Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

The original title: "Volkswagen cut prices in China, and the Germans scold their mother."

German netizens are very angry these two days.

They complain that "electric cars are a scam" and "only idiots buy them"!

The spearhead is clearly directed at Volkswagen, saying that it should be boycotted for cutting German leeks.

Why?

Volkswagen cut German leeks? Angry German netizens made the following comments:

The public thinks that everyone in Germany is stupid with a lot of money and should be boycotted.

"Electric cars are a hoax, only fools buy them" and "the Germans are actually paying high prices to subsidize Chinese car owners."

Others think that the German government has abandoned the industry instead of subsidizing electric cars like China:

Is this the German version of "giving to friends rather than domestic slaves"?

In this regard, Chinese netizens suggested that if German users are not satisfied, they can pull banners at the gate of Wolf Castle:

In fact, the cause of German netizens' anger is still in China.

Two weeks ago, SAIC-Volkswagen officially announced that the maximum discount for Volkswagen ID.3 is 37000 yuan, and the starting price of ID.3 is only 125900 yuan after the price reduction.

But when the news that China's ID.3 dropped to 125900 reached Volkswagen's hometown of Germany, it exploded.

Because the price of ID.3 in Germany starts at 39990 euros, which is equivalent to about 320000 yuan. It is almost three times the price in China.

Why did Volkswagen reduce the price of new energy in China?

Is to be rolled by China's own brands can not survive.

The ID.3 itself is a compact hatchback with a wheelbase 2765mm, with the smallest size and the lowest price of all the all-electric models sold by Volkswagen.

But Volkswagen's new energy sells best in China, but the more expensive ID.4,ID.3 sells only one or two thousand vehicles a month.

The direct reason is that ID.3 and BYD dolphins have the same positioning, and the retail prices of these two car owners are between 11 and 130000 yuan. It can sell 20,000 or 30,000 vehicles each month, which is about dozens of times that of ID.3.

In addition, at the configuration level, BYD's pure electric battery life is at 500-600km, and no matter whether it is easy to use or not, it gives the central control big screen and intelligent interactive system.

The nominal range of the ID.3 is only 450km, and the size and UI style of the car are also very conservative.

In terms of direct cost performance, ID.3 is far inferior to its own brand.

Therefore, it is impossible for ID.3 with a guide price of 16-190000 to survive in China's new energy market without a price reduction.

Volkswagen, Chinese conscience? SAIC Volkswagen was registered in 1983 and became the first joint venture car company in China. the first car produced was Santana, priced at nearly 200000 yuan, and then approached 300000 yuan.

At that time, the monthly salary of ordinary Chinese was only a few hundred yuan.

However, Santana sold for almost 23,000 marks in Germany, or about 30,000 to 40,000 yuan at the exchange rate at the time.

Of course, when discussing pricing at that time, the German side suggested a retail price of 80,000, and later SAIC insisted on setting it at 200000, which is said to be for profit and the subsequent development of the enterprise.

But even the price of 80,000 reported by the Germans is still inflated, nearly double the price in Germany.

And the same "upside down" plot has now been reversed.

It's a little counterintuitive indeed.

Because generally speaking, it is certainly more expensive for domestic car companies to sell cars in overseas markets than at home.

For example, BYD's Yuan PLUS is only more than 100,000 entry-level electric cars in China, but it can sell hundreds of thousands of high prices abroad, becoming the representative of "high-end cars" in some countries and regions, and even selling millions of dollars in Singapore.

BYD has not yet built an overseas factory, it is still in the form of vehicle export, tariff + logistics fee + local market compliance commissioning promotion cost, the car price will not go up at once.

Car companies that have built factories overseas, such as the Great Wall, have assembled Harvard and tanks locally in Russia, and their prices are 1-2 times higher than at home.

It's easy to understand. China is the basic market for the survival of these car companies, in addition to sales, word-of-mouth is also important, really make Volkswagen overseas cheaper than at home, it is estimated that public opinion will also be scolded to death.

On the other hand, the burden of going out to sea is much lighter, everything is purely to make more money, flexible pricing according to local conditions, high pricing will help to increase the value of the brand.

But the most important core factor is the huge difference in maturity and labor cost of automobile industry chain in different countries.

This is also the reason for Volkswagen's seemingly abnormal pricing in the Chinese and German markets.

Germany, as the birthplace of cars, the industrial chain is of course highly developed. But Germany is also a developed country, and the labor cost is extremely high.

According to Germany's official Federal Bureau of Statistics, employers will pay 39.5 euros, or about 330 yuan an hour, for every hour of work for employees in manufacturing and service industries in 2022, including wages, bonuses, insurance, benefits and so on.

This level is 3% higher than that of the European Union on average.

And German law stipulates that the working hours should not exceed 48 hours a week, and high-paying jobs are heavily taxed at the same time. Objectively, it limits the further improvement of labor productivity.

There is a point of view that Germany has achieved a high degree of automation of industrial production, labor costs are not high at all. So you don't know anything about German trade unions.

In the case of Volkswagen, for example, 44% of employees are based in Germany, with a total of more than 290000 (data from Volkswagen's official human resources department).

These more than 290000 people have a bearing on the stability of German society and the votes of politicians, and it is a big deal to lay off any part of them. Herbert Dis, the last CEO, was thrown out of office because he insisted on promoting layoffs and efficiency, so that he was at loggerheads with the union.

By analogy, the situation is similar for other German manufacturing companies.

As a result, the cost of German manufacturing as a whole is high, and the price of cars made in other parts of the European Union will rise when they are sold back to Germany.

China is a different story.

The median salary for employees in the automotive industry is 1.4-18000, while that for manufacturing jobs is 6-8k. Of course, this is only a superficial factor.

The core reason for the low cost of the whole industry is the market scale effect of China. China's passenger car market sells more than 20 million vehicles a year, while Germany is only 1x10 of China's.

The realization of large-scale is based on the rapid development of China's new energy technology and the maturity of the three power technology system, supporting large-scale mass production.

Even if Volkswagen's ID.3 drops to 1259, 000 from China, it will still make a profit.

Another direct manifestation of the large-scale advantage of made in China is Tesla.

As we all know, Tesla has set up factories in many places around the world and strives to localize production and sales, which is also Musk's secret to reduce costs and achieve ultra-high profits. In China, the price of Tesla is also the lowest in the world.

This cost advantage makes Tesla Shanghai factory not only sell at home, but also export, even if the logistics expenses are included, the profit is still considerable.

Tesla is a typical representative. In fact, most of China's electric car exports can earn extra money.

For example, the BYD PLUS sold at a sky-high price of millions, and Weilai Xiaopeng are much more expensive than at home; ideally, there is no official export, but Li Xiang recently said on Weibo that some L7 have been parallel exported overseas by some automakers.

So beyond the simple emotion, let's look at the price of Volkswagen trams and come to the conclusion that the automobile industry in China is undergoing great changes in the past century. China's automobile industry has first made a breakthrough in the underlying technology, forming a unique technical barrier to the established automobile powers.

The second is the huge scale of China's auto market, which is far from comparable to that of a single country in the European Union, which is enough to support the mass production of most of the new technologies, hitting the price of cabbage.

Today, with the development of the human automobile industry, it is time to re-examine, the times have indeed changed.

Therefore, the fact that Volkswagen sells more expensive in Germany is not to "subsidize China with German money". It is really forced by reality.

But Chinese netizens need not be too excited. The great powers at that time were even less kind-hearted. When they bought Volkswagen's new energy in 120000, they still had to thank the rise of China's independent automobile industry.

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: smart car reference (ID:AI4Auto). The author: have a car and have evidence.

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