Original link: https://www.latepost.com/news/dj_detail?id=1617
This week, Volkswagen showcased two new models at its tram series ID. Brand Event Day, ID.7 VIZZION, which will be launched by FAW-Volkswagen within this year, and ID.NEXT, which is expected to be launched by SAIC-Volkswagen next year. Both cars are positioned as B-class cars on the Volkswagen pure electric platform. The relationship between them is a bit like the current Magotan (FAW) and Passat (SAIC), which are sister models.
The ID.7 series was born out of Volkswagen’s pure electric platform MEB, and it is also the first B-class pure electric car under this platform. It is regarded as a pure electric Passat. Among them, the body size of ID.7 VIZZION is comparable to that of Passat, and the wheelbase is 94mm longer than Passat, which helps to improve the interior space of the car.
The Passat series, which is priced at around 200,000 yuan, is the best-selling B-segment car in Volkswagen China. According to the data from the Passenger Association, the domestic sales of Passat last year were 163,500 units, ranking fourth in the sales list of B-segment cars. But in today’s Chinese auto market, there is less and less room for joint venture brands, especially in the field of electric vehicles.
Last year, the domestic car brand with the largest sales volume was BYD, which only sells pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. Its annual sales of 1.805 million vehicles exceeded FAW-Volkswagen’s 1.78 million vehicles and SAIC Volkswagen’s 1.24 million vehicles. In the first quarter of this year, BYD’s domestic new car insurance exceeded the sum of North and South Volkswagen.
The most popular brand of pure electric vehicles priced at 200,000 yuan is Tesla. Last year, the Model Y with a starting price of 288,900 yuan sold 316,500 units, and the Model 3 with a starting price of 265,900 yuan sold 125,100 units. Among them, the annual sales of Model Y in China are very close to last year’s global sales of pure electric vehicles (330,000 units).
Volkswagen seems to be extremely determined on electrification after the 2015 diesel emissions fraud scandal. A few years ago, it proposed that the annual sales of electric vehicles of each brand reach 3 million by 2025, accounting for 20%-25% of the company’s total sales, and announced an investment plan of tens of billions of euros. Volkswagen paid 900 million euros to Swedish battery company Northvolt and became the largest shareholder of Chinese battery company Guoxuan Hi-Tech.
However, the difficulty of turning around a ship is a limitation that almost all mature large companies cannot escape when they encounter crises or new opportunities, including the public. Sandwiched between the interests of the board of directors, trade unions and investors, Volkswagen began to develop the pure electric vehicle platform MEB in 2015, and launched J1, PPE and other pure electric platforms suitable for other high-end brands of the group. The following year, Volkswagen displayed the ID.3 as a compact hatchback at the Paris Motor Show, and launched it in the European market first.
The ID. series of new cars in the Chinese market will not be launched until 2021. It is a pure electric SUV ID.4 that caters to the preferences of Chinese consumers. Continuing the dual-vehicle strategy of SAIC and FAW in the era of gasoline vehicles, ID.4 X and ID.4 CROZZ, ID.6 X and ID.6 CROZZ were released successively. In October of this year, ID.3, which has been released for five years, began to be localized in SAIC Volkswagen. At the end of the year, the sales volume of the ID. series in China was 70,600 units, which fell short of the 80,000 units at the lower end of the group’s target sales range.
In August last year, then Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess (Herbert Diess) resigned, and his successor was Porsche CEO Oliver Blume (Oliver Blume). The move is seen as a step backwards in the electrification of the masses.
Diess has never been stingy with his appreciation of Tesla and is a reformer of the Volkswagen Group. Hans Dieter Ptsch, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen, expressed his gratitude to Diess for his four years at the helm of Volkswagen, and affirmed his important role in promoting the company’s transformation. “He not only led the company through extremely turbulent times, but also A new strategy has been implemented.”
Today, Bloom faces an extremely competitive market. Last year, the Volkswagen ID. family delivered a total of 143,100 new cars in China, followed by Ideal (133,200), Weilai (122,500) and Xiaopeng (120,800).
At the end of March this year, Volkswagen Group (China) Chairman and CEO Bered and CTO Han Hongming appeared at BYD headquarters and communicated with BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu and Vice President Lian Yubo in front of a Denza D9.
“The Chinese auto market is developing very fast, and Volkswagen hopes to run faster and faster in the new track competition like an athlete.” Obermo, chairman of the management board of Volkswagen Group, said in an interview with the media.
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