Diving Deep into Business Essence, Zeroing In on Corporate Core

Author | Yang Cheng

“Achieve 100,000 unit sales in five years, with new energy vehicles making up over 40%,” Yuan Hongming, the former Party Secretary and Chairman of Shaanxi Automobile Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Shaanxi Auto”), set this ambitious target for the company during his tenure.

Specifically, Shaanxi Auto Commercial Vehicles aimed to sell 40,000 units in 2024, 60,000 units in 2025, 80,000 units in 2026, and reach the 100,000-unit milestone in 2027.

However, reality fell short of expectations. Shaanxi Auto Commercial Vehicles sold 24,300 units in 2024 and 28,000 units in 2025, missing the targets for two consecutive years.

Notably, on January 20, Liu Yi, the newly appointed Party Secretary and Chairman of Shaanxi Auto Holdings, attended the 2026 Shaanxi Auto Commercial Vehicles Partner Conference. Yuan Hongming had retired due to age and no longer held any positions within Shaanxi Auto Holdings, including Party Secretary, Committee Member, Chairman, or Director.

At the conference, Shaanxi Auto set a clear target of selling 38,000 commercial vehicles in 2026, striving to exceed 50,000 units and achieve an output value of 10 billion yuan by the end of the “15th Five-Year Plan”.

This shift signifies a change in strategic direction since Liu Yi took the helm, moving away from the scale-focused targets set during Yuan Hongming’s era.

01

Sales Targets Fall Short for Two Consecutive Years

Yuan Hongming led Shaanxi Auto as Chairman for over a decade until his retirement. During his tenure, he mapped out the company’s strategic goals up to 2035.

In February 2018, Shaanxi Auto officially unveiled its “2035 Strategy”. At the time, Party Secretary and Chairman Yuan Hongming outlined a three-phase implementation plan.

The first phase, spanning from the present until 2020, aimed to achieve the goal of “Shaanxi Auto becoming a 100-billion-yuan enterprise” within roughly three years and complete the development tasks outlined in the “13th Five-Year Plan”.

The second phase, from 2020 to 2025, focused on serialized development of military products, increasing international market sales to over 30%, positioning the heavy-duty truck business at the forefront of the global industry, and making the full range of commercial vehicle businesses leaders in the domestic market, with group sales revenue exceeding 150 billion yuan.

The third phase, from 2025 to 2035, aimed to elevate Shaanxi Auto’s commercial vehicle businesses to international leading levels, establish the new energy passenger vehicle business as a significant force in the industry, and push group sales revenue beyond 200 billion yuan.

According to public information, Shaanxi Auto’s operating revenue was 64.962 billion yuan in 2023. However, the operating revenues for 2024 and 2025 have not been disclosed, leaving it uncertain whether the sales revenue target of exceeding 150 billion yuan proposed in the “second phase” was achieved.

Five years later, on February 2, 2023, the 2023 Shaanxi Auto Commercial Vehicles Business Annual Meeting, themed “Striving Forward, United and Moving Together,” was held in Baoji, Shaanxi. At the meeting, Yuan Hongming announced the strategic goal for Shaanxi Auto Commercial Vehicles: “Achieve 100,000 unit sales in five years, with new energy vehicles accounting for over 40%.”

Specifically, the sales target for 2023 was set at 25,000 units, including 2,000 new energy vehicles; for 2024, it was 40,000 units, including 5,000 new energy vehicles; for 2025, it was 60,000 units, including 10,000 new energy vehicles; for 2026, it was 80,000 units, including 20,000 new energy vehicles; and the medium-term strategic goal was to reach 100,000 units with 40% new energy vehicles by 2027.

However, Shaanxi Auto Commercial Vehicles fell short, selling only 24,300 units in 2024, completing about 60% of the target, and 28,000 units in 2025, failing to reach half of the expected target.

On November 17, 2025, Zuo Yan’an, a member of the China Automobile Industry Consultative Committee and former chairman of JAC Motors, proposed five strategic suggestions for Shaanxi Auto Group at a symposium, directly addressing industry pain points and future opportunities.

This industry veteran, retired for 13 years, pointed out: “Annual sales of 1 million units are already the industry ceiling. Blind expansion is inferior to precise quality improvement.” He suggested shifting from “scaling up” to “optimizing” and upgrading from chassis design to body craftsmanship by benchmarking international giants like Mercedes-Benz and Volvo.

Against the backdrop of consecutive sales failures and expert advice, Shaanxi Auto Group stands at a critical juncture for adjustment and reform.

On January 23, the Shaanxi Provincial People’s Government issued a notice regarding Yuan Hongming’s removal from office due to age: The provincial government decided on January 22, 2026, to relieve Yuan Hongming of his positions as Chairman and Director of Shaanxi Auto Group Co., Ltd.

02

Liu Yi Takes the Reins from Yuan Hongming

On the same day as Yuan Hongming’s removal from office due to age, the Shaanxi Provincial People’s Government issued a notice regarding Liu Yi’s appointment, naming him as Director and Chairman of Shaanxi Auto Group Co., Ltd.

Public information reveals that Liu Yi graduated with both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the School of Marine Science and Technology at Northwestern Polytechnical University. He joined Fast Gear Group in 2004 and has served in various capacities, including design engineer, design department director, deputy director and director of the Design Research Institute, deputy chief engineer, assistant to the general manager, and deputy general manager. He can be considered a quintessential “technical” leader.

In the technical realm, Liu Yi participated in the decade-long project “Complete Technology and Application for Improving the Load-Bearing Capacity of Gear in High-End Heavy-Duty Transmission” starting from 2011.

This project resulted in the formulation of 10 national standards, the granting of 25 national invention patents and 6 utility model patents, the registration of 10 software copyrights, and the publication of 18 academic papers. In 2018, he won the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award for the project “Key Technologies and Applications of Powertrain for Heavy-Duty Commercial Vehicles” (listed as the third contributor).

During his tenure as a senior executive at Fast Gear, he witnessed and promoted the company’s transformation in new energy power systems, intelligent manufacturing, and export布局 (layout). Fast Gear’s launch of the Lanchi 800V high-voltage system, the intelligent “black light factory,” and its cooperation with international suppliers such as BorgWarner are representative achievements of this stage.

This background and experience make Liu Yi the urgent helmsman Shaanxi Auto needs in its new energy transformation, intelligent manufacturing upgrade, and global market competition.

At the meeting themed “Product Leadership, Precision Segmentation, and Create a Shared Future (Creating the Future Together),” Shaanxi Auto Commercial Vehicles signaled a strategic transformation: shifting from “scaling up” to “optimizing.”

Meanwhile, Liu Yi clarified the long-term goals for Shaanxi Auto Commercial Vehicles at the conference: striving to achieve vehicle sales exceeding 50,000 units and an output value exceeding 10 billion yuan by the end of the “15th Five-Year Plan,” successfully entering the ranks of 10-billion-yuan enterprises. The sales target for 2026, as the starting year, is set at 38,000 units, including 33,000 units for domestic business and 5,000 units for exports.

To achieve this goal, he proposed four major initiatives: improving product layout, creating an efficient ecosystem, strengthening the new energy business, and building precise marketing.

Compared to the 80,000-unit sales target proposed during Yuan Hongming’s tenure for 2026, Shaanxi Auto under Liu Yi’s leadership appears more pragmatic. However, achieving the target of 38,000 units, an increase of about 36% from the 28,000 units sold in 2025, still poses significant pressure for Shaanxi Auto at present.

END

Layout | Wu Yue

Editor-in-Chief | Lao Chao

Images sourced from the internet