Abstract: In the future in China, Audi will become more Chinese
Text | Guo Yu
Editor 丨 Zhao Cheng
What can a new car company do in a year's time? Releasing brands, introducing products, building a marketing system, going public and delivering them, SAIC Audi has had a very fulfilling life.
April 18 marks the first anniversary of SAIC Audi, three and a half months after the launch of SAIC Audi's first product, the A7L. However, at the first anniversary ceremony, SAIC Audi did not satisfy the curiosity of the market and did not mention the sales of the only product, A7L.
This may be because the product that took the lead did not achieve the desired sales volume – in the first quarter of 2022, the A7L sold 830 units, a far cry from the previously set monthly sales of 3,000-5,000 units.
SAIC Audi chose to focus on the future, highlighting the upcoming Audi Q6 on June 6, as well as new versions of the A7L and Q5 e-tron. In terms of sales channels, SAIC Audi will open 120 experience stores in 2022.
"From the very beginning of its birth, SAIC Audi has been committed to building not only industrial products, but a complete set of travel ecological experiences. SAIC Audi will join hands with partners from all walks of life, unique red circle friends, and the majority of users who work together with us to create a new four rings in the new era. Jia Mingdi, general manager of SAIC Audi's marketing business, said.
It is worth mentioning that on the first day of the establishment of SAIC Audi, Audi China also released a new concept car urbansphere, which is the third concept car of the Audi sphere series after the electric roadster Audi Skysphere in August 2021 and the Audi Grandite in September, which also marks the arrival of the sphere family.
Aim at young users and start Chinese
On April 18, SAIC Audi revealed a number of new car information at the first anniversary ceremony.
First, spoilers for the Audi Q6. Caijing Automobile (ID: caijingqiche) learned that the design of the Audi Q6 was inspired by the Chinese mythical beast Kirin, which for the first time used through-line headlights and rear tail quadtro projection brake lights, with a combination of administrative and sporty styles. The Audi Q6 is 5099mm long, 2014mm wide, 1784mm high and has a wheelbase of 2980mm, continuing the three-row layout and 6/7-seat setting.
In addition, the Audi Q5 e-tron has also ushered in a new one, while the Audi A7L has added two new configuration models. The Audi A7L special edition models "Wind Rider" and "Paladin" are both priced at 519,900 yuan, and on the basis of 15 standard equipment of 45TFSI, superimposed with quattro intelligent four-wheel drive, intelligent off-board parking, B&O 3D surround sound, 20-inch wheel hub, 3D panoramic image, front seat heating and other configurations.
Attracting more "young users in the luxury market" is the focus of SAIC Audi. It is understood that 32% of SAIC Audi users are under 30 years old, and 72% of users are under 40 years old.
To capture more young users, the product must not only be more Chinese, but even co-create with Chinese customers.
On the second day of SAIC Audi's first anniversary celebration, Audi China unveiled its latest concept car, urbansphere, based on the electric vehicle platform PPE. Urbansphere is a car made for China, and the interior and exterior decoration are taken care of by the Chinese design team.
The sinicization of concept cars is also reflected in the "big". The urbansphere is currently the largest of the Audi concept cars, measuring 5.51 meters long, 2.01 meters wide and 1.78 meters high. The wheelbase is 3.40 meters long and can accommodate six passengers. For the technological intelligence pursued by Chinese consumers, urbansphere has also not fallen, in addition, the car also has L4 level automatic driving function.
"With this concept car, we can see that we are constantly working to provide Chinese users with innovative products and technology roadmaps, and it will also be the first strong evidence of Audi China's strategy to forge ahead with 2030." Wen Zeyue, president of Audi China, said that in the future in China, Audi will become more Chinese.
North and South Audi, how is 1+1 greater than 2?
At present, Audi has two partners in China, one is the FAW Group in Changchun and the other is the SHANGHAI-based SAIC Group. The former established a joint venture brand of FAW-Volkswagen Audi, which was born in 1988, and the latter is SAIC Audi, which was just established last year.
"Welcoming new partners should be the result of 1+1>2, not a competitive relationship." Neschhor, then president of Audi China, previously said in an interview with the media.
If you want to be 1+1>2, you must first differentiate.
In the words of Jia Mingdi, SAIC Audi's positioning is "the new force of luxury brands". In terms of logo, SAIC Audi also adopted a new visual image with four circles on a red background to distinguish it from FAW-Volkswagen Audi.
At the beginning, SAIC Audi aimed at a more high-end market segment, and the price of the first model A7L released was close to 600,000 yuan, and the top part was even higher than 777,700 yuan.
Founded in 1988, FAW-Volkswagen Audi has been deeply involved in the Chinese market for many years, and its product line covers the mainstream passenger car market such as cars and SUVs, with its SUVs sitting on Q2L, Q3, Q5L, Q7, Q8, etc., and cars with A3, A4L, A5, A6L, A8 and other models, with product price ranges ranging from 200,000 yuan to 800,000 yuan.
SAIC Audi also tried to innovate its operating model, abandoning the traditional 4S store model and adopting a new "agency system" model.
According to the "physical e-commerce ecological experience" business model previously released, SAIC Audi will build a complete digital service ecosystem online, provide unified product and service prices nationwide, and realize customized services such as online car booking, door-to-door test drive and door-to-door delivery.
If we want to > 1+2, we must work together to serve Audi's 2030 strategy.
Audi's Vorsprung 2030 strategy focuses on three parts: electric mobility, autonomous driving and digitalization. In terms of electric mobility, from 2026, Audi's new models for the global market will be fully switched to pure electric products; by 2033, Audi will gradually stop the production of internal combustion engines.
According to the plan, by 2025, Audi will have more than 20 pure electric models and significantly expand the product range of plug-in hybrids. Audi expects that by 2025, about one-third of its deliveries worldwide will be pure electric or hybrid models.
China is the largest single market for the Audi brand in the world and is therefore an important part of the realization of the 2030 strategy. According to the data, in 2021, Audi's sales revenue in China reached 1.14 billion euros (1.009 billion euros in fiscal year 2020), and the Audi brand sold 727,000 vehicles.
But at present, the newborn "SAIC Audi" is obviously a bit of a drag in some aspects.
For example, in terms of sales channels, faw-Volkswagen Audi currently has 700 stores. SAIC Audi currently has fewer than 200 stores (51 Audi city stores, 102 service providers, Shanghai brand center "Enterprising Hui", Guangzhou and Chengdu "Audi City"). Audi revealed that before the end of 2022, SAIC Audi will lay out 120 offline experience stores.
The second is the number of sales. In the first three months of 2022, the Audi A7L sold 316, 258 and 256 units, respectively, that is, only 830 units were sold in the first quarter of 2022. Previously, Jia Mingdi set a sales target of 3,000 to 5,000 vehicles per month, with annual sales of more than 50,000 vehicles.
Although SAIC stressed that the A7L is still in the climbing stage, delivering only the 3.0T version, coupled with the lack of stores, resulting in less than expected sales. However, many people in the industry believe that A7L canceled the "soul slip" model, the positioning is not accurate, and the lack of new car discounts is the key reason.
SAIC Audi's "new" has just emerged, and when it can play its own role in differences and synergy to reverse the situation is a short-term unavoidable problem of this "traditional new force".