At the beginning of January, the Volkswagen Group announced its global sales volume in 2021, and the ID series was highlighted. Of the nearly 4.9 million new vehicles, new energy vehicles (plug-in hybrid + pure electricity) contributed more than 390,000 units, of which 263,000 were pure electric vehicles.
Europe is the home base. The Volkswagen ID series is stationed in the front row of Europe's best-selling electric vehicles, and there are currently 95,000 ID models in the Volkswagen Group's backlog of 540,000 new car orders.
The transformation of traditional giants, Volkswagen's ID series has made good progress, but it is not a satisfactory result. The Volkswagen Group specifically mentioned China, where in 2021, North-South Volkswagen sold only 70,000 new CARS of the ID series in the Chinese market, still some distance from the target of 80,000-100,000 units.
Chips can explain everything, not to mention that last year the ID series was only available in China for a maximum of 10 months. However, with the appeal of the Volkswagen brand in the Chinese market, the 5 new ID cars of the North and South Volkswagen have only sold 70,000 units, what is the level? Can this number fully reflect the strength of Volkswagen's electric vehicles?
70,000 "lost" vehicles?
In 2021, North and South Volkswagen sold a total of 3.04 million new cars, each with a year-on-year decline of more than 10%. SAIC Volkswagen was more serious, because the chip problem (not exactly), the full year sales fell by more than 17%.
Of the 3.04 million new cars, the ID is only 70,000, accounting for 2%, which of course makes the Volkswagen Group very dissatisfied. But if we look at it as a split, it seems a little more acceptable.
From the perspective of the appeal of the Volkswagen brand in the market segment, especially the compact/mid-level car market, the ideal state of the two cars in the ID series should be to contribute at least 10% of sales, that is, nearly 200,000 vehicles sold throughout the year, so as to meet the market appeal of the Volkswagen brand and catch up with the growth rate of electric vehicles in the Chinese market.
As a result, the Volkswagen Group remains optimistic about the sales of the ID series in the Chinese market, and even if the impact of the chip shortage is taken into account, North and South Volkswagen can double its sales, selling at least 140,000 ID models in 2022.
Volkswagen's optimistic predictions are not unfounded.
Another positive sign is Volkswagen ID.3. In the Chinese market, only SAIC Volkswagen has introduced the ID.3, which has been on sale since the end of October last year. In just two months, the cumulative sales of id.3s are close to 6,000 vehicles, the starting point and growth rate are better than the other two models, and volkswagen group estimates that ID.3 will become an important source of sales growth for the ID family this year.
It's not just the confidence that ID.3 products bring. In 2021, China's electric vehicle market mainly grows at two ends - small cars below 100,000 yuan, medium-sized cars with more than 200,000 yuan, although this dumbbell structure is suitable for ID.4 and ID.6, but the areas in which car companies concentrate on power have not made Volkswagen's two cars particularly prominent, and part of the reason for the increase in sales is that they are pushed by the tide.
ID.3 is different. The pricing of 15.99-17.39 million has entered the compact car market in 2022 where pure electric vehicles will concentrate on force, with a high-end version with a main sales of 173,900 yuan, and the positioning of hatchbacks can compete with pure electric SUVs such as Xiaopeng G3 and Buick Micro Blue 7.
As for the golf pure electric substitution, global synchronous introduction and so on, they are all icing on the cake of ID.3.
"Joint venture" full crotch pull?
There is a fact that we have to admit that the Volkswagen ID series is selling badly in China, and it is already the best sales of joint venture brand electric vehicles.
In 2021, because of the shortage of chips, car companies are not so inward-looking, and they can breathe a little relief when taking stock of annual sales, and they will not compete for the number and begin to be more than the gold content.
The 70,000 vehicles of the Volkswagen brand ID series in China can stand the test in both horizontal and vertical views: no subsidies, no price reductions, and facing Tesla and Wei Xiaoli head-on is only one of ID's missions. Its more important task is to crack down on competitors in the same price range, including Volkswagen itself.
In fact, looking back at 2021, no joint venture brand can stay out of the matter. American GM and Ford took out the Aotene and Mustang Mach-E respectively, and the Japanese Ryota and Nissan also shouted "Electric, I have!" ”。 It's just that planning is one thing, landing is another. Except for GM's Buick Micro Blue 7 and Ford Mustang Mach-E, which have truly introduced overseas products for local optimization, there are few joint venture brands that can be as consistent with Volkswagen's thinking and actions.
Most of the joint venture brand pure electric products we heard about in 2021 did not appear in the automotive market in 2021. In this way, the 70,000 units of the Volkswagen ID series became a pioneering market experiment:
Can consumers accept pure electric vehicles launched by joint venture brands? Even if it is accepted, can the joint venture brand withstand its own pure electric products squeezing out its own interest market?
Therefore, the current user base of the Volkswagen ID series, part of which is the increase in the purchase of the tram, has a better impression of the traditional car companies, and may even be the original Volkswagen owner; the other part is the same budget and demand, the fuel SUV and the electric SUV have been compared, and finally the ID.4 design or driving circle powder, robbing the opportunity of other joint venture brand fuel vehicles.
In fact, Volkswagen ID.4 is in a market with great potential, although the current market is fully grasped by traditional fuel vehicles, but in the gap between the joint venture top and luxury low-end, standing full of consumers who hesitate and do not want to settle, this is the opportunity of ID.4.
Under the MEB platform, volkswagen ID series products do a good job and are a representative of the electrification transformation of the joint venture brand. It sells well in the European market, especially in Germany, but the problem is that Europeans have not enjoyed the convenience of intelligence and can tolerate the stupidity and stupidity of the volkswagen ID. In China, this becomes a fatal wound. Traditional car companies can hardly use the inherent advantages of handling, safety and reliability to persuade Chinese consumers to abandon intelligence. So a genetically good product like Ford Mustang Mach-E has to do localized SYNC+.
This explains why Volkswagen ID can win in a market with a lot of opportunities, but it doesn't win completely. The reality is so, I hope that volkswagen ID can become smarter when upgrading, so that the annual sales of 140,000 become conservative.
Figure | Sourced from the web
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