The ancients said, "Thinking of danger in times of peace, thinking is prepared and prepared." ”
Living in peace without thinking about danger is not only the biggest dilemma in life, but also the development dilemma of enterprises. The death of Skoda is such a warning.
Ju'an does not think of danger, from lying to winning to falling.
As a sub-brand of Volkswagen, Skoda also comes with its own aura. Since signing a contract with SAIC Volkswagen in 2005, Skoda has reached 3 million users in 2020. In the domestic automobile market, Skoda used to be a more brilliant and dazzling presence.
Although it entered the Chinese market late, it is good to cool off against the big trees. With the reputation and faith accumulated by Volkswagen in China, the technology and platform blessing of the same root as Volkswagen, Skoda was completely lying at the beginning, breaking through the 1 million mark in 2014 and 3 million in 2020.
Sales data shows that from 2015 to 2020, Škoda's domestic sales were 317,000 units, 325,000 units, 341,000 units, 282,000 units and 173,000 units, respectively. However, from 2019 onwards, Skoda began to lose Tomed. By 2021, the Skoda brand sold only 71,200 vehicles in China, down 58.8% year-on-year, and sold just over 10,000 vehicles in the first two months of this year.
In five years, Skoda experienced ups and downs from peak to trough.
In the past two years, the domestic automobile market has changed rapidly, but Skoda is still unmoving. When the SUV market was hot, Skoda took out the wild emperor and soil, Kodiak was short-lived, and then it was rubbed on the ground by Tiguan L, and other models were even weaker.
The new Octavia PRO handed over in 2021, with the eighth generation of golfers, has designed a lot of new ideas, and Skoda was once full of confidence, directly locking on the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla as opponents. After more than a year of painstaking operation, the new Octavia PRO only sells 16,700 vehicles a year, and even the Corolla's one-month sales are not as good.
Nowadays, intelligent electric vehicles have entered a stage of rapid development, the Volkswagen Group has been a slow step in electrification, and Skoda is even slower, and so far there is no electric vehicle that can be taken out.
As a pure electric SUV model of Skoda, Skoda ENYAQ iV and ENYAQ COUPE iV have been released, and enyaq coupe iV is regarded as a sister car of Volkswagen ID.5, with a maximum cruising range of 545 km for WLTP conditions. However, it has not yet been introduced into the domestic market for sale.
One step behind is often one step behind. When the scenery is beautiful, it does not pay attention to polishing products, improving brand image and service level, which leads to the embarrassment of Skoda from lying down to falling.
Labels are not easy to peel off and harder to remove
In the era of intelligent interconnection, many car companies want to label science and technology. However, the label is not easy to put on, and it is even more difficult to tear it off.
For the Skoda brand, it is also plagued by labels. All along, Skoda has been wearing labels such as "cheap Volkswagen" and "simple version of Volkswagen", and many models and Volkswagen models have been supplied on the same platform, and even the same technology and the same parts supply, but the price is lower.
Therefore, it is rumored that slogans such as "people who understand the public buy Skoda" and "buy Skoda with their eyes closed" once helped Skoda create a period of brilliance.
Born in sorrow, died in comfort.
Success is also labeled, defeat is also labeled. Boiling frogs in warm water will make people unconsciously dispel their fighting spirit. Skoda, who is not thinking about danger, is now on the line of death. Skoda not only declined in sales, but also suffered a brand trust crisis, and the news of withdrawing from the Chinese market was frequent.
Dong Shi Can't Learn. Volkswagen has been deeply cultivated in the domestic market for many years, accumulated a large number of popularity and word of mouth, and has a certain cognition in the minds of consumers, but Skoda is completely unable to reach the height of the public, so many strategies of the public are used in Skoda.
With the change of the times, Skoda's innovation ability is insufficient, product upgrading is slow, the number of new cars is small, and the design aesthetic seems to be stuck in the feeling of ten years ago, so the brand attention has declined. In addition, there are many product quality problems, such as a series of quality problems such as abnormal noise in the car, odor, transmission shaking, etc. that plague the owner.
It is said that Skoda has the same origin as the public, but it has not learned the public's housekeeping skills. However, it has learned the annoying style of the public such as decommissioning, and the octavia that introduced domestic production changed the independent suspension to non-independent suspension, and the driving form was reduced from four-wheel drive to two-wheel drive.
The difference between inside and outside, and even the reduction of allocation, has made domestic consumers lose confidence in Skoda. Some tricks can be played by the public, and Skoda can't play them. Coupled with ungrounded marketing and prices, as well as the subsequent official demotion, many people are far away from Skoda.
Jetta and Audi, who was the last straw that crushed Skoda?
As we all know, SAIC Skoda's life is like this, which is not unrelated to the establishment of the Jetta brand. Positioning are "cheap version of volkswagen", after the establishment of the Jetta brand, those who want to choose Skoda have gone to buy jetta.
The 2021 sales data shows that the Jetta brand has sold nearly 170,000 vehicles in the whole year, while Skoda has only a fraction of it, and the Jetta dealership has expanded to 500, but this is not the case at the peak of Skoda. One is shrinking, the other is growing, and the public is gaining jetta at the same time, but also losing Skoda.
Jetta as a rising star, in the "cheap Volkswagen" blue out of the blue than blue, VS5 and VS7 models pricing is more grounded, Jetta VS5 starting price is only more than 80,000, Skoda Komic starting price has reached 105,900, the price gap is also directly fed back to sales.
If the Jetta trauma Skoda was an accident, Audi was the last straw that broke the camel's back. At present, SAIC Audi's first new car has begun to be delivered, after owning the high-end brand of Audi, whether it is height or growth potential, Skoda is unattainable, so Skoda has intensified its marginalization.
2022 is truly extraordinary for the automotive industry. Whether it is the relaxation of foreign equity restriction policies or the rise in the cost of raw materials such as batteries, they are affecting the direction of the automobile market. As a member of the joint venture car company, for Skoda, this year will be a backwater battle that decides to stay.