"With Santana, I'm not afraid to go all over the world."
A simple and straightforward slogan that portrays Santana's reliable image deeply. As the first joint venture model in the Chinese auto market and one of the "old three" in the automotive industry, Santana, which swept the country at that time, accompanied countless people to the north with the good reputation of leather and durability, wrote the story of one struggler after another, and also witnessed the take-off of China's economy.
White colts over the gap, cold and summer, the automotive industry in the torrent of time rolling forward, the automotive industry "old three" with the change of the times also changed the appearance, Jetta completed the independence from the model to the brand, Fukang incarnated pure electric brand and then set off, only Santana is still adhering to the last glory of the old era, retaining the original appearance.
However, the feelings return to the feelings, the progress of the times is always accompanied by innovation and elimination, especially when Santana also came out of the news that it will be discontinued, we are even more emotional: even if you have been popular, even if you were once a universal truth, there is no successful product, only the product of the times.
The outcast of the times
Recently, an environmental impact assessment of SAIC Volkswagen Yizheng Branch was circulated on the Internet, which showed that SAIC Volkswagen will complete the technical transformation project of the model from 2022 to 2023, that is, optimize the product structure of the factory.
Among them, the total production capacity of the plant is 448,800 units/year, the production capacity of santana, Haona, Xinrui and Xindong models is 0 after the technical transformation, and the total production capacity of the four models of Tujiao, Lingdu, Polo and Tuyue after the technical transformation is 448,800 units/year. After the technical reform, Santana's production capacity has been reduced from 224,400 units to zero, and it is difficult not to think in the direction of "Santana will be discontinued".
In response to this news, the editor also found the relevant personnel of SAIC Volkswagen several times to understand the situation, although it has not been unified and more specific official confirmation, but from the perspective of the strategic situation of many media and SAIC Volkswagen, its suspension fate should be inescapable.
This is not to say that Santana's sales are not good. According to the data, Santana's sales in October were 11,259 vehicles, and the cumulative sales volume in 2021 exceeded 100,000 vehicles, which was basically at the average monthly level of 10,000 vehicles.
But even so, from the perspective of profitability, Santana can no longer provide a profit guarantee for SAIC Volkswagen. If Santana used to be SAIC Volkswagen's profit cow, now it's more like a drag bottle that affects corporate profits.
Because China's auto market, whether it is the industrial chain or the overall scale, has matured, the previous phenomenon of huge profits has long gone.
From the perspective of product positioning, santana's product positioning of the home entry determines that it does not have so much premium space like the Passat, Tiguan L and other models, with a price of 8.69-11.59 million, mainly paying attention to this type of model mainly paying attention to a small profit and high sales.
Taking a step back, if only the profit is too small, the amount of walking is not excessive, at least it will not face the fate of being discontinued. But the increasingly stringent double-integral rule and this year's chip shortage are like the last straw that crushes the camel's camel.
The first is the law of double integration. If in a production cycle, the points of the car company are negative, either spend money to buy the points of other car companies, or you can only limit the expansion or limit the declaration.
In 2020, SAIC Volkswagen's total points are -782666 points, and the purchase of points alone is a "considerable" expenditure. Although the id. series was introduced into domestic production, it can make up for some negative points, but the gap is still large, so it is not impossible that these low-profit models with a price of less than 120,000 yuan, including Santana and Xinrui, will be discontinued.
According to online information, the production of a Santana will produce about 0.42 negative points, according to the current price of about 5000 points per point, the production of a Santana manufacturer will pay a cost of 2100 yuan, coupled with Santana's own profit is very low, SAIC Volkswagen production Santana can be described as reluctant.
Then there is the chip shortage.
At present, the lack of core in the automotive industry has not only not begun to alleviate in the third quarter of this year according to industry expectations, but has become more and more serious with the passage of time. Since July, a new round of chip shortages has affected the area and the degree of shortage, especially in the second quarter of this year, a number of foreign chinese joint ventures and local car companies have been close to "waist cut" for three consecutive months.
In this grim context, manufacturers are naturally willing to use hard-won chips on the "blade" to produce more models with a wide premium space, and santana, which has stopped production and low profits, makes way for best-selling cars such as Langyi and Passat.
The suspension of production is more in line with the brand appeal
In 1983, Santana, which imported complete vehicle parts to China for only a week, was officially rolled off the production line and delivered, when Santana's starting price reached 80,000, but it was speculated to 180,000 because of the difficulty of a car, which is equivalent to the current MillionAire car, which is a symbol of luxury consumption.
More importantly, it was in line with Volkswagen's brand appeal at the time.
Later, from the launch of domestic production in 1992 to the successful launch of Santana 2000 in 1995, it quickly occupied the domestic intermediate official and commercial vehicle market, becoming an indelible memory of many car owners in the 1990s.
In 2004, SAIC Volkswagen launched its first self-developed Santana 3000, which survived for only three years, but its cumulative sales reached 328,000 units, followed by the successful launch of the Santana 4000 in 2008, with cumulative sales of more than 300,000 units.
However, Volkswagen Santana's glorious history began abruptly in 2012.
The new Santana, which started at Wolfsburg, replaced the old Santana. The latter completely abandoned the old Santana styling style design, especially the body length is more like an A-class car, which is far from the previous B-class car, while volkswagen Langyi turned out to be the top of the A-class car, making Santana's situation more and more embarrassing.
Today, Santana's competitiveness in configuration and power has been inferior to that of independent brands at the same price, let alone the same level of joint venture products, but it is after all a volkswagen with a solid and durable reputation, so it is favored by volkswagen fans, the rental industry and the driving test industry.
However, although it has been accumulating relatively considerable sales, it is no longer in line with the public's higher-end and younger brand image. So, it broke the news of discontinuation in the forgotten corner.
But it should be noted that Santana's suspension of production is a more in line with the brand demands of SAIC Volkswagen, just as it landed in the Chinese market in 1983 and was in line with the brand demands of that time.
In the short term, the suspension of santana and other models has eased the atmosphere of SAIC Volkswagen and even the Volkswagen brand with double integral pressure and chip shortage, so that sachinko Volkswagen, which is not in a good condition, has a new way out; in the long run, their suspension is the Volkswagen brand taking advantage of the complex market background to carry out a cut of cheap models, which is a measure to protect the brand grade.
In fact, Santana's suspension of production may be just the beginning, just like the Beetle two years ago, there will definitely be more and more older generation of emotional models that we are familiar with in the future, which is the trend of the times, and we have no other way but to look forward to the opportunity to reunite with them in the electric era in the future.
Of course, Santana's fate may also be the same as jetta, relying on more than thirty years of brand awareness, starting from the suspension of production, independent from the Volkswagen brand into a sub-brand, becoming a weapon to encroach on the market share of domestic cars, so the question is: what about Skoda?