Lead
Introduction
FAW-Volkswagen is unswerving in its determination to transform in the era of electrification and intelligence.
Author 丨 Wang Xiaoxi
Responsible editor 丨 Du Yuxin
Editor 丨Zhu Jinbin
They all say," "This is the best of times, and it's also the worst of times." "For the automotive industry, 2021 is undoubtedly a mixed year. In the first half of the year, it was affected by unfavorable factors such as "lack of core" and repeated epidemics, but the stability of the broader market and the outbreak of new energy in the second half of the year made the industry maintain a very optimistic attitude towards the situation in 2022.
But the familiar era of the past has been turned upside down by the frequent emergence of "black swans". Just when the epidemic situation was estimated to be under control, the variant of the virus, Omikerong, began to spread, and as the number of confirmed cases and asymptomatic infected people increased across the country, our automotive industry once again encountered a "supply chain" dilemma. Under the influence of the epidemic, all car companies have shown a downward trend in market performance.
In March, FAW-Volkswagen, the most affected car company, was the first to bear the brunt of it, and some factories cut production or even stopped production. In particular, from the third week of March, the overall sales volume of the domestic automobile market fell due to the stagnation of production in individual regions and the suspension of consumption.
However, even under such difficult circumstances, FAW-Volkswagen still sold 131,000 units (including Audi imported cars) in March, ranking first in the sales list of car companies. Among them, the Volkswagen brand sold a total of 70,198 vehicles in March, laying a good foundation for the total sales of the company.
We know that in 2022, the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Germany, the tone of the FAW-Volkswagen "Zhongzhi" year is based on the 989,000 vehicle sales performance of the faw-Volkswagen brand maintaining the first camp in 2021, as well as the strength of the system behind it.
Volkswagen brand's new energy vehicles, cars, SUVs and other models have achieved results that are the envy of competitors, including 240,000+ Bora, 230,000 Sagittarius, 130,000 Magotan and 64,000 Golf family.
With the steady advancement of the new car plan in 2022, FAW-Volkswagen is accelerating the strategic pace of competition in the new era, and faw-Volkswagen is also unswerving in the face of the transformation determination of the era of electrification and intelligence.
Battle for an "Uncertain Year"
For FAW-Volkswagen and all car companies, 2022 is definitely an "uncertain year". On the production side, the overall output of Volkswagen brands in March shrank by about 40% year-on-year. From the history of FAW-Volkswagen in the past three decades, it is unimaginable.
Why? Or due to the outbreak of the epidemic at multiple points across the country, since Changchun City issued a lockdown notice on March 11, the city's organs, enterprises and institutions have stopped operating and stopped all non-essential flows. Affected by this, faw-Volkswagen Changchun base completely stopped work and production.
The Changchun base, which accounts for more than a quarter of the production capacity of the FAW-Volkswagen brand, is of great importance to the FAW-Volkswagen brand. As can be seen from the latest data, fawc-Volkswagen Changchun base production in March fell by more than 60% year-on-year, and many hot-selling models were limited by production capacity.
Not only that, the production capacity of Chengdu, Tianjin and Qingdao bases has also been reduced to varying degrees, and the reduction in production is about 30 to 50%. Not only FAW-Volkswagen, according to the data of the Association of Passenger Vehicles, the overall retail sales of the domestic passenger car market in March reached an average of 39,000 units per day, down 18% year-on-year and 10% month-on-month, of which the retail sales volume in the third and fourth weeks of March fell by 29% year-on-year compared with last year, and the entire automobile market performed abnormally.
Not only the production side, but also the FAW-Volkswagen sales side has also been affected. Due to the lockdown or closure of some cities, it seriously affects the sales volume of local dealers. Faw-Volkswagen brand sales in Jilin Province decreased by nearly 80% year-on-year in March, and sales in Shanghai and Shenzhen decreased by nearly 50% year-on-year. However, in some provinces less affected by the epidemic, such as Zhejiang Province, FAW-Volkswagen is still competitive with its products, and the overall sales volume has increased by nearly 50% month-on-month.
The same is true on the logistics side. Due to the reduced timeliness of domestic vehicle logistics operations, uncertainty has been added to the transshipment and delivery of vehicles. In March, faw-Volkswagen brand vehicle logistics and transportation were seriously reduced, resulting in insufficient supply of terminal vehicles, a rapid decline in the depth of dealer inventory, and even a phenomenon that some dealers were difficult to find.
Nevertheless, it is not difficult to see from the 131,000 vehicle sales reached by FAW-Volkswagen in March 2022 that the solid foundation laid by faw-Volkswagen's 2021 "brand upward + electric first year" transformation has played a crucial role.
In fact, behind the sales crown of 1.85 million FAW-Volkswagen in 2021 is a profound insight into the upcoming 2022 electrification and intelligent "attack" battle and the future competitive situation. As a practitioner of long-termism, throughout FAW-Volkswagen in 2022, it is still a long-term mentality.
To this end, last year, FAW-Volkswagen proposed to use the "missing core" window period to focus on the optimization and upgrading of internal management, start the intelligent transformation of all coefficients in the whole company, streamline the traditional business organization, establish a DTO digital transformation office, and cooperate with Alibaba and Huawei to cultivate digital talents.
In addition, in the "most expensive" place, FAW-Volkswagen continued to improve its R&D capabilities, and completed and put into use a new energy center and a new technology development center with a total investment of nearly 1.2 billion yuan, increasing the number of R&D personnel to nearly 3,000.
There is a saying, "The node determines the starting point, and the beginning is related to the overall situation." The setting of the tone of the "Zhongzhi" year proposed at the beginning of 2022 has shown the determination of FAW-Volkswagen to transform out of the "comfort zone".
"For FAW-Volkswagen, we feel that it is very important to start the digital and intelligent transformation of the whole system, which is also a key factor in our further success. Therefore, we will accelerate the transformation and upgrading of digital intelligence in terms of mobility, manufacturing, enterprise development and corporate ecological responsibility. That's what FAW-Volkswagen (Technology) Deputy General Manager Diad said, and FAW-Volkswagen did the same.
"Digital Intelligence" 2.0 driver
In the face of a more complex situation, in 2022, FAW-Volkswagen ushered in the "big year of products" driven by "digital intelligence". I have to say that this speed and strength of innovation and self-pressure once again allows us to witness the strength of the public system.
Specifically, in 2022, the FAW-Volkswagen brand will launch six new cars, including 4 remodeled models, 1 pure electric sedan and 1 new B-class mainstream large five-seat SUV. The B-Class SUV, positioned as a mid-size flagship SUV, is the brightest star in the product matrix, with an expected launch time of the end of 2022.
In addition, the most noteworthy is this medium and large pure electric sedan, which will further expand the ID.CROZZ family camp. The earliest expected appearance is at the end of 2022. As FAW-Volkswagen's first pure electric sedan based on the MEB platform. The prototype of this car is ID.VIZZION. From the design point of view, it will adopt a harmonious and smooth integrated design, and the overall body line of the hatchback shape is elegant and dynamic.
In the fuel car part, we know that in 2018, FAW-Volkswagen did not have an SUV model. Today, FAW-Volkswagen has launched SUV models such as Tanying, Tange, Tanyue, and Lanjing, gradually covering the core market segments of SUVs. In just four years, as of April 2022, the FAW-Volkswagen SUV family has achieved millions of sales as a whole, becoming the fastest joint venture SUV family to complete millions of sales. This time, the four new remodeled models, including the new Magotan, Sagitar, Bora and Tanyue families, will continue to strengthen the product matrix of the Volkswagen brand.
Among these four models, the national car Bora will usher in a mid-term redesign in 2022. Moreover, the new Polaroid will fully replace the 1.5L self-priming engine with a 1.2T engine, achieving a dual improvement in power and economy. The new Polaroids will be fully upgraded in appearance, interior, intelligence, safety and other aspects. In terms of safety, the new Polaroid has been upgraded again, including more comprehensive driving assistance functions, higher body strength, and more airbag coverage in more directions. In terms of price, there may also be bigger surprises.
The new Sagitar is expected to be available in May 2022. As the benchmark of the A+ class sedan, Sagitar entered China in 2006 and will continue to lead the market segment after the mid-term redesign. It is worth mentioning that the new Sagitar, which has a body length increased to 4,791mm, will use the EA211 1.5T EVO2 engine for the first time, which will be better than the 1.4T engine in terms of performance and fuel consumption.
In addition to products, we know that in 2022, FAW-Volkswagen will closely follow the needs of users, focus on the three dimensions of innovative marketing, lean sales, and pleasant experience, and fully open the 2.0 stage of digital and intelligent transformation. The company-wide digital and intelligent transformation launched from 2021 is precisely based on "user-centered, driven by digital intelligence", and it is also the layout and attitude of FAW-Volkswagen in the era of intelligent electricity.
The old marketing logic has been shattered by the times, so in 2022, FAW-Volkswagen will integrate all resources to deepen data in innovative marketing, and drive digital and intelligent marketing reform and achieve smart marketing through the five dimensions of new strategies, new content, new channels, new technologies, and new organizations.
When it comes to lean sales, in 2022, volkswagen brands will continue to practice the management concept of lean supply and demand, promote efficient inventory turnover, shorten the number of inventory turnover days to less than 30 days, that is, maintain inventory depth level below 1.0, and continue to consolidate the order-oriented sales model.
In terms of the "user-centric" pleasant experience, FAW-Volkswagen fully implements the customer-centric service concept around the customer's full life cycle journey, and makes concerted efforts before and after-sales, online and offline to provide customers with the ultimate service experience.
Specifically, 300 new upgraded showrooms will be added in the pre-sales stage to provide customers with a pleasant offline car purchase environment; in the after-sales service stage, we will promote the construction of digital intelligence and the coordination of four ends to achieve transparent maintenance process, visual consumption records, and service efficiency improvement; in terms of car service, the capacity of public piles will be expanded to 300,000+, and 2200 Chemes charging piles will be added to eliminate customer charging anxiety. In all aspects, FAW-Volkswagen is constantly increasing the quality of service to users.
Sending away the uncertain 2021 ushered in a more uncertain 2022. However, FAW-Volkswagen has outlined a clear operational idea for itself, and under the guidance of the "Carbon Emission Reduction Strategy", it has continued to work steadily to meet the actual needs of more diversified users through the dual upgrading of products and brands.
2022 is also destined to be a year of opportunity for FAW-Volkswagen. FAW-Volkswagen does not lack the confidence and determination to face difficulties, and in the continuous "transformation" of self-pressure, it will eventually become a participant in the history of this great era and a leader in the automotive industry.
| Wang Xiaoxi |
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