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data shows that in the first half of 2024, faw-audi sold about 244,900 vehicles, down 14.75% from 287,200 vehicles in the same period last year. among them, the best-selling audi q4 e-tron among faw-audi's new energy models had a cumulative sales volume of only 7,471 units in the first half of this year, down 16.82% year-on-year.

this is the first half-year report card that li fenggang has submitted since he took up the position of executive vice president of faw-audi sales company in october last year. it does not seem to be very "good", and it can even be said to be a bit poor.

as the person who was "hand-picked" by qiu xiandong, the new chairman of faw group after xu liuping, li fenggang may have an unshirkable responsibility for faw audi's market performance in the first half of this year. after all, faw audi's overall sales in the first half of 2023 were still in a state of slight growth.

as the executive in charge of faw audi's sales and marketing, li fenggang made internal changes after taking office and reorganized the marketing department. in addition, in july this year, li fenggang also opened a personal video account "faw audi li fenggang" and pushed 7 videos about audi in a row within a month. it seems to be in line with the trend of car company executives live streaming to attract traffic, but it also reveals his anxiety about faw audi's sales and brand.

in addition to brand management and product marketing, faw-audi also has many other problems.

first, the lack of competitiveness of new energy models has seriously hindered faw-audi. currently, faw-audi has three new energy models: q4 e-tron, q2l e-tron, and audi e-tron. except for the audi q4 e-tron, which has a monthly sales volume of over 1,000 units, the monthly sales volume of the other two models is only a few dozen or even a few units.

perhaps aware of the problem, faw audi said it will launch new models based on the ppe platform, such as the audi q6l e-tron and audi a6l e-tron, in china in the future. however, from the slogan "audi also has pure electric new energy" launched by faw audi dealers last year, we may also be able to predict the future market performance of these models.

secondly, faw audi's long-term strategy of trading price for volume has greatly compromised its luxury brand image and significantly reduced its brand power. in the eyes of many consumers, the brand image of mercedes-benz and bmw is higher than that of audi. there is a consensus in the industry that among the three major first-tier luxury brands, mercedes-benz, bmw and audi, audi's discount is relatively large. you should know that the terminal discount of audi a6l has reached more than 100,000 yuan, while the bmw 5 series and mercedes-benz e-class of the same level do not have such a large discount.

the negative impact of the dealers' substantial discounts on audi is not only a decline in brand power, but also a direct impact on the sales performance of high-end models. data shows that in the first half of this year, faw audi's sales in the price range of more than 400,000 yuan were only 21,000 vehicles. in this price range, mercedes-benz and bmw's sales were 166,000 and 101,000 vehicles, respectively. even in this price range, faw audi's sales were still inferior to ideal auto's 37,000 vehicles and seres' 54,000 vehicles.

furthermore, audi needs to strengthen its product quality control, especially in new energy vehicles. due to the possibility of abnormal self-discharge inside the high-voltage power battery module, there is a risk of fire. in march this year, 5,084 imported audi e-tron batteries were recalled.

in addition, faw-audi currently has only two models that can exceed 10,000 units in monthly sales: the audi a6l and the audi q5. this year, except for march and june, when the sales of the audi a4l exceeded 10,000 units, the sales of the remaining months were only a few thousand units. this means that faw-audi is in urgent need of launching new hit models to increase overall sales.

back to the marketing topic mentioned above, in january this year, ye huaming, director of the operation center of faw audi sales co., ltd., was suspected of violating discipline and law, and is currently under disciplinary review by the discipline inspection commission of faw china and the supervision commission of songyuan city, geely province. according to reports, ye huaming had previously served as general manager of the northeast region of audi sales division and director of the nev operation center of faw audi, and his work experience was mostly concentrated in marketing and sales positions. from this point of view, how to deal with the stubborn problems in the organizational structure is undoubtedly a big challenge for li fenggang, a senior executive in charge of sales and marketing.

final thoughts

faw-audi's strategy of trading price for volume has gradually lowered its brand image. unfortunately, faw-audi's strategy of trading price for volume seems to have gradually failed this year, and the sharp decline in sales in the first half of this year is perhaps the most direct manifestation of this. with sales falling sharply, the brand image constantly declining, and new energy products failing to open up the market, how should li fenggang, who has been in office for nearly a year, face the more intense competition in the future?

wenwu road, author of this article: xia mu, personal opinion, for reference only)