July 31, Genesis announced the appointment of Zhu Jiang as the new chief executive officer of Genesis Motor Sales (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. The appointment will take effect officially on August 5, 2024. After taking office, he will comprehensively promote the growth and development of Genesis’ business in China.
The data shows that Zhu Jiang has more than 20 years of working experience in the automotive industry and has successively held senior management positions in several automakers, including international well-known automotive brands such as NIO, BMW, MINI, Lexus and Ford. Before joining Genesis, Zhu Jiang held the position of the first managing director of the US new energy vehicle startup Lucid in China in September 2022, responsible for the business in the Chinese market.
Looking back at Zhu Jiang’s work resume, he has profound attainments in the automotive industry and can be regarded as an old hand in the automotive industry, especially with rich experience in brand building and marketing. In 2003, Zhu Jiang joined BMW Brilliance and was responsible for marketing activities. Thereafter, from 2008 to 2012, he served as the brand management director of BMW MINI and was later promoted to the vice president of MINI brand management in China. He left BMW in 2013 and joined Lexus. In 2017, Zhu Jiang left Lexus and joined NIO as the vice president of user development. In addition to the above work experiences, Zhu Jiang also briefly served as the vice president in the former Jidu Automobile, responsible for user development and operation.
In October 2023, the chief executive officer of Genesis, Markus Henne, left his post, and thereafter, Wells Lee, the chief coordinator of Genesis, took over the position. Regarding the appointment of Zhu Jiang as the chief executive officer of Genesis in China this time, the global head of Genesis, Song Mingui, said that he has accumulated rich management experience in global well-known automotive brands and the Chinese electric vehicle industry, and after taking over, he will lead the long-term development and business growth of Genesis in China.
It is understood that Genesis (GENESIS) is an independent luxury brand under the Hyundai Motor Group of South Korea, established in November 2015. In April 2021, Genesis loudly announced on the Bund in Shanghai to return to the Chinese market in the form of imports. The reason why the word “return” is used is that this is not the first time Genesis has entered China. Before that, Genesis entered the Chinese market in the names of “Rohens” and “Genesis” in 2008 and 2014 respectively, but after entering the Chinese market, the sales performance was poor and finally ended hastily and disappeared.
And from the current sales situation analysis, even if Genesis enters the Chinese market again, it does not have much presence in the country. According to the terminal sales data, the annual sales of Genesis in the Chinese market in 2023 is only 1558 vehicles, and the sales in 2022 before that is also only 1457 vehicles.
Up to now, Genesis has successively laid out several models in China, including G70, GV70, G80, GV80 and GV60. Although there are many products, its development in the domestic market is not smooth. On the one hand, it is limited by the relatively small brand, and both the brand appeal and the cost performance do not have advantages. On the other hand, Korean cars represented by Hyundai have not high recognition in the domestic market, and the market share in China is shrinking rapidly. The data shows that from 2019 to 2021, the market share of Korean brands in the Chinese market dropped from 4.7% to 2.4%, and in 2023 it was 1.5%.
In October 2023, Genesis held an all-staff meeting in China. In the meeting, Wells Lee, the then chief coordinator (CEC) of Genesis in China, disclosed that in less than 10 months in the past, Genesis suffered a loss of as high as 1.2 billion yuan. Even more bleakly, in the three years since entering China, the total loss has been as high as 30 billion, and frankly admitted that in the past three years, no Genesis Chinese employee has purchased a vehicle of this brand. Industry insiders analyzed that behind the huge loss of Genesis’ business in China is that there is a problem with its operation strategy in the Chinese market. At the same time, it also reveals from the side that whether it is brand premium or product premium, Genesis has not fully obtained the recognition of Chinese consumers.
At present, Genesis continues to lower its stance to make up for lessons to improve competitiveness and profitability. As planned, from 2025 onwards, all new models of Genesis will become pure electric models, achieving 100% zero emissions by 2030 and achieving net zero carbon emissions for the brand by 2035. However, in the middle of this month, there was news in the market that Genesis President Mike Song said in an interview that Genesis will invest in launching as many hybrid models as possible next year instead of fully betting on electric vehicles.
As a luxury brand under the Hyundai Motor Group, Genesis has entered China three times, but the performance in the Chinese market is quite surprising. The current competitive environment in the luxury car market is becoming increasingly fierce, and Genesis, as a more niche imported luxury brand, obviously has a more difficult life.
After the new official Zhu Jiang is appointed in a critical situation, “how to regain the Chinese market” will become a difficult problem that needs to be solved mainly after he takes office. As for whether Zhu Jiang can lead Genesis to open the Chinese market in the future, perhaps there will be an answer soon.