Why do the most profitable car companies call "resilience"?
With audi ag and BMW Group holding the 2022 annual report conference one after another, the detailed transcripts of the three German car companies have been collected.
Looking back on the past year, although the performance has achieved steady growth, all three German car companies have used the word "resilience" to summarize this year.
The wording in the performance briefing is also more cautious and optimistic.
For example, OBOMU, CEO of Audi AG, said that in 2022, Volkswagen will face "extremely unfavorable external conditions"; Kang Song Lin, CEO of Mercedes-Benz Group, said that the macroeconomic and global situation is "uncontrollable"; Qi Puce, the chairman of BMW Group, is relatively high-profile, but there is still room for discussion.
Of course, it is this challenging external environment that makes achievements particularly precious.
In the face of still uncertain 2023, the Big Three also gave a more pragmatic plan.
Improve profitability
In fact, in the past year, all three German automobile companies have shown stronger profitability.
Take Audi AG as an example.
Overall, Audi AG delivered 8.3 million new cars in 2022, down 7% year-on-year, but its operating profit increased by 65,438+02.5% year-on-year, reaching 22.5 billion euros. In short, sales decline and profits are saved.
The delivery volume of Audi AG's mass-produced brands including Volkswagen, Skoda and Seat dropped to 465,438+million, but its operating profit increased from 3.5 billion euros and 543.8+0 euros in fiscal year 2026 to 4 billion euros.
The luxury brand "Tiantuan" composed of Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley and Ducati has further increased its profit margin from 10.6% in 2002 12.3%, and its sales revenue has increased from 55.9 billion euros in 200210.
Porsche's performance is even more eye-catching. This is also the first financial report after Porsche IPO. Although its new car delivery only increased by 2.64% compared with 202 1, its operating profit rate rose to 18.6%.
This made Obermu can't help but praise Porsche publicly, saying that the net current assets of Volkswagen Group's automobile business increased to 43 billion euros, thanks to Porsche's IPO.
Mercedes is not too much. As the first complete fiscal year after the split of Daimler's truck business, as Kang said, the re-planned Mercedes-Benz has become a "more profitable" enterprise.
The results of fiscal year 2022 released by Mercedes-Benz last month showed that the total annual sales volume of Mercedes-Benz passenger cars was 20407 19, up 5% year-on-year; The annual turnover was 654.38+05 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 654.38+02%; Earnings before interest and tax increased by 28% to 20.5 billion euros.
The same is true of BMW Group. Although the sales volume in 2022 decreased by 4.8% year-on-year, the total annual revenue exceeded 654.38+0426 billion euros, up by 28.2% year-on-year. The pre-tax profit margin of the Group reached 65,438+06.5%, and the operating income of the automobile division reached nearly 65,438+065,438+0 billion euros, exceeding BMW's previous expectation of at least 6,543.8 billion euros.
There is no doubt that all three companies can maintain their performance growth. On the one hand, they benefit from the adjustment of business organization within the group, reducing costs and improving efficiency. On the other hand, they also benefit from external environment to some extent, such as chip shortage.
For example, Obermu put forward the "Ten-Point Action Plan" after becoming the chairman of Audi ag Management Committee, and adopted a series of important measures in the implementation of the strategy, including brand-new product strategy, repositioning of platform focus and revision of software development roadmap. These are all important backing for beautiful achievements.
Challenges remain.
Although the performance list is beautiful, it is not difficult to see from the speeches of the three heads that it is much more humble than in the past.
For example, Audi ag. It describes the performance in 2022 as "stability" and "great progress".
Facing the new year, the Big Three also expressed great challenges. The challenges mainly focus on two points:
First of all, the uncertainty faced by the global economy and market environment will still affect the trend of various supply chains, raw materials and energy prices.
In 2023, although the global semiconductor supply shortage has eased, some problems still continue to lead to limited supply. In addition, the persistent inflationary pressure faced by consumers and enterprises, as well as the more obvious slowdown in economic growth, all make the prospect of 2023 more complicated.
Second, the attack of local new energy automobile enterprises in China market. Although German companies have made rapid progress in electric vehicles in the past year, they still have no advantage in the China market.
Relatively speaking, the plans of Volkswagen and BMW in 2023 have been significantly improved. Volkswagen said that both financial data and sales expectations have a large room for growth. Among them, the sales volume is expected to increase from 8.3 million vehicles last year to 9.5 million vehicles-this is based on the fact that its order volume in Western Europe has reached 6.5438+0.8 million vehicles.
Volkswagen plans to increase its turnover from 279.2 billion euros to 3020-32 10 euros; Cash flow increased from 4.8 billion euros to 6 billion to 8 billion euros.
However, due to the economic uncertainty and increasing cost pressure, Patrik Andreas Mayer, CFO of Volkswagen passenger car brand, still set the operating and sales return rate at 4%-lower than the previous forecast of 6%.
Although the BMW Group is optimistic, it still sets the free cash flow target for fiscal year 2023 at around 7 billion euros. For BMW, this goal is not high.
Mercedes-Benz Group, on the other hand, is relatively conservative, and its total sales volume has been satisfied with the previous year's level. Moreover, it is expected that the turnover of the Group will remain at last year's level in 2023, and according to the development of various market segments, the Group's earnings before interest and tax are expected to be slightly lower than last year's level.
Arms Race: Electrification and Digitalization
The overall goal is low-key, low-key, but the German giants all aim at electrification and digitalization without exception.
In particular, Audi ag claims that it will invest 654.38+08 billion euros in the most profitable business directions and regions from 2023 to 2027, of which more than two thirds will be invested in electrification and digitalization.
It is understandable that Audi ag is so radical.
Taking electrification as an example, in 2022, the delivery volume of Audi ag pure electric vehicles reached 572,654,38+0,000, a year-on-year increase of 26%, accounting for 7% of the total delivery volume. Among the existing orders, 16% are pure electric vehicles, which is higher than the level of 202 1 year.
Today, Volkswagen continues to lead the European pure electric vehicle market, and the delivery of pure electric vehicles in China market has increased by 68%. The electric pickup boom in the North American market has also made Volkswagen occupy a certain position in this market share.
Audi ag, which has tasted the sweetness, plans that by 2025, it is estimated that one out of every five cars sold in the world will be pure electric vehicles. Porsche strives to make pure electric vehicles account for more than 80% of its new cars in 2030.
According to the plan, Audi AG will continue to launch a variety of new cars this year, including brand-new ID.3, ID.7 and ID. Buzz long wheelbase version, CUPRA Tavascan and Audi Q8 e-tron, etc. The delivery share of pure electric vehicles is 65,438+00%.
This year, Audi also plans to increase its share in the North American market to 65,438+00%. For this reason, the SCOUT brand, which has a long history in the American market, was revived last year, and the first batch of pure electric pickup trucks and SUV models will be delivered in 2026.
It is worth noting that All in Electrified Audi AG has not given up the fuel vehicle market. We will continue to invest in the previous generation of internal combustion engines-this is because the public believes that "we must ensure the competitiveness of fuel vehicles, and through the sales of fuel vehicles, we can complete the investment in electric vehicles in the future."
With the continuous promotion of electrification strategy, the global sales of pure electric vehicles reached 65,438+049,227 (including smart) last year, up 67% year-on-year. According to Kang statistics, if plug-in hybrid vehicles are included, the sales of new energy vehicles under Mercedes-Benz account for 65,438+06.34% of the total sales of passenger cars.
With the blessing of good performance, the sales of Mercedes-Benz pure electric vehicles are expected to roughly double this year. In addition, another focus of Mercedes-Benz is autonomous driving. A brand-new operating system MB praised by Kang as the "next new chapter" of Mercedes-Benz transformation. The OS was released last month.
As planned, MB. OS will be equipped with a new Mercedes-Benz Modular Architecture (MMA) platform, which is expected to be launched in 2024 and officially launched in 2025.
Kang believes that software is the core competitiveness of car companies. Future software will bring considerable revenue increase to Mercedes-Benz. In 2022, the related revenue of Mercedes-Benz software exceeded 654.38 billion euros. According to official estimates, by 2025, the related income brought by software will increase to several billion euros.
BMW Group, which has the strongest electrification strength among the top three German companies, has played the slogan of "go all out to electrify".
The BMW Group has delivered more than 500,000 pure electric BMW and MINI models around the world, and the delivery volume in 2022 alone exceeded 2,654.38+0.5 million, which is still twice as high as that in 2026,5438+0, when the supply chain encountered difficulties.
In order to promote the transformation of business to electrification and digitalization, BMW invested about 7.8 billion euros in fiscal year 2022 for new car development projects and digital architecture and digital function development of new cars.
BMW predicts that pure electric vehicles will account for 65,438+05% of global sales this year, 65,438+0/5 in 2024, 65,438+0/4 in 2025 and 65,438+0/3 in 2026. Under this development momentum, by 2030, BMW will be able to achieve the goal of pure electric vehicles accounting for half of sales.
Not only that, Chipce also said, "If individual markets or regions require the sales of pure electric vehicles to reach 100% at a specific time, we are fully prepared."
Up to now, pure electric products have covered almost all market segments of BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce and BMW motorcycles. More radically, BMW claims that MINI and Rolls-Royce will become pure electric brands in the future 10.
China market, very important!
Undoubtedly, the main battlefield of electrification and digitalization is still the China market. Therefore, despite the influence of many factors in the past year, German car companies firmly indicated that they would not give up the China market and increase investment.
Or take the public as an example. We can see that although Audi AG has announced that it will invest more money in the North American market and even look for more market opportunities such as South Korea, this does not mean that it will reduce its investment in the China market.
Because the harvest is rich. In the past year, Audi's China strategy has achieved remarkable results:
The delivery volume of pure electric ID series vehicles in China market has doubled, among which the total sales volume of ID.3, ID.4 and ID.6 3 vehicles reached 65,438+04.310,000, which doubled year-on-year. You know, it's only two years since the first year of Volkswagen's electrification in China.
Another noteworthy factor is that at present, the helm of Audi ag and Volkswagen China has deep feelings for China.
OBOMU, CEO of Audi AG, admits that he has come to China about four times a year since the late 1990s, and his friendship with some friends in China has lasted for decades. He even got a doctorate in automotive engineering from Tongji University.
The third point of the "Ten-Point Plan" put forward by Oberm after he took the helm at Audi AG mentioned the China market. Especially at the end of 1, he visited China for a week and talked about all aspects of development, especially "advanced technology", which impressed him deeply.
▲ CEO of Audi AG? Obomu
China is still our most important market. Obermou said that in order to ensure Volkswagen's market position in China, it is necessary to accelerate the pace in the field of electric vehicles.
Baird, Chairman and CEO of Volkswagen China, is a staunch fan of Weibo. During his six months working and living in China, he visited many factories of Volkswagen in China, and through the dialogue with local workers, he strengthened his confidence in investing in China.
▲ Bered, Chairman and CEO of Volkswagen China
"What impressed me most is that technological innovation is advancing by leaps and bounds in China society at an unprecedented speed and scale. The openness of China consumers, especially the younger generation, to accept the digital lifestyle is equally exciting. " A few days ago, Barrett wrote such a passage in Weibo.
Judging from the words of the two helmsmen, we can judge its greatness.
This article comes from the author Hao, and the copyright belongs to the author. Please contact the author if reproduced in any form. The content only represents the author's point of view and has nothing to do with the car reform.