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on the same day, there were 6 new car launches, 2 of which were gasoline cars, with the main theme being “the leaders have no say”.

at the launch of tiggo 8 plus, li xueyong responded to netizens' question "chery is getting better and better looking, the designers should be rewarded" by saying that there has indeed been a change of personnel, with young designers who have been trained for many years taking over the positions. whether a car looks good or not is no longer decided by the leaders, but by the users and young designers.

at the press conference for the replacement of the b8 to b9 generation of the passat by saic volkswagen, although it was not pointed out as li xueyong did, the actual actions that took place also showed that it was "not a copy of the past", for example, the original pricing system was no longer in place, and the actual full life cycle purchase price of the 2025 passat was truly within 150,000 yuan. therefore, except for the unique 2007 model, the current passat has become the most affordable generation since entering china, and it has also become the generation that dealers say cannot be eliminated by new energy vehicles.

the previous leadership thinking has no say on price

different from the new forces and chinese brands who like to hide easter eggs at the press conference, before the 2025 new passat is launched, the vehicle part is no longer a secret. the maximum length is over 5 meters, which is larger than the audi a4l. it continues to be the combination of ea888 engine + dq381 dual-clutch. there will be more screens in the car, and the smart driving is a version cooperated with dji.

the only thing that attracted people's attention during the entire press conference was the price. however, three variables appeared during the press conference.

in addition, before this press conference started, someone from saic volkswagen gave us a bombshell: "our pricing is going to change, not in numbers, but in logic."

the final answer was revealed, the suggested price of the passat 380tsi family is 176,900-239,900 yuan, including 2 outstanding models (classic models) and 3 pro models (b9 models). this price did not cause much excitement when it was released, because just two months ago, the listing price of the new magotan b9 was 179,900-246,900 yuan, and the price of the classic models was 174,900 yuan and 206,900 yuan.

but soon after, saic volkswagen gave a limited-time fixed price, and the prices of the five 2.0t high-power versions became 159,900 yuan to 223,900 yuan. the entry-level version dropped to 17,000 yuan, the top-end version dropped to 16,000 yuan, and the other three versions dropped to at least 10,000 yuan. this price is nearly 6,000 yuan cheaper than the 165,800 yuan entry-level version of the 2025 han dm-i that was just launched not long ago.

from the outside, this is a marketing move for sales, but in depth, this is a change in the pricing decision-making system. the biggest difference from the past is that saic volkswagen puts the selling price and the guide price on the table so that consumers can clearly distinguish them. the guide price is the original pricing system, which is the positioning and consistency that a car should show to the consumer market since it entered the market. for example, when mentioning the mercedes-benz s-class, the ip reflection of a million-dollar luxury car immediately pops up in the mind.

the limited-time fixed price is the price that saic volkswagen wants to give to consumers in one go. this eliminates suspicion, bargaining, and waiting, because in the traditional sales system, the guide price is always just a guide price, and consumers have to go to the 4s store to bargain, negotiate, and find acquaintances to get a cheaper price. this time, saic volkswagen wants to change the game and do an experiment.

at the same time, the experiment is not only about the price on the surface, but also a combination of punches. tao hailong, who succeeded jia jianxu and took office as the general manager of saic volkswagen for 50 days, released the latest policy at the end of the press conference, which is the lifetime warranty of the powertrain. in the communication meeting after the press conference, fu qiang, executive vice general manager of sales and marketing of saic volkswagen, pointed out that the purchase price in the saic volkswagen app has long been 10,000 yuan, eliminating the worry about the use of the engine and gearbox.

subsequently, it is expected that from september 10 to the spring festival of 2025, all new car buyers of saic volkswagen will be able to get the same lifetime warranty on the main powertrain of their first vehicle.

the only two conditions are that you have to be the first owner of the car and the maintenance must be done at a 4s store. the price of the package purchase has hit the bottom, so there is no need to worry about price comparison. second, if an accident occurs, you need to ask the insurance company to have the vehicle repaired through official channels rather than at a repair shop.

lifetime warranty is only one side of the policy. the other side is saic volkswagen's value-preserving repurchase to fight against the brutal price war this year. take tiguan l pro as an example. under certain conditions, it can be renewed at 20% off for 3 years. therefore, considering the cost of owning a car throughout its life cycle, the high-power version of the passat 2.0t of saic volkswagen is not just as simple as entering the 150,000 yuan range.

however, there is still a question: "how long is the limited-time fixed price?" this was not explicitly stated at the press conference, but fu qiang answered that it would be at least until the end of this year. in other words, saic volkswagen's pricing system has become flexible and experimental. using new methods and new prices to remove consumers' concerns, based on the perception of the 28 million user base, it is not that no one wants to buy volkswagen, but that no one wants to buy a car that does not match their perception.

will joint venture cars and fuel vehicles really be eliminated quickly?

obviously, all new car releases in 2024 will first rely on volume to gain consumer recognition. this year's automotive industry is always snatching people, not only engineers, but also automotive media and reporting resources. on september 10, geely organized a chinese media group at the frankfurt motor show, huawei released a three-fold mobile phone and the 5-seater version of the m9 and the pre-sale of the zhijie r7 in shenzhen, jiyue sold the jiyue 07 with a range of 660 kilometers to 199,900 yuan in beijing, baojun yunhai sold the a-class plug-in hybrid to less than 110,000 yuan, as well as the passat and tiggo 8 plus that do not follow the conventional route.

there is a question that is inevitably mentioned in such occasions, whether joint venture cars are no longer viable, whether fuel cars are no longer viable, and saic volkswagen has put it in the ppt on the background wall, as a separate slide.

as mentioned at the beginning of the article, there are three variables in the entire press conference, in addition to the price, there are two more. from these variables, we can actually start to answer a question: "are fuel vehicles no longer viable? are joint venture vehicles no longer viable?"

variable 2 is that it has been a long time since we have seen such a large lineup of speakers from both china and germany at saic volkswagen's press conference. the top leaders of both sides, as well as the marketing leaders of both sides, appeared at the same time. the chinese side talked about how to break the impasse, while the german side talked about deepening cooperation. behind this arrangement is the degree of importance attached to the company and a display of mutual response.

variable 3 is that passat has more unknown elements. for example, in the user statistics of the passat family, the highest proportion is not middle-aged people, less than or equal to 25 years old, and people between 26 and 30 years old account for 18%, higher than 31 to 35 years old 17%, and higher than any section over 36 years old.

and it is hard to imagine that the passat's body color selection actually appeared in pink and cyan, which is very unpopular. according to traditional cognition, passat should be black or gray, not like this.

as for why this is done, there are two sets of data to support it. first, saic volkswagen's fuel vehicle combat effectiveness is still good, with a market share of 7% in july, 8% in august, and close to 9% in september. in other words, with the launch of tiguan l pro, value-preserving repurchase, and tiguan new rui with a limited time starting price of 79,900 yuan, consumers are voting with their wallets. in other words, the upgrade of the smart cockpit, l2+ intelligent driving, and more innovations have been recognized.

second, as proposed this year, saic volkswagen will start from 80,000 yuan to 320,000 yuan, with 10,000 yuan as a range, and use different strategies and methods to capture the market, competing with plug-in hybrid, extended-range, pure electric, etc., to ensure its dominance in the market segment.

as for the goal for 2024, fu qiang wants to strive for 1.2 million vehicles. that is, although the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in the big market has exceeded 60% and the share of joint venture vehicles has fallen below 35%, saic volkswagen will most likely be able to hand in a report card that is the same as that in 2023.

this is actually the regular army's play style mentioned in the press conference. don't make unnecessary changes, stabilize the base of fuel vehicles, and install fuel/plug-in hybrid/pure electric and intelligent vehicles respectively. as for decision-making, it is not a snap decision. everyone, including saic volkswagen executives, knows that new energy is the future and fuel vehicles will become more and more difficult to sell, but the window period always exists. for example, this time the passat was launched, and a large number of flagship configurations of more than 500,000 yuan (large sofa, backrest angle adjustment, massage, etc.) were piled up in the back row, and the pro version itself made up for the intelligent performance and the latest price setting.

spending 200,000 yuan, you can buy a car that is both intelligent and has a full rear seat, as well as quality, driving style, parts-to-whole ratio, and cost-effectiveness. in the current market, passat has once again grasped its unique advantage in the competition.

the relatively radical-minded people were satisfied, as were the relatively traditional people. the benefit was that dealers watched the order numbers rise at the press conference, and avoided the huge losses caused by the discounts in their stores to sell cars, which brought resilience to the transformation.

of course, everyone knows how long the competitiveness can last based on the current performance. seeing the increasing popularity of new forces and chinese cars, more than five car companies have mastered the noa capability in urban areas, the prices of extended-range and plug-in hybrid vehicles are getting closer to gasoline vehicles, and the range and charging speed of pure electric vehicles are also doubling in a few months. saic volkswagen also has a back-up plan.

the obvious ones include the debut of the passat plug-in hybrid in the fourth quarter of 2025. tao hailong and fu qiang also announced more previously unknown information, including that the next car of the saic volkswagen pro trilogy will be the flagship touron, including changes in the styling design system, and even the very popular hard-core style will have a chance, and the existing combination of front and rear axles and front and rear suspensions will be further upgraded, which will be demonstrated separately in subsequent platform technologies and new cars.

so, can fuel vehicles, or joint venture vehicles, continue to fight? the answer to this question should be that as long as you have mastered the uniqueness in the market, the answer is yes. this is the case with passat, and it is also the case with tiggo 8 plus, which was launched on the same day. at li xueyong's press conference, the fuel version and the plug-in hybrid version appeared at the same time, but what is beyond the existing cognitive rules is that the most expensive version is not the new energy but the 2.0t+8at version. chery believes that in terms of technical implementation capabilities, the 159,900 yuan version is higher than the c-dm plug-in hybrid. to complement the intelligence of fuel vehicles, the new configurations and new functions required by contemporary consumers do not conflict with the simultaneous launch of new energy. so in essence, saic volkswagen and chery have the same ideas. looking at the sales performance of the two, consumers have also voted with their wallets.

in conclusion:

in fact, we can see more details from the launch of passat. tao hailong is a witness and contributor to volkswagen's introduction to china and localization. for him, the quality and system of the car are the bottom line. this actually provides stronger endorsement and trust for the limited-time fixed price. in other words, the feedback brought by saic volkswagen is based on efficiency improvement, waste reduction, scale, platformization, etc.

therefore, although trends and cycles are irreversible, the world has never been made up of dichotomies. today, the intensity of internal competition in the automotive industry has reached a state that ordinary people can see with their naked eyes, but looking at the development trajectory of the chinese auto market, we are finding that more and more names will not be killed by new energy or new forces.