Volkswagen luxury car strategy speed car dealers will be hunting South China

The South China market, which has been controlled by Japanese cars since the 1980s, has become a long-standing problem for many car dealers, including Volkswagen, Hyundai, General Motors and many "ambiguous" automakers.

Last week, BAIC announced that it had invested 5 billion yuan to build a factory in Zengcheng, Guangdong. Chairman Xu Heyi said that the completion of the South China site marks the final step of the company's China layout. The investment manifesto of BAIC Group indicates that it is still in a strategic stage to enter southern China. At the same time, in 2009, Volkswagen has released the "2018 South China Strategy." Volkswagen has taken the South China Fortress to the tactical level.

This summer, FAW-Volkswagen CC went public. Prior to this, in March of this year, Volkswagen's GTI listed in the Guangzhou area was priced at 235,800 yuan or even less than its HK$318,000 price point. In the face of an increasingly crowded South China market, the public has already taken advantage of the attack. City stage.

South China market is competition "high end"

According to the sales theory of auto manufacturers, if China is divided into 1 to 6 classes according to GDP, South China, especially the regions represented by the Guangdong Pearl River Delta, are all on the 1-2 scale, and a large number of automotive products are consumed in such areas. For the mid-to-high-class limousines and similar multi-functional models with similar prices, the top three Japanese emperors, Camry, Accord, and Scorpio, occupy just over half of the high-end cars in the region, compared with the German and Korean lines. American brands are much higher.

Volkswagen's "South China Strategy" proposes that by 2018, it will increase its sales volume from the previous 150,000 to 500,000 in the South China market accounting for 30% of the Chinese automobile market. Its market share will increase from 12% in 2008 to the national average. Level.

In the following months, FAW-Volkswagen, Shanghai Volkswagen, and Import Volkswagen launched a "specific" investment plan for South China, a brand-new business policy for dealers, channel expansion, and new car delivery strategies. Volkswagen's Tiguan, Audi Q5, and Golf, which were listed earlier this year, sell well for the entire Chinese market. CC, which was listed on July 15, is a product that FAW-Volkswagen has directed to South China.

Volkswagen headquarters chose to make CC domestically and provide abundant product support for the popular South China strategy. From the pricing perspective of the public CC, 252,800 yuan -290,800 yuan. It is just within the price range of FAW-Volkswagen MAGOTAN 279,800 (top allocation) and FAW-VW Audi's 291,000 (low allocation). From the price range, "make up" the mass department high-end sedan free space.

CC has positioned itself as a “high-end sedan” in product design and positioning, and is trying to “pull it out” from a series of mid-to-high-class cars such as Camry, Accord, Teana, Magotan, etc. to realize the public VW brand and the Japanese Lexus, crown and even more. Functional vehicles, such as GAC Toyota Highlander and other models of dislocation. In fact, the CC positioning “high-end cars” has even abandoned the dissemination of the TSI+D SG power system, which is highly valued by the public department, and instead turned to coupe profile, audio, and leather interiors. CC’s market goals determine Its strategic position in the mass department.

From strategy formulation to tactical attacks

Last week, the Beiqi Group's South China production base project officially settled in Zengcheng, Guangzhou. The project has a total investment of 5 billion yuan and a designed capacity of 300,000 vehicles/year. Xu Heyi, chairman of BAIC Group, stated that the South China production base is the last step in the strategic layout of the company's central, southern, southwest, north, and southern China locations.

At present, the sales of automobiles in the South China market account for more than 30% of the country's total sales. Among them, the three major Japanese manufacturers of Dongfeng Nissan, Guangzhou Automobile Honda and Guangzhou Automobile Toyota jointly occupy nearly 50% of the market share in South China market. In fact, the vigorous recall of Toyota in early 2009 caused auto makers in the South China market to smell the breakthrough. Information from reporters shows that companies including North-South Volkswagen, Beijing Hyundai, and Shanghai General Motors have already approved special funds for the South China market from their headquarters, which are in line with the above-mentioned product support.

Analysts told reporters that the strength of Japanese brands in South China relied heavily on the reputation of the imported car era, and that Toyota recalls caused the “Japanese manufacturing” halo to appear dark spots, and also gave other manufacturers “what? The machine." However, it stressed that there is still a layer of product sales between the brand's publicity and market share, and there is no strong product support. "It is difficult to achieve leap-forward growth in the long term."

This view was supported by Beijing Hyundai, and its sales minister Liu Zhifeng stated that “From the product structure of Toyota, Nissan and other competitors, we found that the Southern District’s market has a high demand for mid-to-high-class cars.” Beijing Hyundai Motor Co., Ltd. Will more "expect" the upcoming YF mid-level sedan models next year.

In fact, for the Volkswagen Department, which has already taken steps to support its products, its product launch has not only stopped at mid- and high-class cars with a higher market share. In March this year, FAW-Volkswagen Audi home-made Q 5 went on the market, with an initial price of 379,800 yuan. This gap opened up with the imported luxury SU V Corps, which previously consisted of Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volvo, etc., starting at 500,000; at the same time, Shanghai Volkswagen Tiguan was Listed in Shenzhen, the price range of 199,800 - 309,800 yuan, with the previous holding this market, Dongfeng Honda CR-V and FAW Toyota RAV 4 opened a positive situation; and the same month listed FAW-Volkswagen G TI is a set even low The price of 235,800 yuan in Hong Kong was unexpectedly successful. The long-established boutique hatchback has long been underperforming in China. The positioning and pricing of the above products have caused these products to continue to sell hot during the downturn in the auto market.

"The recent pricing of the mass department has been very different from the past's 'superiority,' and it is very 'close to the people'." Insiders of the mass media told reporters that both the price adjustment, product positioning and marketing, "the public for the South The investment in the market has long been not a strategy that stays at the slogan and target stage."

data

Divided by brand, sales of Toyota South China from January to May were 67,573, ranking first, followed by Nissan, and Volkswagen had already overtaken Honda to rank third. Honda Motors has already ranked fourth, accumulating sales of 46,705 vehicles. General Motors ranked fifth, with the rest being BYD, Ford, Hyundai, Chery and Haima.

According to the data on March, April and May, FAW-Volkswagen received 5,790 vehicles in March, 5,556 on April, and 5,871 on May.

Shanghai Volkswagen sold 4,359 vehicles in March, 4,955 vehicles in April, and 5,474 vehicles in May.