In 2015, BMW launched an agency model for its i-series electric vehicles. However, due to the complexity of the dealer's business by running the two models at the same time, and the manufacturer's own management ability did not keep up, the agent model was completely abolished after three years.
But who would have thought that after five or six years, BMW would be "forced" to make a new choice about the direct/agency direct model.
In recent years, the direct operation/agency direct operation model pioneered by Tesla and carried forward by new car manufacturers has put forward new requirements for traditional car companies that are undergoing electrification transformation.
While this isn't the first time traditional automakers and their dealer partners have faced the choice of a channel model, it's definitely one of the strongest challenges in history for the traditional 4S store model:
In the three years from 2018 to 2020, more than 700 4S stores have successively withdrawn from the top 100 auto 4S store system (the latest data released by the China Automobile Dealers Association). The number outside the top 100 system is even larger. The data shows that in the first 6 months of 2021, more than 1,000 4S stores were withdrawn from the network.
On the other hand, there is the "prosperity" of auto city showrooms and direct/agency direct stores: the number of directly operated stores of Wei Xiaoli will reach about 300 at the end of this year, and more and more new brands of traditional car companies have joined the directly operated tracks: Extreme Krypton, Lantu, Volkswagen ID., Cadillac electric vehicles, Ford electric horses...
It is said that at the end of last year, the discussions at the year-end meeting of the large dealer group invariably involved the study and judgment of the channel direct operation model.
According to another dealer, BMW is planning to pilot the agent in the mini electric version of the channel. Whether BMW will rewrite the ending of a few years ago is unknown, but what is certain is that the public is rewriting the story of BMW seven years ago.
The "embarrassment" of the public: how difficult is the transformation of traditional dealer groups?
"When the so-called agency system first began, the invoices were issued directly by the manufacturer to the customer, and the invoice flow did not pass through the dealer. Now it is changing, and now (the manufacturer) issues a sales invoice to the dealer, and the dealer issues an invoice to the customer. A few days ago, a FAW-Volkswagen dealer told Sankei.
This may mean that Volkswagen's agency direct sales system tailored for THE ID series of pure electric products has begun to return to the traditional dealer model.
In mid-October 2021, a SAIC Volkswagen dealer released a promotional message for the ID series, which was not small.
This news quickly triggered the dissatisfaction of many owners who had already purchased Volkswagen ID. Because in the sales model of "online direct operation and offline dealer agency system" promised by the public, many people are rushing to the "official unification", and the result is that the first to buy is to suffer losses, and then to buy can be reduced by tens of thousands, which is difficult to accept.
After the incident, SAIC Volkswagen officials said that they would punish individual dealers who adjusted prices privately: the dealer was given a deduction of all commissions this month and a yellow card warning penalty.
At the end of the year, Sankei visited several Volkswagen ID city showrooms and agent directly operated stores, and found that the service consultant and overall experience have indeed improved significantly compared with the general public 4S stores, but the phenomenon of terminal price concessions still exists.
Why did the hard-working channel model "return to the pre-liberation period"? Why should we change the procedure of invoicing and finally return to the old road of "pressure warehouse - stores each engaged in preferential policies - prices are not uniform"?
Auto Sankei consulted several industry insiders and summarized the following reasons (in fact, there are many large and small influencing factors):
"Whether it is an agent or a direct operation, the responsibility for sales and the responsibility of the three guarantees of products lies entirely in the manufacturer, and it has nothing to do with the dealer."
The responsibility of the three guarantees has nothing to do with the dealer, and all need to be borne by the manufacturer, which means that product quality problems, customer complaint handling, etc., must be submitted to the manufacturer level, regardless of the size of the problem must be reported, layer by layer approval.
"In the past, if the problem was not big, or if the money was lost or changed, etc., it was easy for dealers and consumers to talk about private solutions." A manager of a Xiaopeng agent directly operated store told the auto industry and economic network that the cost of solving customer complaints by manufacturers will now be relatively high. Either for the sake of word of mouth, admit compensation, suffer losses, or strong some like Tesla to fight a lawsuit, "equal to the cost of legal affairs is very high." ”
The invoicing flow does not pass through the dealer, "which will cause a new situation is a significant shrinkage in the size of the dealer." ”
The original annual turnover of tens of billions of dealer groups, if all the transformation of the agency system, there is no sales invoices and other flow, only agent commission income, the scale of business will soon shrink to 1 billion, or even 100 million. Such a situation, on the one hand, is difficult for dealers themselves to accept, on the other hand, "local governments are not happy." ”
"It also involves the issue of taxation. For example, if the consumption tax is changed to the consumption tax at the time of purchase, rather than being sandwiched at the production end, then you become the place where the consumption tax is paid to the place where the invoice is issued. That place doesn't support either. ”
Finally, for the "masses" who sell millions a year, the agent direct sales can not press the warehouse, there is no way to batch sales, and it is difficult to want some good-looking performance data.
In short, in the traditional automobile sales combination model of million car companies + large dealer groups, it is a matter of "pulling a whole body" through the transformation of existing dealers into agents, and most of them end up in a situation where no one is flattered.
Behind Tesla's "retreat": direct operations cannot go all the way to the black
In August 2021, a number of media followed up with the news that Tesla's direct-operated stores are withdrawing from first-tier city supermarkets and beginning to change the channel model. One detail is that Tesla reportedly looked for sites to build after-sales centers near traditional car business districts, "and found a lot of investors from traditional car dealers to negotiate, wanting to rent their sites and build 'front shop and back factory' outlets." ”
According to the analysis of the media, Tesla's retreat may lead the trend of new cars returning to the auto city, but the auto industry and economic network believes that this is a signal that "has to" borrow traditional channels after the expansion of the sales scale of new car manufacturers.
At least in the case of Beijing and other first-tier cities, the layout of the car sales network within the sixth ring road is almost saturated, and the territory of the new car-making forces wants to further expand, in addition to the traditional channels of leasing, buying and selling or cooperation, there is actually no better way (if this traditional 4S store has a difficult application for sheet metal spray and other qualifications, it is better).
In addition, a Xiaopeng agent direct store investor told the auto industry and economic network that for new car manufacturers to establish a direct store single-handedly, the cost problem is still secondary, and the cost of manpower and time consumed is the biggest trouble. This is also one of the reasons why more and more new car manufacturers choose to cooperate with traditional dealers to adopt the agent direct operation model.
It is understood that whether it is a traditional car company or a new car manufacturing force, every time a factory directly operated store is opened, a new company needs to be registered. "Xiaopeng in the early days of some direct stores I helped open, I have a team of four or five people specifically registered companies, so troublesome." At that time, (Xiaopeng) had not yet been listed, and listing was even more troublesome. You have to announce how many days to open how many stores. Wait a minute. Said the investor.
In 2021, Wei Xiaoli's terminal sales have bright spots, and some industry insiders believe that a large part of Xiaopeng's strong growth is due to the number of channel layouts of its "direct operation + agent" - Xiaopeng's sales stores in the third quarter of this year have expanded to 271 (more than Weilai and Ideal), of which more than half are agent direct stores.
This is like Zhao Gang, vice president of Zero-run Automobile, said, "The explosive force of the direct operation model is very weak, it cannot cover enough areas, and the cost efficiency will be very low." ”
Insiders revealed that Weilai will also start to recruit channel agents.
Tank 300 mark-up delivery, zero high fee for running cars... Which mode is true incense?
"When the dealer thought that this car could catch fire in the future, I dropped 50 of it in one go, such as the Great Wall Tank 300." If it sells well, I can sell it for more money. It's not easy to sell, and I don't want the deposit (for the car company). One car dealer described the "principle" of booking a traditional 4S store.
Although the turmoil over the delivery of the Tank 300 has come to a halt, the official response is to permanently cancel the operating authorization of the dealer involved. But in the context of the chip famine in 2021, the Tank 300 is just an extreme manifestation of the traditional dealer model, and more unspoken rules of mark-up are being carried out every day.
At the same time as the 4S store mark-up storm, the direct sales agents of zero-run cars charged high licensing fees and financial service fees.
At the end of September and the beginning of October 2021, more and more zero sports owners complained that they were "bleeding heavily" during the pick-up process:
For example, "150,000 cars need 7,000 insurance", for example, some store sales staff said that because "the vehicle is directly sold by the manufacturer, the store is only authorized to deliver the customer's vehicle, the store is not profitable", so it can only be charged in disguised in installments, licensed services, and vehicle decorative lights...
Taking the agent license as an example, Weilai is generally about 700 yuan, the ideal is about 800 yuan (the standards of each region are different), and the charging standard of 2000 to 3000 yuan of zero-run cars is significantly higher than that of other car brands.
Originally thought that in the 4S shop dealer's perennial unspoken rules contrast, the new car agent direct sales will be a clear stream, did not expect that the zero-run agent chess high, the car price unification can also come up with the "bundled sales" of the high move.
The root cause is that the entry and exit thresholds for direct agency operations are very low.
A senior channel investor told the auto industry and economic network: Because the early new car manufacturers have little popularity and few products, large dealer groups are not willing to take over the work. Therefore, you can only build your own direct stores, or find some "retail investors" (small investors with several stores) to cooperate.
Around 2019, new car manufacturers (such as Xiaopeng) that adopt the agent direct operation model are also common in retiring from the network. "Because sales haven't come up yet."
In short, the initial willingness to represent the new car brand is also a "new force" in the car channel: a storefront, a car, you can open for business. A commission is charged for every car sold, and if the brand is stable, it is like a nine-to-five office worker with a stable income.
"I'm like a taxi driver on the Didi platform now. It's all under its (manufacturer's) management, and it helps you allocate resources. Clues, customer information are all there. This also means that the threshold for Didi drivers is very low, and I will go to whoever is good. Didi is not good to open today, I will start the first car. A dealer who has transformed into an agent directly operated described his loose binding with the manufacturer.
Back to the problem of "middlemen making differences", since traditional 4S stores and agent direct sales points have the possibility of playing catty, are manufacturers' direct stores more fragrant? "You can look at the financial reports of those listed new car companies, its sales expenses and the traditional car companies to compare, although it is a unified price, but its sales costs are added." Don't save money. ”
A car company insider told the auto industry and economic network that the experience of the direct store makes customers feel better. Moreover, "direct sales are not suitable for customers who want to buy a car." ”
Write at the end
"In fact, the terminal price is unified and not unified, a little fluctuation is very normal, but whether there will be a large degree of non-uniformity mainly depends on whether the manufacturer will continue to add weight to itself, once the pursuit of more than its sales capacity, will produce a sale."
A dealer of Yingzhong Automobile Group told the auto industry and economic network that whether it is a unified price or a better experience of consumption, it has nothing to do with the direct operation model itself, and it depends more on the manufacturer's pursuit of the goal.
"Now the traditional automobile manufacturers directly want to grasp the first-hand customer resources, but in fact, many manufacturers did not pay attention to these customer information before, and the update is not updated." And it doesn't interact with customers either. So what's the use of you leaving a bunch of names and phone numbers now? ”
Traditional car companies hope to grasp the traffic code of the new consumption era through channel transformation, and new car brands want to create a new and old moat through a new direct operation model...
However, there is no perfect model, just as there is no one-time success.
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Article from: Automotive Sankei
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