Audi will sell trams in Germany without dealers

Adopting an option already announced by other builders, Audi revealed that it had reached an agreement with the German dealer network to start selling its vehicles under a direct sales system with a fixed price. The new solution will come into force on January 1, 2024 and will only include electric vehicles.

Customers will still be able to buy the brand’s battery-powered models at dealerships, but their relationship with the manufacturer will now be one of agency in lieu of concession. This means that it is the brand that begins to determine the sale price, rather than the new agent, and the latter does not have to buy new vehicles from the manufacturer, tying up considerable sums until the sale is finalized.

Agents no longer have to pay discounts for having the new vehicles with less demand that they have on display at the stand, But not everything is rosy in this agency relationship, since the margins paid by the construction company are also lower. According to the German publication Automobilwoche, agents will now receive a fixed commission of only 6% (three to four times less than the percentage paid to dealers), to which is added a variable value between 1.5% and 2.5%, which should subsequently be set at 1.5% in 2026. Meanwhile, all gasoline, diesel, hybrid and plug-in hybrid models will maintain the current marketing system.this as long as they are produced or the European Union allows their sale, whichever occurs first.

This measure, which is reminiscent of the one adopted by Tesla -which, however, uses its own stands and workshops, instead of depending on the investment of companies external to the brand-, aims to make the price more transparent of the models and, above all, reduce the percentage of the total price of the vehicle consumed by the distribution and sales sector. There are other German brands that have already joined this scheme, such as Volkswagen (from the same group as Audi), which already practices a 4% fixed commission and a 2% variable commission on trams, according to the aforementioned German publication.

BMW intends to start a similar direct sales program only in 2026, but has already announced that it plans a fixed commission of 5.5% and up to 2% variable commission, while Mercedes aims for a fixed fee of 6.5%. , value that will be reduced shortly after to 6%. This practice of direct sales with fixed prices is seen as a strong possibility by other manufacturers, such as Ford, but there are those who dismiss it. This is the case of Dacia, for example, which already successfully applies fixed prices, still maintaining the figure of dealerships, but with fixed margins.