HOW VW PLANS TO DOMINATE CHINA’S EV MARKET
Volkswagen will take on the fast-growing ranks of domestic rivals in the crucial Chinese market with its new urban-focused sub-brand, an increased emphasis on localised R&D, shorter development times and a range of partnerships with domestic technology firms.
The German company has long dominated the Chinese car market, with the wider Volkswagen Group accounting for more than half of all combustion-engined car sales. But it has had a tougher time winning over buyers of electric vehicles in China.
Volkswagen Cars and its related joint ventures sold 2.2 million cars in China last year, but just 155,000 of those were EVS. That allowed BYD to overtake it as China’s bestselling brand with a total of 2.5 million sales, including 1.3 million EVS.
To combat this challenge, Volkswagen has adopted an ‘in China, for China’ strategy, which is shown by the new ID Code concept (see above). But beyond that, Volkswagen Anhui – VW’S joint venture with JAC – will launch a new ID UX sub-brand. The first model from that, the ID Unyx, will use the Volkswagen Group’s MEB platform and be based on the Cupra Formentor.
Volkswagen Cars China boss Stefan Mecha said the brand will be aimed at younger, affluent customers. “In China, you have a huge growing middle class, predominantly in tier-one cities like Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdu,” he said. “They have higher purchase