Porsche's pride and prejudice

Written by | R3 drift

Edit | Routing Agency

In 2021, of Porsche's 301,915 cumulative global deliveries, the Chinese market contributed 95,671 units, accounting for 31.6%. As a result, China has also become the world's largest single market for Porsche for seven consecutive years.

However, in Porsche's eyes, today's China may still be just a place where sales and profits converge.

As for those who live here and can afford to buy a Porsche, they can be ignored, discriminated against, and even treated roughly.

On April 30, in a letter from Porsche China to car owners, Porsche said that in view of the "continuous serious shortage of semiconductor production capacity around the world, which has led to production bottlenecks in the automotive industry", Porsche has replaced the "steering column with electric adjustment function" equipped with "steering column with electric adjustment function" for "manually adjusted steering column" since the second half of last year.

Unfortunately, in this official 998-character statement, the number of words talking about a solution is 0.

"I hope to gain the understanding of our customers and give us more time to try to find a solution." In the letter, Porsche expressed its hopes for Chinese users.

However, on the other side of the Pacific and on the other side of Eurasia, the same thing was resolved months ago.

A steering column that makes Chinese car owners so angry

Since January this year, Porsche owners in the United States and the United Kingdom have received emails from the brand, telling them that the electric steering column of the new car will be replaced by a manual steering column.

As early as January this year, Porsche owners talked about this matter at overseas forums

But it wasn't until March 28 that a Chinese car owner angrily talked about the matter through Weibo, and a large number of Chinese Porsche owners discovered that they were not the only new cars that had been quietly reduced.

Even more indignant, Porsche attached a solution to the letter in the notification email sent to overseas owners.

Overseas car owners disclosed Porsche's compensation scheme

The screenshot shows that Porsche will compensate each overseas owner for a $500 coupon due to a change in the steering column configuration. The latter can be used to deduct the purchase price when the new car is delivered, and there are no restrictions on its use.

When the same situation occurs in China, it becomes a game between the brand and the consumer.

In response, Porsche China was silent at first, as if nothing had happened. Then it is kept secret to prevent the owner from connecting the series, resulting in the expansion of the situation.

When these Chinese car owners, who had accidentally mastered the skills of using the Internet, jointly launched a collective complaint about "Porsche banditry", Porsche began to try to use a black box operation to break through the owners of this group of owners who came together because of common demands.

After collating a number of media reports, the routing agency found that different Porsche owners received different solutions.

The owner who first received the proposal from the brand side got the promise of "free installation of electric steering column" after the chip supply conditions were met; the owner who responded later would receive a 3,000 yuan coupon "for subsequent installation"; and the user who was recently informed of the solution could only get a 2300 yuan voucher.

In an early notification letter, Porsche said it would install electronic steering columns for free

In the latest notification letter, Porsche only provides a voucher of 2300 yuan

This differential treatment, among the affected Porsche owners, almost constitutes a suspense case: everyone begins to wonder if everyone is talking about the same thing.

After determining that the problem was indeed in The Porsche side, they began to pick up the calculator and mathematically calculate the brand's sincerity in dealing with the problem.

According to the current quotation of the 4S store, the cost of installing an electronic steering column alone reached 30,000 yuan, which is much higher than the compensation provided by Porsche. Even at the North American market of $500 per car and the current exchange rate, the amount of compensation should reach at least 3,300 yuan after conversion into RENMINBI.

"Listening to a jun's words is better than a seat", "saying a bunch of nonsense", "saying a lonely"... For Porsche's statement, Chinese the Internet world without hesitation.

Ironically, in the first quarter of this year, Porsche delivered 68,426 vehicles worldwide. Among them, the delivery volume in the Chinese market was 17,685 units, contributing 25.8%.

In this way, what really makes Porsche Chinese car owners feel angry is not a simple single steering column and a differentiated compensation scheme, but Porsche still chooses to put on an arrogant posture after receiving such a huge dividend from the world's largest car market.

The historical roots of pride and prejudice

For China and consumers in this market, the German automaker has always acted carelessly.

According to the information of the car quality network, in 2021, of the 58 complaints involving the Porsche brand, the number of entries that completed the after-sales process was only 10, of which two were completed by the tire supplier Pirelli, and the brand response rate was 13.8%.

This already low figure has declined again this year – although only 4 months have passed in 2022, the number of complaints about Porsche on the car quality network has reached 24, while the after-sales process completion entry is only 1, and the response rate has dropped to 4.2%.

This carelessness is not even difficult to detect from the official website of Porsche China.

In the "Porsche Quick Look" page that acts as a façade for the brand, press the buttons "Strategy", "Generalizations and Data" and you will get a playful 404 page.

However, on the overseas official website, Porsche has a detailed introduction to the history of the brand accurate to the year, month and day.

Normally, this German brand is used to calculating its history from 1948 onwards. In fact, the brand's first orders date back to the 1930s.

Porsche usually takes 1948 as its first year in its brand history

It was a history that Porsche did not want to mention, documenting its entanglement with the Nazis.

The son of a tinsmith, Ferdinand Porsche, the founder of the Porsche brand, has shown outstanding engineering qualities from an early age. He founded the firm in 1931 and officially started his career.

In 1933, Hitler, as chancellor of Germany at the time, expressed his interest in motorsport at the opening ceremony of the Berlin Motor Show. Ferdinand immediately wrote to him praising Hitler for this hobby.

Soon after, Ferdinand used a meeting with Hitler to be allowed to build P Wagen racing cars, thus beginning a 12-year partnership with the Nazis.

In 1934, Hitler's vision of a "new Germany" also mentioned the need to build a car for Germans that everyone could afford. Ferdinand Porsche immediately submitted his design and was awarded a manufacturing contract in 1935.

Hitler was so pleased that he even proposed that the Wolfsburg plant, which was responsible for producing such cars, be named the "Porsche Factory", but Ferdinand insisted on changing the name to "Volkswagen Plant".

Ferdinand Porsche (second from left) explains the design to senior Nazi officials

Ferdinand's KdF-Wagen model at the time had a well-known name after the war, the Beetle.

In 1939, German lightning struck Poland and war officially broke out. The Nazi-funded large, specialized manufacturing plant in Wolfsburg was quickly transformed into a military vehicle manufacturing base. Ferdinand was appointed General Manager of the Third Reich War Military Industry Council and Head of the German Tank Commission.

In the Volkswagen factory, which was on the verge of becoming a "Porsche factory", Ferdinand began to convert severely malnourished prisoners of war into labor, turning their inventions into military machines.

Among them was the famous Schwimmwagen model, an amphibious personnel carrier based on a Beetle chassis design that was used throughout Europe during the war to patrol territories occupied by the Nazis. Since then, the vehicle has also become an important reliance for the German army to cross the English Channel and launch an offensive against Britain.

The invention of Porsche brought disaster to the european civilians

In addition, Ferdinand Porsche designed the Turk Turret for the German Tiger II for the Nazi military. These turrets have a caliber of up to 88 mm and have a 31° horizontal range of motion, allowing the rapid elimination of enemy tanks before entering enemy range. These new long-range anti-tank turrets were named "Ferdinand 130" by Hitler himself in recognition of Porsche's work.

In 1939, the Porsche Type 64 was designed and produced by the Nazi German National Socialist Automobile Team

Until the last days of the war, Ferdinand Porsche worked hard for the Nazis. He designed an improved version of the V-1 rocket and advertised it as having a longer range and faster flight speed.

In 1944, the Allies bombed the "Porsche Factory", and Ferdinand moved to Austria, where he was subsequently arrested as a war criminal on his way to France.

Combined with the Extreme Practices and Historical Roots of the Nazis' advocacy of racial superiority and the implementation of apartheid, it is no longer surprising that Porsche now divides consumers in different markets into three, six, and nine, and uses discriminatory strategies to solve Chinese market-related matters.

Inexplicable sense of superiority

Although, in that special historical period at that time, Porsche's German peers - BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, but also more or less involved in the design and manufacture of German military equipment - such as The Mercedes-Benz L1500 truck, bmw fourteen cylinder star engine and Volkswagen 82 bucket car.

But after the war, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and even Porsche's parent company, the Volkswagen Group, were committed to eliminating as much as possible the negative impact of this black history on "Made in Germany" through a more open, humble and cooperative attitude.

In front of them, the closed, conceited Porsche was like an outlier.

To this day, the Stuttgart automaker is still happy to gain an inexplicable sense of superiority from the endless flaunting of "Made in Germany".

In an interview with the Financial Times last February, Porsche CEO Oliver Blume scoffed at questions about whether Porsche was considering building a factory in China.

"'Quality' and 'premium attributes' are still the arguments underpinning 'making cars for China in Europe,'" he said, "and there's no point in moving production to China." ”

Obermu further said it was worth the higher cost of the reputation of "Made in Germany".

However, the reference to "Made in Germany" by Obermou as a synonym for "superior quality" was at first just a joke that was repeated thousands of times by the Germans, leading to a deep conviction of it.

When the concept of "Made in Germany" was first introduced to the market, it conveyed exactly the opposite of Obermou's belief.

In 1887, the term "Made in Germany" first appeared in the Merchandise Marks Act in the United Kingdom. The British introduced this concept only to mark foreign products more clearly.

At the time, overseas manufacturers had been copying British goods. The quality of such imitations is far inferior to that of british homegrown products.

In order to win more consumers, overseas manufacturers will quietly change the trademarks and labels of British manufacturing companies before exporting these imitation goods to the UK. The British investigation found that most of the imitations came from Germany.

In this case, the intolerable British put this label on all goods imported from Germany in order to warn consumers that inferior goods may exist.

In Britain at the time, shoddily made German goods had to be labeled "Made in Germany" to distinguish them

Coincidentally. At the Philadelphia World's Fair in 1876, the rest of the world held the same view of German goods, describing the latter as "tending to be cheap and inferior."

Since then, German manufacturing has invested heavily in machinery and trained employees, and the label "Made in Germany" has been established by law, which has changed the impression of "Made in Germany" through decades of time and effort.

However, the flowers are not 100 days red. After a glorious experience, "Made in Germany" is now in decline in its persuasiveness to the public.

This phenomenon is particularly evident in the digital age.

According to the "2020 China Internet of Vehicle Networking Business Model Analysis Report" released by Yiou Think Tank, as of September 2019, the cumulative number of patent applications in the global car networking field has 114587, with the United States accounting for 30% of the first, China accounting for 25% ranking second, and the entire Europe, including Germany, accounting for only 17%.

The "White Paper on Intellectual Property Rights of the Internet of Vehicles (2020)" released by the China Communications Society shows that the number of technical patents in the field of on-board sensors in China is currently more than 3 times that of Germany.

The most fatal problem lies in the human resources that carry "Made in Germany".

In March, a study jointly published by the Boston Consulting Group and the global job search website The Network showed that Germany's popularity as a job destination was gradually losing.

The institute conducted a study called the Global Talent Survey, which conducted 209,000 employees in 190 countries around the world.

The results show that among professionally trained workers, the number of people who consider Germany an "ideal work destination" is declining.

At the same time, Germany's attractiveness ranking for professional workers is also declining year by year. In a 2018 survey of its kind, Germany was the second largest "ideal work destination" in the world, while in 2020 it fell to fourth place, behind Canada, the United States and Australia.

Germany's attractiveness as a work destination is declining

In addition, Germany's manufacturing industry is also facing serious structural problems, and its domestic labor force is showing a serious aging trend. Coupled with the fact that fewer and fewer professional workers are willing to work in Germany, the industrial sector may have a long-term shortage of talents.

Independent auto analyst Liu Rui believes that as early professional workers gradually withdraw from the manufacturing industry, and the fresh blood with professional training is difficult to be replenished, the German manufacturing industry will inevitably consume the residual temperature of the past.

In contrast, the professionalism of China's skilled workers has increased significantly over the past few decades.

Liu Rui said that between the professionalism of workers and the cost of labor, almost no other country's manufacturing industry can achieve a balance like China's.

For example, he said, in the manufacturing industry, "the decline of the Chinese dividend has led to an increase in human resource costs", and many multinational companies have shifted their manufacturing operations to South and Southeast Asian markets with lower human resource costs.

"But after some practice, managers found that the professional ability of local workers was not as good as that of Chinese workers, and the increase in the defective rate of products led to higher overall operating costs, and they had to transfer product production back to China." He said.

Open, transparent, is it really hard?

Like a few German companies, Porsche never doubted the power of institutions and rules.

In their eyes, simply ensuring that parts are assembled properly, the huge business machine will function well according to established logic. In the event of a component failure, it can be replaced for a long time.

In such a mechanism, the human element is often overlooked.

The lack of this humanistic trait makes Porsche often behave more immature and lack overall consideration when dealing with some problems related to sensibility and perception.

The grasp of openness is one example.

In the name of insisting on "Made in Germany", Porsche's closed and exclusive business strategy in China has even pushed its parent company, the Volkswagen Group, into an embarrassing situation.

At present, the Volkswagen Group has three joint ventures in China, and the number of its vehicle and parts plants exceeds 40, achieving a high degree of localization of the entire industrial chain. Recently, the group also announced the establishment of CARIAD China subsidiary, which will develop a response strategy to the digital trend in the Chinese market.

The Volkswagen Group has always been resolute in its approach to local production of cars in China.

Volkswagen Group China CEO Feng Sihan has said that between 2020 and 2024, it plans to invest about 15 billion euros with its joint ventures, with a view to local production of 15 new energy vehicles by 2025.

At the same time, volkswagen group is also seeking to increase its stake in joint ventures in China. In May 2020 and September 2021, the Volkswagen Group increased its stake in Volkswagen (Anhui) Co., Ltd. to 77.14% through two fixed increases.

As another high-end brand of the Volkswagen Group, Audi has also reiterated its emphasis on the Chinese market many times.

The recently released Audi urbansphere concept car is based on the actual situation of the Chinese market, and listens to more voices from the Chinese market. Based on the "Audi China Enterprising 2030 Strategy", the Ingolstadt automaker hopes to start a "new golden decade" in the local market.

The Audi urbansphere concept car, designed by the Chinese team

Audi China President Wen Zeyue also recently confirmed that by 2024, Audi, Volkswagen Group and China's local joint venture partners jointly invested 15 billion euros, will be used to develop electrification, autonomous driving, intelligent cockpits, digital interconnection technology and a series of models designed specifically for the Chinese market.

In addition to Volkswagen and Audi, on the opposite side of Porsche are its compatriot brands BMW and Mercedes-Benz. The above two major German luxury car brands are currently in the Chinese market, and are constantly improving the pace and scale of localization of products.

In February this year, the BMW Group increased its investment by 27.9 billion yuan to its joint venture in China, increasing its shareholding ratio from 50% to 75%. At the same time, the group also announced that it will extend the validity of the joint venture contract of BMW Brilliance until 2040.

Since 2010, the BMW Group's production base in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, has invested a total of 73 billion yuan to build it into BMW's largest production base in the world. At these expanded and updated production bases, a number of blockbuster domestic models, including the new X5 and the new i3, have been put into production this year.

Ola K llenius, chairman of mercedes-Benz's board, said as early as 2020 that Mercedes-Benz was no longer considering expanding its car production in Germany because of "excessive human resource costs" there. Instead, the company "will make more investments in China."

In contrast, Porsche, which lacks humanistic concerns, will become more complicated and trickier when the company is involved in a scandal and the conditions for dealing with the problem may involve insufficient self-exposure.

"If there is a public relations textbook that gives quantitative metrics on 'when it is necessary to communicate openly about the company's own problems', then Porsche may do the same. It's a pity that there is no such book in the world. Liu Rui said.

Take this "steering column incident" as an example. From the decision to replace the manual steering column at the end of last year to the release of a letter to Chinese users, Porsche spent a full 120 days.

In the process, Porsche did not communicate with its users through public channels. Even after being exposed by the owner, Porsche still chose to use the strategy of private notification by the dealer to narrow the scope of the incident.

Time back to 2018, the brand in the process of dealing with the "Chinese CEO suspected of sexual assault" rumors, but also lack of necessary external communication and information disclosure.

According to the surging news, in December 2017, a female employee of a multinational car company reported to the Weifang Xincun Police Station of the Pudong Branch of Shanghai (940 meters from Porsche China headquarters) that she had been sexually assaulted by the CEO.

A month later, the parties to the case reported through a lawyer's letter that the police "did not file a case" for the incident, and the company's headquarters conducted an independent compliance investigation into the incident, proving that the client did not have any non-compliance behavior.

A notification letter issued by the parties to the case through their lawyers

Four days later, Porsche China, which had just achieved its third consecutive year of global sales, announced that Franz Jung was no longer the president and CEO of Porsche China.

Although there is not enough evidence to prove that Fang Zhiyong is related to the case, Porsche China has never said a word in the face of external doubts and media verification.

Also a German car company, Daimler's reactions and practices in similar situations are very different.

In November 2016, Rainer Gartner, president and CEO of Daimler Kabus (China) Co., Ltd., was suspected of insulting China.

Daimler immediately issued a statement saying, "The relevant departments are still investigating, and we are currently fully cooperating with the investigation." We deeply regret this private dispute, and any personal remarks of the employees in the dispute do not represent our position at all... After the investigation is completed, we will take all necessary measures accordingly."

The next day, Daimler's China Executive Committee announced that Gao Haina would be dismissed from his post.

In contrast, Porsche seems to have always been accustomed to confining things to a small area in order to make things more controllable, even if it is better to keep things secret.

Perhaps in their view, if there is only one thing that can be openly planned on the surface, I am afraid that it is cheap to offend China and its customers here.

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