprehensive system confrontation. The diminishing marginal benefits of technology investment have compelled automakers to restructure their resource allocation strategies. A prime example is BYD's integration of its entire industry chain resources, encompassing batteries, motors, and electronic controls, to introduce core technologies like Blade Batteries and the e-platform 3.0, facilitating an efficient transition from technology R&D to product launch.

Similarly, in February this year, Geely Automobile swiftly adapted, officially merging its Lynk & Co and Zeekr brands into the Zeekr Group. This move clearly embodies an organizational operational mode driven by dual brands and a robust product line matrix, fully integrating manufacturing systems, supply chains, and other back-office and overseas organizations. Through AI empowerment, Geely aims to establish a more competitive integrated powerhouse.

To stand out in this fiercely competitive market, leading automakers are focusing on core strategic directions such as intelligence, electrification, and globalization. By deeply integrating internal and external resources, establishing independently operated entities, or rebranding, they strive to bolster their competitiveness.

Against this backdrop, on June 26, Dongfeng Motor held the founding conference of E-Pilot Auto Technology Company of Dongfeng Motor Group Co., Ltd. The purpose of this conference is crystal clear: to fully propel Dongfeng Motor's independent passenger vehicle business by focusing on integrating high-quality resources across the entire value chain, encompassing business enterprises, R&D, production, supply chain, sales, and services.

Undoubtedly, Dongfeng Motor's establishment of E-Pilot Auto Technology Company also aims to integrate and reorganize high-quality resources scattered across various links through a dynamic operating mechanism, "unite forces," gain the upper hand in the fierce market competition, accelerate the pace of transformation and upgrading, better respond to competitors, and timely "deliver a knockout punch."

01 Never Lacking Synergy

Since we mentioned Dongfeng Motor "uniting forces," it's evident that its three brands—Dongfeng Fengshen, Dongfeng E-Pilot, and Dongfeng Nano—are like three powerful "fingers," providing a solid foundation for this strategic layout. They complement each other, forming a formidable synergy, giving Dongfeng Motor the confidence to excel in the realm of independent passenger vehicles.

Data reveals that in May, Dongfeng Motor sold 81,000 new energy vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 26.5%. Dongfeng Passenger Vehicle sales reached 18,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 31.2%. From January to May, Dongfeng Motor sold 318,000 new energy vehicles and 536,000 vehicles under its independent brands. It's evident that Dongfeng Motor's independent brands are accelerating their development with a steady upward momentum.

Through the differentiated positioning and coordinated development of its three major brands—Dongfeng Fengshen, Dongfeng E-Pilot, and Dongfeng Nano—Dongfeng Motor's independent passenger vehicles have established a comprehensive product matrix covering three key technological routes: fuel, plug-in hybrid, and pure electric. This achieves a precise layout in the mainstream automotive market, ranging from 80,000 to 250,000 yuan. Furthermore, through their respective technical expertise and market positioning, they cater to the diverse needs of different consumer groups.

As the pioneer of Dongfeng's independent passenger vehicle business, Dongfeng Fengshen adopts a dual-track development strategy focusing on both oil and electric vehicles. Its core competitiveness lies in its cutting-edge power technology. The Maher Electric Hybrid PHREV technology integrates industry-leading hybrid electric drive with an integrated configuration, a 1.5T hybrid-dedicated engine with a thermal efficiency of up to 45.18%, and an i-Control intelligent electronic control system.

Positioned as a "mainstream technological electric brand," Dongfeng E-Pilot showcases robust technological integration capabilities with intelligence and scenario-based innovation as its core competitiveness. For instance, the eπ008 boasts an ultra-long wheelbase of 3025mm, creating an MPV-level passenger space, while the 2025 eπ007 is equipped with Dongfeng's self-developed "Tai Chi Large Model" AI voice assistant.

As a crucial executor of Dongfeng's "leapfrog action" strategy aimed at "overwhelming" competition, Dongfeng Nano shoulders the mission of expanding the popularization of new energy. It has already launched two models, Nano 01 and Nano 06, developed based on Dongfeng's Quantum Architecture 3 platform specifically for national vehicles, offering large space and high configuration in small cars.

In essence, technology sharing forms the core of the synergy between these three brands. They collectively rely on Dongfeng's three major technological pillars: Maher Power, Quantum Architecture, and Tianyuan Intelligence. For example, the Maher Electric Hybrid PHREV technology is applied to both Fengshen L7 and E-Pilot models; Tianyuan Intelligence gradually covers the entire product line, starting with Nano 06.

The differentiated product matrix constructed by Dongfeng Motor with its three major brands—Dongfeng Fengshen, Dongfeng E-Pilot, and Dongfeng Nano—demonstrates a typical path for Chinese traditional automakers transforming towards new energy: leveraging profound technological accumulation and a comprehensive industry chain layout to form a multi-brand collaborative development pattern in the field of independent passenger vehicles. This "group combat" model showcases the scale effect of resource integration and accelerates the new energy transformation process.

However, when viewed within the broader context of the entire new energy vehicle market, Dongfeng still grapples with the dilemma of "high praise but low sales." Compared to BYD's stellar performance with over 500,000 units sold in a single month and Geely's Galaxy series surpassing 100,000 units in monthly sales, Dongfeng's independent passenger vehicle business as a whole still hovers in the second-tier camp. There are numerous reasons for this, directly reflected in specific sales figures.

This reality prompts Dongfeng Motor to break the growth bottleneck and achieve a breakthrough by establishing E-Pilot Auto Technology Company. The establishment of this independently operated entity essentially draws from other successful experiences, shedding the shackles of the traditional system, avoiding internal friction, and achieving reorganization in organizational structure, decision-making processes, user operations, and more.

02 Deliver a Knockout Punch

As everyone knows, technological reserves have become the cornerstone of automakers' competitiveness in capturing market share. In fact, what Dongfeng Motor lacks most is technological accumulation. At the Shanghai Auto Show in April this year, Dongfeng Motor officially launched the "Tianyuan Intelligence" technology brand and exhibited nine technological exhibits, showcasing its profound accumulation and innovative achievements in the field of intelligence to the industry.

Under the "Tianyuan Intelligence" technology brand, Dongfeng has constructed an intelligent technology system with "one core, two foundations, and two elements." This system not only encompasses hardware technologies such as intelligent chassis and intelligent cockpit domain controllers but also includes self-developed operating systems and algorithms, forming a full-stack technology layout from the underlying architecture to upper-level applications.

Nevertheless, there's still a gap that needs bridging between technological accumulation and market transformation. The key lies in swiftly implementing these technologies and applying them to all products in a streamlined and standardized manner. If this is still handled through the independent efforts of the three brands—Dongfeng Fengshen, Dongfeng E-Pilot, and Dongfeng Nano—it will not only lead to resource dispersion and repeated R&D but also make it challenging to achieve scale effects and synergies.

A typical example is that although the three brands share Dongfeng Group's technological resources, they exhibit a fragmented situation in specific applications. For instance, both based on the Maher power system, Fengshen L7 emphasizes endurance, while E-Pilot eπ007 focuses on performance. This differentiation is understandable but lacks a unified brand technology language and a systematic technology communication strategy.

Just before the deadline, media reports revealed that with the establishment of the new company, the Nano brand will be merged into the E-Pilot brand, while the Fengshen brand will remain independent. Through brand integration, Dongfeng can concentrate resources to build a core product matrix, avoid internal competition, and enhance technology conversion efficiency. This measure signifies that Dongfeng Motor has acutely recognized the gravity of the problem.

For traditional automakers, the biggest obstacle to transformation often isn't technological shortcomings but organizational inertia and mindset. Many automakers have invested heavily in researching and developing new technologies but struggle to shed traditional product development models and marketing thinking. Especially in the context of state-owned enterprises, such changes require overcoming institutional and mechanistic constraints, which is no easy feat.

We often perceive state-owned enterprises as plagued by the malady of "elephants being difficult to turn around," but undoubtedly, Dongfeng Motor is at the forefront in terms of consciousness transformation and efficient execution. From swiftly responding to industry trends by establishing E-Pilot Auto Technology Company to decisively adjusting the brand structure, Dongfeng Motor has demonstrated the flexibility and decisiveness of state-owned enterprises in transformation.

From a broader perspective, Dongfeng Motor's adjustment also mirrors the phased characteristics of the overall transformation of China's automotive industry. In the nascent stages of new energy vehicle development, major automakers generally adopted a multi-brand strategy, attempting to capture the market through extensive layout. However, as the industry enters a phase of intensive cultivation, resource integration and focus have become inevitable choices.

Of course, brand integration is just part of the equation, and the real challenge lies in subsequent collaborative operations. How to maintain the original cost-effectiveness advantage of the Nano brand while infusing E-Pilot's technological genes? How to balance the traditional advantages of the Fengshen brand with transformation needs? These require Dongfeng to establish a more flexible operating mechanism.

In the future, whether E-Pilot Technology can genuinely activate the potential of group resources and transform the resource advantages of the entire value chain into market advantages will not only test its resource integration and innovation efficiency but also hinge on whether it can foster differentiated competitiveness in user operations and brand building. This may become a pivotal variable determining the success or failure of Dongfeng Motor's independent business.

Responsible Editor: Li Sijia, Editor: He Zengrong