China's automotive technology saves Audi?A new round of bailouts begins
In 1988, Audi signed a cooperation agreement with FAW and officially entered the Chinese market.
Moreover, relying on the German brand, coupled with FAW's actions, as well as the identity of the previous official car, it can be said that since 1988, Audi has really made money lying down in China, and it has been earning for more than 30 years.
But in recent years, with the development of new energy vehicles, Audi's life has not been easy.
As shown in the chart above, Audi's sales in China have been declining, already lagging behind BMW and Mercedes-Benz, and the sales of electric vehicles are even rarer, with 110,000 units last year, which is not even comparable to domestic new car manufacturers.
As the trend towards electrification becomes more and more obvious, Audi will really be left behind by the times if it does not work hard, and as one of the former BBAs, Audi certainly does not want to see this happen.
As a result, Audi has also developed an ambitious electric vehicle plan that includes launching 30 electric vehicles worldwide by 2025 and achieving an annual production of 800,000 electric vehicles in five years, and then at least 40 percent of its sales coming from electric vehicles.
How to do this?Audi also learned"Master Yi's long skills to control it"That is, to learn from Chinese auto companies, buy technology from Chinese auto companies, and pay the money originally made in the Chinese market to Chinese competitors.
In order to quickly transition to electric vehicles, Audi plans to work with Chinese automotive companies to purchase ready-made pure electric platforms and start manufacturing directly to quickly produce the electric vehicles they need, according to **.
Why buy a car-making platform from a Chinese company?At present, Audi can use all electric vehicle platforms belonging to the Volkswagen Group, and there are four in total: the J1 high-performance electric vehicle platform, the MEB platform, the MLBEVO platform and the PPE platform.
But these four platforms are not particularly consistent with Audi's positioning, whether they are too high-end, such as the J1 high-performance electric platform, which is used to create top electric coupe models such as Porsche, or too low-end, like MEB, which is used to build entry-level models such as the Volkswagen ID series, Audi is used to build cars, which is a bit high or low.
Developing a new platform is clearly beyond Audi's capabilities, not to mention that it doesn't necessarily work out yet. I'm afraid there is a question mark.
Chinese car companies are currently developing very well in the field of new energy, and the results are obvious to all, so it can indeed help Audi to transform quickly, so looking for Chinese car companies to buy electric vehicle platforms has become one of the most suitable choices for Audi.
According to the reporter's understanding, there are currently 7 national car-making platforms that meet the needs of Audi, namely Geely's HNA Wanwei platform and BYD's eplatform30. SAIC Nebula, Changan EPA, Xpeng-Fuyou, NIO-NT and GAC-AEP30。
Audi has reportedly been approached by several of the aforementioned car companies, and it is unclear who will be the winner and who will get the piece of fat.
Of course, there are also people who question whether buying a car manufacturing platform can quickly build their own electric vehicles. It's not necessarily, but at least it will allow Audi to avoid detours and save time, that's for sure.
More than 30 years ago, Audi entered the Chinese market only with its own technology, and then made money with the help of the Chinese market. Now, Audi wants to use its own money to buy technology from the Chinese market, which is really right"Thirty years in Hedong, forty years in Hexi"。