AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)07/20 Report--

A few days ago, the German Volkswagen Group announced its mid-term sales results in 2023. Data show that Volkswagen delivered 4.3722 million new cars worldwide in the first half of the year, an increase of 12.8 per cent over the same period last year. Overall, Volkswagen Group's sales performance in the first half of the year was better than that of the same period, and the sales of most of its brands also showed an increasing trend.

In terms of specific brands, with the exception of Lamborghini / Bentley, Volkswagen Group's major passenger car brands showed growth, including Volkswagen passenger car brands up 7.2% year-on-year, Skoda up 19.9%, Seattle / CUPRA up 28.1%, Audi and Porsche up 15.5% and 14.7%, respectively.

In terms of market segments, Volkswagen Group's sales increased in all the world markets except China in the first half of the year. Data show that Volkswagen delivered a total of 1.4519 million new cars in mainland China and Hong Kong in the first half of the year, down 1.2 per cent from a year earlier. China accounted for 33 per cent of Volkswagen Group's global sales, compared with 38 per cent in the same period in 2022.

On the whole, Volkswagen is under more and more competitive pressure in the Chinese market. According to data from the Federation of passengers, domestic narrow passenger car sales increased by 2.7% in the first half of the year compared with the same period last year, and Volkswagen obviously failed to outperform the market in the Chinese market. In addition, although Volkswagen is still the highest-selling car company in China, the joint ventures in China are mainly SAIC-Volkswagen and FAW-Volkswagen, with FAW-Volkswagen down 2.8% and SAIC-Volkswagen down 0.1%. Its first-half sales were only 217000 more than BYD. In addition, if only Volkswagen brands are counted, SAIC-Volkswagen is 511000, FAW-Volkswagen is 471000, and BYD is 1.098 million. BYD has far overtaken Volkswagen to become the highest-selling single car brand in China.

In addition, Audi brand sales in China have declined significantly. FIFA data retail shows that Audi brand (including FAW Audi / SAIC Audi) sold 298800 vehicles in China in the first half, although it is slightly ahead of Beijing Mercedes-Benz and brilliance BMW, but if you add in the sales of imported models, there is a big gap with the above two brands.

It is worth mentioning that Gernot Doellner, head of strategy at Volkswagen Group, will succeed Markus Duesmann as chief executive of Audi, and the appointment will take effect from September 1. At present, China is Audi's largest single market in the world, but it has underperformed its competitors in the Chinese market. Oliver Blume, chief executive of Volkswagen Group, said earlier that the Audi brand is lagging behind its competitors, especially in electric vehicles. The group is highly dependent on the Chinese market, but at present the pure electric vehicle product line is not competitive in the Chinese market. More worryingly, it lags behind its original ability. According to public reports, Audi is considering the license to buy an electric platform directly from local electric car companies in order to shorten the development time of the model, including Zhiji Automobile, BYD and Geely.

In the most competitive Chinese market, Volkswagen's delivery of pure electric vehicles fell by about 2% from the previous year to 62400, and 19% of Volkswagen's pure electric vehicle sales went to China.

In the highly competitive Chinese market, Volkswagen pure electric vehicle delivery fell 2 per cent year-on-year to 62400 vehicles. Although Volkswagen has a relatively positive development trend in China's pure electric market, Volkswagen must enhance its competitiveness in China's pure electric vehicle market in order to further increase its scale in the global electric vehicle market.

Based on the electrification strategy, the number of pure electric models under the group's brand will be expanded to about 30 by 2030. By continuously expanding its product portfolio, the Group hopes to maintain a strong market position in the booming Chinese market. In the second half of this year, Volkswagen's new all-electric car, the ID.7, will be launched soon, which will enable the group to enter a new segment in the fast-growing new energy vehicle market. Another all-electric model of the Volkswagen brand is scheduled to be launched in Volkswagen Anhui in the first half of 2024. The Audi brand will launch the Audi e-tron GT quattro in the coming weeks and will launch three new models based on the PPE platform between 2025 and 2026. In addition to Taycan and Taycan 4S Cross Turismo, the Porsche brand also plans to launch several new luxury electric models in the coming years.

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