Audi gambles 700,000 vehicles in China to pick up 40% of Audi's global sales

The ambitious Audi has just recently decided to increase its global sales in 2014 to 1.5 million. Audi CEO Steader is emboldened by the fact that the demand for high-end cars in the Chinese market is still growing. In 2015, the realization of Audi's 700,000 capacity target in China will effectively promote the Audi's position as the world’s top luxury car king.

At the recent FAW-VW Audi Performance Communication Conference, FAW-Volkswagen General Manager An Tiecheng announced 700,000 units of this amazing capacity target. This means that China will contribute over 40% of Audi's global production and sales at that time.

Audi's two rivals, Mercedes-Benz and BMW, are also struggling to catch up. Beijing Benz will increase its annual capacity of 100,000 units on the basis of its current production capacity of 100,000 units, and will reach approximately 500,000 units by 2015. In May of this year, BMW Brilliance announced that its investment in the second plant has increased from 560 million euros planned for the initial stage to 1 billion euros, and will achieve 200,000 vehicles after completion. The BMW plant in Dadong District will also strive to reach an annual production capacity of about 100,000 vehicles. This means that BMW Brilliance will have a total capacity of 300,000 vehicles in 2012. By 2015, BMW is bound to close its capacity gap with its competitors.

In the first half of this year, due to Audi's suspension of production capacity for 35 days, the competitor BMW was “incremental.” In the first five months of cumulative sales, Audi’s “leading edge” relative to BMW was only 19,000 vehicles. This phenomenon caused the industry to have "BMW is expected to catch up with Audi" speculation.

In this regard, Zhang Xiaojun, executive deputy general manager of FAW-Volkswagen Audi Sales Division, said that Mercedes-Benz and BMW are chasing Audi, but it is impossible to catch up with Audi. The shutdown of the plant was due to insufficient supply of several hot-selling products. After the increase in production capacity, Audi had enough confidence to meet the sales target of 300,000 units this year.

In fact, in order to increase the production capacity of Q5 last year, Audi took a 20-day stoppage adjustment of the production line and separated the Q5 welding part from the A4L. The 35-day suspension of production adjustments this year was forced by market demand. Despite this, the phenomenon of queuing cars can not be suppressed. Although BMW has been criticizing Audi's product follow-up strategy, it turns out that Audi has unique products and marketing methods to attract customers to transfer positions.

An Tiecheng told reporters that Audi A4L [review picture forum] and Audi Q5 [review picture forum] belong to the B-class platform in the product series. In the past, these two vehicles were mixed-line production. Because of the mixed-line production, it will be constrained by the total amount. The output of any one model will increase, and the other model will be reduced. One of the major changes in the suspension of production last year and this year was the conversion of the mixed-line production line into a dedicated production line. A4L and Q5 have now achieved independent production and have been released from production.

For the industry's "tangled" product sales, An Tiecheng said that FAW-Volkswagen pursues growth rather than growth. “Growth simply means changes in sales volume and changes in production, but we are more concerned with the improvement of capabilities in the development process. Why can we confidently say that FAW-Volkswagen is the only mature high-end vehicle manufacturing base in the country? This is because we already We have developed a strong R&D team that has gradually released energy, and we have a very good workforce. We have 579 individuals to attend Audi headquarters training and go deep into Audi's systems of development, production, quality control, marketing, etc. They will make Audi advanced The management philosophy, experience and process specification are brought back. This is our valuable asset.”

Zhang Xiaojun said: "Audi's core strengths are reflected in several aspects: First, in the R & D system, a deep understanding of the needs of consumers, this has the success of A4L, A6L and Q5. Second, in the supplier system, Audi has 210 local suppliers, 160 of which meet the requirements of Class A. For high-end vehicles with extremely stringent quality and technical requirements, it is not a matter of two days to achieve such a standard.In addition, the production system, personnel training system and marketing system On the other hand, Audi's leading edge is that it is difficult for competitors to catch up in the short term."

In the future, FAW-Volkswagen will expand its total production capacity from 1 million to 1.65 million vehicles in five years, of which Audi's production capacity will increase from the current 300,000 to 700,000. After the completion of the Foshan plant, FAW-Volkswagen will have four factories in three production bases in Changchun, Chengdu, and Foshan, effectively increasing production capacity. An Tiecheng said that after the technological transformation, FAW-Volkswagen's Changchun First Plant will be used for the production of Audi, and the Foshan factory that is under construction and expected to start production in August 2013 will also import Audi products.

In An Tiecheng's view, FAW-Volkswagen has solved one of the most important issues, that is, the maximum benefit of the joint venture company. In the development of Audi products, as long as it meets the needs of the Chinese market, as long as it reaches a certain amount, it will achieve localization. In support of localization, Audi has continuously increased investment, which has the core advantages of Audi's full value chain localization.

“In the joint venture company, the most discussed issue is the right to speak. Why does FAW-Volkswagen solve this problem better? This is because we have a core value concept.” An Tiecheng said that he gave everyone at the company-wide conference. A comic book was shown. The two horses in the cartoon were tied by a rope with grass on both sides. The length of the rope was limited. Both horses want to eat the grass first. It is wise to sit down and consult and eat the grass first, then eat the grass on the other side. This is "win-win".