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A few days ago, "Automotive Industry concern" obtained a copy of the 2023 SAIC Volkswagen employee Audi Brand car purchase activity, which is the internal price list for SAIC Volkswagen employees to buy Audi brand models. Relevant information shows that in addition to Audi A7L far-range Liujing set only 71000 yuan discount, other including Audi Q6, Audi Q5 e-tron discount is basically more than 100000 yuan, the highest discount up to 160000 yuan.

For example, the Audi A7L Dream New Edition, Dream Youth Edition and Dream Future Edition all offer a discount of 100000 yuan for employees to buy cars, of which the most entry-level model, Zhu Meng New Edition, is officially priced at 418700 yuan, and employees only need 318700 yuan to mention naked cars. In contrast, the bigger discount is the Zhiyuan Liujing set, the advance version and the advance version. The discount range of the three models has reached 160000 yuan, the official guidance price is 777700 yuan, and the employee purchase price is only 617700 yuan.

As the first fuel SUV of SAIC Audi and the largest domestic size SUV of Audi brand in China, Audi Q6 also offers a large discount. Relevant information shows that 40 TFSI Guanyun / Qiyun Yu Lin sets are all offered a discount of 140000 yuan, the employee purchase price is 327600 yuan and 367600 yuan respectively, while the 50 TFSI cloud type feather forest suit also offers a discount of 160000 yuan, and the naked car price is 408600 yuan and 470600 yuan.

As for the Audi Q5 e-tron, this is the first new energy vehicle put into production by SAIC Audi. The three models that participate in the employee purchase discount are the 40 Star Flame model, the 50 Honor model and the edition one. The three models all offer a discount of 106000 yuan, and the lowest price raised by the employees is 250500 yuan.

In fact, it is not surprising for automakers to offer discount activities for employees to buy cars within the enterprise. With reference to the relevant employee car purchase discount activities in the past, the car purchase discount of the Audi brand of FAW Group is only slightly higher than that of the market, with a discount range of 70,000 yuan to 80,000 yuan, while the discount for SAIC Audi's three models is basically more than 100000 yuan. the highest is 160000 yuan, which is really the envy of many peers.

The employee car purchase qualification includes SAIC-Volkswagen (including branches, subsidiaries) contract employees and their families, labor dispatch employees and their families. It is understood that the actual situation is that the domestic purchase quota can be sold to the outside world, and the car owner needs to sign a transfer contract with the employee and pay the quota transfer fee, which can be transferred to the owner 10-12 months after picking up the car. It should be noted that the employee price is the naked car price, and the cost of picking up the car is naked car + insurance + purchase tax + nominal fee.

Such a large internal car purchase discount can be understood as employee welfare, but it is inevitably linked to its market performance. Previously, there were rumors in the market that SAIC Audi had stopped production at the end of 2022 because of its high inventory depth. Take the Audi A7L as an example, as of December 16, 2022, the national inventory is 3450 vehicles, with its current market performance, even if the model has not been produced, the inventory is enough to sell for a year.

In 2022, SAIC Audi launched Audi A7L, Audi Q5 e-tron and Audi Q6 in China. Audi A7L, as the first mass production model, attracted numerous eyes and high expectations from the outside world from the moment of exposure, but the actual performance was miserable. In 2022, the number of dangerous vehicles in 2022 was 6143, of which Audi A7L was 3714.

New Year's Day that day, SAIC Audi for A7L, Q5 e-tron, Q6 three models to adjust the price. Among them, the Audi A7L 45TFSI except the 45TFSI S-line Dream new version of the streamer set, other models are reduced by 13000 yuan, the latest guidance price is 41.87-476900 yuan, while the Audi A6L official guidance price from 419800 yuan, cheaper than the Audi A6L, but even so, its sales are almost a fraction of the latter. Data show that SAIC Audi sold 703 vehicles in January 2023, of which the Audi A7L was 322.

To some extent, the failure of Audi A7L is not only the disapproval of the product, but also the disapproval of SAIC Audi brand.

The failure of Audi A7L can be traced back: giving up soul and weird orientation. First of all, the imported Audi A7 is known as the "most beautiful Audi car" because of its frameless doors, sliding back shape and car body, but after SAIC Audi made the A7 model, in order to increase practicality and business type, it even cancelled the soul's sliding back body design and lengthened the body to transform a personalized car into a traditional three-car car.

Second, in order to avoid competition with FAW Audi, SAIC Audi aims at niche market segments and Chinese special models. It does make sense from the point of view of the business plan, but since you choose the minority route, you should stick to the tone instead of stepping into the two "spending pools" of sports and business at the same time. In the process of localization, SAIC Audi changed Audi A7L into "Audi A6L PLUS", while Audi Q6 changed its shell into SAIC Volkswagen Tuang. As a first-tier luxury brand, it is really difficult to please Chinese consumers.

In fact, it is not difficult for SAIC Volkswagen to launch the Audi brand, but its growth process is indeed very difficult. In November 2016, SAIC signed a cooperation agreement with Audi, but it was quickly opposed by FAW Audi dealers. In the same month, SAIC and Audi suspended sales network negotiations and held many rounds of small-scale negotiations with FAW-Audi dealer investor representatives.

In February 2017, the Audi Dealers Association of the China Automobile Circulation Association issued a "Sanya statement" expressing two meanings: first, it opposes Audi's cooperation with SAIC; third, if it wants to start a fresh start, it can first reach 1 million sales in 2020; in order to quell the anger among Chinese dealers, Volkswagen Group directly dismissed Dietmar Voggenreiter, Audi's global marketing and sales director.

In 2018, the SAIC Audi project with frequent news of "dissolution", "suspension" and "withdrawal" took a turn for the better, and Volkswagen transferred 1% of its shares in SAIC-Volkswagen to Audi. This move lays the foundation for the development and production preparation of the first product in SAIC Audi's plan, and SAIC-Volkswagen is also qualified to produce and sell Audi products. However, the faint flame was soon extinguished, and SAIC Audi project entered a 24-month quiet period.

In 2020, the progress of SAIC Audi project has accelerated. On July 14, Volkswagen and SAIC invested 4.13 billion yuan in revamping the Shanghai plant to prepare for the production of Audi models. On December 23, FAW of China, Audi of Germany and SAIC reached a consensus on sales and service cooperation, probably as follows: SAIC Audi shall not sell vehicles before 2022, after which SAIC Audi can build cars; SAIC Audi can establish its own sales channel, but it must be established by existing FAW-Volkswagen Audi dealer investors, and after-sale is in a unified channel.

The benefits are evenly distributed, and the progress behind has obviously speeded up. In April 2021, SAIC Audi A7L made its debut at the Shanghai Auto Show; in September 2021, the first domestic A7L went off the line; and in January 2022, SAIC Audi A7L began delivery. Since then, SAIC Audi has improved everything, except for sales.

On March 1st, Audi China official WeChat update, Zeng Huifang (Katy Tsang) became Audi's Executive Vice President of Marketing and sales in China, reporting directly to Audi China President Dr. Wen Zeyue. In recent years, the executive vice president of Audi China is not stable. Lu Yi and Zhang Mingxia have played in turn. I just don't know if Zeng Huifang can stabilize his position this time and lead SAIC Audi out of the trough.

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