Recently, a price reduction message has been circulating on the Internet: "The bare car price of Audi A4L has entered the 1-digit era, and the entry-level version only costs more than 190,000 yuan." The Audi A4L is a first-tier brand B-class luxury sedan positioned at the 300,000 yuan level, with a manufacturer's suggested price of 321,800-400,800 yuan. This round of price drop below the 200,000 yuan mark has overturned the previous price concepts of many consumers and even industry insiders.
However, such a large price reduction seems to have long been commonplace in the FAW Audi camp. In Beijing, many sales staff said that most models in the store currently have different degrees of discounts, and most of the discounts are between 80,000 yuan and 200,000 yuan. The bare car price of the Audi Q4 e-tron low-end model after the discount is less than 200,000 yuan.
Audi is the earliest German high-end brand to enter the Chinese market.
As early as 1988, FAW began cooperating with Audi, which can be regarded as the cultivators of China's luxury market, while Mercedes Benz and BMW did not arrive until many years later. At that time, in the luxury car market in China, Audi's market position and market share were in the "first tier big brother" due to its early entry into the market and status as an official car.
And Audi has been in China for decades, and the discourse power of Chinese joint ventures has always been firmly held in the hands of FAW. In the early days, Audi wanted to join hands with SAIC, but the ultimate result was that the FAW Audi Dealers Association refused to sell products, and multiple parties reached an agreement that "Audi will only have one sales company in the future and will be managed by FAW Audi".
It is undeniable that FAW and Audi have walked through the flourishing era of the automotive industry together, and have deeply imprinted the A in BBA in the Chinese market. Their A6, A4, and Q5 models have sold everywhere, earning a lot of money.
However, Audi's lead continued until 2016. In 2017, it lost its decades long title as the sales champion of luxury cars in China. In 2019, Audi's sales in China reached 689000 vehicles, although there was still a year-on-year growth of 4.2%, the growth rate was significantly slower than Mercedes Benz and BMW's catching up speed, and it was the first time that Audi finished at the bottom of the BBA competition. And this trend of falling behind has not changed so far. As of 2023, the sales of the Audi brand have been suppressed by BB for five consecutive years.
"Falling from a high position, there is a collapse of the reputation for price reduction behind it, which has made its luxurious attributes no longer exist; and the careless electrification transformation has also made it lose its voice in the new era."
In recent years, facing weak sales, FAW Audi has adopted an endless strategy of exchanging price for quantity. For core models such as Audi A6, A4, and Q5, discounts of around 100000 yuan have become the norm. However, the cost-effectiveness strategy has not brought Audi more sales, and its high-end image is no longer solid.
As is well known, luxury brands engaging in price wars may boost sales in the short term, but from a long-term perspective, the harm to the brand seems inevitable. Nowadays, the Audi A6L is the only C-class car priced close to 300000 yuan, while the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes Benz E models in the same class are both priced close to 500000 yuan. Also affected is the resale value of used cars, with Audi models having a lower 3-year resale value compared to BMW and Mercedes Benz.
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