Li Ka-shing once said
The pursuit of profit is the self-cultivation of qualified businessmen
A business that is not aimed at making money
They are collectively referred to as doing public welfare
Whether it's selling a house, selling a car, selling clothes
The pursuit is a sharp word
But some car manufacturers are selling cars at a loss
For example, the public of gold suckers
It is said that every one Phaeton is sold
It will lose 200,000 yuan
There's even a car
For every one sold, it will lose 38 million yuan
So can you think differently?
Buying this car is equivalent to earning 38 million yuan from the manufacturer?
Such a good thing
As a fan of the professor, you can't help but know!
A few days ago, a Japanese auto magazine serialized the biography of Tetsuya Tada, the chief engineer of Toyota who developed the 86 and SUPRA models, "Portrait of Toyota Special Engineer".
In Toyota's original plan, the SUPRA was designed by BMW and Toyota, but the production was separate. At that time, insiders also estimated the sales of the two cars separately.
SUPRA plans to sell 100,000 hard-top models over the next five years starting in 2019, while the BMW Z4 sells 200,000 units at a higher price.
However, since the actual sales did not meet expectations, Toyota unilaterally announced that it would reduce its original plan of 100,000 vehicles to 30,000 units (later adjusted to 60,000-70,000 units).
After learning the news, BMW could not sit still, and first laughed at itself, saying that your Toyota distribution network is much more developed than BMW. Then say that the sales should be more than the Z4, and now the good SUPRA has not only not raised the sales target, but also lowered it.
BMW went on to add that it must increase the purchase of parts to reduce manufacturing costs, otherwise in the context of sluggish sales, production costs will be higher than the selling price, and in the end it will be a loss-making business.
After many negotiations, the two sides reached an agreement to build a new plant and adopt a Toyota assembly line with better scale efficiency. But the Toyota team that calmed down at home felt that something was wrong, in case SUPRA stopped production, wouldn't the factory be abandoned, and wouldn't all the investment money be lost?
Then it overturned the previous agreement to build a factory, and BMW, which had not yet had time to get angry, threw out a new solution. It is better to find Magna OEM production, the quality of large factories is guaranteed, but the price will be slightly higher. It is reported that the price of the body reported by BMW to Toyota is about 1 million yen higher than Toyota estimated.
If you follow the price of this body, the 3.0T version of the SUPRA will sell for 10 million yen, which is the price of the R35 GT-R to ensure that it will not lose money. But the LC of the high-end sub-brand Lexus only sells for 7 million yen, and an ordinary brand can not be more expensive than a high-end brand!
Therefore, forced to sell SUPRA at a low price, it is said that for every SUPRA sold, it will lose 160,000 yuan.
Strictly speaking, the Prius was the world's first hybrid vehicle to achieve mass production. (Although Porsche produced a hybrid car called the Lohner-Porscge more than 100 years ago, it only achieved small batch deliveries, not the scale of mass production.)
As for the Prius' research and development history, dating back to January 16, 1992, Toyota issued a development strategy called the Earth Charter, which pointed out the direction in which Toyota developed and sold low-emission vehicles.
On December 10, 1997, the first prius was officially launched in Japan. Toyota is said to have spent $1 billion on research and development.
In the process of research and development, in order to solve the problem of high voltage between the battery and the motor, the developers also used the heavy-duty transistors used in the Shinkansen bullet train to make semiconductor transformer components.
In addition, the production costs of batteries, motors, electronic controls, etc. are also high, so the core hybrid system can be described as expensive. So at the time, some analysts estimated that the cost of the first-generation Prius was as high as $32,000. It is priced at only 2.15 million yen, or $16,929.
In other words, for every Prius produced, Toyota will lose $15,071.
But Toyota, which believes that it will account for 1/3 of the global market by 2005, has launched the Prius without hesitation, and the Prius has become the leader in green cars that will reduce air pollution and improve fuel efficiency in the future.
It's just that it has been losing money, so in 2001 Toyota launched the first generation of Prius's modified NHW11 model, which was also the first Prius launched in the United States, and the price was also raised to nearly $20,000. It is said that the production and sales of the NHW11 model have been able to break even.
Coinciding with the shortage of gasoline resources in North America and Europe, Prius, which has the advantage of low fuel consumption, has become a fragrant food for the local market as soon as it appears. By May 2008, Prius's cumulative global sales had reached one million vehicles, and so far, Prius's cumulative global sales have exceeded 4 million vehicles. Prius has also changed from being a "loser" to one of Toyota's "cash cows" today.
But don't look at the Prius in Europe and the United States mixed up, in the country Prius has always been depressed. In December 2005, the second-generation Prius was put into operation at FAW Toyota's Changchun plant.
But the price of nearly 300,000 yuan, coupled with the fact that there was no favorable policy for new energy models in China at that time, a cool song was sung around The Prius. Until the third generation of the Prius in domestic sales is still hovering at the end of the sales list.
Therefore, in the fourth generation of models, Toyota suspended plans to introduce domestic models. Until now, Prius has not returned to the domestic market again.
A few days ago, it was revealed that the fifth generation of Prius will be officially launched in 2024, and the new car is based on the TNGA-C platform. The look has become more trendy and stylish. As for the core power, the new car will use a hybrid combination of 1.8L gasoline engine + electric motor.
So do you want the fifth-generation Prius to be introduced domestically?
It is well known how strong the public's ability to absorb gold is, and Phaeton also has a minimum of 700,000 and a maximum of more than 2 million. It is difficult to imagine that in this context, every Phaeton actually loses 200,000 yuan to volkswagen.
However, as the saying goes, if it sells more expensive, the cost will naturally be high. In particular, then-Volkswagen CEO Pierch saw Phaeton as a powerful weapon to compete with the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and BMW 7 Series. Therefore, the manufacture of Phaeton is almost all owned by the public, and it can even be said that it is not hesitant to work.
The existing ordinary factory is not advanced enough, so it costs 186 million euros to build a glass transparent factory built for Phaeton production in Dresden, Germany. Customers who order can participate in the whole process from customization to assembly in the transparent factory.
And in order to ensure the excellence of production, the factory only produces 8 Phaeton cars per day. Adhere to 97% pure manual craftsmanship, handcrafted by skilled workers in white uniforms and white gloves, on par with supercars. There are also extremely high requirements for the craftsmanship of workers, so the cost of paying workers is also a high expense.
Sharing production lines with Passat, Sagitar and other little brothers is a loss of identity? Then directly use the same D1 platform as the Audi A8 and Bentley Continental GT.
What is brought is the all-aluminum body structure, as well as electric suction doors, car refrigerators, first-class second-row headrests, 6.0L W12 engines, and the supply of various configurations is full, and the VW standard in front of the Phaeton car is almost replaced by a Bentley standard.
Add to that the 1 billion euros burned out in early research and development. Therefore, Sheng Bo analysts pointed out that the profitability of Phaeton's bicycle was -28,100 euros (calculated at the exchange rate at the time, about 200,000 yuan), and the loss rate was as high as 40%, and it was characterized as "one of the three most expensive European cars in contemporary times".
Between 2002 and 2013, Phaeton lost a total of 1.99 billion euros to Volkswagen, or about 14 billion yuan at the 2013 exchange rate. If you do not share the platform with the Audi A8 and Bentley Continental GT, but choose to build another platform, the amount of loss will be even greater.
For Phaeton, which has never been profitable, Volkswagen has repeatedly discussed the decision to shut down the Phaeton production line. But executives at all levels of the Volkswagen Group have been stressing in interviews with the media that Phaeton is Volkswagen's benchmark sedan, which is crucial to the Volkswagen passenger car brand.
Indeed, as a former Benchmark for Volkswagen, the existence of Phaeton is the best synonym for Volkswagen's Seiko car manufacturing process, and it also raises the brand image of Volkswagen.
But it has been losing money like this, even if it is a big enterprise like Volkswagen, it can't bear it. Therefore, on March 15, 2016, Volkswagen officially announced that Phaeton would stop production indefinitely.
Volkswagen: I didn't expect it, there is me here!
Previously, according to german publication management company Magazin, Volkswagen plans to sell the Bugatti brand to Rimac, and bugatti may become Rimac's pure electric brand in the future.
As the world's top three supercar brands, its models are the shoulder handles of the supercar industry, occupying the top spot of the fastest mass production car for many years. It is such a brand that has full appeal all over the world, why does the public still want to sell it?
The reason is Bugatti too! burn! money! finish!. Especially its Weihang, due to its high research and development costs and extremely low sales, Bugatti's first model after being helmed by Volkswagen - the 16-cylinder Weihang is considered to be one of the most loss-making models in the automotive industry.
It is said that for every Weihang sold, Bugatti has a net loss of $6 million (about 38 million yuan according to the latest exchange rate), so Volkswagen has always been tight about Bugatti's revenue, and has never announced the financial results of the Bugatti brand.
In front of Weihang, selling a Huiteng with a loss of 200,000 yuan can only be regarded as a younger brother.
So what constitutes the high cost of Weihang?
The first is production, even Phaeton has done 97% hand-made, more than ten times more expensive than Phaeton Weihang does not have a 100% obviously can not say. As a result, the plant in Bugatti does not see assembly line equipment such as conveyor belts and automatic high-speed stamping lines for mass production.
There are fewer than 20 skilled workers with deep skills and fame, and their ingenious hands. Their job is to assemble about 1800 to 2300 parts together, and each part that is embedded is tested repeatedly.
To give a few humble examples, the material of weihang's body is made of space shuttle material, even the exhaust system is titanium; the whole car needs 2 million to paint; the W16 engine is handmade by 8 expert workers.
With more than 1,000 horsepower, it can even produce up to 3,000 horsepower, two-thirds of which is heat. It is said that the exhaust system on the roof of the test center burned down during the first full horsepower test, and the exhaust pipe also burned when it was first tested on the road.
Therefore, in order to cope with the high horsepower of the engine, Weihang's tires are also repeatedly tested, synthesized data, modified tires and a series of procedures, and finally can be installed, and after installation, these operations must be repeated.
What consumers buy is not as simple as a car, but a rare treasure that condenses all the efforts of all skilled workers, moves like a wild horse, and is as quiet as a top art.
It is the law of merchants to pursue profits, but it cannot be said that a commodity does not make money, and even losing money has no value. Or that the product cannot be denied because of a temporary loss.
Perhaps it is the flagship product of the company, which can raise the image of the company and play a role in promoting the brand.
Perhaps it is a long-term interest product, but the temporary loss is intended for long-term interests.
However, I have to say that whether it is Toyota or Volkswagen, which one is not the main one that can afford to lose? What's more, no one really thinks that manufacturers will do loss-making business, right?