Shushu

I was paused on March 13, and at that time, neither I nor the whole Shanghai expected to be paused from that time until now without a finalized restart.

In addition to people and the city, the entire automobile industry I am in was also paused.

In previous years, major car companies should have been busy releasing their brand strategies and new cars for the new year because of the Beijing Auto Show. This is also a good time for sales because with everything starting anew, people have new plans for the new year. For those of us in the automotive media, running press conferences online and offline and reporting on them is the norm in April, and we are often busy until the peak of summer in July.

Suddenly, all of us missed the spring of 2022 and said goodbye to each other in a small world in April this year.

However, after collecting some information, I want to tell you that even though missing spring is regrettable, there is more than just pausing in life.

The most fun carnival in April is sponsored by Jihoo

On April 15th, the last batch of sealed communities in Shanghai had been sealed for at least half a month. That night, my Moments was blown up by a Cui Jian concert.

It doesn’t matter whether everyone really wants to continue to be wild with Cui or just wants to sing a few lines of “Fake Monk”. Yell to their hearts’ content, click into the live broadcast, and Cui will definitely let you have fun.

The first barrage I saw when I clicked into the live broadcast was “Beijing Daxing is here”. As someone who had been closed off in Shanghai for a month and a half, I almost cried. It was like those guys were interacting with me in the comments section. The Jihoo brand logo on the top right corner of the video also gave me a sense of pride in my work.

See, this is the industry I belong to, the brand I encounter, and the activities I participate in. Nearly 45 million people here released their pent-up restlessness caused by the epidemic.

It’s not deliberate to praise Jihoo. Even if there were a hundred of these events, I would still be blown away every time.

A friend from the GAC Trumpchi 4S store said that they are doing everything they can

A friend from a GAC Trumpchi 4S store said that at the end of March, just before the lockdown began, he received a message from the company – “rushing to send freshly purchased GAC masks to the three shops in Puxi that have not yet been locked down, to provide care for the sales stores.”

At the same time, they also made use of this time to guide video production at the stores, so that everyone wouldn’t be at a loss without offline service.

Therefore, during this period of complete lockdown, their online meetings have been uninterrupted, and the sales side has not overlooked any platform, including Xiaohongshu and Douyin, when they “scan the streets” online.Near Shanghai, GAC GONOW Hangzhou company was not idle and actively sent GAC GONOW’s vegetable love packages to suppliers and other friends in Shanghai. Behind the care, there was also a “little selfishness” to gain more chips for the company.

Working hard and actively, this is the spirit of GAC GONOW during the epidemic.

From the brand to the employees, AVITA gives me a sense of ease

I wrote this article on April 27th. The headline of GQ on that day was about AVITA. After reading it, I almost burst into tears. GQ rolled up the industry’s advertising content into a burrito, and AVITA put the competitors into a burrito without extending the deadline during the epidemic.

AVITA’s Xiao Jiejie told me that the car was jointly designed with the creative director of Givenchy, and this is just a warm-up.

From my communication with her, I could see that from the brand to the employees’ work arrangements, AVITA’s pace has not been disrupted by the epidemic or quarantine. Not only is their work organized, but the progress is also orderly as planned.

“In fact, our two product colleagues came to work on Monday, and all work did not stop because of the epidemic.”

“I was just hired not long before the lockdown. I have received three waves of supplies from the company, including daily necessities such as oil, rice, noodles, fresh chicken, salted duck, and vegetables. I think this kind of human care really reflects the company’s philosophy, emotional intelligence is not only for external use but also for us employees.”

Home in Shanghai, SAIC makes efforts to resume work and ensures employees’ meals and showers

“Home” in SAIC, Shanghai, was one of the first car companies to prepare for epidemic prevention and control in mid-to-late March. Over 500 R&D personnel have been living in the park, undergoing closed management and work. Personnel who are not involved in the closed management had their computers and workstations moved home.

Even the last time Deputy General Manager of Passenger Cars, Sun Yijiong, worked in the front line for 20 days after living and eating at the company, General Manager of SAIC Passenger Cars, Yang Xiaodong, took over his shift.

SAIC has transformed two to three dozen shower facilities inside the workshop, parked trailers with shower facilities in the park, and focused its greatest effort on coordinating resources with local companies and governments to solve the problem of meal supply for more than 500 people in the park.

It also needs to work hard with logistics, not only to bring in the materials needed for factory production but also to send out finished vehicles.There are many challenges, Sun Yijiong mentioned during a media interview: “For example, when it comes to train transportation, you have to disinfect once you arrive at the parking lot, then you need to sort things out, and after that, you have to arrange for transportation resources. If some roads in the local area, like highways, are not available, we will have to detour…” Despite this, we see that the lights in SAIC’s factories never went out, and the management and production rhythm of SAIC, which appeared on the resumed work whitelist, have improved significantly.

SAIC Volkswagen Powertrain Co., Ltd., there are always more solutions than difficulties

After hearing about SAIC Volkswagen Powertrain Co., Ltd., I deeply understand the above sentence.

When they were notified to close, they quickly restored more than 30% of their production capacity by operating with the minimum production staffing at only 16%, and a single-shift production arrangement, smoothly completing the production of more than 11,000 engines offline.

Compared with whole-vehicle manufacturing plants, for engine assembly plants, a core engine component has hundreds of parts, and materials are distributed across more than 120 suppliers in three provinces and cities of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai. During the first few days of the lockdown, while others were scrambling for groceries, they were all busy scrambling for parts.

“Once Puxi enters the lockdown period, the supply of our parts will be cut off, so we must have enough inventory of parts before the lockdown begins. This is a challenge I have never encountered before,” said Wang Dong, the senior manager of logistics and planning in the factory, during a media interview.

Now, inside the closed SAIC Volkswagen Powertrain Co., Ltd. campus, in addition to busy frontline employees, there are also various “community leaders” for daily necessities. Some wear protective clothing to buy medicine for employees in temperatures approaching 30 degrees Celsius. Some have transformed into “Tony” hairstylists, offering mutual assistance for employees. Some supplement employees with summer short-sleeved shirts and other daily necessities.

Wang Dong also said, “With the support and assistance of the Shanghai Municipal Economic and Information Commission and the Jiading District government, we obtained cross-province transportation passes to ensure that the finished engines produced from the closed production can supply SAIC Volkswagen Anting, Yizheng, Nanjing, and Ningbo bases, maximizing the value we have been defending.”

If offline doesn’t work, online it is, Zhi Ji did a beautiful job

Offline press conferences and events are impossible. If we host events in even moderately affected cities, we will not only add to the community’s epidemic prevention workload but also that those who can participate usually reside mostly in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.During this epidemic period, in my opinion, IM Motors is the most outstanding car company in conducting online activities. On March 29th, IM Motors held the “IM L7 New World Driving Flagship” online communication event; on April 17th, the IM L7 was officially launched, and simultaneously announced the Guinness World Record for the longest drift distance of an electric vehicle, which is 43.646 kilometers.

Sitting at home, watching the drift video is quite satisfying.

The domestic BMW X5 was released online earlier, and a few days ago the new 7 series and i7 were also formally launched online. As the most anticipated model of BMW this year, when Mr. Gaole, CEO of BMW Greater China, pronounced the “China Inspiration, German Craft” concept very fluently on stage, I felt convinced for the first time. In addition, the inspiration for the 7 series also includes two-tone paint and a larger space than the old model.

If you want to learn more about the new car, please refer to Hu’s first-hand report “The Moment When the New 7 Series Appeared, Countless People Took a Deep Breath“. I just want to say that this heavy-weight car with so many changes was originally planned to unveil at the Beijing Auto Show. Under such circumstances, most car companies would choose to postpone, but BMW insisted on forging ahead, bringing the most lively discussion in April.

On the night of the launch event, my circle of friends was more lively than during the Cui Jian concert.

Also, they haven’t stopped their release pace. On April 13th, the 2022 Mondeo model was released, and on April 19th, the Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV was launched. On the same day, Audi brought the Audi urbansphere concept car to the sphere gala.# April 20th: Lexus RZ is released; April 21st: Maserati Grecale is also out; Lincoln’s first pure electric concept car, Lincoln Star, is unveiled on the same day; and the new generation of Range Rover is released as well; April 25th: the smart car, Smart Fortwo #1, is released.

On April 26th, Dongfeng Honda e:NS1 is finally released. The press conference was a little dull, with a 20-minute-long commercial video and finally the last pricing chart. But given the current situation, we should be grateful for anything.

Many car manufacturers have chosen to release online this April. Other than the automotive industry, I also remember that Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion, Macron won the French election and was re-elected, and tropical storm “Noul” caused the death of hundreds and affected over one hundred thousand people in the Philippines.

Today is the last day of April. Other than the four days in mid-March when the lockdown was lifted temporarily, I haven’t been outside my neighborhood for 44 days.

I wish I could press the world’s reset button on March 13th and wait for the end of the lockdown, but I can’t. The world won’t stop for anyone, and neither will my industry or my career. I can only tell myself that fate is unpredictable, but when life is hard, I need to do the right thing, accumulate strength, stay calm and wait for better days. I’m proud to be part of an industry where everyone is doing the same. Therefore, I have high hopes for the future.

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.