Audi meets obstacle in cooperation with SAIC, which may be interrupted by dealerships

Audi’s dealerships express their great anger when learning Audi would establish a joint-venture company with SAIC to sell Audi vehicles produced by SAIC Volkswagen. They said that the behavior had insulted their interests. Audi’s current position is greatly connected to dealerships’ efforts. But now Audi is sacrificing current dealerships’ interests to cooperate with SAIC, for opening a new way to make money.

Therefore, many dealerships were gathering to discuss response plan prior to the Audi dealerships’ annual meeting. Many participants proposed to walk out but the proposal was interrupted by China Automobile Dealers Association. Many investors didn’t attend the meeting on 15th, during which Ren Siming, CEO of Audi Germany Business Unit made the report. No applauds was given to the meeting, although many parts were wonderful indeed.

Dealerships are clear that Audi’s cooperation with Volkswagen is to open a new way of profits for Audi, and catch the opportunity of second growth for luxury vehicles in China. Therefore, it can be predicted that the establishment of SAIC Audi will construct an independent sales channel, which would result in fierce competition with current dealerships.

However, Heizmann, President and CEO of Volkswagen China said on an interview that, the decision of Audi’s cooperation with Volkswagen was made based on the belief that luxury vehicle market would face high growth in the future. “Audi’s cooperation with SAIC has no harm on SAIC or SAIC Volkswagen.”

Currently, Audi’s dealerships have organized a key investor committee to negotiate with Audi Germany’s directors. The negotiation will be held in Foshan, Guangdong on November 21th. The committee would be dead against the cooperation between Audi and SAIC Volkswagen.