Recently, Volkswagen announced its sales results in 2021, in 2021, Volkswagen China's delivery volume in China was 3.3 million units, down 14% year-on-year, of which SAIC Volkswagen's cumulative sales for the whole year were 1.242 million units, down 17.50% year-on-year, a decline for three consecutive years. FAW-Volkswagen's cumulative sales of 1.85 million vehicles for the full year of 2021 also declined to a certain extent.
Once Volkswagen, can be described as a true god car manufacturing plant, launched a model fire, once a generation of god car Santana, sold to a sky-high price of 180,000 yuan. Subsequent Sagittarius, Golf, Langyi, Maiten, Passat, and Tiguan are all sales champions in various segments. But now, in addition to Langyi still thriving, Tiguan L is difficult to enter the top ten of the SUV sales list, Passat fell to the altar, and sales were far behind by Camry and Accord.
Many people blame the decline in Sales of Volkswagen on the lack of cores, but the decline in sales in one year can also be excused, but the decline in sales for three consecutive years is difficult to use the lack of cores to simply summarize, on the other hand, Toyota Great Wall Changan BYDichry and other brands have risen to a certain extent.
Fuel vehicle dominance declined
Volkswagen's sales decline, first of all, because in previous years, in the field of fuel vehicles, unparalleled dominance, began to waver. The reason why the Volkswagen brand sells well is mainly because Volkswagen has preconceived notions, and has established a reliable and safe impression in the minds of the Chinese people, although Volkswagen has successively appeared broken axle doors, gearbox death flashes, and burned throttles, but under volkswagen's strong marketing ability and brand aura, it has not had much impact on Volkswagen's sales.
However, with the two models of Passat and Tiguan L, which have successively refreshed the lower limit of the frontal bias crash test of China Insurance Research Institute, it can be said that it has directly shaken the foundation of Volkswagen, that is, the brand image of safety that has been painstakingly operated for a long time, and the chinese people's faith in Volkswagen has begun to collapse.
And Volkswagen China CEO Feng Sihan's words, "In China's positive 25% bias crash test is not important", it is a stone to stir up thousands of waves, proving that Volkswagen in the safety of Chinese and foreign models, is a naked double standard. A person in charge of the vehicle project who has left SAIC Volkswagen revealed, "This is actually a microcosm of SAIC Volkswagen's "cost reduction culture". This matter of cost reduction, SAIC Volkswagen has been doing it for many years, and even every year there will be an assessment index for how much to reduce the cost for each model, so as to guide each department's different cost reduction indicators from top to bottom. ”
Another SAIC Volkswagen engineer said, "The Passat incident stemmed from the fact that the material of the A-pillar was reduced from high-strength steel to cheaper and less performing steel. It can be seen that it is no accident that Passat unveiled the fig leaf of the public's security reduction.
On the other hand, although Volkswagen's golden power combination of TSI + DSG, power and fuel economy are excellent, there are still certain shortcomings in the smoothness of low-speed driving, and with the blossoming of hybrid models of independent car brands, Volkswagen's advantages are lost.
The pace of new energy is slow
On the other hand, Volkswagen's pace in the field of new energy is slow, and it is far behind its own car brands. According to the data released by Volkswagen China, the cumulative sales volume of the Volkswagen ID. series in China in 2021 is 70,625 vehicles, not to mention the pure electricity sales of traditional car companies such as BYD, Great Wall, and GAC, and even the sales performance of new car-making forces is not comparable. According to the data of the Association, from January to November 2021, SAIC Volkswagen and FAW-Volkswagen ranked 13th and 14th in the domestic pure electricity sales list with a market share of 1.4% and 1% respectively, and it is no longer difficult to see Volkswagen's dominance in the era of fuel vehicles.
In the era of fuel vehicles, the Volkswagen brand with excellent product strength and strong brand appeal, in the Chinese market has established a "hegemonic" status that no one can shake so far, ranking the sales champion of independent car brands for many years, but with the rise of domestic hybrid models, Volkswagen's advantages in fuel economy have disappeared, in addition to lower fuel consumption, domestic hybrid models have stronger power performance, better driving smoothness, and better driving experience, which have brought a huge impact on the fuel vehicles of the joint venture brand. The shackles of vested interests, the arrogance of executives and other factors have all affected the electrification transformation of the Volkswagen Group, and the century-old car company Volkswagen Group may have a worse life in 2022.