"If you don't get it right, there will be a Xi'an incident in 2019." Before the Spring Festival, a joint statement from 68 Mercedes-Benz EQC owners made the problem of Mercedes-Benz EQC motor failure not only be widely spread on the Internet, but even Mercedes-Benz internal employees privately talked about this matter.
Sure enough, just a week after the holiday, Mercedes-Benz announced a recall plan for the Mercedes-Benz EQC: from August 15, 2022, the recall will be made of some EQC electric vehicles from November 30, 2018 to December 15, 2021, for a total of 10,104 vehicles.
Careful people calculate that the domestic Mercedes-Benz EQC was listed at the end of 2019, and the cumulative sales volume in 2020 was 3863 vehicles; the cumulative sales volume in 2021 was 6098 vehicles. That is to say, the number of recalls of Mercedes-Benz EQC is almost equal to the cumulative sales of domestic Mercedes-Benz EQC after its listing. Even if it is said that every EQC listed in China has quality problems, it is not an exaggeration.
In fact, it's not just the Mercedes-Benz EQC that's been recalled. Just at the beginning of this year, Mercedes-Benz has successively announced the recall plan of some models of GLC, GLE, E-class and C-class. Thinking of the upcoming 315, it is difficult not to think that Mercedes-Benz wants to rush ahead of the 315 and use a "sincere" attitude to minimize the negative impact of product problems.
If the timeline is extended a little longer, in 2021 Mercedes-Benz has recalled a total of 17 times, involving up to 2.7 million vehicles, and there are recall plans released almost every month, which is the first in the number of recalls among domestic passenger car companies. In 2020, Mercedes-Benz launched a total of 17 recall campaigns, recalling more than 800,000 vehicles. Mercedes-Benz recalled 24 times in 2019, with more than 1.45 million vehicles. Saying that mercedes-Benz's quality control is not out of control, the ghost believes it.
In fact, the decline is not only the product quality, but also the attitude of Mercedes-Benz.
On February 10, a Weibo blogger claimed that his Mercedes-Benz GLK had an abnormal noise at high speed, lost power, and was inspected by the auto repair plant as a broken drive shaft. To this end, Ren Champion shouted Mercedes-Benz on Weibo: "Similar cases are searched on the Internet, please Mercedes-Benz to give an explanation." However, Mercedes-Benz only gave an official answer: "If there is a quality problem, please contact the dealer and manufacturer." ”
Now that 10 days have passed, the Weibo user has not updated anything, and perhaps Mercedes-Benz is already dealing with the matter. But does it not have to wait until the user uses excessive means to protect his rights, mercedes-Benz will put away the arrogant and perfunctory attitude?
Mercedes-Benz's arrogance is no longer a day or two. The Xi'an Mercedes-Benz female owner who was hyped on the Internet in 2019 sat on the hood to defend her rights, which also stemmed from Mercedes-Benz's prevarication. Last year's Mercedes-Benz "squinting" advertising incident, the online war of words triggered by Yang Kasa's endorsement, was almost all marketing actions made in the case of knowing that it would cause an uproar.
"To get good market performance, you should respect the market you're in." This is what Duan Jianjun, executive vice president of Beijing Benz Sales Company and mainly engaged in sales and marketing work, said in an interview with the media. He also said: "Mercedes-Benz is more about doing 'good quality'. On this road, insist on doing the right thing and not making mistakes, and in the final competition in the future, it is possible to win and go further. ”
But now, today's Mercedes-Benz has neither achieved "good quality" nor respected the market, but has gone farther and farther on the road to making mistakes. Without quality and respect for the market, Mercedes-Benz's market performance is also deteriorating, and Duan Jianjun can also be regarded as a proverb.
Rome didn't fall in a day. In 2019 and 2020, Mercedes-Benz can also rely on the dividends of the brand and the previous generation of products to maintain sales growth. However, the consequences of the decay of the internal system and the decline in brand and product reputation will only be revealed in 2021.
According to the statistics of the Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in the 2021 retail sales ranking of high-end cars in the Chinese market, the sales of Mercedes-Benz E-class and Mercedes-Benz C-class fell by 9.3% and 14.8% respectively; and in the 2021 high-end SUV retail sales ranking, the sales of Mercedes-Benz GLC models fell by 17.7%.
Worse still, new energy vehicles. In 2021, which Duan Jianjun called the "year of EQ", Mercedes-Benz launched three models of EQS, EQA and EQB in one go, but the market performance was not satisfactory.
The EQA and EQB, which were officially launched at the Guangzhou Auto Show, were only 2 vehicles insured in November. For more high-end EQS, the sales target of Mercedes-Benz in 2022 is 20,000 units, calculated by 400 Mercedes-Benz dealers with EQ sales services in 2021, and the average task per dealer is about 5 units per month. It seems that the goal is not high, but judging from the sales and feedback of dealers in the first two months of the year, there are also many complaints.
Since its launch, EQC, which is a pioneer in electrification, has only maintained an average of a few hundred vehicles per month, and this is the result of a sharp price reduction in terminals. Now, there are almost all recalls. Even the employees within Mercedes-Benz have a lot of criticism of Mercedes-Benz's electrification strategy, as well as specific product and marketing strategies.
The decline in brand reputation and sales, the arrogant and perfunctory service attitude, and the obstruction of the electrification strategy are only the specific "symptoms" reflected in Mercedes-Benz's internal problems. As a veteran employee of the Mercedes-Benz system, Duan Jianjun is difficult to make substantive changes even if he is well aware of the internal problems of Mercedes-Benz.
The first is the excessive pursuit of sales. Although Duan Jianjun said that "for the current Mercedes-Benz, sales are not in the first place." "But sales are always the most intuitive indicator of their capabilities, so it is impossible not to pursue sales." When sales continue to grow in 2019 and 2020, it is also the time when various quality control problems begin to erupt.
The second is the aging of the personnel structure inside Mercedes-Benz, especially the sales company, and the lack of fresh blood. It is understood that the Mercedes-Benz sales company in 2021-2022 does not have any plans to recruit fresh graduates. Generous welfare benefits have made a large number of employees lying on the past merit book develop a superfluous atmosphere.
Finally, there is the issue of channels. Mercedes-Benz's control over terminal channels has always been very limited. Sales and service are ultimately dependent on dealers to implement, dealers are too strong, when the market is blocked, it is difficult to form a consensus and synergy with the headquarters. The Xi'an incident in 2019 was first and foremost because of the improper handling of dealers, and finally became more and more noisy.
If Duan Jianjun can come up with courage to solve these problems, it may be the beginning of Mercedes-Benz to really put down its body and re-respect the market and users. (Text/UVIS Auto Old Cannon)
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