Not only did Diss emphasize the determination of Volkswagen and China to fight the epidemic in various ways, but on February 8, CEO of Audi AG (China)? On his personal LinkedIn platform, Feng called on the whole world to join hands to overcome the epidemic. "Listen to China with an open mind and observe China. We must fight the virus, not the victim. " At the same time, Volkswagen and joint venture car companies quickly donated 654.38+0.2 billion yuan for epidemic prevention and control.
This epidemic has become a proof of the close relationship between the public and China. This relationship also appears in the two most convincing data: in 20 19, Volkswagen sold 4.23 million vehicles in China, accounting for 38.6% of audi ag's global sales of/kloc-0.97 million vehicles. Among them, the delivery volume of Volkswagen brand in China market has reached? 365,438+063,000 vehicles, accounting for 50.38% of the total global sales. Secondly, the 20 19 financial report just released by audi ag recently shows that the two joint venture car companies contributed 4.4 billion euros of operating profit to the public in 20 19, accounting for 25.88% of the public's annual operating profit. Obviously, although the auto market in China has fallen sharply due to the domestic market cycle, the profit of Volkswagen Group14 still comes from China.
Because of this, as the multinational automobile company with the highest sales volume in China, Volkswagen has also been obviously affected by this epidemic. Starting various risk plans, actively resuming work and production, and ensuring market services by digital means have also been the key issues that the two joint ventures have been solving for more than a month.
"Our business is gradually getting back on track, and we are actively preparing to fully restore the production system. At present, the factory of our joint venture is resuming production as planned according to the actual production situation. " ? Feng, CEO of Audi AG (China), said.
Public choice
Although the epidemic occurred during the Spring Festival, for the automobile industry, the market is closed all the year round, and the demand for buying a car in the New Year also exists. Therefore, under normal circumstances, the production line of car companies will only have a short pause during the Spring Festival. However, this epidemic directly led to the risk of car companies falling into a total shutdown.
"When the epidemic broke out, we were faced with the dual challenges of delayed start-up of the supply chain nationwide and limited travel of group employees, and adjusted our business and production plans accordingly." ? Feng said that in the face of this public health incident that suddenly swept through China, the public's first reaction was to start making adjustments to minimize the health risks of employees and the passive pace of production.
At the same time, as a multinational automobile enterprise rooted in China for 40 years, Volkswagen, as a "people's automobile enterprise", immediately put into emergency rescue and epidemic prevention and control. By mid-February, Volkswagen and the joint venture company had donated RMB 654.38+0.2 billion to support the relevant prevention and control work in novel coronavirus, including the purchase of protective equipment, medical devices, medicines and other medical materials and medical treatment.
After returning to work by stages, the public will do everything possible to ensure that all employees have a safe working environment during abnormal periods through measures such as temperature measurement, workplace disinfection, and distribution of masks and disinfectants to employees.
Objectively speaking, the impact of this epidemic on Audi AG is unprecedented. While many car companies have paid hundreds of millions of losses a day because of the delay in returning to work, Volkswagen is also facing huge losses when it stops production in China. According to the operating profit of 4.4 billion euros contributed by its two joint ventures in China in 2065438+2009 * *, Volkswagen will lose more than 4 billion yuan in China for every day of delay in resuming work.
In 20 19, two Volkswagen companies in China, FAW-Volkswagen and SAIC- Volkswagen, continued to occupy the top two car sales in China, with a total sales volume of 4130,000. According to the latest sales data of car companies in February, as the best-selling brands, the models of FAW-Volkswagen and SAIC-Volkswagen have experienced a sharp decline of 80% to 90% following the market.
Epidemic situation is a test of the flexibility of enterprise management system and emergency adjustment. In view of the unpredictable development of the epidemic, Volkswagen adjusted its market business at the beginning of the epidemic. Affected by the epidemic, consumers are unable to go to dealer stores, and various brands and joint ventures of Volkswagen have launched a number of measures to enhance their online business capabilities. Among them, FAW-Volkswagen took the lead in launching six "heart" measures, which brought many epidemic concerns, such as epidemic information push, 24-hour hotline and rescue, door-to-door pick-up and delivery of cars, zero contact maintenance and extension of card coupons, comprehensive disinfection and protection, online car watching and talking about cars, replacement evaluation and so on. Focusing on the problem of going out during the epidemic, SAIC Volkswagen actively promoted a series of innovative digital marketing models such as "cloud exhibition hall", "cloud car purchase" and "cloud service" to provide consumers with zero-contact online services.
"In order to alleviate the operating pressure of dealers, we not only innovatively brought on-site training courses to help dealers improve their online service capabilities, but also successively introduced a series of policies to reduce burdens and loosen up, so as to solve problems for dealers to the maximum extent." Feng said that at the beginning of the outbreak, Volkswagen successfully launched online live training courses, covering about 90% of the dealer networks of SAIC Volkswagen, FAW Volkswagen and Volkswagen imported cars, with 50,000 participants.
To some extent, the epidemic has become a catalyst for the public to accelerate the digital marketing strategy. Feng said that this training gave dealers an in-depth understanding of the application methods of different social media platforms and how to create short videos and live content that better meet the needs of customers. In the future, Volkswagen will also strengthen online communication and business dealings with customers, and provide online exhibition halls and test drives for delivery and delivery.
At the same time, this epidemic has also made the public further see the new opportunities of digitalization. "We know that digitalization is an important area to define the future of automobiles. China is at the forefront of digital development, and Volkswagen has been accelerating its digital transformation, especially for the China market. " ? Feng said that the key to car digitalization is to realize interconnection and provide more digital services for customers, which is also the focus of public attention.
While actively resisting the epidemic, Volkswagen also began to resume work and production within the scope permitted by the policy, with a view to driving the entire automobile industry chain through its position in the automobile industry chain, thus adding assistance to the recovery of the economic market.
Compared with other car companies, Volkswagen's dual-supplier system has shown advantages in this epidemic. "Generally speaking, our suppliers are not exclusive." The relevant person in charge of Volkswagen China said that this mode is not a multi-supplier mode, but a state of emergency. According to the news from suppliers, Volkswagen's spare parts inventory is the largest among domestic car companies, which can reach 1-2 months. And this is also determined by its larger new car sales scale.
It is reported that Volkswagen is currently actively preparing for the resumption of production. With the start of construction in March 1 1, some enterprises in Hubei will gradually resume work, and the problems such as tight supply of spare parts and low attendance rate of employees will be gradually alleviated, and the rate of resumption of work in the whole vehicle industry will also be continuously improved.
The test of turning critical period
However, for audi ag, which is at the crossroads, the sudden outbreak of China market inevitably brings challenges to the ongoing global reform of Volkswagen. China plays an irreplaceable key role in the process of the public turning to electrification, networking, intelligence and enjoyment.
The financial report of Audi ag in 20 19 shows that the operating profit of Volkswagen increased from 139 billion euros in the previous year to17 billion euros, with an increase of 22.3%, and the net cash flow of automobile business also soared from-300 million euros in 20 18 to1.
Compared with the sluggish financial performance in 20 18, the cash flow in 20 19 returned to normal, which became a signal that Volkswagen would carry out a deeper transformation and accelerate the landing of new strategies. After China was set as a separate business area in the management structure adjustment of Volkswagen Group on 20 18, China market is considered to determine the future of Volkswagen in the competition of electrification, intelligence and travel service. In the whole year of 20 19, the sales volume of new energy vehicles in China was12.06 million, which was 4% lower than the same period of last year, but it still accounted for 56% of the global sales volume of 2.2 million vehicles.
However, due to the epidemic situation, China's automobile consumption is currently in a state of slow stop. As the public with the highest and most thorough transformation level to new energy, and defining 2020 as an important node, how to ensure the realization of the annual strategic plan is also full of challenges.
On March 3, due to the cancellation of the Geneva Motor Show due to the epidemic, Volkswagen transferred the new car launch conference originally scheduled for the auto show to the online, and tried "cloud release" for the first time. Volkswagen used satellite signal transmission, and the picture, sound and translation of the conference were very smooth, which became a sample of the online conference of car companies during the epidemic.
At the press conference, Volkswagen passed the direction of "promoting the electrification strategy to move forward continuously" and launched the first pure electric SUV—— of Volkswagen brand-Volkswagen ID.4 According to the plan, ID.4 will be listed this year, which is the second production car based on the modular electric drive (MEB) platform after ID.3, and China will be one of its production places. Ralph, chief operating officer of Volkswagen passenger car brand? Brandest? Tter said that Volkswagen will produce and sell this model in Europe, China and the United States.
By the end of 2020, Audi AG will produce new energy automobile parts in ——MEB and put into production modular electric platforms in Anting and Foshan. In 2020, Volkswagen plans to deliver 400,000 new energy vehicles in China, and by 2025, the number will increase to 654.38+0.5 million. By 2028, Audi plans to deliver 22 million pure electric vehicles worldwide, more than half of which will be manufactured by Volkswagen's electric platform in China.
Volkswagen is the first car company to promise to fulfill the Paris Agreement and fully realize carbon neutrality by 2050. With the release of two landmark products, ID.4 and ID.3, Audi AG announced a series of plans to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of its vehicles by about one third as early as 2025. At present, Volkswagen is investing 1 100 million euros one after another to expand its lineup of hybrid vehicles while starting the process of vehicle electrification.
However, the electrification layout of multinational car companies in China has not been delayed by the development of the epidemic. Since the Spring Festival, GM and Hyundai have successively held domestic electric vehicle conferences, and the competition of joint venture brands in the field of new energy has started as scheduled.
On the other hand, although the epidemic affected the normal production for more than a month, in the past month, the China Municipal Government contacted the following authorities, demanding that all localities cancel the purchase restriction, implement subsidies for new energy vehicles, and increase investment support for the construction of charging piles. These are considered to usher in a more favorable consumption environment for the automobile market at the end of the epidemic.
In a sense, the increase of "players" and the preferential policies for new energy vehicles are good things, which will help to expand the new energy vehicle market in China. "I believe that the impact of the epidemic on China's economy is phased and short-lived, and the epidemic will not change the fundamentals of China's long-term economic growth." . Feng said that Volkswagen is still full of confidence in the China market.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.