Audi can't imagine that it has occupied the top spot in the mainland luxury car market for 30 consecutive years, and now it is being abandoned by the mainland market?
At that time, with labels such as "official cars", the dividends of the times were eaten, and the sales volume was several times that of BMW, Mercedes-Benz and other models of the same level. Some people say that in that era, Audi was the big brother.
However, the data shows that in the first 10 months of this year, its sales in China were 566,800 units, and Mercedes-Benz and BMW both sold more than 650,000 units in the same period. What's more, in the high-end car market of more than 300,000 yuan, it is almost monopolized by new energy sources such as Tesla, Weilai, and Ideal, and Audi's advantage as a traditional luxury car is gone.
Why can't Audi, which was once invincible, even keep its position on the first line?
01 Ignoring the Chinese market demand?
It must be admitted that Audi has also had a good time in the mainland market before. In 1989, the first batch of 400 luxury models Audi 100 (later renamed A6) entered China, quickly filling the high-end car market and becoming the first choice for official cars. Data shows that nearly 40% of the 1.61 million cars sold last year were bought by the Chinese market.
In 2014, Audi sold more than 570,000 in the Chinese market, and foreign media even published articles touting "In China, success is equivalent to 1 black A6", but no one could have imagined that this scenery only lasted until 2018 and then ceased to exist and began to fall off the altar.
Since 2019, Audi's sales have gradually been overtaken by BMW and Mercedes-Benz, ranking third in the BBA all year round. In the entire auto market, with the domestic BYD, Weilai, Ideal and other new car-making forces eyeing up, its sales have plummeted, and it is gradually difficult to see its figure in the top 10 list.
Today, it is generally believed that Audi's pace has been "too backward", especially at the critical moment of domestic new energy development, it still clings to fuel technology and does not want to please the Chinese market demand. According to data, Audi only sold 28,600 new energy vehicles in China this year, which is not even 10% of the ideal.
When the needs of mainland consumers are ignored, whether it is a Porsche sports car, a Canada goose down jacket, or the Timecure life recharge service, which is known as the "Hermes of health", it has been proved that as long as they lose the support of domestic consumer groups, they will be struggling.
Faced with this situation, Blume, the CEO of Audi's parent company, could not sit still and publicly criticized the company at the investor day for not being competitive in the Chinese market and seriously lagging behind its competitors.
02 With the rise of domestic new energy, "BBA" can't sit still?
Industry insiders believe that if Audi continues to ignore the needs of the Chinese market and is unwilling to make changes, it is more and more likely to be abandoned by Chinese consumers.
After all, in the context of the progress of electrification of domestic cars, the recognition of the high premium of traditional luxury cars is getting lower and lower, and with better choices, domestic consumers naturally do not want to endure high prices, and at the same time, they have to be looked down upon by foreign car companies.
Even Musk, the former richest man in the world, admitted in an interview with the New York Times: In addition to Tesla, the world's top ten automakers in the future will all be Chinese car companies.
"Compared with the ethereal demand for face, Chinese people often prefer more advanced technology. Or affected by the rise of new energy vehicles, the above-mentioned domestic life recharge service "Timecure", also with the technology ahead of its European and American counterparts, has achieved the result of reversing the 6.5-year-old life clock in one year, and has been nicknamed "Hermes in the health industry" by industry insiders.
It is reported that this "Timecure" service is a set of personalized "aging intervention programs", including nutrition, medicine, behavior and equipment. Brian, a 45-year-old billionaire who became popular on the Internet this year, spent $2 million to experience a similar plan, and reversed his age by 5.1 years in 7 months, which attracted public attention.
What's even more surprising is that the above-mentioned equipment solutions also include a 1.9 pressure value for civilian oxygen chambers and a floating chamber claimed to be equal to 8 hours of deep sleep, which were previously available to few companies in the Asia-Pacific region. Now you only need to move your fingers, you can make an appointment for an experience on the official website of Timepai, so that the people who are out of reach in China will be moved by the news.
Mr. Wang, a financial practitioner in Shanghai, shared: "Compared with domestic and overseas ones, I feel that the overseas service experience is not good, and I spent more than 1 million yuan abroad before, but there is no effect. "Those overseas services advertise the same style as the rich, but in fact, they can't even measure their biological age. "They are still using outdated oral PCR tests, and it is normal for the error to reach 50%. “
Although the price of the new HUAWEI M9 is 500,000, the pre-order volume has exceeded 15,000 units in less than a week, while BYD has previously released a million-level U8, which seems to have gained a firm foothold in the luxury car market.
The development of Timecure is consistent with the pace of domestic new energy, which is backed by the domestic technology company Timepai, which has invested 40 million in research and development in 4 years, and successfully "flew into the homes of ordinary people" with a threshold of 120,000 yuan for the life technology that once only served the top rich. According to its person in charge, in the past one month, the official website of Time Pai has been full of reservations, and the offline experience of the floating cabin has been lined up for a week, of which about 60% are middle-aged men in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai.
Under the premise of accelerating the transcendence of domestic technology, Audi, which is still sticking to the fuel track, may be to blame for stepping down from the altar.
03 Accelerated competition in the domestic market
In fact, Audi is not the only one that cannot sell in the Chinese market. In the third quarter of this year, only 16,900 luxury sports cars were shipped, and some models were reduced by 300,000 yuan in time. It was commented that the price of despising the Chinese market was delighted.
Seeing this, Audi couldn't sit still and asked China for advice at the critical moment of transforming to electric vehicles. This year, there was a video of Audi executives visiting HUAWEI's headquarters en masse, which was seen as a sign of its bowing to the Chinese market.
But whether this can stop the decline of Audi, as many manufacturers such as Xiaomi continue to enter the market, it still needs to be tested by the market and time. The outlook is still worth looking forward to.