AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)12/04 Report--

Compared with other joint ventures, SAIC Volkswagen's performance is hard to say. According to the latest data released, SAIC Volkswagen has been declining year-on-year for 11 consecutive months.

On December 4, SAIC Group released its November production and sales report, achieving 643,928 vehicle sales during the reporting period, an increase of 10.65% year-on-year. Among them, SAIC Volkswagen, a joint venture company, declined year-on-year for 11 consecutive months, selling 161,600 new vehicles in November, down 21.89% year-on-year. It is worth mentioning that among the mainstream brands of SAIC Group, SAIC Volkswagen is the only brand that has declined.

SAIC Volkswagen declined for 11 consecutive months, and the overall decline continued to remain above 20%. 1-11 SAIC Volkswagen sold a total of 1,347,985 new vehicles in January, down 23.74% year-on-year, far exceeding the market average. According to the latest estimate of China Automobile Association, the cumulative sales volume of automobile industry from January to November is estimated to be 22.43 million vehicles, down 3% year-on-year.

In terms of sales volume, SAIC GM sold slightly more cars than SAIC Volkswagen, selling 166016 cars in November, up 39.15% year-on-year. SAIC Volkswagen and SAIC GM are the main sources of operating profits of SAIC Group. The continuous decline of SAIC Volkswagen sales volume forms a huge contrast with SAIC GM, which also directly lowers the overall sales volume and profit performance of SAIC Group.

In the fast lane of continuous growth of the market, SAIC Volkswagen, which is in the head automobile enterprise, obviously stalls, forming a big contrast with the market as a whole.

Passat is one of SAIC Volkswagen's most significant sales declines. After China Insurance Research Institute announced the crash test results of Passat in 2019, the sales volume of Passat began to plummet continuously. The cumulative sales volume of Passat reached 193502 vehicles in 2019 and 103967 vehicles in October before 2020, down more than 20% year-on-year.

After Passat "fell from the altar", SAIC Volkswagen also hopes to restore its reputation through retesting. Recently, China Insurance Research Institute released the latest batch of crash test results, among which Passat obtained G (excellent) in all other test items except A (good) in crash resistance and maintenance economy. According to the video and pictures after the final collision, Passat A-pillar is no longer bent, firewall strength is also improved, and the airbag in the vehicle can also catch the head of the test dummy smoothly, which forms a big contrast with the previous "A-pillar fracture","cockpit serious deformation" and "airbag deviation". Of course, this test for SAIC Volkswagen to China Insurance Research proposed voluntary re-test, the test model is also 2020 models.

Passat's latest collision results are good, but there is a lot of controversy about it. As far as Passat is concerned, this collision result can be said to be a shame, but whether consumers pay remains to be seen, but SAIC Volkswagen wants to pick up trust again, it is not a simple matter.

After experiencing the "rollover" of Zhongbao Research, the product safety of SAIC Volkswagen has also been questioned and intensified. In fact, car safety crash testing is only the trigger for sales decline, more mainly because Volkswagen is related to the weak competitiveness of new products and modified models launched in China.

Before this, Lavida, Santana, Tiguan L, Passat and other models are the main sales models of SAIC Volkswagen. Under the background of joint venture Japanese brands accelerating product launch, SAIC Volkswagen models gradually lose their competitive advantage.

Jia Mingdi, general manager of SAIC Volkswagen Sales Co., Ltd., revealed that the focus of SAIC Volkswagen's whole product line planning in the next 3-5 years is the rise of product positioning. In the next 18 months, SAIC Volkswagen will have 10 brand-new products or modified products on the market, including brand-new Lingdu, medium-term modified Touang, Touang X and Tiguan, as well as 3 pure electric vehicles, etc.

At present, it is difficult to reverse the double-digit annual sales decline of SAIC Volkswagen, but with the launch of MEB new energy products and the launch of more new products, SAIC Volkswagen growth is still in the near future.

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