Volkswagen, the king of domestic auto market sales for many years, finally felt the crisis in 2022.
Once Volkswagen, in its heyday, there were as many as 6 models in the top ten of the car sales list, Rangi, Bora, Sagittarius, Passat, Maiteng and Santana and Jetta formed a car alliance, which can be said to be firmly locked in the car sales list.
In the SUV sales list, Volkswagen also had a good performance, and like Tiguan when it first debuted, it was also the "markup king" of that period.
However, in the latest sales list just released, in the top ten of the sedan list, only two models are left, Langyi and Sagittarius, while there is no Volkswagen in the SUV sales list, and Tiguan L only ranks 14th with sales of 9375 units.
Volkswagen is obviously aware of such a problem, so its models began to be large-scale modification and replacement. The first is Volkswagen's most historic mid-size car, the Passat, which has completed a mid-term redesign, not only adopting the dual-appearance design of luxury cars, but also strengthening the body material.
In the first two days, Volkswagen's MPV representative Weiran also made an annual redesign, the interior has undergone a lot of changes, and the configuration improvement is very obvious.
In the near future, Volkswagen's best-selling cars, Langyi and Sagitar, will usher in major revamps, especially Sagittarius, which will use Volkswagen's latest MQB evo platform and a new engine of 1.5T. So, what is the reason that Volkswagen has accelerated the replacement of its models?
In fact, a year ago, I heard that Volkswagen had evaluated its own models in the chassis, engine and other technologies, and the results of the evaluation were still at the more advanced level in China, so there was no need to upgrade the technology of its own models. But for ordinary consumers, Volkswagen is currently "eating the old", the same power system, the same power system in different models of the power parameters are exactly the same, by the riders complained about but has never changed the dual clutch transmission, are not attractive to the riders.
The "family", which was once tried and tested, seems to have lost its former prestige in recent years. When the post-90s and post-00s began to become the main force of market consumption, this design of the whole family looking exactly the same obviously could not meet their personalized needs.
The recent frequent failure of the "particle trapper" is also another blow to the public's reputation. The root cause of the particle trap is that the emission level of its power system cannot meet the standard, and can only rely on this "wearing a mask" method to deal with it, but the result is that the symptoms are not cured.
The most direct feedback on these problems is in the sales volume, taking the sales volume in January, the Volkswagen brand sold a total of 227,900 vehicles, although it still ranked first, but the gap with the second-place Honda was only more than 70,000 vehicles, and the gap was further narrowed.
Therefore, we see that Volkswagen's solution to these problems is to speed up the replacement of its models to enhance the freshness of the vehicle.
Like the upcoming new Langyi, it adopts a starry sky-style chinese net design similar to the new Passat, and the interior design is also quite a new generation of golf style.
Sagitar's replacement is more thorough, will use the new 1.5T Evo series engine, the power parameters are improved compared with the current 1.4T.
But can such a change pull up brand sales? My point is: not necessarily.
Because after the new redesigned model is listed, the price will inevitably be adjusted, and from the design of the new Langyi and Sagitar, the price is unlikely to be adjusted downwards.
Moreover, after the launch of the new car, the preferential range will inevitably shrink, like Langyi, Sagitar, which was previously 20,000-30,000 yuan of discounts, suddenly disappeared, which will definitely have a decision-making impact on users who buy a car.
There is also that although sagitar is more thorough, Langyi still "shifts gears without changing medicine", and the vehicle has not been substantially improved at the technical level, so the follow-up is still to rely on large discounts to seize the market. When the post-listing discount can reach the range of the old model is very important.
Therefore, this year is a very critical year for Volkswagen, if it cannot be reinvigorated, the market share will further decline, and it is not impossible to be surpassed by competitors, and if more new technologies and new designs can be launched to increase competitiveness, first-line brands like Volkswagen can still maintain a high sales level.