Beijing Hyundai's first Chinese president, Li Fenggang, will leave the post on 1 November after a tenure of just under a year, according to NetEase Auto, which cites people familiar with the matter. Li was appointed on 10 November 2025, becoming the first Chinese general manager in the joint venture's 24-year history, and he was due to complete one year in the job nine days later.
Hyundai Motor's global chief executive had pushed for management localisation, and Li was the key move. He graduated in mechanical design and automation from Tsinghua University, joined FAW-Volkswagen in R&D in 2003, moved into Audi's sales system ten years later, and became executive deputy general manager of FAW Audi Sales in October 2023 after 22 years in the FAW system.
A mandate undercut
People familiar with the situation told NetEase Auto that Li's title did not match his actual authority. Chinese staffing was limited, key positions remained filled by Korean nationals, and he lacked control over resource allocation and decision-making. Beijing Hyundai is a 50:50 joint venture between BAIC and Hyundai Motor, so major decisions require both sides' consent. Over the past year, the board reportedly held no substantive meetings, leaving sales targets, resource investment and strategy unaligned.
As a result, the company was described as running largely on inertia: the sales system had no targets and no strategy. The conflict peaked in July, when sales targets could not be set, dealers did not receive targets or promotional policies, and payments to suppliers were temporarily suspended. The two sides disagreed on priorities. The Chinese side wanted higher sales and deeper cost cuts, while Hyundai's side wanted to protect profit and its supplier base. Between 70 and 80 percent of Beijing Hyundai's suppliers come from the Korean-affiliated system, so cost cuts would affect the interests of Hyundai's Korean headquarters.
Under pressure, the two sides reached a compromise in September, dropping the original annual target in favour of sales of about 160,000 vehicles and a loss of around 1.9 billion yuan (about $268 million). For comparison, the company sold 210,000 vehicles in full-year 2025. In the first half of 2026, Beijing Hyundai sold 94,697 vehicles, down 5.3 percent year on year, with losses roughly flat from a year earlier. Exports, however, rose 15.8 percent to 47,000 units, nearly half of total sales, making international business the brightest part of the company's performance.
An electric pivot continues
The product pipeline shows the company moving in a Chinese direction. Hyundai brought its premium battery-electric (BEV) brand IONIQ to China in April, and on 29 September launched the first model, the IONIQ V, with a limited-time Chinese guide price of 99,900 to 131,900 yuan (about $14,100 to $18,600), before taxes and incentives. The car uses CATL NP3.0 batteries, Momenta driver assistance and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295 chip, and its definition was led by a Chinese team of more than 1,500 people. The company plans to add five more new-energy vehicles (NEVs, China's term for electric and plug-in hybrid cars) in 2026 and 2027.
That is the core problem, as the report puts it: the product can be defined in China, but decision-making power cannot. With Li leaving just short of a year, Beijing Hyundai remains a joint venture in which the management layer has little room to act.
