In fiscal 2014, BMW sold more than 2 million units worldwide and created new sales records in multiple markets. Prior to the BMW Group's annual meeting in Munich on March 17th, local time, Dr. Robertson, Director of BMW Group (in charge of sales and marketing of BMW brand and sales channel of BMW Group) accepted an interview with China Netcom.

Robertson first affirmed BMW's achievements in the world. "From a strategic point of view, BMW's global sales in 2014 were excellent. In the United States and Europe (for the first time in six years), Asia, especially China, has achieved tremendous results. Achievements. "

China has become BMW's largest single market in the world. However, in the past two years, the Chinese market is undergoing changes, and high growth has not been sustained. How to ensure the vitality of the Chinese market Robson believes that the important work is still to continue the "localization" work. He pointed out that "the next year (2016) began to implement plans to increase to six localized models, the new plan includes Dadong and Tiexi Factory.” This means that from the three domestically produced models of the existing 3 Series Li, X1 and 5 Series Li to the future, BMW’s production models in China will “double”. The 2 Series wagons that BMW has already listed in China will become the next domestically produced hot product. The following are the records of the live interview:

Question: From the overall sales performance of BMW in 2014, it is very good. However, for the performance of Asia, the Americas, and Europe, which of the three markets has big challenges and what are their differences?

Robertson: The European market and the US market experienced a financial crisis in 08 and 09. In the past year, the US market returned to its pre-crisis level because the US market is recovering and consumers’ willingness to consume cars is increasing. The South American market has great challenges, such as Brazil's low GDP, so the market performance is not very good.

Europe is also beginning to show strong recovery. For example, the performance of the UK market in 2014 was the first increase in 12 years. The challenges in Southern Europe are still very large. It may take 2-3 or even 4 years to recover. The good news is that Spain's growth in 2014 reached 15%.

For the Asian market, for example, the Japanese market did not see sales growth in the first quarter of 2014, but 3 and 4 began to show significant growth. The growth of the Korean market is very strong. In 2014, 46,000 vehicles were sold, so the potential is very large. The GDP of the Chinese market has double-digit growth in previous years, and it has been reduced to one digit since 2014, but it is still very good globally. The Chinese market is going to be "normalized" and we think the Chinese market is very promising. Therefore, in China, what we are mainly doing is “localization”. From 2016, we will implement the plan for increasing to 6 localized models. The new plans include the Dadong and Tiexi factories.

Question: The Chinese market has become the world's largest market for BMW, but the Chinese market has entered a new normal, and rapid double-digit growth has been unrealistic. In the coming days, how will product introduction, brand building, small cars, 7-seat vehicles and new energy sources? On the vehicle side, how to increase efforts to maintain BMW's leading position in China.

Robertson: We have already invested in the 2 Series Sports Wagon in the Chinese market. It is a front-wheel drive and it is very successful. At present, about 70-80% of car owners are BMW's new customers, which means that they have not bought any products bought from BMW before, so they have played an important role in our development of new customers. We also attach great importance to developing new ones. client.

In addition, i3's strong performance in China is also the first time that many owners of i3 products are also buying cars. After the listing of the i3, it has become the world's third-largest seller of electric vehicle products. Therefore, we need to apply the technology of i3 and i8 plug-in hybrid products to all BMW products, such as X5 and other follow-up products. For BMW, the more sporty and zero emission is M and i. This is the two characteristic coordinates of BMW products. In the future, more products will be developed to these two coordinates.

Question: China's GDP is at a low level. How does BMW use a combination of boxing to deal with the Chinese market?

Robertson: The competition in the luxury car market has always been fierce. At the earliest time, BMW had only three lines, five lines, and seven lines in China. But today we have introduced Z-series, M-brands, i-brands, MINI brands, including X-series. During the development of our products, SAV has grown very well from our point of view. Sport wagons are also very good. This is a very promising market. Young families in the future are the power of growth. Young people, including older people, will favor this product. The Chinese market has always been driven by large vehicles, but now we see that entry-level small cars have a lot of room. So you can guess what we should go to the next domestic car?

Question: How does BMW consider the issue of subsidies with dealers in 2014? Do you think that dealers are considering “squeezing the house” and are considering internet car sales and e-commerce plans?

Robertson: We actually do a lot of actual work in the future retail. In the future, retailing is not only for customers, but also for the network, not only the product elite, but also has a network of channels to help dealers sell. We pay more attention to the process of sales funnels and respond scientifically to the needs of consumers.

But keep in mind that dealers must be our solid foundation, they are still our cornerstone and will continue to develop and adjust. China’s e-commerce development is the fastest in the world. Ma Yun is a very successful business person and he has created many opportunities.

The relationship between dealers in any place is always interactive. The Chinese market has changed greatly in the last quarter. Dealers are the most important window for us to face users. 50% of our entire dealer network is a mainstream distributor group. They have a wealth of experience and ability to resist temporary risks and pressures. On the contrary, they are lacking for small and new distributors. Therefore, we began to pay attention to some Small and medium-sized distributors are committed to helping young and new distributors to provide them with necessary support and assistance in, for example, financial services and business expansion.

E-commerce changes for car buyers, a lot of car shows before a customer decided to buy a car 10 years ago, and now 95% of customers through the Internet to decide what car to buy, the actual number of times to see the car may be only once.