In April, FAW-Volkswagen launched an organizational process transformation covering the entire Volkswagen brand system. From structural design to mechanism implementation, it completed systematic adjustments to six major sectors—market, marketing, customer, channels, products, and after-sales—in less than two months.

Within a joint venture automaker with more than three decades of management inertia and a nationwide channel network, such rapid adjustment is uncommon. FAW-Volkswagen is now responding to faster market rhythms with greater organizational flexibility.

The trigger behind this transformation is clear: in 2026, the Volkswagen brand will simultaneously launch 10 new models in the Chinese market. This time, instead of waiting for product launches to adapt its systems, FAW-Volkswagen has completed strategic preparations in advance, building a collaborative foundation for the next product cycle.

In the new system, FAW-Volkswagen has clearly focused on three key objectives: improving market response speed, enhancing customer conversion efficiency, and strengthening product coordination capabilities. To this end, it has restructured its operational framework into "frontline operations, mid-level coordination, and back-end support," redefined seven market functions, and innovatively established a dual-link mechanism. In product management, it has also elevated its operations, with mid-level teams overseeing full lifecycle product management to improve closed-loop efficiency among R&D, sales, and marketing.

In an era of accelerating evolution in user demographics and communication logic, processes and actions have become critical components of brand competitiveness. FAW-Volkswagen’s completion of this systematic restructuring in just over a month demonstrates not only its execution capabilities but also its market foresight and adaptability for a second entrepreneurial phase.

In the past, the industrial paradigm of "building cars, distributing them to 4S stores, and waiting for customers to arrive" was highly effective. Today, even before a vehicle hits the market, users have already "seen and experienced" it through platforms like Xiaohongshu and Douyin. From product definition to marketing strategies, from user perception to purchase decisions, the entire value chain is simultaneously evolving. The most notable changes stem from automotive users themselves, and their pace of change leaves manufacturers little time to hesitate.

According to data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), consumers under 30 accounted for 42% of New Car buyers in 2024. This generation of internet natives is no longer satisfied with merely checking specifications, test-driving, or haggling. Instead, they develop interest through short videos, seek recommendations on social platforms, and decide whether a car is worth buying based on friends’ experiences.

This means that whoever controls the "content portals" holds the key to user access. More importantly, users’ attention is not solely on brands but on content itself. Whether a car is good is one thing; how compelling its story is told is another.

Even the most advanced technology can be overlooked if it lacks digital visibility, and the most precise messaging can be wasted without a strategic communication rhythm.

This does not mean 4S stores are irrelevant—they must evolve. Brands like AITO, Li Auto, and Xiaomi are opening company-owned stores while driving community-driven viral growth, transforming "delivery" into "continuous interaction" and reshaping automotive distribution channels. While traditional joint venture brands are still stuck in layered reporting and weekly review meetings, users’ choices may already be decided by votes in social media feeds. The old three-tier model of "headquarters sets strategy, regions execute, dealers convert" struggles to keep up with a market demanding minute-level responses. In contrast, the distribution channels built by new automotive players through efficiency can reach consumers faster and more accurately.

Thus, another question confronts all traditional automakers: why does the marketing of joint venture car companies always fall short, despite having no shortage of vehicles, resources, or experience? Because marketing is no longer just about throwing money at the problem. In the past, it was about broad coverage; now, it’s about conversion rates. Previously, brands cultivated user interest; today, users are redefining brands in reverse. Many argue that the competition in this round of automotive consumption boils down to who can adapt first.

Against this backdrop, FAW-Volkswagen’s decision to drastically reform processes and reorganize is about reclaiming competitiveness from within its organizational system. Because they have grasped a key trend: true competitiveness lies in the timeline of user engagement.

While new automotive players emphasize decentralization and flat hierarchies, FAW-Volkswagen has taken the opposite approach, undertaking a top-down systemic reshaping. Instead of mimicking current trends, it is using organizational design to hedge against uncertainty and leveraging its system to manage complexity.

The transformation starts from a core question: How can every vehicle not just be "built," but also "sold, promoted, and maintained successfully"? This is not the sole responsibility of the marketing department or the sales team alone—it is a matter of collaborative efficiency across the entire FAW-Volkswagen value chain.

Thus, FAW-Volkswagen has restructured its originally linear, fragmented, and hierarchical structure into a three-layer system of "frontline operations, mid-level coordination, and back-end empowerment."

In this new model, frontline regional teams have become the true frontline units "closest to the battlefield." While their staffing remains unchanged, their roles have been upgraded. District teams have expanded from a "1+2" structure to "1+4," requiring them not only to understand user sentiment but also to devise strategies and support dealers on the ground. This means the frontline is no longer just an information collection point but must have the ability to take proactive action and adjust tactics dynamically.

The mid-level serves as the command center for decision-making and pacing. FAW-Volkswagen has integrated its Marketing Department, Product Management Department, and Sales Strategy Department, elevating these three core functions to specialize in coordinating resource allocation and strategy implementation across business lines. The key here is determining who best understands how to optimize the customer value chain. In FAW-Volkswagen’s view, the starting gun must be in the hands of those who best grasp customer rhythms.

The back-end is no longer an information silo. In the marketing domain, seven independent departments are organized along the customer journey of "traffic pool—lead pool—incubation pool—transaction pool," with each node accountable for user experience and each link penetrable by data. This is akin to laying a new full-chain data pipeline, making all "invisible breakpoints" monitorable, optimizable, and evaluable.

In customer operations, FAW-Volkswagen has innovatively established a "dual-link operation" mechanism: one link uses phone outreach, while the other employs enterprise WeChat for continuous engagement. Paired with digital tools like CRM systems and smart name badges, this achieves a closed loop from lead qualification to user remarketing. This mechanism is not merely about "two channels"; at its core, it represents a logical upgrade from "finding customers" to continuously influencing customers and from "dealers making calls" to "the brand proactively building relationships."

A key signal from FAW-Volkswagen’s systematic response is that the Product Department is no longer a "handover post" after products roll off the production line. It now intervenes before product definition, listening to user feedback, analyzing data trends, capturing market sentiment, and feeding this back to R&D, marketing, and sales teams—making "front-loaded definition" a winning first move for product success.

From organizational structure to resource mechanisms, from customer logic to product launches, FAW-Volkswagen is focusing on streamlining. It has cut through bloat, broken through bottlenecks, and concentrated on core tasks, transforming its massive joint venture system into a more compact, agile, and battle-ready formation.

The outside world often uses the term "traditional automaker transformation" to describe these moves, but in FAW-Volkswagen’s view, in an era where pace determines everything, slowness equals defeat. While organizational restructuring may not be the most glamorous action, it is often the only solution to win the long-term battle.