In early May, Volkswagen announced its April passenger car brand sales data. Volkswagen sold a total of 513,400 vehicles globally, a year-on-year increase of 6.8%. In the largest single market, China (including Hong Kong), sales of 238,700 units were delivered, representing a year-on-year increase of 28.5%. China’s sales accounted for 46.49% of global sales. As the “second hometown” of the general public in the world, the Chinese market is using performance that exceeds market expectations to boost the general public to a higher stage. However, the blazing after the most dazzling sunshine at noon will always go from bad to worse. The popularity of the Volkswagen China market, which accounts for 46.49% of its global sales, reveals that the public suffers from diseases that are dependent on China and are not ill.

Imbalanced global layout

The other side of the boom in the Chinese market is the bleakness of Volkswagen in other markets around the world. In the first four months of this year, Volkswagen’s sales in Europe fell by 2.4% year-on-year to 145,500 units; sales in the Russian market decreased by 7.4% to 45,800 units; in South America, it decreased by 21.8% to 183,900 units; sales in the US market remained dismal, year-on-year. This was down by 10.4% to 118,154 vehicles, which was also the 13th month of the decline in sales of Volkswagen passenger vehicles in the United States.

In 2013, Volkswagen was the highest-selling foreign-funded enterprise in China last year with a sales record of 3.27 million units. However, the 7% decline in the North American market helped Toyota win the championship globally. Contrary to the general public, Toyota's loss to North America, which China has collected, continues to maintain its position as the No. 1 personal car consumer market in the United States.

Although Winterkorn has already declared that the public will work hard to increase the sluggish sales in the United States and Brazil to catch up with the world's leading Toyota Motor, the outside world has not seen the public take any substantial action. In order to increase North American sales, Volkswagen firstly faced the impression of changing the quality of its own brand products in the minds of American consumers. In the US JDPower's first survey of quality satisfaction, the Volkswagen brand was only among the 34 brands under investigation. Located on the 29th. As the “God car” that has long occupied the top spot in the Chinese market, VW’s market share in the U.S. market is only 3.2%, and even less than 3.9% of South Korea’s Kia, which is a far cry from the public’s in China.

In the "2018 Strategy" formulated by the public in 2009, the public attempted to be the world's first. The goal is to sell 4 million cars in China by 2018 and the US market to take on 800,000 vehicles. This is a goal that can fully demonstrate the ambition of the people. It is based on the Chinese market. But excessively believing in the Chinese market may also lead to loss of direction and focus.

As we all know, Toyota can maintain its leading position in the world, not relying on the United States or a single market in China, but insists on a global diversification strategy to reduce the risk caused by the impact of a certain market through the decentralization of globalization. . Therefore, even in the case of a sharp drop in the Chinese market due to the arrival of Japan, Toyota still stands firm in the world's top spot.

With the economic slowdown, the Chinese market will no longer experience rapid growth in previous years. Behind the bustling are hidden dangers. Ferdinand Dudenhffer, an expert at the Automotive Research Center at the University of Essen in Duisburg, said: "If the Chinese market is slightly shaken, Volkswagen may experience an earthquake."

Intensive A-Class Vehicle Hidden Trouble

In the list of Volkswagen's Class A vehicles, several models such as LaVida, Santana, Jetta, Golf, Sagitar, and Bora are intensively arranged. An interesting fact is that some of these models are not from the hometown of Volkswagen, hometown of Wolfsburg. According to calculations, from January to April this year, Volkswagen brand has sold 921,400 new cars in China, of which A-class cars accounted for more than 70%, showing the weight of A-class models for the public.

As early as the end of the last century, the public’s market share in China had been as high as 60%-90%, once occupying the domestic car sales championship for 20 years. Until 2005, Volkswagen for the first time let the sales champion laurel fall, and the market share fell to the lowest point of the time 11.5%. Analysts believe that before 2005, Volkswagen introduced models to the Chinese auto market, which were not welcomed by the market. For example, Shanghai Volkswagen's POLO, Gore, Touran, FAW-Volkswagen's Bora, Golf, Audi A4 and other models, unpopular design, hatchback, core technology behind, power and fuel consumption performance is not superior compared to the opponent .

However, the public did not fall for too long, but quickly launched two new Chinese version of Volkswagen models, Long Yi and Bora, as well as an extended version of the new Audi A6L. From 2008 onwards, LaVida, New Bora, Audi A4L, Skoda Octavia, Golf, etc. have launched aggressive offensives in the entire product line and have achieved a substantial market share. This shows that the public can quickly return to its pinnacle from the trough after 2005. In addition to thanking Audi for its strong performance, the new Bora and Long Yi have contributed.

However, in the following years, VW’s layout of the iron wall of the A-class camp in the copper wall, despite the fact that they clung to the most vibrant market in China, did not leave too many opportunities for their opponents, but they also planted for themselves. Hidden danger.

Overly intensive models have caused South and North Volkswagen to have excessive overlap in vehicle pricing. From the same platform, Lai Yi and Polaris, Sagitar and Octavia, Santana and Jetta, Passat and Magotan, each time the brother models are listed, it will always lead the outside world to make a head-to-toe comparison. The over-concentration of product lines can easily lead to “internal consumption,” and how to balance the interests and sentiments of the two joint venture companies is also a challenge that the public has always faced. “How to solve the competition between North and South China's mass products will be a pressing issue for the Volkswagen Group in China. “HuMao Yuan, chairman of SAIC, apparently has dissatisfaction with this.

In addition to the product layout is too focused on the hidden dangers of the A-class car, the public's name in China is also increasingly threatened. Especially after experiencing the 315 incident last year, CCTV broke out the phenomenon of "shaking" and "missing" of the DSG gearbox of the public. When repeated failures occurred in the DSG transmission power system, this faith should be restored with the greatest sincerity in the world’s largest sales market. The masses chose to drag on until 315 and AQSIQ were dispatched. Only eventually chose the recall. This undoubtedly hurts the mass plots that many people built up since childhood.

Feng Shiming, director of consulting of Ming Wah Road, revealed that although Volkswagen’s sales in China accounted for a larger proportion of its global total, the market share of Volkswagen in the Chinese market has been declining since the third quarter of last year. I believe it is a DSG incident. It is affecting it.

Hibbert, an auto company consultant based in Shanghai, said frankly: “I have talked with people in the industry and many suppliers and I feel that the public may have done too much in China and invested too much. For example, if there is an economic crisis here, What to do? The auto market is weak. What to do? This will be a disaster for the general public."

What the public wants to worry about is far more than that. What if the Chinese government realizes that it needs to protect local companies? What if the myth of God Car ends one day? 46.49% of the gambling is the public's tomorrow. The public must think about how to bet next.