The story of Audi and FAW begins with FAW's pilot project to resume car production in 1987. American Chrysler's price increase and arrogance left the opportunity for cooperation to the German Volkswagen, which was more willing to be pragmatic. The Audi 100 project was successfully implemented. In the 35 years of cooperation, FAW has sold Audi's A6, A4 and Q5 models everywhere and made a lot of money. In 2021, it even proposed a sales target of one million.
However, under the irreversible process of industry electrification, the legendary glory of FAW and Audi is gradually dimming.
Recently, "Technology News" found that core domestic models such as Audi A6, A4, and Q5, which play a major role in sales, have not been able to escape the fate of substantial profit concessions at the terminal. Preferential policies for price reductions of about 10W have become the norm.
Compared with these fuel vehicles, which still have a good reputation, FAW Audi's situation with new energy vehicles is even more embarrassing. I finally made some noise, but it was news that the domestically produced Audi e-tron was available for in-app purchase at half price.
Although Audi is still the original Audi that is good at "lowering", its price system in the domestic market seems to be increasingly inconsistent with BBA's brand positioning.
Oil trucks will be reduced by RMB 100,000, trams will be cut in half
“The e-tron and Q4 e-tron have been heavily promoted in the store in the past two months, and they are basically sold at half price,” said a salesperson at an Audi 4S store in Henan.
According to "Technology News", the current price of the Audi e-tron luxury model has dropped from 546,800 to 273,400, the price of the premium model has dropped from 585,800 to 292,900, and the price of the special model has dropped from 622,800 to 311,400. The price of the 30W-level Q4 e-tron has been reduced since July, and currently the price of various discounts is basically around 230,000.
The salesperson also said that the company provides such a large discount for these two vehicles not only to speed up inventory clearance, but more importantly, to increase the sales of new energy vehicles to capture more market share. However, even if it has been "fractured", sales are not very good. "Only one e-tron has been sold in the past two months."
In fact, such price reductions and sales figures are not an exaggeration. After all, from January to August this year, the cumulative sales of Audi e-tron were only about 500 units, averaging about a few dozen units per month, which was less than a fraction of the monthly sales of new car-making forces.
In addition, some dealers revealed that this batch of Audi e-tron has actually been discontinued. It is now a real inventory clearance, and there will only be imported models in the future. According to the planning of the PEE platform, the next model to be put into production will be the Audi Q6 Le-tron. At the same time, insiders revealed that these cars are all in stock for more than 200 days.
As a model of a first-tier luxury joint venture brand, the fact that it can be kept in stock to this extent speaks volumes, that is, the price/performance ratio of this car is very low, and there are very few people willing to buy it. However, the appeal to consumers has greatly improved after the price reduction.
"I was one of the first to buy it, and I even caught up with the group's subsidy of RMB 13,000 at that time. The guide price was RMB 585,800, which was less than RMB 290,000 when it was sold." Dasheng said, "Judging from the current price, the e-tron is really a great value, and it is not more expensive than the Q5L."
In his opinion, the 50% discount on the e-tron is a helpless move due to Audi's poor performance in the electric car market, and it will undoubtedly backstab old car owners. “If it still can’t be sold, it may be because consumers don’t understand it or it is underestimated.”
Because in the heart of the great sage, if e-tron is measured by the standard of a gas car, it will score over 90 points. If it is measured by the standard of an electric car, it will be difficult to pass. "After all, it is a traditional luxury car company. In terms of workmanship details, luxury, after-sales and many other aspects, it is unmatched by new forces. The German man-made electric car is imagined to make it close to the driving experience of a gasoline car."
As for the shortcomings of electric cars such as the residual value and the quality of Sanden, the Great Sage also has his own opinion: "With this price, how can the residual value drop? The maintenance of Sanden will definitely not be cheap in the future. It will be really painful if it breaks down after the four-year warranty period, but this can only be verified in the future."
Although the price reduction of electric cars is extraordinary, the above-mentioned Audi salesperson told "Technology News": "Currently, the more cost-effective models are A4, A6, and Q5."
"The Audi A4L Premium Sport model priced at RMB 399,800 can be purchased as a bare car for RMB 279,000, while the stylish and elegant model priced at RMB 321,800 can be purchased for RMB 256,000." As for why the Audi A4L is recommended, it is because its current price is indeed very good, and it may not be very advantageous in terms of space, but the chassis and appearance are indeed enough to attract consumers. "And some A4 models have been discontinued, and the price can be negotiated."
As for the A6 series, an Audi dealer in Shandong said: "The current starting price of the A6L series after discounts is only 325,000, and some products are launched within 400,000."
According to "Technology News", behind the decline in selling prices is the sales dilemma faced by FAW Audi, as well as the confusion of transformation under the wave of the times. With the further penetration of new energy vehicles, Audi's fractures may become more common in the future.
Exchanging price for quantity is a battle for survival.
Looking back at Audi's electrification process in China, the trend of adapting to the local climate is highlighted.
First of all, as the pioneer of pure electric models, Audi has high hopes for e-tron. The name does not have any prefixed letter model, which is regarded as a technical code similar to quattro in the electrification era. It is exported to various car series, and the price is between 500,000 and 600,000, which is much higher than the iX3 and Model Y of the same level.
After being launched in 2019, e-tron became popular in Europe and won the sales championship of electric SUVs in the European market in the first half of 2020. Perhaps this is also the reason for the expansion of the Germans. The imported version sells for as high as 692,800-800,800. Even after being localized by FAW, the price is still not low, ranging from 546,800-648,800.
But what Audi didn't expect was that the domestic electric vehicle market was completely different from the fuel era, and the conservative e-tron was beaten by a number of domestic electric vehicles. The second pure electric model, the Q2 Le-tron, is priced at close to 250,000 yuan and has an official pure electric range of 325 kilometers. Comparing the domestic models of the same price range at that time, which one does not have a battery life of more than 500 kilometers?
According to information from Car Owners Home, the average monthly sales of the Audi e-tron and Q2 Le-tron models in the past six months were only three digits.
FAW finally waited for the Audi Q4e-tron from the MEB platform, but it still did not show the vitality it deserved. More than half of 2023 has passed, and domestic sales have just exceeded 10,000, and the sales trend is highly consistent with the intensity of terminal discounts.
It can only be said that with relatively affordable pricing and large-scale terminal discounts, the MEB platform and Audi's brand factors that cannot be ignored at this stage can still barely support it.
If the failure in the transformation of the new energy track is due to innate factors, in the field of traditional fuel vehicles, Audi's sales are also a bit hard to describe. They will decline year by year from 2020 to 2022, reaching approximately 723,000, 701,000 and 636,000 vehicles respectively.
In contrast, during the same period, Mercedes-Benz's annual sales were approximately 774,000, 759,000 and 754,000 vehicles; BMW's annual sales were approximately 777,000, 846,000 and 792,000 vehicles. If we take the average of 750,000 vehicles as the "passing line", Audi has had poor results for three consecutive years.
The Chinese market is divided into "North and South Audi". SAIC Audi was only officially established in 2021, and the sales channels are not fully rolled out. Therefore, the sales volume in the domestic market is mainly contributed by FAW Audi. In other words, Audi's performance in the domestic market is directly related to FAW Audi.
Fortunately, the price reduction can still get some sales boost, but over time, the brand image will be damaged to some extent, the second-hand value retention rate has plummeted, and there will be no "right to speak" if it wants to increase in the future.
According to the value preservation rate report of a third-party agency in August this year, BBA’s value preservation rate in the past two years has fallen by more than 10% cumulatively. Among them, Audi's value retention rate has dropped from the highest point of 71.1% to 60.5% today, and is about to fall below 60%, even worse than Trumpchi's 64.9% and Lynk & Co's 60.7%.
In order to restore its image, the strategy of introducing high-end products in the fuel era has been tried and tested, so Audi not only introduced AudiSport sports models, allroad, avant, and A8L Horch version, but also launched the Yingjie Master Class IP and collaborated with Andy Lau to create a themed online short film. In addition, during the 70th anniversary celebration this year, FAW also signed a memorandum of understanding with Audi to deepen strategic cooperation. Simply put, it means launching higher-end products, integrating production and sales resources, etc.
"This will be helpful in repairing the brand power damaged by price cuts, but it may not directly affect sales." A senior automobile researcher said, "These imported vehicles are essentially gasoline vehicles. Developing gasoline vehicles in the electrification era is obviously not in line with the law of development. If you want to improve the current predicament, you must have decent core technologies in three aspects of electricity or intelligence."
Is there still technology and ruthless work?
As a sub-brand of Volkswagen, Audi's electrification relies on the group's technical support. Previously, Volkswagen prepared four electrification platforms for Audi, namely: MLBevo platform, MEB platform, PPE platform, and J1 high-performance platform. However, according to Volkswagen CEO Obermu, these platforms were seriously lagging behind in terms of software, resulting in frequent difficulties in producing Audi's electric models.
Nowadays, the failures of MLBevo (the main model is e-tron) and MEB (Q4 e-tron and Volkswagen ID. series are derived from this platform) have verified that J1 is a large-sized, luxurious pure electric platform shared by high-end sports cars such as Porsche, and it is difficult to transfer it to mid-range models. The next generation of new mechatronics SSP platform will not be launched until 2026 at the earliest. The only thing that can save the situation is FAW's PPE platform planned to be launched in 2024.
The PPE platform was jointly developed by Audi and Porsche. The first model is the pure electric Porsche Macan, which is basically at the same pace as Mercedes-Benz's MMA platform and BMW's NeueKlasse platform. Therefore, just as in the era of fuel vehicles, six-cylinder engines will not be decentralized to Audi's mid-range and low-end product lines, it is still unknown whether the existence of Porsche will allow the PPE platform to benefit Audi's future mid-range products. According to the Audi Q6e-tron, which has been officially announced to use this platform, there is a high probability that the 500,000 level will be used as the dividing line in the future.
In addition, Audi officially confirmed not long ago that the pure electric version of the A3, launched in 2027, will continue to be built using the Volkswagen Group's MEB platform, while the pure electric version of the A4 is still silent. This means that it is very likely that in four years' time, Audi's entry-level product line will only be able to "stand still" in the pure electric field.
Looking back at Mercedes-Benz and BMW, entry-level models will not only be the first to complete platform updates, but also incorporate new technology platforms into production in one step. Although incorporating entry-level products into mid-to-high-end platforms does not necessarily mean that the core technologies of the brand's high-end products can also be released accordingly, Audi in the pure electric era is still using a platform that has a clear sense of fragmentation in the fuel era. Who would have thought that four years later, a 200,000-class Audi would still not have 800V overcharging, and would even continue to use rear drum brakes?
Obermu once lamented that "Audi is lagging behind": "Audi is currently highly dependent on the Chinese market, but in the field of electric vehicles, Audi is not competitive in the Chinese market." This is also true. The Chinese market that Audi needs to face now has changed. It is no longer the backward and barren land with only Santana, Xiali and Toyota.
After being quickly educated, electric vehicle consumers have basically established a unique understanding. Not only can advertising fail to fool them, but even models that keep up with the average level cannot satisfy their appetites. Only those that are ahead of the times are barely qualified. It is true that Audi's fuel vehicles are still ahead of the times, but the current Audi electric vehicles have nothing to do with the times.
(The characters in the article are pseudonyms)