Today is the day the Volkswagen Group announces its annual summary to the world. At the regular media briefing, what key information did the giant, which is focusing on transformation, reveal? Let's take a closer look.
The performance needle does not poke
Since we all know that it is an annual summary, let's first look at the level of revenue of the public. According to statistics, the sales revenue of as a whole increased by 12% in 2021 to more than 250 billion euros; the group's total operating profit exceeded 20 billion euros, which is quite satisfactory in the eyes of Volkswagen executives - especially considering that this is based on the fact that its overall sales volume has also declined by 6.3%.
In the luxury brand segment, Audi, Bentley and Porsche achieved returns on sales of 13.5%, 13.7% and 16.5% respectively. Looking only at the results, every Volkswagen sub-brand except Seat has achieved profitability in 2021.
Looking ahead, Volkswagen expects to achieve a 5% to 10% increase in vehicle deliveries in 2022, and expects the Group's revenue to increase by 8% to 13%. The return on sales operations is between 7% and 8.5%, net assets will increase by 15% year-on-year, and net cash flow will be the same as last year.
The Chinese market is too top
To be able to achieve such achievements, the Chinese market is indispensable. According to statistics, even in the unfavorable situation of chip supply shortage, Volkswagen still occupies 16% of the Chinese market share, and the Volkswagen brand itself alone reaches 11%; in addition, luxury brands such as Porsche, Lamborghini, Bentley and so on have also set sales records in the domestic market, which has laid the foundation for the good profit margin of the entire.
At the same time, throughout 2021, Volkswagen's pure electric vehicles will sell a total of 93,000 units in the domestic market, most of which should come from the ID.4 and ID.6 families. Under the good market situation, Volkswagen hopes to double the sales of electric vehicles in the Chinese market in 2022.
L4 is on the way
The "Trinity" project, which was proposed last year, was mentioned again at the media conference, but this time its focus seems to have shifted: compared with the previous concept of broad (miao) pan (缈), Volkswagen this time clearly proposed that the project will breed pure electric vehicles with L4 level autonomous driving capabilities. To this end, the entire group will invest 2 billion euros to build a new electric vehicle factory and research and development center in Wolfsburg.
The MEB platform continues to emit light and exothermic heat
Although it will be replaced by a new SSP platform around 2026, judging from the feedback from the ID.Buzz just released a few days ago, the MEB platform is currently playing its due role. Internally, Volkswagen is pushing more ID. family models to market, gradually realizing the replacement of the original fuel vehicle lineup; externally, Volkswagen is actively seeking cross-group applications of the MEB platform, and Ford is the first non-VAG user of the MEB platform.
Coincidentally, just a day before the mass media conference, Ford Europe announced nine electrified models that will be launched by 2024. Among them, there are two models in the passenger car part based on the MEB platform, and their planned output is in the 1.2 million unit level, which can be said to be a dream linkage.
It's still a "people's car"
Volkswagen's literal translation should be "the people's car", and the people-friendly Volkswagen never seems to go astray. In the face of the upcoming era of electrification, the public began to focus on the layout of the market and strive to maximize convenience.
Specifically, in the Chinese market with higher population and vehicle density, Volkswagen began to build more than 10,000 fast charging piles (the expected 2025 figure) as an alternative to the energy replenishment of its pure electric models; in the European market, Volkswagen is increasing the market share of pure electric models, which has now reached 25%; and in the US market, Volkswagen Group is also trying to start from the two directions of the truck and electric vehicle markets to regain its due position.
The electric layout continues
What should the public transform into? As far as the situation of this media communication meeting is concerned, simple car manufacturers are definitely not OK, and the public needs to have stronger control over the supply chain and independent production. In addition to the local conditions mentioned above, Volkswagen also has the following plans:
In addition to battery plants in Germany, Sweden and Spain, the Volkswagen Group plans to build a fourth battery plant in Eastern Europe to meet the growing demand for supplies. In 2021, Volkswagen will invest more than 1.7 billion euros in this area, including a stake in Guoxuan Hi-Tech.
Transformation into a mobility services group. This point seems to need not be explained too much, whether it is Tesla, which is regarded by the public as a catch-up target, or the loose PSA next door, it is not wrong to follow up. Otherwise, the hard-working L4 level automatic driving will be useless.
Promote the development of the next generation of pure electric platform SSPs. Since it is a medium- to long-term goal, there is not much detail about this platform. At present, it is known that the part of the SSP platform in the Chinese market should be promoted by Volkswagen Anhui.
The Porsche IPO is imminent
Leaving aside the complex relationship between Volkswagen and Porsche, let's start with a statistic: in 2021, the Taycan will surpass Porsche's only model, the 911. Although the positioning difference between the two (in the sense of non-dynamic form) is not small, it can also be seen that Porsche's electrification strategy has achieved initial results.
In addition, Porsche has always been an excellent engineering company, and the application technology behind it does not even need to be advertised. That being the case, the benefits that can be brought about by its separate IPO should be more conducive to the Volkswagen Group, which has just proposed the NEW AUTO strategy and is trying to achieve transformation as quickly as possible. Therefore, at this media communication meeting, Volkswagen really stood up and confirmed Porsche's IPO plan.
Be true to the business itself
Volkswagen's attitude towards the current Russo-Ukrainian war is one of the more neutral among Western companies: on the Russian side, the Volkswagen Group will provide 80% of its employees with salaries and continue to provide spare parts for local car owners; on the Ukrainian side, Volkswagen has said it will do its best to support the resumption of production in the local wiring harness factory.
From an outsider's point of view, the two warring sides control Europe's energy, the other is related to the food issue, and maintaining neutrality and taking care of their own business is the most important priority - just like Nintendo, who admitted a while ago that the closure of eShop was just worried about exchange rate fluctuations and losing money, just right to show some stupidity, and the future business is easy to discuss.
Seat returned home
As mentioned earlier, in 2021, only Seat's revenue performance in the whole is not satisfactory. After seeing a strong performance in the Chinese market, Volkswagen had the idea of reintroducing it to China. The specific implementation of this operation should be Jianghuai Volkswagen.
I vaguely remember that the main model when I entered China last time was the Cupra, and this time when I entered the domestic market, Seat should push the pure electric Cupra (laughs)