Rebirth 99 to become a car giant.

Chapter 545: Odor door!Directly deal [-] points of damage! , Audi wants to cry

During the National Day holiday, all car companies basically announced their sales.

In addition to Yangcheng Trumpchi's electric vehicles that have attracted a lot of attention, there is also a relatively special brand whose sales have also attracted the attention of interested people.

That's Zotye!
Relying on the hot sales of the ZX6, which imitates the BMW X6, Zotye's overall monthly sales have reached [-] units.

And just this past September, their new generation SUV was launched.

This SUV looks exactly like the Audi Q5. Even the shape near the logo is very similar.

What makes Audi people even more frustrated is that the place where the car logo is placed on the front grille can be removed.

Zotye's 4S store provides the service of replacing Audi car logos for you.

It can be said that as long as the logo on the front and rear of the car is changed, 99% of people will not be able to tell that it is Zotye's ZQ5.

Zotye, which has already tried its best to imitate the BMW X6, has once again received positive market feedback this time.

The ZQ15, which starts at less than 5 yuan, is completely different from the price of the Audi Q5.

As soon as it was launched, the market response was very good.

"Mr. Wu, ZQ5 has been on the market for less than a month, and the cumulative orders have now exceeded 5000 units. According to this development pace, our annual sales target of 5 units has a chance to be achieved."

"It won't be surprising if the monthly sales volume of ZQ5 reaches 8000 units by then."

"Although we are only equipped with the 1.5T engine of Nanshan Engine, the ZQ5 itself is only a mid-level SUV, and the power is enough."

"The price advantage can also cover up other problems."

"It is estimated that there will be many fewer people buying the Audi Q5 by then."

As the sales director of Zotye Automobile, Yang Hao is now very prosperous.

In the past two years, Zotye Automobile has become a meteoric rise among independent brands.

Not only did it produce the hot-selling ZX6 model, but now it also has the ZQ5.

In addition, there are two more models under development, both of which can be launched on the market next year.

According to the plan of Zotye General Manager Wu Kaiwei, Zotye must produce more than 30 vehicles annually in the future.

Although the sales volume of 30 vehicles is still far behind the world's automobile giants, this scale is enough to support an automobile manufacturer to start making profits.

Once the development of an enterprise enters a positive cycle, many things that follow will be much easier to handle.

And the more the number of units increases to a new level, the lower the amortization cost will be.

Zotye Auto already has this feeling.

"The Audi Q5 is now the best-selling model among the Audi brands, after A6L and A4L."

"Against the background of increasing sales of SUV models, the sales of Audi Q5 are also rising steadily, and its popularity in the eyes of consumers is not low."

"We have chosen a good model this time."

Up to now, Wu Kaiwei has slowly felt the pulse of Zotye Automobile's progress.

That is to constantly learn from the styling of other popular luxury cars and take a path that is different from other independent brands.

Otherwise, Wu Kaiwei does not think he can compete with independent brand car companies such as Chery, Geely and Great Wall.

But if Zotye's models look the same as luxury cars, it won't be easy to tell them apart even if the logo is changed.

So relying on the huge price gap, we can still attract some consumers who want to buy luxury cars but can't afford them.

Previous results have proven that this path is feasible.

"Previously, Mr. Cao asked us to give up imitating BMW models and switch to Mercedes-Benz or Audi. Now it seems that this idea is not bad."

"I just don't know what the people at Audi will do. They won't also come to Nanshan Group to plead for mercy, right?"

Yang Hao is not worried at all about Audi suing him.

This kind of lawsuit involving appearance patents is not that easy to judge at all.

Besides, even if you lose the lawsuit in the end, if you continue to appeal and argue, a few years may pass.

At that time, the ZQ5 had already reached the time of upgrading.

Zotye Motors is not afraid of such lawsuits at all.

Even to a certain extent, this kind of lawsuit can have a certain advertising effect for Zotye Motors.

Maybe it will eventually boost their new car sales.

Of course, from the perspective of the development of China's automobile industry, this attitude is definitely problematic.

But there are already so many automobile companies in China, and Zotye people feel that they can just be responsible for making money.

Other matters of developing new technologies are left to other companies.

"The relationship between Volkswagen, where Audi is based, and Nanshan Group has never been very good. I guess Nanshan Group will also watch the joke this time."

"Especially since Audi has always been the domestic luxury car sales champion. Now that Xingchen Motors has surpassed Audi, the relationship between the two parties has definitely become more tense."

"When the time comes, let alone cooperation, it will be good if there is no fighting between the two families."

Wu Kaiwei is now more and more confident.

As the company grows in size, Zotye Automobile's local influence is also constantly expanding.

The ability to face various challenges in the future will naturally increase.

Audi naturally also attaches great importance to Zotye's practices and the performance of the ZQ5.

"Strauss, Audi's growth rate last month was not as good as Volkswagen's. This is not acceptable."

"China's auto market is developing so fast. If we can't even keep up with the average growth rate, we will be in trouble in the future."

Vondel's mood was a bit complicated at this time.

On the one hand, Volkswagen's overall performance in China this year is good.

It can even be said to be very excellent.

On the other hand, Audi's growth rate is not only inferior to that of Xingchen Automobile, but also significantly inferior to that of Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

As for comparison with Jaguar Land Rover, there is no comparison at all.

For Audi, this is definitely something that is difficult to accept.

"Vondel, there is a force on the Internet in China that is trying to discredit our Audi. They are always promoting that Audi cars are not as luxurious as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Xingchen, Jaguar Land Rover and Porsche."

"To say that Audi is just a rebranded Volkswagen is not worth the price."

"Chinese people care about face very much. If a model of a brand cannot satisfy their sense of face, many people will not consider buying it."

"There is even a voice on the Internet that buying an Audi means you are paying IQ tax, and it belongs to the son of a landlord who is stupid and has too much money."

"These are important reasons why Audi's sales growth this year is not as good as other luxury brands."

"Lexus is also facing similar problems as us. They are also promoted as Toyota vehicles with rebranded cars. Their sales this year are not optimistic."

Strauss naturally wanted to give himself a good explanation.

Otherwise, how would he communicate with the headquarters then?

Besides, in Strauss's eyes, Audi's performance is not so impressive, and it is indeed due to these reasons.

Even BMW and Mercedes-Benz are behind the development of this public opinion.

"By the way, there is another thing. I think it will also be bad news for Audi car sales in the future."

After Strauss finished speaking, he thought of another piece of bad news and felt the need to tell Vondel in advance.

"whats the matter?"

Vondel frowned and looked at Strauss, his mood obviously getting worse.

He wanted to hear Strauss tell him about the next steps and see how Audi could save the current situation.

I didn’t come here to listen to Strauss explain himself.

"China's Zotye Automobile launched a masterpiece of SUV, the ZQ5, last month. Except for the logo, this car is exactly the same as our Q5."

"Similar things happened to the BMW X6 before. It attracted a lot of attention to Zotye at that time, and the model seemed to be selling well."

"This time the launch of the ZQ5, I think, is a very big harm to the Audi brand, and it is something difficult to accept."

The more Strauss talked, the more he felt that this matter was serious.

The influence of Zotye Automobile is constantly rising, which means that the negative impact on Audi is also increasing.

This is not a good thing.

Especially for Audi, which is now in a bit of trouble, it has brought [-] points of damage!

Didn’t you Zotye copy BMW very well?

Can't you just keep copying it?
Why are you suddenly doing Audi again?
"Sue them!"

"This kind of thing must not be tolerated!"

"Even Spring City Automobile Group only dares to imitate our old models. Zotye Motors actually directly copied our best-selling models. This is to go against us."

Vondel has been in China for so many years, so he naturally knows the name of Zotye.

To be honest, with so many independent brand car companies in China, it is a bit difficult to understand the situation of each car company.

In particular, some independent brands do not have a strong sense of existence, and they do not have so much energy to pay attention to them every day.

Even Zotye, if it weren't for their special way of getting out of the industry, many people probably wouldn't know such a car brand.

"I also feel that we cannot condone and condone him!"

Strauss saw that Vondel's attention was diverted here and immediately continued: "But I'm worried that this lawsuit may not be that easy to fight. There have been many similar cases in the past. Even if they win in the end, they will continue to The result after several years.”

"No matter how long it takes, we must persevere and cannot compromise." "Otherwise, if so many independent brands in China follow the same example, how can we sell cars in the future?"

Fondel took a rare hard turn.

Make this matter bigger, no matter what the outcome is.

At least there will be a good reason when reporting to the headquarters in the future.

As a professional manager, you must always consider the position under your butt.

The team of Volkswagen China is still very capable of execution.

Within a few days, Zotye Motors received a summons from the court.

However, this only inspired their will to resist.

"Mr. Wu, I thought of a good way to deal with Audi cars, let them know that we are not easy to mess with."

Yang Hao didn't expect Audi to fight back so quickly.

Zhijia’s ZQ5 has just started going on sale.

At first, BMW cars didn't take any action, but now when it comes to Audi, the response is actually so big.

He felt that he couldn't show weakness.

At least Audi cannot be made to think that Zotye is so easy to deal with.

"It is estimated that this news will spread soon. If you have any action, it is best to take action as soon as possible."

Wu Kaiwei was not panicked. After all, he had expected such a scene since he chose to take this path.

To this end, Zotye Motors has also set up a legal department to litigate cases with others.

"Both Xingchen Motors and Great Wall Motors have used crash testing to deal with their competitors."

"We can also find a project that can easily attract everyone's attention and amplify some of the problems of Audi cars."

"By then Audi will be busy dealing with this matter and will naturally have no energy to contend with us."

As soon as Yang Hao finished speaking, Wu Kaiwei couldn't help but retorted: "If it were five or six years ago, we could still use the crash test method to arrange a collision between the ZQ5 and the Audi Q5 to let everyone know the collision performance of the ZQ5. Better than Audi Q5."

"But after Volkswagen suffered a big loss with the Passat, it has now increased the use of hot stamping parts."

"Especially for a model like the Q5, the entire car has dozens of hot-stamped parts, which is much more than our ZQ5."

"When the collision happens, it will be ourselves who are embarrassed, right?"

Wu Kaiwei obviously does not think that the crash test plan is suitable for the current Zotye.

This is simply hitting an egg with an egg against a stone.

If others don't know the usage of ZQ5's body steel, how can he not know?
Although it cannot be said to be a shoddy project, the amount of high-strength steel plates used is really not much.

In this case, Wu Kaiwei absolutely does not believe that ZQ5 can beat Q5.

So when Yang Hao mentioned this plan, he was a little unhappy.

Why do you think Yang Hao made such a stupid mistake?
However, it is obvious that as the sales director, Yang Hao will not make such a low-level mistake.

So he quickly said: "Mr. Wu, we are just going to learn from this idea. The actual operation method will not start with the crash test, but will change to a project that ordinary consumers can feel more directly."

When Yang Hao said this, Wu Kaiwei became more interested and asked: "What project?"

"The car smells bad!"

Yang Hao gave the answer with certainty.

"Smell in the car?"

"That's right!" A mysterious smile appeared on Yang Hao's face, "I happened to see an Audi owner post on the Autohome forum a few days ago saying that he got leukemia because of the peculiar smell of Audi cars."

"I think this news can be put to good use."

"When the time comes, we will directly find someone to write a few alarmist articles to quickly ferment this topic, which will definitely make Audi Motors scrambling."

"After all, no matter what kind of car it is, there must be some smell inside the car, and Mercedes-Benz and BMW are no exception."

"But the internal odor project is related to things like TOVC and formaldehyde. It can arouse everyone's interest at once."

"So as long as we stick to Audi, they can only find ways to explain and eliminate it. There is no way to say that other manufacturers also have peculiar smells."

Listening to Yang Hao's explanation, Wu Kaiwei slowly realized the viciousness of this move.

Not to mention some Audi models, the odor inside the car itself is indeed quite serious.

Even if your odor does not exceed the standard, as long as this topic is properly hyped, consumers will feel that the Audi car they bought has a particularly serious odor.

When the time comes, let people incite it, and the matter of not moving will become completely popular.

Maybe the "Audi odor door" will become one of the top ten news stories in China's automobile industry in 2009.

Thinking of this, Wu Kaiwei couldn't sit still and said immediately: "Since this plan is feasible, let's act quickly."

Following Wu Kaiwei's words, many articles related to the smell of Audi cars quickly appeared on the Internet.

“Poisoned cars that destroy the middle class: they all buy Audis and they all get leukemia!”

Audi was accused of causing leukemia due to the odor in the car. Two people have died!
Audi is "poisonous": two owners of the "leukemia gate" died!
"Strange Smell in a Luxury Car"

……

Along with these news, many real and fake car owners have come forward to speak out.

A netizen revealed: I bought an Audi in 2008 and drove it as a new car during my pregnancy. The child had problems and was born prematurely at 30 weeks. Later, he developed chromosomal abnormalities. "I once suspected that the smell in the car was strong and was not good for the body."

A car owner said: From the beginning, there was a peculiar smell in the car, which smelled like "a mixture of paint and gasoline." "It still smells like this to this day."

Some experts said that the damping sheets used by Audi contain No. 70 asphalt, and based on this, it is speculated that such models may release toxic and harmful gases.

An investigation by the Shenzhen Consumer Council confirmed that the air quality inside Audi cars is generally unqualified; they received 116 complaints about the strong smell inside Audi Q5 cars, and randomly inspected 23 Audi Q5s. 21 of them had excessive formaldehyde levels when stationary, and some cars Benzene, toluene, etc. were detected exceeding the standard.The Shenzhen Consumer Council determined that the smelly Audi cars were defective products and asked Spring City Volkswagen to recall them.

All kinds of news soon fermented on the Internet.

This speed even exceeded Yang Hao's imagination.

Faced with the surging public opinion offensive, Spring City Volkswagen was also a little panicked.

Until now, they are still discussing how to respond to this matter.

"Strauss, what did R&D say?"

Vondel looked haggard. This situation is very unfavorable to Audi.

October is the peak sales season every year. After such an incident, Audi's sales will definitely be affected.

Even Volkswagen's sales will be directly affected.

After all, Volkswagen's luxury cars all have problems. Can ordinary cars not have problems?
"In-car air pollution starts from the car's production process. Most of these pollution come from the car's interior, such as leather seats, dashboards, floor glue, sealing strips, etc., or from the thinners, glues, and paints required for car production. and coatings.”

"These materials cause odor in the car and are the source of chemical pollutants such as formaldehyde, toluene, xylene, and methanol."

"So it's normal for cars to have odor inside, whether it's ours or other brands, even Porsche and Ferrari."

"Our preliminary investigation revealed that the two people suffering from leukemia are indeed Audi Q5 owners."

"However, there is no factual basis to prove that Audi cars are related to leukemia. The test results of third-party institutions also prove that the formaldehyde content of Audi cars is far lower than the national standard."

Strauss gave his reply very firmly.

This kind of thing must not be ambiguous, otherwise Audi's sales in China will collapse.

After all, consumers now have many choices, and there is no need to hang themselves on the Audi tree.

"You are right, the problem of odor in car interior materials exists objectively. Not only Audi, but also big brands such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz and many Chinese automobile companies have received complaints from car owners about air quality issues in their cars. This This situation has never stopped in the past few years.”

"As netizens on the Chinese Internet commented: Leukemia patients drink boiled water every day; this sentence is the same as 'leukemia patients all drive Audi cars', both taken out of context."

"We need to make consumers fully aware of this."

Vondel obviously also believes that there must be no compromise at this time, otherwise it will mean the collapse of Audi.

This result is absolutely unacceptable.

"Chinese consumers are always very forgetful. The 'ice cream scandal' launched by BMW was completely forgotten within a few months."

"Even our own Passat once caused a lot of noise due to collision doors, but now it has returned to selling over [-] yuan a month."

"As long as we delay, this matter will slowly pass."

"But things developed a bit fast this time, and I always felt that something was not quite right."

"There seems to be a hand behind the scenes that is driving the development of this matter. I think we can ask people from Spring City Automobile Group to help investigate. It should be easier for them to grasp the story behind the matter than us."

Strauss was no fool either.

This is not the first day that Audi has been sold in China, and the complaints about odor are not new to today.

But this time the public opinion is fierce and the fermentation speed is so fast, which is obviously abnormal.

But as a foreign-funded company, they obviously have no advantage in investigating changes in public opinion.

At this time, they naturally thought of Spring City Automobile Group as their joint venture partner.

"Spring City Automobile Group should have already taken action, but even if the real cause is found, the impact of the incident cannot be dissipated in a day or two."

"I think the most important thing now is not to let Audi's sales fall off a cliff. Otherwise, after the decline, it will be very difficult to rise back."

Vondel was quite sober and realized the crux of the problem.

As for Vondel's concerns, Strauss's solution was very simple.

That's price reduction!
The 60 Q5 is very expensive and has all kinds of problems!

The 40 Q5 is very fragrant and full of advantages!

(End of this chapter)