A few days ago, according to German media reports, Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diss plans to transfer Bentley to Audi and become a subsidiary of the latter. Bentley will use Audi's technology and platform more in the future.
This decision, to a certain extent, reflects the dissatisfaction of group shareholders with Bentley and the consideration of Volkswagen Group, which is deeply involved in the transition period.
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Well, the story of Bentley and Porsche is not long.
In 20 15, Volkswagen group began a large-scale structural adjustment. At that time, Volkswagen Group had 12 brands, including Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche, which were distributed in various fields such as passenger cars, sports cars and commercial vehicles. The process of reporting multiple brands would become very complicated.
In order to integrate various business modules, Volkswagen Group reclassified 65,438+02 automobile brands into four brand-new holding companies: Porsche, Bentley and Bugatti, with Porsche CEO Mullen as the new head to co-ordinate the three brands.
What is the significance of this move? The Volkswagen Group itself clearly stated: "(After adjustment) it will make a more systematic adjustment based on the modular platform." "The modular platform strategy will receive more attention from the CEO of the Group and an independent department will be set up to take charge of this work."
As we all know, Volkswagen Group holds three weapons: MQB platform, MLB platform and MSB platform, which are mainly used for Volkswagen brand, Audi brand and Porsche brand (some models are crossed).
After 20 15, Bentley was basically occupied by Porsche. At this new stage, Bentley has gradually upgraded its products on the basis of MSB. Although the speed is not fast, compared with the old D 1 platform, the new generation Continental GT and Feichi have been listed, and Bentley has been reborn.
In 20 19, Bentley delivered a new car 1 1006, which is the seventh consecutive year that its sales exceeded 1000. The global department is very clear. The United States and China are the most important markets, with sales of 29 13 and 2,670 respectively, accounting for half of the world.
Despite this, Volkswagen Group is not satisfied with this achievement.
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According to sources, Diss believes that Porsche CEO Oliver Bloom "has not paid full attention" to the management and development of Bentley.
What do you mean by "not completely concerned"
For example.
In 20 18, Bentley brand lost as much as 2.2 billion euros, becoming one of the few unprofitable brands in the whole Volkswagen group.
There are two main reasons for the loss: first, the R&D cost has not been digested by the upgrade of Bentley brand, and second, Bentley imported many parts from continental Europe. When Britain's withdrawal from the EU caused the pound to depreciate, the prices of these parts rose accordingly.
In fact, since 20 13 began to make profits (the previous days were even worse, and it was retired by Rolls-Royce, and the public did not switch to a new platform after income), Bentley's good days did not last long. 20 18 was the first loss of this brand in the last six years.
At that time, the industry predicted that the possibility of Bentley's profit in 20 19 was almost zero, and resale was not impossible.
A noteworthy detail is that the shareholders of the group at that time had shown impatience with Bentley.
At that time, Piech, the main shareholder of Volkswagen Group, and the Porsche family even gave Bentley an ultimatum. "Bentley needs to make a profit within 1 to 2 years." "It is very important for each brand of Volkswagen Group to bring reasonable profit contribution, but this is not like the current situation of Bentley. We are not satisfied. "
The frightened Bentley carefully made an operating profit of 65 million euros at 20 19.
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The mood of shareholders is not difficult to understand.
In 20 18, when its own Bentley suffered a huge loss of 2.2 billion euros, the Rolls-Royce next door was very competitive, reaching a new high since 1 15. * * 4 107 vehicles were sold in more than 50 countries around the world, an increase of 22% over 20 17 (3,362 vehicles).
The growth of Rolls-Royce brand, especially the phantom model, has made an important contribution to the profit of BMW Group.
Not only Rolls-Royce, which luxury brand of the automobile group is not a profitable cow?
Bentley is not.
It's hard to feel that the profit of the Volkswagen family, Porsche, Audi, only Bentley is not.
Volkswagen Group's 20 19 financial report shows that Audi is the biggest profitable cow of Volkswagen Group. In 20 19, it contributed 4.5 billion euros in net profit, accounting for 26.5% of the group's profit, more than a quarter.
Looking at Porsche again, in 20 19 years, the average bicycle price was 92,900 euros (about 7 1 0.5 million yuan), and the average shareholder net profit was110,000+.
In contrast, as a luxury brand with a higher positioning, Bentley's bicycle price is 6.5438+0.908 million euros (about RMB 6.5438+0.4677 million), which is more than twice that of Porsche, while the bicycle profit is only about 45,000 yuan, less than half of Porsche's.
The latest news is that Bentley will lay off no less than 1000 people, accounting for 25% of its total employees. Some foreign media commented that the reason for layoffs may only have played a catalytic role, and the root cause is the decline in sales.
Indeed, even in the less competitive luxury car market, Bentley always lags behind others.
Diss said that Bentley may have a new beginning under the leadership of Audi.
Once the ownership change is completed, Audi will supervise Bentley's technical and financial activities from next year.
This means that in the future, Bentley's product line will enjoy more technologies with Audi, including the Artemis technology project that Audi is developing, which is the future technology of A8 model. It is also reported that Audi will use this technology to develop a pure electric vehicle for Bentley.
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The large-scale structural adjustment of 20 15 is based on the profound influence of sluice release. Today, the impact is still not over, and the more serious challenge is electrification. Volkswagen Group must tighten its belt to live.
Moving Bentley is just a small step.
The bigger layout of Diss lies in streamlining the brand structure of Volkswagen Group, intentionally shrinking its strategy, shifting its core to the development of other brands, and focusing on the development of electric, digital and self-driving cars.
Bentley is not the only luxury brand that has changed.
One question is, if all the cars in the world are electrified, where will the future of high-performance super-running brands Lamborghini and Bugatti go? Recently, Volkswagen Group publicly stated that they are "reassessing" these brands.
At present, the news shows that Volkswagen seems to sell the Bugatti brand to Croatian high-performance electric vehicle expert Rimark. Stefano domenicali, CEO of another super-running brand Lamborghini, will soon quit his current position and join Formula One racing.
All these changes show that the transformation of Volkswagen Group is far more drastic in scale and depth than in 20 15 years.
After all, the pain at that moment is unforgettable. Tesla, which was not in Diss's eyes, now has a market value that exceeds the sum of Volkswagen and Toyota.
In this regard, an executive in audi ag made no secret: "Volkswagen is currently trying to double its market value to 200 billion euros, making it one of the highest car companies in the world."
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.