On January 27, according to the China FAW Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Jilin Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision: Ye Huaming, director of the operation center of China FAW Audi Sales Co., Ltd., is suspected of serious violations of discipline and law, and is currently undergoing disciplinary review and supervision investigation by the China FAW Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Songyuan Municipal Supervision Commission of Jilin Province.
There is no more information about Ye Huaming in the market, he joined FAW-Volkswagen in 2007 and has served as product manager and director of the used car department. In 2016, Ye Huaming was transferred to the marketing director of the FAW-Volkswagen brand in East China, and the following year he was transferred to the sales and marketing director. In 2020, he was transferred to the position of General Manager of the Northeast Region of Audi's Sales Division. In 2023, he will be the director of the NEV operation center of any automobile and Audi. It is understood that FAW Audi NEV operation center is the key department to promote FAW Audi's new energy transformation, opening up the three major links of "strategy-user-sales" to form a closed-loop management, so that service and marketing can be closer to users.
On January 16, Audi AG announced that from April 1, 2024, Johannes Roscheck (Johannes Roczek) will become President of Audi China, replacing Wen Zeyue, the current President of Audi China, to oversee Audi's business in the Chinese market, and the latter will return to the headquarters of the Volkswagen Group in Germany. Earlier, in October 2023, Li Fenggang succeeded Sun Huibin as Executive Vice President of FAW-Volkswagen Audi Sales Co., Ltd., with overall responsibility for the sales, after-sales service, network and brand marketing of all domestic and imported vehicles of FAW-Audi in China.
Behind the personnel changes, it may be to reverse the disadvantage of the Audi brand in the domestic luxury car market, which has been stagnant in the third place since losing the title of No. 1 sales in China's luxury car market in 2019. Although there are fuel vehicles, as new energy becomes a trend, Audi needs to fight in two directions, and compared with Mercedes-Benz and BMW, Audi has significantly lagged behind in the response to electrification.
In 2023, Audi was the fastest growing BBA in the Chinese market, with sales up 13.5% year-on-year, BMW up 4.2% year-on-year, and Mercedes-Benz up 1.7% year-on-year. However, the Audi brand still ranks third in terms of sales, with 739,000 units sold for the year, compared to Mercedes-Benz with 765,000 units and BMW with 825,000 units, a gap of 86,000 units.
If you only look at new energy, Audi's sales performance is not good. Taking the Chinese market as an example, in 2023, Audi's highest-selling new energy model is the Q4 e-tron, with annual sales of 23,500 units, and is the only model with sales of more than 10,000 units, while Audi has a total of four new energy models on sale in the Chinese market, including e-tron, Q5 e-tron, and Q2L e-tron, and the lowest sales volume is Q2L e-tron, with only 250 units.
It is understood that FAW-Audi will launch the Q6 e-tron in 2024, which is not a Q6 oil-to-electric model, but a model based on the PPE platform, its exterior design still continues the Audi fuel car design style while adding more sci-fi elements, the body size is 4805/1895/1635mm in length, width and height, and the wheelbase is 2850mm. In terms of power, the new car will have two models, the 55 e-tron and the SQ6 e-tron, corresponding to a maximum power of 375 hp and 483 hp respectively, and a corresponding WLTP range of 600+ km and 500+ km. However, referring to the price of the Audi Q6, presumably the price of the Q6 e-tron will not be very low.
For Audi, whether it is joint development or purchase of licenses, it is not a trump card that can solve the problem. The so-called new energy transformation is not about how many new models are put on the market, but also depends on whether the internal (team, concept) and external (technology, marketing and brand image) of the car company have completed the transformation. In the new energy era, Audi is about to embark on a difficult long march.
Source: Automotive Industry Concern