AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)12/28 Report--

For car companies, rising sales can not only make the outside world think that their company has good product strength, so as to win more consumer recognition, and can even create the illusion that "one car is hard to get". Let consumers think that to buy is to earn.

A few days ago, foreign media reported that BMW was investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission because of possible sales fraud. BMW officials also confirmed that the company is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), but has yet to respond to the public and declined to disclose more information.

According to people familiar with the matter, BMW is being investigated because regulators suspect that BMW has "sales punching" in the United States. The so-called sales punch means that in order to drive sales, the company will instruct the salesperson to register the car still in the garage as sold. At the same time, salespeople will resell these cars as used cars to consumers to help dealers achieve their sales targets.

Judging from BMW and its rivals Mercedes-Benz and Audi, BMW does lead the other two car companies this year. BMW Group sold 2.2962 million vehicles in the first November, up 1.7% from a year earlier; Mercedes-Benz sold 2.1336 million vehicles in the first November, up 1.4% from a year earlier; Audi sold 1.6696 million vehicles in the first November, up 0.7% from a year earlier.

BMW has long competed with Daimler's Mercedes-Benz brand for leadership in the US luxury car market. Judging from the performance in the past three years, Mercedes-Benz ranks first with the highest sales volume, and the gap is also widening. But before 2016, Mercedes-Benz had been behind BMW for 12 consecutive years.

It is worth noting that as early as 2016, Willis, then chief executive of BMW North America, admitted that BMW had falsified sales in the US market and clarified that it stopped doing so in 2017. but now it is not known whether BMW has really stopped counterfeiting sales.

For car companies, they all want to show that their products have a leading position in the market, which can not only get the favor of more investors, get more R & D funds, but even need more on the road of transformation. Some analysts believe that the new car sales data is the key data to evaluate the performance of a carmaker and can have a great impact on the relevant decisions of investors. In addition, the leading position of sales can also be bought in exchange for consumer recognition.

Although BMW is found to have a sales fraud problem, it is likely to face huge fines. But from the above point of view, the advantages obviously outweigh the disadvantages. However, once charged, it will also deepen consumers and investors' negative impression of the company and slow down the pace of development of the company.

With the occurrence of more and more violations, regulators will also make the penalties more and more severe, so automakers need more self-discipline and more media supervision to make their data closer to the truth.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat