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At present, the two best-selling brands in China are FAW-Volkswagen and SAIC-Volkswagen, while the Audi brand has been owned by FAW-Volkswagen until the completion of the SAIC-Volkswagen new energy plant this year. News from SAIC Audi, which has been silent for a long time, has made new progress recently. Wu Jiabi, president of Audi China, revealed a "three-year improvement plan" on the eve of the 2019 Guangzhou Auto Show, according to the Financial Associated Press.

According to Wu Jiabi, "We are working with our partners to develop a 'three-year improvement plan' as the 2.0 version of the FAW and Audi ten-year business plan signed with FAW." This plan, which originally seemed to have nothing to do with SAIC Audi, actually shelved the SAIC Audi project. It was learned from Audi's Chinese executives that the content of the project included that SAIC Audi would "not drive" until 2022, meaning SAIC Audi products would not be sold for the time being.

The plan should stem from the signing of a cooperation agreement between SAIC and Audi at Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg in November 2016, which sparked strong dissatisfaction among FAW Audi dealers at that time. In this regard, in January 2017, Audi and FAW Group formally signed the "FAW, Audi 10-year Business Plan" in Changchun.

The plan stipulates that it will continue to deepen cooperation in existing areas in the next decade, while carrying out extensive cooperation in new areas, including the continued expansion of traditional energy and new energy product lines, so as to cover the six most important market segments of luxury brands. New energy models and related service areas will become a new focus of cooperation in the future.

At present, Audi is only a joint venture with FAW in China, and Audi, as the most luxurious joint venture brand of FAW Group, also brings a lot of profits for FAW. Audi wanted to increase its stake in FAW Audi by 10%, but failed. In this regard, Audi has the idea of a joint venture with SAIC.

In the face of the decline of the market and the continuous encroachment of competitors in recent years, Audi dealers are also having a hard time, and their profits are not as good as before. Audi would have taken subsidy measures to maintain a balance between manufacturers and dealers, and SAIC Audi's entry will also upset this balance.

The SAIC-Volkswagen New Energy Plant, which was officially established in November this year, will also include a number of Audi's new energy models and sell them with SAIC Audi, and some imported models will also be introduced into China. This will undoubtedly further improve Audi's model layout in the Chinese market. In the context of fierce competition in the current auto market, further expanding its share in the luxury market will also increase Audi's influence in China.

Although Audi has revealed that it will not sell SAIC Audi products until 2022, the project has been in progress, which means it is only a matter of time before SAIC Audi arrives. For FAW, it may have a certain impact, but common competition is more conducive to common development. At present, FAW-Volkswagen has Audi support and still has higher sales than SAIC-Volkswagen.

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