Rebirth 99 to become a car giant

The Yangcheng Auto Show is like a package of catalysts for the Chinese auto market.

During the entire auto show, the business of many 4S stores was more prosperous than before.

By the time the auto show comes to an end, this trend shows no signs of changing.

Normally, November is not considered the peak season for car sales.

Gold, nine and silver are ten.

But there are only 30 days in November, but it already means surpassing the two brothers.

"Brother, the business of this 4S store is making money too fast. Now our products of Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Porsche and Xingchen Automobile basically have no discounts and they are selling very well."

"Even the small-displacement models of Modu Volkswagen and Spring City Volkswagen are in short supply due to purchase tax incentives."

"The entire market is showing unprecedented enthusiasm."

"I estimate that when the November sales data comes out in two days, everyone will be shocked."

"It is very likely that sales in November this year will be more than 50% of the same period last year, and it is even possible for some models to directly double."

Guo Shufu is responsible for the 4S store business of Huaqiang Group. He is now one of the largest dealers in South China, with dozens of 4S stores for more than a dozen car brands.

They also have a very strong say in the sales of various brands of cars.

At least in the South China market, their opinions are extremely valuable.

The most important thing is that what originally didn’t seem to be a very high-end business has now become very profitable.

Especially now that there are no discounts at the terminal, some models even have to be equipped with some high-quality products before you can pick up the car, which makes the profitability of 4S stores even better.

Even for Huaqiang Group, the 4S store business is now the bulk of profits.

For example, in the parts and components business, the profit margin is relatively fixed every year, and there will not be a particularly huge gap.

"The current market conditions are indeed much better than everyone imagined."

"Even at the beginning of the year, no one could have imagined that this year's market would be so good."

"This is also a great thing for us."

Guo Shuyin was also in a good mood.

Huaqiang Group is now preparing for its listing, and is expected to become the largest parts company in South China besides Nanshan Group.

This is something he couldn't have imagined ten years ago.

"Yes, fortunately, we started following the pace of Nanshan Group last year and opened several new hot stamping production lines."

"Otherwise, we will be unable to supply parts for some models."

For current OEMs, when sales are good, any supplier that falls out of line will definitely be punished.

Aaron Kwok doesn’t want his company to have trouble due to supply problems.

"Next month, go to each OEM in person and have a good communication with their sales department."

"What you should express is to express your gratitude and don't be reluctant to spend money."

"When the OEM's production capacity is limited, sending us one more car can earn us an extra 10,000 yuan, or even more."

"Under this situation, other 4S stores must also be thinking of ways to increase the number of cars they pick up."

Many people have always believed that those engaged in procurement are the ones with the deepest water.

But Guo Shuyin knew that in automobile companies, the sales department was in deeper water.

Not to mention other things, the amount of kindness sent by their company this year alone has exceeded 5 million.

Next, if the supply of models in our 4S store is still in short supply, in order to get the OEM to send more cars to us, it is estimated that we will spend another 5 million in a short period of time.

Of course, Guo Shuyin didn't feel bad when the money was spent.

After all, the money spent is worth it.

"No problem. I will arrange a business trip starting tomorrow. It should be the peak sales season until the Spring Festival. I can try to get more vehicles back when I can."

Guo Shufu is in charge of this business and naturally has no objections to this.

It seems that I still have more than two months left, but actually it is very stressful.

After all, he has more than ten OEMs to visit, and visiting an OEM is not something that can be done in one day.

Tonight you have an appointment with the person in charge of the Yangcheng sales tour for dinner, tomorrow evening you have an appointment with their manager, and the day after tomorrow you have an appointment with their director.

If your relationship tempts you, you can also make an appointment with the vice president in charge of sales.

These people's time is not necessarily available whenever you want to make an appointment.

Basically, if you are not lucky, you will have to wait for a week at an OEM to get it done.

Sometimes, you even have to travel between places.

I'll have dinner with someone in the Imperial Capital tonight, and fly to the Magic City tomorrow morning. I'll spend the first half and the second half with clients in the Magic Capital that night, and then I'll probably fly back to the Imperial Capital during the next day.

Because there is another game waiting for you to socialize in the evening.

This kind of work is actually very challenging.

Comrades who are not tested by alcohol often cannot bear it.

Guo Shufu's belly is much bigger than it was a few years ago.

He couldn't even see his brother when he was peeing.

…

December 1, 2009.

It's the first day of another month.

BYD took the lead in announcing its sales volume. F3 monthly sales exceeded 30,000 units, reaching 30,043 units.

Other models also performed quite well, with sales reaching a historic 51,113 units that month.

This data is almost double that of the same period last year.

The cumulative sales from January to November also reached 400,000, successfully entering the first echelon.

According to the rule, the better the performance, the higher the enthusiasm for releasing sales information. Naturally, BYD's official WeChat account couldn't wait to release the good news as soon as midnight on the 1st.

It seems that the lady in charge of running the official WeChat account works overtime for a long time.

"Lao Wu, the next important task of the sales department is to stabilize this sales volume. I don't ask you to continue to grow in a short period of time. As long as you can stabilize at around 50,000 units every month, then this result will be qualified in the next three years. of."

Wang Fu is in a good mood now.

Monthly sales are 50,000 units.

This is a number that he could not even imagine before, but now he has achieved it.

Even Yangcheng Honda and Yangcheng Toyota have not yet achieved this number.

In the entire Lingnan Province, BYD's sales this month are definitely the champion!

Even compared with Chery, Geely, and Great Wall, the single-month data is slightly superior.

If their sales volume were not higher than BYD's in the first half of the year, it is estimated that BYD would have hit the independent brand sales champion this year.

It can be said that the counterattack was perfectly realized.

Of course, he also knew that there must be a certain amount of moisture behind this counterattack.

It does not mean that we can continue to increase sales on this basis in the future.

That's why he gave instructions to Wu Huabing like that.

"Mr. Wang, now that all models are selling well, the discount rates are beginning to adjust. Can we consider reducing the rebates to 4S stores? This can also increase our profit margins."

Although BYD's sales are good, its profit margin is not very good.

Especially the best-selling F3, one car can earn thousands of dollars.

To be exaggerated, BYD sold 50,000 cars, which was not as much money as Xingchen Automobile sold 2,000 cars.

That's why Wu Hua Cake made such a proposal.

"We have to allow 4S stores to make money so that they can be motivated to sell cars."

"Now is an important moment to stabilize sales. Don't change dealer policies easily, otherwise no one knows what the consequences will be."

Wang Fu is not a greedy person.

Although he also hopes that the company's profit rate can improve, if it is improved by drinking poison to quench thirst, he will definitely not support it.

The consequences of that would be unbearable.

The boss has said this, so Wu Hua Cake will naturally not be forced.

Even for him, this is the most ideal result.

He no longer needs to bear the pressure on yields in the future.

Just keep sales stable.

However, the booming sales of BYD F3 have also had a strong stimulating effect on many car companies.

Great Wall Motors, which has always wanted to become the number one in the independent brand industry, is specifically discussing this matter at this time.

"Mr. Wang, judging from the current market situation, although SUVs have been growing rapidly, sedans still occupy the main market."

"I think it is necessary for the company to develop more sedan products to enrich the product line."

"For example, BYD has achieved monthly sales of 30,000 units with its F3 model alone."

"If we have two best-selling sedans, then this month's sales can easily exceed 50,000 units."

It's not that Lian Furong doesn't agree with the company's strategy of vigorously developing SUV models, he just thinks there's no need to hang himself on SUVs.

Cars can also be very fragrant.

BYD is the best example.

Geely Automobile also has cars with monthly sales exceeding 10,000 yuan.

There is no reason for Great Wall Motors to commit suicide.

"From the perspective of an R\u0026D center, there is no problem in developing a sedan."

"As long as there are SUV models, we can develop corresponding basic sedans on this basis."

"The powertrain and chassis can be shared, and all kinds of equipment can basically be shared. The main thing is to redesign part of the body and interior and exterior parts."

As the director of the Great Wall Motors R\u0026D Center, Zhu Jianbo naturally expressed his opinions on R\u0026D at this time.

For him now, it is not particularly difficult to develop several more sedans.

But when the time comes to calculate the results, it can indeed be much richer.

So he tends to support it.

However, he also knew what Wang Ying's point of view was, so he simply expressed his opinion and said nothing.

"The market for cars is very broad, and I naturally know this."

"Not only BYD's F3 sells very well, but also Yangcheng Honda's Accord, Yangcheng Toyota's Camry, and Zephyr Nissan's Teana. Which car doesn't sell over 10,000 yuan a month?"

"There are also Chevrolet's Cruze, Don't Watch Excelle, and Volkswagen's Lavida. All of them are selling well."

"But we must be fully aware that for Great Wall Motors, the probability of success in developing SUVs is much higher than that in developing cars."

"We launch an SUV model. As long as the appearance is decent and the price is right, basically no matter how bad the sales volume is, it won't be much worse. You don't have to worry about losing money on the project."

"But what about the sedan?"

"Which of you is confident that the car project will not lose money?"

Wang Ying stunned Lian Furong to death with just one sentence.

The difference in production cost between the same basic SUV and sedan is very small, but the price difference is between 10,000 to 20,000, or even 30,000 to 40,000.

This alone makes the advantages of SUVs very obvious.

Especially for independent brands with relatively low profitability, this importance is even higher.

In addition, the joint venture giant has been in the sedan field for a long time, its product line is much richer than SUVs, and consumers have a relatively high degree of recognition of these products.

To compete with others in this market, the difficulty has obviously increased by more than one level.

These things, stimulated by the news that F3 sales exceeded 30,000 units, were selectively ignored by Lian Furong.

"Mr. Wang, the difficulty of the sedan project is indeed higher than that of SUVs, but the market space of the sedan project is actually larger than that of SUVs."

"Many Chinese people buy cars and think that SUVs and hatchbacks without butts are not cars."

"Under such circumstances, in the eyes of many consumers, our Great Wall Motors products are simply not within their scope of consideration."

"I think this situation is very detrimental to us."

What Lian Furong said was not nonsense, but objective facts.

Chinese consumers are so "simple" and think that a car without a butt is "not a car."

Especially in vast rural areas, the level of recognition for hatchbacks is very low.

For example, if you buy a Fit or POLO and go home, many people will probably laugh at you behind your back.

It will take at least a few more years for this situation to slowly change.

As a person from an OEM, you clearly know that this view of consumers is problematic, but you have to consider the positioning planning of new models based on the actual thoughts of consumers.

Otherwise, you will eventually face failure.

"Judging from the situation in the past few years, my unswerving SUV strategy has enabled me to achieve a substantial increase in sales."

"Now we have formed an SUV route with H6 as the main product and H5 and H8 as the supplement."

"The H2 and H3 models will be launched soon, and the H1 and H5 models are also under development."

"As long as we do well, even if we only sell SUV models, we can become the champion of China's independent brands."

Wang Ying's attitude is still very determined.

Although she also envies the monthly sales of 30,000 yuan, she also hopes that one of Great Wall's SUVs can also achieve such figures.

But her views will not change easily.

It has obviously been proven to be a successful path, so why adjust it because of other people's practices?

Of course, Wang Ying did not criticize Lian Furong.

After all, when people make such a proposal, they consider it from the company's perspective.

If you are criticized for being like this, then it is very likely that no one will be willing to take the initiative to speak out in the future.

This is definitely not good for the development of Great Wall Motors.

However, not every car company can have a clear understanding like Great Wall Motors.

Yangcheng Automobile Group, which has already enjoyed the benefits of sedans from Trumpchi S, finally made a huge decision internally when it saw the news that BYD F3 became China's bicycle sales champion in November.

"Mr. Zhang, we already have two cars that are about to be launched, and now we have started the development of three cars at once. By then, we will have A00-class cars, economy cars, mid-level cars, mid-to-high-end cars, and luxury cars. This step Isn’t it a little too big?”

Zeng Guangda naturally hopes that the sales volume of Yangcheng Trumpchi can set a new record.

Otherwise, he wouldn't be actively working day and night.

But now that so many new models are being launched at once, and many of them are sedans, he is still under great pressure.

Developing a model, even if it copies the appearance of other car companies, requires an investment of at least seven to eight billion, or even more than one billion, before a product can be produced.

But if the sales are very poor by then, then the money will basically be wasted.

This is definitely a very harmful thing to Yangcheng Trumpchi.

The key is that now they have to develop several sedans at the same time.

Previously, Yangcheng Trumpchi's sedan layout was already relatively advanced compared to Great Wall, Changan and other car companies.

Now if there are a few more cars, it will really cover all kinds of cars.

It’s not that Zeng Guangda has no confidence in Yangcheng Trumpchi, but based on some past experiences, at least half of these projects will fail.

As for other projects that are less certain, there is a high probability that they will not make any money.

Is it possible that Yangcheng Trumpchi will really have to rely on the profits of Yangcheng Toyota and Yangcheng Honda in the future?

This reputation is not good.

"BYD's car-making history is not much longer than ours. Their F3 is successful, and their F6 is also selling well. There is no reason why we can't do it well."

"In the future, these projects will require people to give people and money to give money. Even if they don't achieve results like F3 in the end, they should have monthly sales of 10,000 or 5,000, right?"

When Zhang Jiaqi said this, Zeng Guangda didn't know how to refute it.

The first level of officialdom crushes people to death.

This is not nonsense.

It is good for you to think about making Yangcheng Trumpchi bigger and stronger.

If the final project really fails, I have already raised objections, so there is no need to worry about becoming the scapegoat.

After thinking about this, Zeng Guangda was no longer entangled.

However, not everyone in the Chinese automobile industry is not troubled.

For example, Strauss is in a particularly bad mood now, and he is also quite confused about the next steps Audi will take.

"Vondel, the data has been calculated. Audi's sales in November were only 4,982 units, not even 5,000 units."

"Not to mention the growth rate, this data is still a few units short of half of last November."

"And this is the sales data after appropriately increasing some discount amounts, otherwise it may be even worse."

Strauss stopped pretending now and directly showed the truest situation in front of Vondel.

Otherwise, he would have to figure out how to cover it up and explain it.

Now it's just broken, but there's not so much pressure anymore.

In other words, the pressure has been transferred to Vondel at this time.

"Judging from the sales data of various OEMs that have been released so far, many car companies' sales in November increased significantly year-on-year, and some even doubled."

"Under such circumstances, Audi's sales have been cut in half. This is absolutely unacceptable."

Fondel had a dark face and was in a very bad mood.

"The sales volume of the Audi brand has declined, but the sales volume of the Volkswagen brand still achieved a 20% year-on-year increase, and the overall sales volume has still increased."

It was okay if Strauss didn't explain, but Vondel became even more angry when he did.

Because Volkswagen's sales have actually been dragged down.

According to the overall situation of the industry, it is reasonable that the sales volume of Volkswagen brands in November should increase by more than 50% year-on-year.

Now it is only a 20% increase. Normally, this is a figure worthy of celebration, but in comparison with other masters, it seems a bit inadequate.

"Strauss, it's okay to use your statement to fool the people at the headquarters, but you don't need to say it in front of me."

"If Audi's sales cannot be reversed as soon as possible, then I'm afraid you won't be able to sit in this position."

Vondel directly gave Strauss an ultimatum, which immediately increased the pressure on Strauss.

However, there is motivation when there is pressure.

Soon, Strauss went back and began to develop a larger promotion plan.

For example, the Audi A6L originally only had a market discount of less than 20,000 yuan. According to the current plan, the discount range has been doubled.

Even some high-end models can directly go to a discount of 50,000 to 60,000 yuan.

If this discount range is placed in 2023, it will obviously not be competitive.

At that time, if I didn’t get a 20% discount on a car, I felt like I was losing money.

But at the end of 2000, when China's automobile industry as a whole was in short supply, this discount was very good.

You must know that the golf and Jetta, both produced by Spring City Volkswagen, currently have discounts of less than 10,000 yuan, or even no discounts.

Now Audi has begun to cut prices significantly, which will make Audi's profit margins look much uglier.

But it is not a solution.

At the same time, when the first week of December has not completely passed, the China Automobile Association has already released statistics on the overall sales volume in November.

Produced 1.82 million vehicles and sold 1.86 million vehicles.

Basically, one unit is sold as soon as one is produced. The overall inventory index is very low and is still declining.

Such prosperous industry data has definitely never been encountered before.

Ten years ago, China's annual car sales were only 1.86 million units.

Now it's been a month.

The most important thing is that according to this momentum, this sales record can be further broken in December.

Then by then, Huaxia's sales for the whole year of 2009 will probably exceed 14 million!

This increase is definitely extremely exaggerated.

No wonder there are online reports that the China Automobile Association predicts car sales of 16 million units in 2010. This figure seems to be an exaggeration, but in fact it is not stressful at all.

After all, this increase is actually less than 20%.

At the current pace, that is completely achievable.

This situation of overall supply exceeding demand and local advantages being both hot and cold should continue for some time in China's auto market in the future.