Volkswagen CEO Diess responded online to a fancy question from Chinese netizens: the competition between new domestic forces is fierce

As the CEO of Volkswagen Group, Herbert Diess also attaches great importance to communication with consumers, and in the Chinese market, Diess also looks up to Tesla Musk and opens a personal Weibo account to interact with Chinese netizens.

On December 24, on the eve of Christmas, Dies Online had an air interaction with Chinese netizens and responded to fancy questions from Chinese netizens.

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Why do you think it's important to interact with Chinese netizens through Weibo?

Diess: For us, China is not only one of the key markets, but also one of the technology centers that are leading the continuous development of the automotive industry. Here, we have competitors that need to be taken seriously, new thinking in the car inspired by innovation, and consumer voices in the world's largest single market.

Therefore, it is very important for me to have a dialogue with everyone through Weibo and to understand everyone's feedback closely, and it is also my original intention to open a Weibo account!

Will volkswagen group electrification be faster in Europe than in China?

DIESS: I don't think Volkswagen's electric car transition will be faster in Europe. China's rapid development, in the past few months, 20% of car sales from electric vehicles, although there are not many new car-making forces in Europe, but many well-known car brands are accelerating the transformation of electrification.

Volkswagen got off to a good start, 5 years ago we decided to invest heavily in electrification, so today we are well prepared and have become a leader in the European market.

In terms of fuel vehicles, our market share in Europe and China is about the same, accounting for about 20-23%; in the electric vehicle market, our share in Europe/Germany has reached 26-27%.

So our electric vehicle market share is higher than that of fuel vehicles, which is a good sign and our goal. In the future, we can also achieve the share of electric vehicles in China to catch up with the share of fuel vehicles.

China's new car-making forces have performed well, how do you view the new challenges brought by China's new car-making forces?

Dies: Yes, the new Chinese car-making forces are doing a very good job. We are very serious about facing the challenges brought by the new local car-making forces.

But at present, in the Western world, only Tesla has really completed the initial stage of the travel company or car manufacturer, and for this reason, they have gone through 15 years and invested 15-20 billion US dollars.

It is not easy to base on the automotive industry, start-ups want to gain a foothold, to achieve a global market share of 2-3%, the automotive industry is a heavy investment, heavy scale industry, the era of electric vehicles is still the same.

The automotive industry is large,000, requiring the development of at least 3-5 models and the construction of 6-8 factories, with huge operating costs for investment and sales.

At present, we want to transform the Volkswagen brand into a new energy brand, the process method is different from the new forces of car manufacturing, but to strive to maintain a consistent speed, Volkswagen should make full use of the scale advantage, mature system and existing production base. Even in the face of the fierce new car-making forces, Volkswagen has the ability to defend its market position.