Audi will build low-priced models for the second and third-tier markets

"Three-year sales of one million vehicles" is a hard task given by Chinese and foreign shareholders to the Chinese market. Zhang Xiaojun and his foreign partner Shi Boshi who has been serving for less than half a year seem to have found three keys to conquer the task: to expand the number of Audi dealers from the current 179 to 500; to create low-priced models for second and third-tier cities. ; Introduce all Audi models.

The two heads of Audi's largest market in the world recently said in an interview.

Global capacity is tight

Reporter: How many vehicles did Audi sell in the Chinese market in 2010? What kind of position does Audi have compared with Mercedes-Benz and BMW?

Shek Cheung Zhang Xiaojun: Audi's global sales in 2010 were 1.092 million units, an increase of 15% over the same period last year. At the same time, the Audi brand has achieved rapid growth for 13 consecutive years. On the other hand, the curves of the two brands of Mercedes-Benz and BMW have risen in 2010, but they have not yet returned to the highest level in history and should be a recovery growth. In the Chinese market, Audi became the first high-end car brand to have sold more than 1 million units. In 2010, sales exceeded 220,000 units: A4’s monthly sales exceeded 4,600 units, and its annual total was 55,686 units. The sales of the A6L exceeded 110,000 units. The average monthly sales of the Q5 exceeded 3,000 units. Imported vehicles imported 30,668 units a year, an increase of 106.9%. Q7 achieved a rapid growth of 81%. The A5/S5 series reached 5,556 vehicles.

In particular, since last year, Audi's domestic models have been in short supply, and in order to ease the market's large demand for new products as quickly as possible, some adjustments have been made to the production schedule, leaving limited production capacity to Q5 and A4L as much as possible. In particular, users of Q5 waited too long, and they also apologized for their lack of capacity. Audi is not only in China, but has encountered the problem of capacity shortage in the world.

Distributors expanded to 500

Reporter: Compared to Mercedes-Benz's expanded dealer network, Audi's speed seems to be slow? What is Audi's intention in this regard?

Zhang Xiaojun: She will develop from the existing 179 to 500, and will spread throughout the country, focusing on the layout of second and third-tier cities. The Audi brand has been very robust over the years in the dealer network. Last year we significantly accelerated our pace and selected 60 new dealers. For Audi, there were 179 dealers as of the end of last year. Nevertheless, we still need to maintain a more stable dealer development strategy. The purpose of doing so, on the one hand dealers can provide users with satisfactory sales, to achieve quality services; in addition to ensure that the dealer's profitability, under the premise of profitability in order to ensure service standards. In the development of the dealer network in the future, we must meet the demand for sales growth while still developing steadily.

Push the low-price car for the second and third lines

Reporter: Audi is a relatively high-end brand, and the 234-class market is a relatively low-end consumer market. Will Audi give these markets some low-end or low-priced cars?

Shek Cheung Zhang Xiaojun: You are right that China's high-end car market is mainly in the first and second-tier cities, or the provincial capital, and more developed cities outside the provincial capitals such as Dalian and Qingdao. However, now that the number of thousands of people in the central city is relatively high, it will slow down. Therefore, in the long term, there will be great potential in the secondary and tertiary markets and even in the tertiary and tertiary markets. We have two questions to enter. The first is the scale of 4S stores. First of all, we must comply with Audi's global standards. We are studying diversified building models because small and medium-sized cities can survive without large amounts of investment. Second, we must target these markets. Create some models and build some models on existing basis to meet the demand.

Reporter: The goal of 1 million vehicles for three years is an astronomical figure. In particular, for high-end brands such as Audi, what is it based on?

Shek Cheung Zhang Xiaojun: As far as the new models are concerned, besides the 2011 model Audi A6L that has just been put on the market, the new Audi A8L will soon be introduced. The Audi A7 coupe and the Audi A1 will also come in the form of imported cars.

Three million vehicles in three years. Last year was 225,000 vehicles. The three years mean 2011, 2012 and 2013. If the average annual growth rate is 25%, one million cars can be achieved in three years. In the past years, the Audi brand has not fallen below 20%. The growth rate was 44% last year. In addition, China’s luxury car market accounts for only 6% to 7% of the entire auto market, and it is still far from the 20% to 30% of mature markets in Europe, and it is still far behind the international average of 10% to 15%. In the future, we still have 10 to 15 years of development momentum.

Opening that Beijing's purchase impact

Reporter: What is the impact of the Beijing limit line restriction policy on your brand? What are your goals and tasks for your distributor in Beijing? What kind of adjustments do they have?

Shi Zhang Xiaojun: This is a problem that we are currently paying attention to every day. Yesterday, the Beijing area manager called me about the situation in the Beijing area. In fact, Beijing’s policy on restricting purchases has not been long enough until now. At present, there are some impacts. For example, in the first 20 days of January, there was basically nothing at all stores, and the basic reason for buying a car was from other places. Very few to buy a car. The filing at the end of the year will not be released until after the 21st. For the first month or two, I estimate that it will not be normal and it will have an impact. After normal operation, I think the impact is limited.

There are also some strategies for dealers in Beijing. One of the most important tasks is to use the used car business. Beijing limit licensing has a great influence on the used car market. If you can send a used car from Beijing to the field, after the customer comes in, he will first sell him the used car and then buy a new one. Especially Audi customers, the survey shows that more than 30% of customers are redeem customers. In the past, used cars had a wide range of channels and they could be sent to the field soon. Now it is necessary to strengthen them.