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SAIC Audi's "hindrance" has been officially removed, and the first domestic model is set to go on sale a year later, with only one sales network.

On December 23, FAW of China, Audi of Germany and SAIC reached a consensus: in the future, SAIC Audi products will be sold by FAW-Volkswagen Audi investor network for related services and after-sales services.

Some people in the industry have learned that this "investor network" means that SAIC Audi can establish its own sales channel, but it must be established by the existing FAW-Volkswagen Audi dealer investors. The sales of the two companies will be separated, but the after-sale will be in the same channel. SAIC Audi will launch a national partner recruitment campaign within the existing Audi investor network.

This is the final result of the balance of interests of the three parties. As early as November 2016, SAIC signed a non-binding agreement with Audi to jointly produce and sell Audi-branded cars. However, after the news came out, it was soon met with full opposition from FAW Audi dealers and negotiations with Audi executives to clearly oppose the SAIC Audi project. In order to resist the landing of the SAIC Audi project, FAW Audi dealers even negotiated at the cost of "stopping the purchase of Audi's new cars" and "demanding tens of billions of compensation from Audi".

After many games and negotiations, Audi reached an agreement with FAW Audi dealers on differences in the first half of 2017 to determine "one sales company and one network" in the future. There are four main points of the agreement: 1, the parties should strive to ensure that 900000 sales will be achieved in 2022; 2, the third party will sell in China no earlier than January 2022; 3. A sales company will manage the dealer network in China. The sales company will define the network standards, and all existing Audi dealers will be authorized by the sales company. 4. Audi's future sales and service products in China are all sold and served by the current FAW-Volkswagen Audi dealers in the existing showrooms and service areas.

Now, as the SAIC Audi sales channel is subsumed into the "FAW-Volkswagen Audi dealer network", the above agreement has also been implemented, and the obstacles to SAIC Audi's continuous progress have been formally removed.

In fact, even though the SAIC Audi project has been slow and limited since it was signed, the launch of the relevant models has been implemented and has long been in the preparatory stage.

According to repeated media revelations, the Audi A7L will be the first mass production model of the SAIC Audi joint venture. The car will be pre-sold as early as the third quarter of 2021 and will be officially delivered in early 2022.

Volkswagen and SAIC have planned to invest 4.13 billion yuan in revamping their Shanghai plant to meet the target of producing 60000 Audi A7L and 60000 new Volkswagen sport utility vehicles a year, Reuters reported. A7L is based on the MLB Evo platform, the domestic version has been localized, and the lengthening process further meets the preferences of Chinese consumers. From the previous new car espionage information, A7L may cancel the sports back-slip styling design, but also tend to the traditional hatchback design.

In addition, according to relevant government documents, Ningbo Branch of SAIC-Volkswagen Co., Ltd. applied for Audi C-level SUV technical renovation project, with a planned annual production capacity of 75000 vehicles. At present, Audi's automobile / diesel medium-sized SUV only has two models, Q7 and Q8, and which model will be put into production in the future remains to be confirmed. On the other hand, SAIC Volkswagen Anting New Energy Plant will also be put into production of Audi brand new energy products.

With the introduction of Audi brand, SAIC-Volkswagen has also ushered in the layout of a full range of products, including Skoda with low-end brands, Volkswagen brands in the mainstream market, and Audi brands in the luxury car market.

So far, Audi has three joint venture vehicle manufacturing enterprises in China. In addition to FAW-Volkswagen Audi and SAIC Audi, in October this year, Audi and China FAW Group formally signed the "Audi FAW High-end New Energy vehicle Cooperation Project Memorandum of understanding", announcing the establishment of a new energy joint venture to introduce the PPE platform, a high-end electric vehicle platform jointly developed by Audi and Porsche for large electric vehicles. The first domestic model is scheduled to be put into production in 2024. Audi may have more shares and dominance in the new joint venture.

In the future, all Audi products in China will be sold and after-sales service in FAW-Volkswagen Audi investor network.

The Audi brand sold 690000 vehicles in China in 2019, below BMW Group's 723700 and Mercedes-Benz's 702000 in China, according to the data. In the first nine months of 2020, Audi delivered a total of 512081 new cars in China, an increase of 4.5% over the same period last year, of which 477497 domestic models were sold, an increase of 7% over the same period last year, which was also lower than that of its old rivals BMW (560300 in the first three quarters) and Mercedes-Benz (570000). With the launch of the first model of the SAIC Audi joint venture in early 2022, Audi may usher in new development opportunities in China.

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