Porsche's alliance with SAIC may help resolve the crisis

According to the latest information from the Securities Daily reporter, the current FAW Audi dealer camp has expanded from 200 to 400. At the same time, a temporary organization for the northern region was established, with contact persons selected from each province and city, and investor and general manager groups for each region established to facilitate better communication and concerted action. However, it is worth mentioning that Pangda Group has not joined so far.

An analyst who declined to be named told reporters that FAW has been holding the Audi brand for many years and has no worries about the high-end market, so SAIC is inevitably jealous. In fact, compared with Audi, which is inseparable from FAW, Porsche, which has had frequent sparks with SAIC, may gradually come into people's attention.

"Rights protection" dealer lineup expands

Previously, although large dealer groups such as Guanghui and New Element participated in the negotiations, and their 4S stores sales outlets accounted for half of the dealers in the country, even so, Audi currently has more than 430 dealers in China, which has led to rumors that the Audi dealer "forcing the palace" lineup is divided and not united enough.

However, the latest news obtained by the reporter shows that as of November 27, nearly 400 Audi dealers have joined the dealer joint camp, which means that in order to form a joint force and avoid being defeated one by one, more than 90% of dealers have participated in this rights protection action.

As the outlook for the situation is still unclear, Audi dealers are divided into a wait-and-see group and a rights-defending group. A rights-defending dealer told reporters, "If Audi cannot give an explanation that satisfies all parties, we will stop delivering cars starting from December 1, or at least we will lose less money." According to him, based on the current inventory levels of dealerships, the existing inventory of vehicles will be sufficient to support sales before next Spring Festival.

In fact, the current inventory cycle of most Audi brand dealers is about 2 months. Even if the car pick-up is suspended, dealers still have cars to sell, and it will not have much impact on the market.

On the other hand, since dealers' profits currently come not only from sales and after-sales operations but more from annual rebates from manufacturers, and the number of car pick-ups and sales in December are crucial to the annual rebates, this has a significant impact on the unity within dealers.

"Luxury car dealers, including Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, generally give about 10% profit before sales, and pre-sale losses have become the norm. Therefore, the contribution of manufacturer rebates to annual profits is crucial. In this context, it is difficult to say whether the dealers currently participating in the palace coup can sacrifice their interests and abide by their promise not to pick up or sell cars." The above dealer expressed some concerns.

Germany promises "grid-connected sales rights"

According to people familiar with the matter, Audi is actively meeting with leading dealers and offering them a series of "preferential conditions", including the ability to "jointly sell" FAW-Audi and SAIC Audi products in the future, hoping to eliminate dealer resistance and achieve the goal of cooperating with SAIC.

In fact, in recent years, it is not uncommon for auto dealers to unite to "counter" automakers. At the end of 2014, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi issued a total of 8 billion yuan in subsidies to dealers. In early 2015, FAW Toyota also issued 1.24 billion yuan in subsidies to dealers in three installments.

According to a person close to Audi, dealers were aware of the cooperation between Audi and SAIC last year, but they were always skeptical and on the sidelines. At present, the dealers' "forced palace" may only achieve compensation for the price and more flexible business policies.

In the view of the above-mentioned dealers, online sales is probably the only condition that FAW-Volkswagen Audi dealers can accept. The most critical thing is how to handle the relationship between SAIC and FAW in sales dominance.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.