They fight. Volkswagen, Mercedes and BMW are currently in China with full board strength, and the boardrooms in Germany are orphaned. China, the largest car market in the world, is a top priority. But after decades in which they dominated the market, the companies are in a deep identity crisis. This becomes clear at the car show in Shanghai. Some strive to tradition, others throw as much of it overboard as they can. Some remain stoically in their vehicle plans, others bring a confusingly many models onto the market and hope, at least it seems that one of them catches. The main reason is that China’s car market is in a completely different phase than the rest of the world. By changing the electric drive, countless companies across the country have stunned their chance. “The market in China is reminiscent of Europe and North America over 100 years ago,” says Mercedes boss Ola Källenius in a round with journalists at the fair. “At that time there were 2000 automobile manufacturers. And in 1950 there were 40 left or so.” Even car experts were overwhelmed with the sheer number of manufacturers: “I bet if you spend the whole day here at the fair, you will see 10 brands that you have never heard of.” BMW is stoically, but also limits innovative trade Shanghai and Beijing take place. Two years ago, the exhibition was a shock experience for many German managers who saw for the first time personally how quickly the Chinese manufacturers had caught up in pandemic. Last year they blew up in Beijing themselves. So far, this has only been shown in new models. The slump in sales in the People’s Republic, regarded by many managers as a second home, has not been stopped. The German brands are no longer particularly noticeable. Volkswagen takes up a lot of space, but the new top dog BYD does the much larger appearance. Mercedes is pushed into a corner with a smaller stand and surprises with a study by a luxury van that seems particularly unusual, but does not exactly testify to the current design. BMW is stoically, but also limited. Other established corporations have apparently given up the market. Kia or Hyundai are not on site, US brands or the European Stellatis Group almost invisible. The Chinese brands meanwhile present themselves at least at eye level with a mature design, some show their flight car studies or bring humanoid robots with them where they work in parallel. So far, the Germans have not found a clear answer as they should deal with this market situation. Mercedes, for example, presents his new autonomous driving system at the fair, which is now to be able to navigate independently through the city traffic, which is chaotic in Germany. Källenius praises the system, which many Chinese cars have been on offer for a long time, in the round with German journalists. Almost everyone now has the autonomous systems, said a manager of the F.A.Z. This way you can no longer “differentiate yourself”. Driving dynamics, on the other hand, are something that the Chinese did not dominate in the beginning as the Germans. You can interpret this as a particularly confident type of “Mia San Mia” or as a sign of how big the distance between German groups and the Chinese customers is now. In the parallel, VW Group is trying with very different concepts. At the stand of Porsche, whose business in the People’s Republic recently got into a debacle, the focus is no longer the focus, but again the decades of history and the combustion engines. In order to keep this business at least, Porsche is now focusing on enabling customers in China more special requests. As a big message, the sports car manufacturer announces that a legendary variant of model 911, the GT3 with more than 500 hp, is also available in China after a long time. Big, which has been running Porsche’s business in China since last year, F.A.Z. At the same time, it is clear that Porsche has to put up with lower quantities. At least they should be “highly profitable”, the management hopes. At the stand with the four rings, on which well -known models are presented, old videos run on a large screen in continuous loop. In it, for example, the advertising film on the ski jump from the 1980s appears again and again. Right next door, Audi shows the new brand for the first time without the iconic four rings. Instead, Audi is emblazoned on the cooler grill of the first series model, the Audi E5 Sportback. The brand was developed together with the Shanghaier state company Saic especially for the Chinese market. History or not? VW simply tries it with both, all that does the work for the group in China. VW CEO Oliver Blume told journalists that a lot had to be “tidied up” in China, also in working with the joint venture partners. A “conflict field” was the Audi brand, which, like all other VW brands in China, has lost a lot of market shares. The more modern sub -brand should now help, but the appearance of the second largest car company in the world does not really work. In Hall 5.1, the brands VW, Audi with and without rings and Porsche together with cooperation partners such as Xpeng and Horizon Robotics build up. At the main stand, a Volkswagen meets in four versions. Next to each other, the logos of the three joint companies VW Saic, VW FAW and VW Anhui as well as VW imports, i.e. cars introduced to China, are emblazoned to quickly throw more models on the market, a number of new technical building boxes have been created with the partners, the multitude of which is difficult to see for outsiders. The construction boxes range from software to battery and electric drive technology for entry-level and premium models. In the next hall, the logos of VW and Audi are again emblazoned in the next hall- this time on the stands of Saic, which as a top dog of the local government and also wants to present all of its vehicles and brands there. A SAIC manager called the Audi brand a “historical sign of German-Chinese cooperation” in front of journalists without rings. Whether it is the sign of decline or a new beginning depends on China’s car buyers.
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