AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)08/28 Report--

On Aug. 27, Volkswagen Group (China) officially announced that Olaf Gutowski succeeded Michael Mayer as head of the market, sales and after-sales department of the Volkswagen brand in China.

Gusf, who previously held the position of head of global sales planning for the Volkswagen brand, came to China to hold an important position, which is also seen as further strengthening Volkswagen's sales and after-sales aspects in the Chinese market to better develop its business.

After leaving office, Mai Deyue went to FAW-Volkswagen, a joint venture company of Volkswagen in China, to serve as executive deputy general manager and brand executive director of FAW-Volkswagen sales Co., Ltd.

(gu Sifu)

According to the information, Gu Sifu is a senior employee of Volkswagen Group, who has worked in the company for more than 20 years. In 2012, Gusf came to China as deputy general manager of FAW-Volkswagen sales Co., Ltd. Four years later, he was transferred back to headquarters as director of the marketing and retail department of Volkswagen Group and began to lead the global sales planning department of the Volkswagen brand in 2017.

It is reported that when Gusf comes to the Chinese market again, the first challenge is to implement Volkswagen Group's electrification transformation strategy in China, so that Volkswagen Group can quickly occupy a position in this market. China is currently the world's largest market for new energy vehicles. According to the product plan, Volkswagen will launch a number of pure electric products under the MEB framework in China, and domestic Volkswagen ID.3, Volkswagen ID.4 and other models will be available in China in a short time.

Previously, Mu Tuorui, executive vice president of research and development of Volkswagen Group (China), said: "the shift from traditional fuel vehicles to electric vehicles, including new energy vehicles, is actually an irreversible trend." Feng Sihan, CEO of Volkswagen China, also said that almost all the new production capacity in China will be put into electric vehicle production, and electric vehicle production will be at the center of its strategy in China.

At present, Volkswagen's two major joint ventures in China have seen a decline in sales, of which SAIC Volkswagen has fallen by more than 30%. From January to July 2020, FAW-Volkswagen accumulated sales of 1.0128 million vehicles, down 1.4% from the same period last year, including 16800 new energy vehicles; SAIC Volkswagen sold 711400 vehicles, down 33.2% from the same period last year, including 13700 new energy vehicles.

In terms of products, FAW-Volkswagen will launch a new generation of golf, Audi A3 hatchback / hatchback version, new CC, new CC hunting and loading vehicles, domestic ID.4 pure electric models and so on in the second half of 2020. SAIC-Volkswagen has five new cars, including the Tuguan coupe version, the mid-term revamped Huieng, Tuyue pure electric, Skoda brand new sharp, and the first MEB pure electric car (or ID.4 X).

Volkswagen, which has a 20 per cent share of the Chinese market, is under pressure from declining sales, especially from competitors of Japanese brands, which have achieved sales growth. At the same time, electrification is the main planning of Volkswagen Group's current transformation, and the Chinese market is the largest new energy vehicle market in the world, so China almost determines the future development trend of Volkswagen. At this critical point of transition, Volkswagen will continue to increase investment in China.

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