Volkswagen Group strengthens Audi’s competitive advantage in China.
Editor’s note: This article comes from “ Future Car Daily ” (WeChat public account ID: auto-time), author: Zhang.
Author | Zhang Yi
Edit | Xu Yang
Audi China welcomes a marketing veteran with many years of experience in China.
On March 26, Audi China officially announced that from April 1st, Werner Eichhorn will take over from Gaby-Luise Wüst to take full charge of Audi’s related business in China, and Wu Jiabi will take on the new management of the Volkswagen brand. Position.
The incoming leader is no stranger. From 2005 to 2008, he was the general manager of the sales department of FAW-Volkswagen Audi, responsible for the Audi brand sales business in China. He led the Audi brand to achieve a 70% increase in sales in China in two years, from 58,000 in 2005 to 100,000 in 2007.
In 1982, Anshihao entered the Volkswagen Group, successively held various sales management positions at Audi, and served as a marketing and sales director at Skoda Automobiles. In 2017, he was responsible for the marketing, sales and after-sales work of Volkswagen’s North American market.
Wu Jiabi, 52, has 20 years of working experience in the BMW Group and is a veteran of the BMW Brilliance sales company in Beijing. Prior to joining Audi, she held the positions of Global Chief Operating Officer of Infiniti and Head of Global Sales Operations of Nissan Group.
In April 2018, Wu Jiabi entered Audi headquarters to be responsible for sales operations in mainland China and Hong Kong. In December of the same year, he was responsible for Audi’s business management in China and joint venture partner project management. In July 2019, she became president of Audi China and executive vice president of sales and marketing at Volkswagen Group (China).
Audi said that during his tenure as President of Audi China, Wu Jiabi managed the related business in China and built a more efficient business process and structure. Under the leadership of Wu Jiabi, Audi’s first domestically produced electric models, the Audi Q2L e-tron and Audi e-tron, were launched.
In 2019, Audi sold 690,000 vehicles in the Chinese market, a year-on-year increase of 4.1%. Among them, the domestically produced Audi A4L sold 168,000 units, an increase of 3.0% year-on-year, the Audi Q5L sold 139,000 units, an increase of 17.0% year-on-year, and the high-end flagship model Audi A8L sold 12,000 units, an increase of 21.6% year-on-year.
As a single brand of the luxury brand group of the Volkswagen Group, Audi’sProfit has always been an important part of public profits. However, in recent years, as the Chinese market has been overtaken by competitors, the gap between the Audi brand and Mercedes-Benz and BMW in terms of global sales and profitability has gradually widened.
“We are concentrating on strengthening the competitive advantage of the Audi brand,” said Diss, chairman of the Volkswagen Group’s management board.
In order to improve the efficiency of the management of the Audi brand and strengthen resource cooperation at the group level, the Volkswagen Group is promoting a plan to hold a 100% stake in the Audi brand. Currently, Audi is working with Porsche to develop a new PPE electrification platform and produce its compact and mid-size cars based on the Volkswagen MEB modular platform.
In addition, Marcus Dusman, Audi’s new CEO, will take over the R & D work of the Volkswagen Group. Audi headquarters will become the core of the organizational structure of the “Car.Software” department, responsible for software development of the Volkswagen Group.
