Text/Di Lin Audit/Zi Yang Correction/Zhi Qiu
On December 15, Volkswagen Group announced its car sales data for November 2021.
Sales plummeted and the head of the change
According to official data, the Volkswagen Group's global sales fell by 31.5% year-on-year during the reporting period.
Although the year-on-year decline from January to November was only 1.7%, the five consecutive months of sales regression had to attract the attention of the Volkswagen Group.
In Particular, in November, the company was cold in several markets around the world, with sales falling as much as 38% in china, and 11.6% in the greater China market in the first 11 months.
Seeing that the sales situation in the Chinese market has not improved for a long time, even as an international giant, the Volkswagen Group has begun to worry.
As far as I know, the company is already making changes to its top management structure, and the current CEO will be in charge of the software department from January 1, 2022.
Ralf Brandstatter will replace Volkswagen Passenger Cars, which was originally led by current CEO Herbert Diess, and take over the China business on August 1, 2022.
Substitution is indeed a way to try to reverse the decline in product sales, but in terms of the current situation, I think that Ralf Brandstatter will not be able to restore the glory of the mass market in a short period of time.
Volkswagen is gradually falling out of favor in China
On the one hand, because the global wave of core shortage continues to spread, although major foundries are already accelerating the expansion of capacity, but the new capacity needs time to release.
During this period, the supply and demand of chips in the global semiconductor industry, especially automotive chips, will still be very tight.
China Economic Network december 17 news, the German magazine "Manager" reported that according to people familiar with the matter, Volkswagen's global sales in 2021 are expected to be slightly less than 9 million vehicles.
In addition, according to many sources in the field of integrated circuits, the shortage of chips will continue at least until 2023. It is foreseeable that even if the Volkswagen Group makes many adjustments, there will still be a decline in automobile sales due to the lack of cores.
Of course, the reason why Volkswagen Group's product sales have fallen sharply in the Chinese market is not only because of the tight supply of chips in the automotive industry.
Imported parts joint venture car is not fragrant?
As for why the well-known automobile brand Volkswagen began to be unpopular in China, the author believes that the reason can be found from saicutical volkswagen, a typical joint venture car company.
According to public information, SAIC Volkswagen was officially established in 1985, which is the earliest automobile joint venture in China co-founded with the German Volkswagen Group.
SAIC Volkswagen has been precipitating in China for decades, and has deep qualifications and a good reputation among a number of joint venture automobile enterprises.
For a long time, SAIC Volkswagen won the domestic passenger car sales championship, but now, SAIC Volkswagen's products are no longer blindly sought after by domestic consumers.
Its ace models, Tiguan L and Passat, have achieved the bottom results in the crash test of China Insurance Research Institute, which has completely changed the impression of some consumers on German cars.
In addition, in the past two years, quality problems such as burning engine oil and double clutch setbacks in SAIC Volkswagen products have appeared frequently, further reversing the attitude of domestic consumers towards Volkswagen.
While product quality problems continue to exist, SAIC Volkswagen's new products are relatively less competitive.
For example, models such as the new Tiguan L and the new Passat are like eating the old books in the author's opinion, compared to the same level of Japanese cars and American cars, there is basically no advantage.
It can be seen that in terms of product innovation, SAIC Volkswagen has been stagnant for a long time, and the ace models on the product line have reached the point of lackluster.
It is worth mentioning that not only is it not careful in product innovation, but also the development progress of SAIC Volkswagen in the new energy business is also slower.
Compared with geely, SAIC, Weilai, Xiaopeng and other traditional domestic auto giants or new car-making forces, Volkswagen's new energy strategy in the Chinese market is not obvious, and it is also very weak in marketing.
Up to now, the author has not heard of SAIC Volkswagen or FAW-Volkswagen, what are the actions in the field of new energy vehicles in the Chinese market that have aroused heated discussion inside and outside the industry.
To sum up, the development strategy of SAIC Volkswagen or the German Volkswagen Group in the Chinese automotive market is no longer suitable for the current environment, and some are too conservative or even backward.
Therefore, the products of the Volkswagen Group will gradually lose their influence on Chinese consumers, especially in the case that the Volkswagen Group misses the opportunity of the new energy business.
According to the sales rankings released by the Association of Automobile Associations in November this year, SAIC Volkswagen's monthly sales shrank by 24.9% year-on-year, and it was overtaken by Geely Automobile to third in China.
Write at the end
As one of the representatives of Volkswagen Group in the Chinese market, the continuous decline in sales of SAIC Volkswagen is enough to explain the problems existing in the Volkswagen Group as a whole.
In other words, volkswagen group has a loophole in the strategy of the Chinese auto market, and I do not know whether the replacement of the head can reverse the decline of volkswagen in the Chinese market.
But what is certain is that domestic production has risen, and the dividend period of these overseas auto giants has entered the end.