Luxury car led the first half of China's auto market into a competitive focus

Although the overall auto market is lower, the luxury car segment still continues to climb. As of yesterday, the German luxury car companies announced the first half sales in China in the first half of the year, and the ranking of the top three luxury cars did not undergo disruptive changes, but sales of each of the top and bottom of the ups and downs, the localization strategy of "war" It has been ignited.

Yesterday, FAW - Volkswagen Audi Sales Division released figures show that Audi sales in China reached 139,130 ​​units, an increase of more than 35%. Audi company predicts that China's sales will exceed 300,000 this year.

Audi's leading edge is shrinking year by year. In the first six months of this year, BMW sold a total of 121,614 BMW and MINI vehicles in the Chinese market, an increase of 60.8% year-on-year. In the first half of this year, Mercedes-Benz sold more than 95,030 new cars in China, an increase of 59% year-on-year.

Catch up with Audi is a market goal set by BMW several years ago. Especially in the April and May of this year when the sales gap between the two is getting smaller and smaller, BMW China insiders once expected that BMW will surpass Audi to become a luxury car market by the end of this year. The company with the largest sales volume.

In order to expand sales volume as quickly as possible, BMW's second plant in Shenyang has quietly accelerated. It is expected that it will be officially put into operation at the end of this year and early next year, and the domestically produced engine plan has also been put on the agenda.

In fact, the strategy of increasing localization is the focus of the above-mentioned three major luxury car companies competing in the Chinese market. Audi, which first won the market with a higher localization rate, has suffered from excessive reliance on domestic models since last year.

"Competitors' global remaining resources are tilting towards China, and Audi's growth rate in other global markets is also very high. Production pressures and limited supply capacity of upstream suppliers are the main reasons for Audi's slow pace in the first half of the year." FAW- Zhang Xiaojun, deputy general manager of VW Audi Sales Department, said in an interview.

According to FAW-Volkswagen's plans, including the Volkswagen and Audi brands, the total sales target for this year is 1 million vehicles. At present, the total production capacity of FAW-Volkswagen's two production bases in Changchun and Chengdu is only 660,000 units, which shows the pressure on production capacity. According to An Tiecheng, general manager of FAW-Volkswagen, FAW-Volkswagen CC, golf and other hot-selling models also need a higher scheduling plan, so the Volkswagen models for the Audi models "to give way" is unlikely.

In February and March of this year, Audi stopped the production line in Changchun for more than 30 days, aiming to transform the production line. After the transformation, it released 90,000 vehicles. However, Mercedes-Benz and BMW have already rushed to deepen their product localization strategy.

Last Saturday, the foundation of the Beijing Benz new engine plant was laid and Xu Heyi, chairman of Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co., Ltd., made it clear that Beijing Benz is accelerating the expansion of its factory. The existing plant with a production capacity of only 100,000 vehicles will reach 40 by 2015. Annual production capacity of 50,000 to 500,000 vehicles.

Judging from the competition strategies of various companies, in the next two to three years, the luxury car market will compete with each other's localization capabilities. When the production capacity is on the same starting line, it is possible to become a true leader in companies that are better equipped with parts management, brand building, and marketing network management systems.