Volvo puts pressure on German market to exert greater pressure on local car companies

Gasgoo Motors recently announced that the Volkswagen Group's situation in the German market has tended to exert greater pressure on local competitors' car companies.

The University of Duisburg Automotive Research Center uses the 19 brands in the German market as the survey object to calculate the average transaction price of each new car (Average Transaction Price). In the German auto market in 2011, the BMW and Mercedes-Benz brands ranked second with an average transaction price of 39,938 euros and 39,912 euros respectively; Audi was up 0.3% to 36,320 euros; Volvo was up 3.7% year-on-year to 35 , 039 Euros, which is more than 11101 Euros higher than the 5th Volkswagen brand (23,938). The report believes that the firm price of Volvo in Germany fully demonstrates the positioning of its luxury car brand.

From a sales perspective, although Volvo sales in Germany were lower than BMW's and other local luxury car brands in 2011, the growth rate was among the highest among luxury brands and among all brands. According to KBA (Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt) data from Germany, BMW's sales in Germany increased 11.5% year-on-year to 297,439 vehicles, Mercedes-Benz's growth was 1.6% to 285,651 units, and Audi increased 10.5% to 250,708 units. Volvo increased 31.4% year-on-year to 33,888 vehicles. Even considering other non-luxury car brands, Volvo’s sales growth is second only to Lancia.

Stefan Jacoby, Volvo’s CEO, previously pointed out: “If the positioning is ambiguous, it means that it is not a true luxury brand that loses its position in front of the competition. This is definitely not a suitable target for Volvo. We need to clarify the positioning of the luxury brand,” said Stefan Jacoby. Promote the Volvo brand grade higher.” From Volvo’s sales target, global sales will reach 800,000 by the end of this decade, and European sales will increase by 61% to 390,000 vehicles.

Other data reported by the University of Duisburg Automotive Research Center are as follows:

· The average transaction price of all new cars in Germany increased by 3.9% year-on-year to EUR 25,893 in 2011;

· The average price of the Ford brand was 21,526 Euros;

· The average transaction price of Japanese product cards was 20,123 Euros, which was a 13% increase compared to the same period of last year and was the highest among the 19 brands surveyed;

· The average transaction price of the Opel brand is 19,381 Euros;

· The average price of modern brands was 15,976 euros;

· The Fiat brand's average transaction price was 14,994 euros.