Research on the Traditional Automobile Strategy of Volkswagen Group

Today, Audi AG announced that it will further strengthen the strategic position of the Audi brand. This strategic position is prominently reflected in the group's "R&D" central role. The concrete measures to be taken include: combining the roles of the head of R&D in audi ag and the CEO of Audi in management, and setting the global headquarters of Audi as the core location of the organizational structure of the R&D department of Volkswagen software.

When this plan was first put forward, there was some controversy within Audi. Audi, a luxury car brand owned by Volkswagen, has always played the role of "hub" developed by the group. Future-oriented technologies such as autonomous driving and in-vehicle interconnection are undertaken by Audi. If Audi AG abandons the route of independent research and development, the position of Audi brand in the R&D center of the group will also be weakened, and the original state within the group will be broken.

At that year's Guangzhou Auto Show, the reporter privately asked the senior management of Audi China about this concern, and said that it was unreasonable to weaken the role of Audi R&D Center, and the Group should not do that. "If you were Dr. Edith, would you sacrifice yourself for others?" The executive asked.

For a time, the rumor that Audi was "marginalized" in Audi ag's new ten-year plan spread like wildfire again. Today, Volkswagen finally "responded" to this rumor at the group level, affirming and strengthening the strategic position of the Audi brand, and also making the previous rumors self-defeating.

In order to achieve this goal, Audi has taken three powerful concrete measures.

Duzman is a mechanical engineer with nearly 30 years of rich experience in the automotive industry. He was previously the head of BMW powertrain research and development and the purchasing director of BMW Group. And he is about to embark on the new position of "dual identity in one" of Audi ag and Audi brand, which is equivalent to mastering the highest authority of research and development of Volkswagen Group in management. In this respect, Audi is also closely related to the research and development of Audi AG.

"Considering the subversive changes in the automobile industry, we are pooling the advantages of the whole group to meet the future with a more competitive positioning. Next, Audi brand and its helm, the new CEO? Mr. duesman will take over and lead the R&D work of Audi AG and strive to take the lead in technology quickly. " Edith said.

Last year, at Audi ag Annual Meeting, Frankfurt Motor Show and other public occasions, Diss repeatedly stressed to the media that compared with smart phones, the number of lines of software code for cars is 10 times that of smart phones, while the number of lines of code for self-driving cars will be 1000 times that of smart phones. Therefore, he believes that the transformation of the power system is relatively unimportant, and the bigger change is that the car will gradually become a fully integrated Internet device, and software innovation will account for 90% of future automobile innovation.

To this end, Volkswagen directly separated the hardware development and software development of the car and set up a new department called "Automobile". Software ". The department will integrate and coordinate the R&D resources of the Volkswagen brand, and conduct research and development in connected cars &; Equipment platform, agent &; Digital cockpit, automatic driving, vehicle operation &; Energy and digital services &; The five business segments of mobile travel services began to develop. Audi headquarters has become the core of the organizational structure of this new department, and it also highlights its strategic central position in future research and development.

It is reported that audi ag has submitted a request to transfer minority equity to Audi brand today. According to this requirement and the corresponding contents of the German Joint-stock Company Law, the equity transfer will be completed by voting during this year's Audi brand shareholders' meeting (planned to be held in July or August 2020).

It can be seen that Audi's strategic position to Volkswagen has not changed in the past or in the future, and it is still the "mainstay" for Audi ag to accelerate its future transformation.

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.