Produced by | Sohu Auto · Car café
"Yes, we face strong competitors, but we have also faced strong competitors in history. In the face of strong competition, we will continue to go our own way. On January 11, Ralf Brandstätter, Chairman and CEO of Volkswagen Group China, said at the 2023 New Year media conference.
Ralf Brandstätter, Chairman and CEO of Volkswagen Group China
The just-concluded year of 2022 marks an important historic moment in the automotive industry: the market share of independent brands has reached new highs with the help of the outbreak of new energy vehicles. With a sales advantage of nearly 40,000 units, BYD took away the position of the annual sales champion of Chinese passenger car companies from FAW-Volkswagen, ending the long-term history of China's car market dominated by the North and South Volkswagen.
Although Brad said that he has full confidence in the market position of the Volkswagen Group in China, "Volkswagen is still one of the first choices for the majority of Chinese consumers", for Volkswagen, which regards China as its largest single market, the new challenges in the Chinese market cannot be ignored.
In the transformation of the industry to new energy vehicles, how to improve the market performance of new energy vehicles as soon as possible while maintaining the foundation of fuel vehicles, so as to stabilize the market share in China? This is also the difficult task facing Berred, the new commander-in-chief of Volkswagen China, who has only been in office for more than four months.
Since August 1 last year, Brad has officially become President and CEO of Volkswagen Group China, responsible for China business; At the same time, the directors of Volkswagen Group China became the central decision-making organization of the group across brands in China, led by Brad. Since then, Brad has been given greater authority than his predecessor, Feng Sihan, and the China region has been given greater autonomy.
After more than four months of operation under the new management structure, Berred said: "The Chinese board of directors has proved to be very efficient, with three important brands on the board, the Volkswagen brand, the Audi brand and the CARIAD brand, which allows us to make decisions faster and create synergies between the Group's brands." ”
In addition to the acceleration at the decision-making level, the development process will also be further accelerated. "Speed and innovation are becoming more important to us than ever," Berred said, adding that Volkswagen China is "ready" for the transition.
In 2023, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in China will reach one-third
2022 will not be easy for Volkswagen China.
FAW-Volkswagen and SAIC Volkswagen, two joint ventures that are the pillars of sales, bore the brunt of the epidemic in Changchun and Shanghai in the first half of the year, resulting in a 20.5% year-on-year decline in Volkswagen's deliveries in China in the first half of the year.
After the recovery in the second half of the year, data shows that in 2022, Volkswagen delivered 3.18 million new vehicles in China, a year-on-year decline of about 4%. The market share was 15.1%, a slight decrease of 0.9 percentage points compared to 2021.
"We achieved good results in a challenging environment." In addition to the pandemic, global and regional supply bottlenecks, especially the shortage of semiconductor chips, have had an impact on deliveries, Berryd said.
Specific to the delivery of the Group's brands in China: in 2022, the Volkswagen brand and Jetta sub-products delivered 2,397,100 units, the Audi brand delivered 642,500 units, the Skoda brand delivered 44,600 units, and the Porsche brand delivered a total of 93,300 sports cars; Bentley brand deliveries were 3,655 units; Deliveries of the Lamborghini brand were 1,018 units, up 9% year-on-year.
In terms of new energy vehicles, in 2022, VW's sales of new energy vehicles in China increased by 37.1% y/y to more than 206,500 units, of which more than 155,000 were pure electric vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 68.2%.
The ID. family of products is central to this growth in new energy vehicles. Data shows that in 2022, the delivery volume of ID. family products exceeded 143,000 units, doubling year-on-year.
"I am very satisfied with our new energy vehicle sales." "Especially in the A-segment SUV segment, the ID. model sales are outstanding, with a market share of about 10%, which is basically in line with the average market share of the Volkswagen brand as a whole," Bered said. ”
As for 2023, Brad did not give a clear sales target. But he said this year would be a year of "sustained recovery and steady growth" in Volkswagen China.
Brad expects that due to the impact of the epidemic and the withdrawal of subsidies, the growth rate of the passenger car market in the first quarter of 2023 will be "not too high", but it will achieve a growth rate of about 5% for the whole year.
For the new energy vehicle market in 2023, Brad is also very optimistic: "Although there will still be supply chain bottlenecks such as chips, and relatively weak consumption, there will still be very good opportunities," he predicted, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in 2023 is expected to reach 1/3.
This year, the ID.7 will be launched to focus on improving software research and development capabilities
However, although Volkswagen's sales of new energy vehicles in China have increased significantly, there is still a considerable gap compared with competitors.
In 2022, BYD's sales volume will be 1,863,500 units, a year-on-year increase of 155.1%; Volkswagen has repeatedly said that it will catch up with Tesla in 2025, with 710,000 vehicles delivered at the Shanghai plant in 2022 and a total of 1.31 million Tesla deliveries worldwide.
Of course, the outbreak of China's new energy vehicles in 2022 is inseparable from the rapid development of plug-in hybrid vehicles, but Berred said that the main focus of Volkswagen's new energy vehicles is pure electric vehicles.
"By 2030, hybrid will account for 50% of Volkswagen's product lineup," Berred said, "While continuing to promote the hybrid strategy (including hydrogen hybrid system and plug-in hybrid system), we always believe that hybrid is a transitional technology and solution, and the future of new energy vehicles still lies in pure electric vehicles." ”
Volkswagen is ramping up its electrification offensive in China. In 2023, Volkswagen will officially launch the ID.7 in the Chinese market, entering the sedan market where fuel vehicles have previously achieved great success through Passat and Magotan .
The all-new ID.7 sedan with a digitally camouflaged exterior was officially unveiled
According to the plan, by 2030, Volkswagen's electrification ratio in China's product portfolio will exceed 40%; The Volkswagen Group and its joint venture partners in China will invest EUR 15 billion in e-mobility by 2024.
In addition to expanding its electrification product lineup, Volkswagen will significantly enhance its software R&D capabilities and staffing in China in 2023, which is also an important part of Volkswagen's e-mobility roadmap in China.
In April last year, CARIAD China was officially established, which is CARIAD's first subsidiary outside Europe. According to Berred, the number of software engineers in CARIAD will double to more than 1,200 in a short period of time.
In October last year, CARIAD established a joint venture with Chinese chip company Horizon, for which the Volkswagen Group plans to invest about 2.4 billion euros (about 16.7 billion yuan), with a 60% stake, making it the largest single investment in Volkswagen's 40 years in China.
Berred said the joint venture will jointly develop chip-level technologies and solutions for future autonomous driving technology systems and integrate them into automotive products with various brands.
At present, the joint development of CARIAD and Horizon is in full swing and is in a rapid progress. At the same time, all work is underway around the establishment of the joint venture, which is on schedule, and the site selection is being evaluated and will be announced shortly.
Volkswagen Anhui, a joint venture of the Volkswagen Group in China focusing on new energy vehicles, at the end of last year, Volkswagen Anhui's first pre-production model rolled off the production line at the new MEB plant and will start production at the end of this year.
It is reported that by 2025, 2,000 people will join the development of Volkswagen Anhui "In China, for China".
Berred revealed that in the future, in the process of developing intelligent networked vehicles, better integration of R&D components and procurement will be achieved, and local Chinese suppliers will be involved in the early stage to achieve faster tailor-made solutions for Chinese customers.