Cai Che Rethinks China's Strategy to Improve Mercedes-Benz Domestic Ratio to 70%

Last Friday (October 22nd), the Daimler Tower in Beijing personally lit the president of the Mercedes-Benz Auto Group, the second largest Mercedes-Benz trident in the world, and retained the iconic white beard. In this way, Che has sounded the clarion call for the localization of the Mercedes-Benz brand in the Chinese market.

In addition to announcing Beijing Benz to expand its production capacity to 200,000 vehicles, Cai Che, who was in a good mood at the ceremony, did not forget to announce the change of the Mercedes-Benz brand's Chinese market strategy, that is, to significantly increase the proportion of Mercedes-Benz products made in China and sell the products currently sold in the Chinese market. The percentage of Mercedes-Benz brand imported automobile models that accounted for 70% of the total sales volume has dropped significantly to 30%. Through a thorough localization strategy, Audi and BMW brands have competed in the Chinese market.

Mercedes-Benz's Awakening

From domestic to international and then to the Chinese market, the fierce competition between Mercedes, BMW, and Audi, the three German luxury car brands, has never stopped. Audi's earliest entry into the Chinese market quickly established a solid foundation in China with its “government car” status. The FAW-Volkswagen-Audi brand million sales celebration held in Changchun last week proved its undisputed Chinese luxury car brand dominance. Since 2005, BMW has occupied the position of global luxury car brand sales champion. Once the luxury car boss Mercedes can only play the role of the BMW and Audi chasers in the global and Chinese markets.

According to the latest sales figures, the low sales ratio of domestic Mercedes-Benz to imported Mercedes has led Mercedes-Benz's total sales in the Chinese market to lag behind Audi. In August of this year, the total sales volume of Mercedes-Benz's China-made models was 5,242, and the total sales volume of BMW-made Chinese models was 5,639. There was still a big gap between Audi's performance in China's August market and 22,400 vehicles.

Prior to this, Cai Che admitted in an interview that the Mercedes-Benz brand's lack of continuity in the development of the Chinese market led to the loss of many opportunities and was "disappointed" with this status quo. Due to the limitations of production capacity and the hesitation of Mercedes-Benz's localization strategy, the sales target of “300,000 units in 2015” announced by Mercedes-Benz attracted widespread questions.

This expansion is undoubtedly a relief for Beijing Benz, which once touched the ceiling of production capacity. "Daily Economic News" reporter learned that this time, Beijing's Mercedes-Benz plans to expand its production capacity in addition to 100,000 vehicles to increase production capacity, will also build an engine plant with 100,000 production capacity to support.

To invest 27 billion yuan in the next 4 years

"Daily Economic News" reporter learned that the Mercedes-Benz localization strategy changes is not on the surface, but with a lot of financial support and policy support to start a new round of localized gaming. According to reports, Mercedes-Benz and its partner in China BAIC decided to invest approximately RMB 27 billion in the next four years to increase production capacity, expand distribution network and launch new products, and bring its total sales in China to 300,000 by 2015. Vehicle. Of these, 200,000 were from joint ventures.

In addition to increasing production capacity and the proportion of domestic Mercedes-Benz sales, the Mercedes-Benz brand has begun its localization attempt on products. The introduction of the extended E-Class is an example of how the Audi A6L succeeded in its product localization improvement. Vice President of Mercedes-Benz China Sales Cai Gongming also said in an interview with the reporter of “Daily Economic News” that Mercedes-Benz will increase sales of domestic Mercedes-Benz through the introduction of A-class vehicles, extended E-class, and the introduction of more domestic models, at the same time in marketing At the same time, they are also trying to find more marketing models suitable for Chinese consumers through SMART network group purchase.

"In the future, the sales of Mercedes-Benz imported cars and Chinese-made cars will be switched to '37', 'in order to promote localization, and Cai Che has even set subversive targets for them.' Perhaps Cai Che has finally realized that with the growth of China's auto market and the increasingly rational and mature consumers, it is the future market competition to provide consumers with cost-effective Mercedes-Benz products by accelerating the introduction of domestic products and product diversity. The reliable guarantee. “The Audi Millions Ceremony actually shocked all competitors and put pressure on competitive brands. Actually, Audi’s success has allowed Mercedes that has been waiting for a localization strategy to be determined to follow Audi’s The idea to go to marketing, or rely on imported models alone can not quickly increase sales,” Auto analyst Zhong Shi said in an interview with the “Daily Economic News” reporter, “on the surface, Zeche’s position is forced to move, in fact it is more As for the reflection on the previous Chinese market strategy mistakes, Mercedes-Benz must speed up the pace of localization in the current conditions of localization, even in the future when the global vehicle development may also consider more needs of the Chinese market, which also give The future luxury car market competition will bring new changes."