In 2016, saicid audi four words spread throughout the network, the establishment of a second joint venture in China seems to have been nailed down, unfortunately FAW Audi dealers reacted very fiercely to this, and said that "as of December 1, if Audi does not terminate the cooperation with SAIC Volkswagen, it will work with dealers across the country to suspend the pick-up from manufacturers." ”
This has also become a typical case of dealers returning to the main engine factory.
In order to stabilize the mood of FAW-Volkswagen Audi dealers, the cooperation between SAIC and Audi can only be suspended, but only suspended.
The following year, Audi, SAIC Group, FAW-Volkswagen Audi Dealer Federation reached a consensus, Audi promised to complete the sales target of 900,000 vehicles and then open cooperation with SAIC, and in the future SAIC Audi and FAW-Volkswagen Audi channels, sales connected to the grid, there is only one network channel to sell Audi products, these two points are completely to ensure the interests of FAW-Volkswagen Audi OEM and dealers.
At this point, the three parties finally reached a consensus on the establishment of a second Audi joint venture brand in China in a decent and win-win manner.
Of course, FAW also knows that the arrival of SAIC Audi will never be stagnant because of their obstruction, and the force behind the push is not confrontational with the dealer alliance, so it has the decision to sit down and negotiate.
In this game, it cannot be said whether it wins or loses, FAW Audi has won the greatest interest protection for itself in the case of not being able to prevent the establishment of SAIC Audi, and SAIC Audi has also been established as desired, or it is a basic win-win situation on the opposite side.
So persistent, but struggling?
So why are SAIC and Audi so obsessed about setting up a joint venture? Nature is driven by profit.
For SAIC, for many years, there has only been one second-tier luxury brand in Cadillac, even if cadillac has achieved good sales performance in the second-tier luxury brands through terminal concessions, it is always a second-tier luxury brand, and the sales volume is not comparable to the three BBA.
And the cooperation between SAIC and Audi is not later than FAW in history, when CDK manufactured the Audi 100, the two companies already had the intention of establishing a joint venture company, but faw was preempted. Seeing that FAW Audi has been sitting on the top spot in the domestic first-line luxury brands for many years, why does SAIC not want to recreate a "South Audi"?
For Audi, in the cooperation with FAW, sales have ranked first for many years, but the distribution of shares is not friendly to Audi, with FAW Group accounting for 60%, Volkswagen Group accounting for 30%, and Audi accounting for only 10%. With the opening of the domestic equity ratio, Audi and SAIC can achieve a 50:50 share ratio, coupled with the fact that FAW Audi's influence in China has been large enough for many years, the new joint venture company can completely inherit such word of mouth and market, audi is definitely more willing to try to establish another joint venture brand with SAIC.
On the other hand, the competition between the three BBA companies in China has become more intense, mercedes-benz and BMW in recent years the growth rate far exceeds the Audi brand, and FAW Audi can not come up with a better response plan, so choosing to set up a joint venture company to counter the offensive of Mercedes-Benz BMW will be the best choice and method for Audi to maintain sales and interests in the Chinese market.
The reason for insisting on establishing SAIC Audi must be because of the maximization of interests, but if SAIC Audi enters the market too smoothly, it will undoubtedly damage the interests of FAW Audi, so while FAW Audi guarantees its own interests, it also sets up many obstacles for SAIC Audi.
As originally signed, the sales volume was 900,000 and the parallel sales were sold.
You know, even in 2021 SAIC Audi, FAW Audi's annual sales are only hovering around 720,000 units, so at that time, this condition basically rejected the establishment of SAIC Audi, and the fact is that it was not mandatory to implement this later.
Regarding the conditions for grid-connected sales, it not only protects the interests of FAW Audi dealers, but also makes SAIC Audi have no chance with the A3, A4, A6 and other models that have been domestically produced, and it is impossible to copy the dual-car model of North and South Volkswagen. This also makes the best choice for SAIC Audi's first new car can only be the traffic niche model A7, even so, SAIC Audi does not want to give up the share of A6L, chose to extend the "most beautiful coupe", abandon the slipback design to launch the A7L to enter a larger market segment.
Of course, after FAW Audi's struggle, Audi also had to give more resources to FAW, just as SAIC Audi was in full swing, FAW and Audi set up an "Audi FAW New Energy Joint Venture", so that the cake originally on the new energy model naturally could not be less than FAW's share, and SAIC's abacus fell short again.
However, thankfully, the sales of faw-audi on the grid are not without advantages.
As Chen Hong, then chairman of SAIC In 2019, said, in the future, SAIC Audi's marketing channels will be promoted online and offline.
At the same time, all offline SAIC Audi product sales are sold by the existing 4S stores of FAW-Volkswagen Audi, and priority is given to FAW-Volkswagen Audi dealers to open urban exhibition hall applications, and the initial plan is to establish 200 urban exhibition halls in about 80 cities.
This model is similar to the sales method of the new power brand, through the online booking, door-to-door test drive, door-to-door delivery and other new models to sell SAIC Audi models for sale, mainly through online and FAW Audi dealers.
In this way, while reducing the inventory pressure of dealers, it also reduces the time and capital cost of SAIC Audi needing to lay a large number of 4S stores in the early stage, and can enjoy FAW Audi's mature dealer network across the country for many years to solve offline showroom and after-sales problems.
However, for SAIC Audi's persistence, it seems that after the A7L listing, consumers are not very willing to pay.
A7L cold, Q6 or cold eyes again
In the first full month of saic auto audi a7L, sales were only 316 units, compared with the previous target of 40,000 units per year, an average of 3,000 to 5,000 units per month, such data is really a cold water poured on SAIC Audi.
For this sales, SAIC Audi's response is that "it is still in the climbing stage, and only one 3.0T engine is currently being delivered, and the 2.0T version has not yet begun to be delivered." On the other hand, the current domestic sales network is still under construction, the current number of stores is still too small, only one national nature of the enterprise, three Audi cities, plus Audi city stores a total of 120 stores. ”
In simple terms, the response is "Wait, we can stand up." ”
However, we may wish to see if the A7L is really likely to achieve the goal of 3,000 to 5,000 vehicles per month after completing the climbing stage.
Of course, our answer is no.
First, the SAIC Audi A7L has a high positioning but insufficient differentiation.
It can be seen that the reason why SAIC has extended the Audi A7 to A7L is to make the A7, which was originally in the niche coupe market, more business-like, so as to compete with the A6L in the same market.
But the problem is that the SAIC Audi A7L guidance price is 459,700 to 777,700 yuan, while the guidance price of the FAW Audi A6L is 419,800 to 656,000 yuan, even if we separate the 2.0T model, the 2.0T cash guidance price of the A6L is 419,800 to 505,800 yuan, while the guidance price of the 2.0T model of the SAIC Audi A7L is 459,700 to 519,700 yuan. It seems that the difference is only about 10,000 to 40,000 yuan, but in fact, the terminal discount of FAW Audi A6L can now be nearly 10 percentage points, and there are more before.
So where are the advantages of saicid audi a7L? Is it the commercialization of sports coupes, or the sports of business cars? Unfortunately, in the Chinese market, users who buy A7 basically do not look at A6L, and users who buy A6L rarely choose sports models such as A7.
Either homogenization, or differentiation, SAIC Audi A7L did not account for, and eventually it became a situation of high or low, A6L and imported A7 users can not look at A7L.
Not to mention that recently there are rumors that the 3.0T model of the imported A7 will return to the Chinese market this year, priced at about 790,000, so compared with the 3.0T model of the 777,000 A7L, buyers will certainly not choose the latter.
Second, the public reputation in the north and south affects the sales of Audi in the north and south
In recent years, the sales dispute between the north and south Volkswagen has almost always been based on the victory of FAW-Volkswagen, not only because FAW-Volkswagen began to produce SUV models, but also because Audi contributed hundreds of thousands of sales, the most important thing is that in recent years, saxo-Volkswagen's reputation has declined seriously, especially after the Passat crash test incident, SAIC Volkswagen's reputation has plummeted, not only the car can not sell FAW-Volkswagen, but even the SUV model is slightly weak.
In this way, when people choose the Audi produced by SAIC or the Audi produced by FAW, they may naturally be inclined to choose FAW Audi with a better reputation.
It is not that there is no solution, that is, the A7L with higher positioning is at the same level as the A6L in price, opening sales in a dimensionality-reducing way, but I believe that SAIC Audi is not willing to do so, after all, the A7L may be their most advanced sedan model in the next few years.
Overall, if saicid automotive audi a7L targets A6L, it is obviously a failure, and even if the climb is completed, there will not be much sales rebound.
In addition, the declaration information of SAIC Audi's second fuel vehicle has also been exposed recently.
It is reported that the design concept of SAIC Audi Q6 is from the Chinese culture of the beast Qilin, so it is not difficult to see the importance of the Chinese market, but the problem is that this design seems to completely jump out of the design essence of Audi itself, and the interior is copied from the interior on the A8L.
From the declared size, the car reached 5099mm* 2014mm * 1784mm in length, wheelbase of 2980mm, even more than the size of the imported Q7, there will be a 7-seat model layout, the engine uses a 2.0T turbocharged four-cylinder engine codenamed EA888 Evo 4, and is divided into two versions of high and low power, the maximum power is 170kW and 195kW.
Obviously, the competitor of SAIC Audi Q6 will be FAW Audi's Q5L, positioned to be a higher level, so the future price is also very likely to be one level higher.
However, the current complaint about Q6 is first focused on the design, in addition to the original soul of Audi, it is more concentrated on the design of the light group similar to the Volvo Raytheon headlight. In addition, the car is based on the "cheap platform" of MQB Evo, because SAIC Volkswagen Tuon is also from this platform.
At least from the current point of view, even if the "dimensionality reduction strike" route is selected again, in the face of Q5L, GLC and the BMW X5L that will be domestically produced this year, the odds of SAIC Audi Q6 are minimal.
That is to say, from the rumor of SAIC Audi in 2016 and was forced to postpone by FAW Audi dealers, to the later signing of the agreement, FAW Audi has made full preparations not to let SAIC Audi take away the share from its own hands, so that now SAIC Audi's power period will be infinitely extended.
Of course, SAIC Audi is not without hope, but from the initial performance of A7L and Q6, if there is no better product and communication planning, it will take a long time to gain a foothold in the domestic luxury market.