TU-TESL

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Since the "emission gate" in 2015, Audi has not completely got rid of its negative impact, which makes its electric transformation face great pressure under the situation of sluggish global automobile sales. According to the "layoff plan" announced on November 27 by Audi, the group's car brand, this time it will save the company billions of euros, which will be used to shift to electric vehicle production. Obviously, the investment in electric transformation is huge. According to financial data, the operating revenue of Audi brand in 2018 was 59.248 billion euros, slightly down from 59.789 billion euros in 2017. Operating profit before special project expenditure was EUR 4.705 billion, down 6.97% from EUR 5.058 billion in 2017. And its operating return in fy2018 was 7.9%, down 0.6 percentage points year on year. At the same time, the global delivery volume of Audi brand in 2018 was 1.8125 million vehicles, down 3.5% year-on-year. Basically speaking, Audi did not meet the expected profit target. Audi has also said that its return on sales fell from 7.8% to 6% last year due to increased spending on e-tron and other electric vehicles. It is worth noting that industry analysis shows that Audi started late in the development of electrification, and its advantages are not obvious. Take the three BBA companies as an example. In 2016, Audi,, almost locked in the "electrification" strategy at the same time. At that time, Mercedes Benz announced its future strategy "case". By 2022, Mercedes Benz will launch more than 50 electric vehicles, including 10 models. Similarly, BMW has hatched a development strategy "aces" for future competition, and will launch 25 electric vehicles in 2023, including 12 pure electric vehicles. According to the "joint development 2025 strategy" of Volkswagen Group at that time, Audi will launch more than 30 electric vehicles before 2025, including 20 pure electric vehicles. More importantly, as the world's largest new energy market, Audi's electric vehicle capacity layout in China is not so clear, and Mercedes Benz and BMW have already begun to layout in China. In 2017, Daimler signed a cooperation framework agreement with BAIC group on electric vehicles, and began to produce Mercedes Benz brand in 2020. As a landing, in May 2018, Beijing Benz strategic restructuring project settled in Shunyi, Beijing. According to the previous plan, Beijing Benz new energy plant will be put into production by the end of 2019, and will produce Benz new energy vehicle products in the future. In October 2018, BMW announced to invest 3 billion euros to upgrade the two major factories of Dadong and Tiexi, among which the upgraded Tiexi factory will have electric vehicle production capacity. Although, we can't help it, Audi obviously lags behind in terms of both the electrification strategy and the production capacity of electric vehicles in China. However, from the current situation, there is something to look forward to. On November 8 this year, SAIC Volkswagen new energy plant was officially completed, which is expected to be put into production in October 2020, and to produce a new generation of pure electric vehicles of Volkswagen, Audi and other brands. Among them, the information of "producing Audi pure electric vehicle" means that the project of "SAIC Audi" may be more and more close. Recently, Wu Jiabi, President of Audi China, said in an interview with the media, "we are in a dialogue with, but we cannot disclose the details.". The industry believes that seeking cooperation with local suppliers also shows Audi's determination to implement and develop China's electrification strategy. There is no doubt that the global automobile industry has reached the "crossroads" of transformation. At present, Audi must focus on the target market to meet the needs of the market, constantly optimize the product matrix, and adjust the production and marketing plan and model layout according to different market trends. More importantly, we should strengthen the effective linkage and cooperation with the advantageous enterprises to enhance their market competitive value. Only in this way can we ensure the steady transformation in the reasonable range of performance fluctuation.