Like The sudden parachuting of Nexer in China last April, the official announcement that he was about to retire from office was without warning, causing concern in the industry.
Recently, Audi announced a new appointment for the core management functions in the Chinese market, the current President of Audi China, Anschho, is about to retire from his career, and Wen Zeyue, former deputy general manager and director of FAW-Volkswagen AG (Technology), will succeed Astragalus as President of Audi China and lead Audi's business operations in China; the appointment will take effect from January 2022.
As the former faw-Volkswagen Audi sales leader, Nesperus returned to China in April last year as president of Audi China, but it is worth mentioning that as of the end of this year, Neschho's tenure was less than two years. For the personnel change, Audi China said that Nexer has reached the retirement age stipulated by Audi.
Returning to the crux of the year-breaking ice-breaking north and south, Audi achieved a "one drag two" model
In 2005, Nesho, who joined the Volkswagen Group in 1982, was transferred to the OEM-Volkswagen Audi Sales Division as General Manager, responsible for the sales of the Audi brand in China. At that time, the Chinese market was the fourth largest market for the Audi brand in the world, far behind the German market, the United States and the United Kingdom, and two competitors, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, were also localized in the Chinese market.
In the first year of Ansho's tenure at FAW-Volkswagen Audi, Audi's sales in the Chinese market increased by nearly 40%, and in the same year, a relatively independent Audi sales division was established to achieve grid-connected sales of Audi imported cars and domestic cars; in 2007, it gained the first annual sales of 100,000 vehicles, and the Chinese market became Audi's largest overseas market outside of Germany; in 2008, Nexeo left the Chinese market, and Audi's sales in China that year were close to 120,000, accounting for almost half of the high-end luxury car market.
In the industry's view, Nexer can be said to have witnessed audi's highlight moment in the Chinese market, and in 2020, it will once again be "in danger" at a critical moment. On April 1 last year, Nesperio, who was the general manager of the Audi sales division of FAW-Volkswagen 12 years ago, returned to China to replace Wu Jiabi in charge of Audi's business in China.
The reason why Nexer's return is called "between the orders and dangers" is because the signing of the SAIC Audi project in 2016 has caused four parties (Audi, FAW, SAIC, FAW Audi dealers) to wrestle for up to four years, and the competition for sales rights and interests has brought channel fluctuations, and several parties have caused a serious injury to Audi's vitality. In the competition of the first camp of luxury cars, the market share is constantly shrinking. In the industry's view, The return of Nexer at that time was sent by Audi to coordinate the relationship between FAW Group and SAIC, handle Audi's joint venture relationship in China, and solve Audi's development dilemma in China.
It turns out that The return of Neschhow has indeed eased Audi's urgent needs. On December 23, 2020, Audi, FAW Group and SAIC Motor signed a joint agreement to reach a consensus on future sales and service cooperation, and savoy-Volkswagen Audi products will be sold by the existing FAW-Volkswagen Audi investor network after the production of SAIC Audi in 2022.
This plan not only reassures the FAW Group, but also leaves a certain operating space for the SAIC Group; it also means that Audi has ended the four-year multi-party tug-of-war and realized the joint venture model of "one drag and two". At the same time, in October last year, Audi and FAW Group established an Audi FAW BJEV joint venture to localize the production of pure electric vehicles on ppE platforms in China, and the German side holds 60% of the shares.
For Audi, which is gradually weakening its competitive advantage in the first camp of luxury cars, it is particularly important to consolidate its market position and ensure continuous sales growth. Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Joint Association, said that SAIC Audi has a very great effect on Audi's development in China, and from the current point of view, Audi's chances of winning in the Chinese market are relatively large; after the SAIC Audi project lands, it will create new blood for Audi in China, which will help Audi form a diversified development model and be more conducive to occupying the regional market.
At this year's Shanghai Auto Show, Nexeo, together with Qiu Xiandong, general manager of FAW Group, and Wang Xiaoqiu, president of SAIC Motor, jointly unveiled the latest models of North and South Audi. Audi said that Nexjo has successfully opened a new chapter in Audi's business development in China. At the same time as the tripartite agreement between Audi, FAW and SAIC, Nexro threw out the "Golden Decade" strategy.
In the critical period of electrification transformation, how does Wen Zeyue take over?
Although Nexer has opened a good prelude to Audi's new "Golden Decade", it has to be admitted that Audi's development in China still faces many challenges, and its successor, Wen Zeyue, needs to find better solutions.
As Audi's new "key gentleman", Wen Zeyue, who was responsible for technology research and development, product management and manufacturing at FAW-Volkswagen from 2013 to 2019, is not well known in the industry, and it is more worth paying attention to how he can achieve Audi to further increase sales and profits in the Chinese market and increase brand prices in the competition between North and South Audi.
From the perspective of time, Wen Zeyue's appointment coincided with the launch of SAIC Audi's first product, and for Wen Zeyue, it will truly help the north and south Audis at the same time. At the same time, North and South Audi is also launching a new round of production capacity construction and R & D investment layout and operation, for Wen Zeyue, this is also the business scope he has been responsible for before, grasp or more accurate.
However, it is worth noting that the chip shortage that broke out at the end of last year has not been completely alleviated so far, and it has intensified in the second half of this year, resulting in a greater impact on the sales of car companies and more obvious joint venture brands. Cui Dongshu said that the joint venture brand procurement supply chain is not autonomous enough. According to the data of the Association, due to the shortage of chips, the wholesale volume of FAW-Volkswagen Audi in October was 37,651 units, and the year-on-year decline of Audi A4, A6 and other models in October was more than 30%. There are views in the industry that brands such as Audi are greatly affected by chips, and sales fluctuations are obvious. While the fluctuation in sales is due to a shortage of chips, it also reflects Audi's problems in the supply chain.
In addition, the current automotive market is facing a big wave of electrification transformation, whether the "elephant turn" Audi can resist the pressure, transformation and consolidate the market position is worth thinking about.
In fact, from the perspective of the current development of the domestic new energy vehicle market, Audi's electrification transformation in China is not fast, and the layout of Audi's electric localization is relatively behind Mercedes-Benz and BMW. Up to now, Audi has introduced the e-tron series of electric vehicles in the Chinese market, including e-tron and e-tron sportback and Q2L e-tron, but the market response has been flat; in the first 10 months of this year, Audi's new energy vehicle sales were 11,000 units, an increase of 37% year-on-year, of which 6,550 pure electric models were sold, an increase of 40% year-on-year.
In the middle of this year, Audi released the "Vorsprung 2030" strategy, which clarified the plan for electrification transformation: Audi and Volkswagen Group will invest up to 15 billion euros in China by 2024 for electrification, including infrastructure, electric vehicle research and development, intelligent transportation technology, etc., and it is expected that 30% of the cars sold in China will be electrified by 2025; at this year's Guangzhou Auto Show, FAW-Volkswagen Audi and SAIC Audi will respectively appear in Q4 based on the MEB platform e-tron and Q5 e-tron.
However, as Chinese brands have made efforts in the field of high-end electric vehicles in advance, seizing the main share and brand influence, BBA is no longer the first choice in the high-end electric vehicle market, and how to maintain the share and influence of traditional luxury brands such as Audi is a major challenge at present, and for Audi itself, the success of electrification transformation is more related to the success of its "golden decade" strategy, and it is also the key to whether it can return to the peak in China.
Beijing News reporter Wang Linlin Editor Chen Li Proofreader Liu Jun
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