Borgward, which has disappeared in the auto market for a long time, has finally appeared in everyone's sight, but it has not ushered in good news.
On April 22, Foton Motor announced that because Beijing Borgward could not pay off its debts as they fell due, and the audit report showed that its assets were insufficient to pay off all its liabilities, Beijing Borgward was a bankruptcy-eligible entity and had already had bankruptcy reasons, so it applied for liquidation of Beijing Borgward's bankruptcy.
Non-blown self is "BBBA"
Borgward, which debuted under the banner of "expensive talent is good, good talent is expensive", has reached the point of insolvency after just six years of establishment, which is indeed quite regrettable.
Remember that at that time, after Borgward was acquired by Foton, it also had the ambition to make a big splash in the auto market, and spent money to hire a bunch of masters, such as executives hired Borgward's grandson to do surveillance, former Mercedes-Benz director Holley Washigh became Borgward CEO, and a bunch of designers were recruited in BMW Volkswagen and other famous car companies, with the purpose of building Borgward into a luxury brand with pure Ashkenazi blood and the same name as "BBA".
After this toss, Borgward seems to have been successful, and the first model launched that year, the Borgward BX, had stable sales of about 5,000 units in July, and sold more than 30,000 new cars throughout the year. Subsequently, Borgward has also successively put a lot of SUV models in the market, BX5, BXi7, BX6, etc., which can also be regarded as the establishment of its own SUV product matrix.
Judging from the later development, the success of Borgward is very short-lived, because its elaborate "BBBA" can not withstand the attack of the media and users, coupled with the fact that the Borgward BX7 model also has a lot of problems, which undoubtedly cannot support the price of up to more than 200,000, making Borgward difficult today.
According to the financial report, from 2016 to 2018, the net losses of Beijing Borgward were 484 million yuan, 985 million yuan and 2.54 billion yuan respectively, with a cumulative loss of 4.014 billion yuan in three years, and the losses in successive years forced Foton Automobile to list and transfer the equity of Borgward Automobile. After being taken over by UCAR, Borgward only recovered in 2019, and sales plummeted to 8703 vehicles in 2020, and after entering 2021, Borgward car sales plummeted to 3612 vehicles again.
Why has it become the shortest-lived "German" car company in China?
As we all know, German cars are very popular in China, after all, German industrial manufacturing is positioned in specialized, fine, special and high, and German cars are backed by German industrial manufacturing, which enhances the first impression given to consumers. For example, nearly half of Volkswagen's global sales are basically contributed by domestic consumers, and luxury brands such as BBA are also in the first echelon of domestic luxury cars. And Borgward, which has the sign of a German car, why is it so difficult to go?
In fact, Borgward was indeed a popular brand in Germany, and its quality and popularity can be comparable to BBA, but it has long been closed in the 60s of the last century. After half a century of silence, Futian "resurrected" it, although it has a title of Borgward, but obviously there is no pure Ashkenazi blood, from research and development to mass production is Beijing Futian, that is, the domestic car with the German brand. Therefore, at that time, Futian spent a lot of money to buy an empty shell, which did not bring any advanced industrial technology of German cars, so how could consumers be willing to pay for it?
What's more fatal is that Borgward's marketing also makes people feel a little "funny", saying that they originated from Germany, but also have to brag that they are "BBBA", elevate themselves to the same front as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, which is a bit of a taste of porcelain, after all, the former Borgward has disappeared for more than half a century, and now after being acquired by a domestic car, it is very luxurious to market itself, so that consumers have high expectations, which is naturally not a long-term way. Since this is better than saying that you are a domestic car at the beginning, it may not be the case to lower the pricing.
Coupled with the years since the advent of Borgward, the competition in the same industry has never been fiercer. There are dozens of known passenger car brands in China, and domestic independent brands such as Geely Automobile, Great Wall Motor and Changan Automobile have occupied half of the country. Therefore, Borgward's competitive pressure is unprecedented, and it is not easy to stand out in this era of princes.
Editor's note
Brand positioning failure, lack of marketing innovation, coupled with changes in the environment, Borgward as a new brand is naturally difficult to resist the pressure, and in the current era of energy conservation and environmental protection requirements are getting higher and higher, Borgward in the new energy aspects of the layout is completely rare, and gradually lost the opportunity to compete in the market.
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