Passat is a household name in the Chinese market, as a medium-sized car under Volkswagen, this car has a high popularity in the European market and the Chinese market. But in the U.S. market, this is not the case. Sales have always been suppressed by Japanese brand mid-size cars.
Recently, the News came out of the North American market that Volkswagen Passat will stop production in the North American market. The plant that produces passats plans to produce the electric vehicle ID.4.
Currently, Volkswagen sells a total of three versions of the Passat worldwide. The most orthodox is the European version of passat, which is actually the domestic Magotan. The American version of the Passat is not quite the same as the European version, and is a model developed by Volkswagen specifically for the American market. The domestic version of the Passat, that is, the Passat produced by SAIC Volkswagen, also has some origins with the American version of the Passat. Because the European version of passat was renamed Magotan by FAW-Volkswagen.
Volkswagen's Passat, which sells in the North American market, has also not always insisted on using the Passat's name. The first generation of Passats was called Dasher, the second generation of Passats was called Quantum, and the third generation used the name Passat.
Like the Volkswagen jetta, the Passat is also popular. In response, Volkswagen began developing the Passat specifically for the North American market and in 2011 released a North American custom sedan that was also produced at a plant in Tennessee, USA. The goal was to increase the size and space to meet the tastes of North American consumers and buy at reasonable prices, while maintaining the solid feel of german cars.
The response to the American version of passat was still very good, with more than 125,000 units sold the following year, more than six times the previous sales. Soon after, however, more consumers switched to SUVs instead of sedans, and sales continued to decline as Passat was unable to overcome the huge competitive pressure from the Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, and Nissan Altima. Sales will be around 24,000 in 2021, and it's back to square one in 10 years.
Volkswagen's Tennessee plant, which manufactures passats in North America, will operate as an electric vehicle production plant. Responsible for the production of ID.4 and has recently received positive reviews in the North American market. The ID.4 will start production in the second half of this year and plans to respond to the demand for electric vehicles.
At the same time, the North American Passat has been discontinued, but the European Passat and the Chinese Passat are not affected.
Although the passat sales in the Chinese market are very hot, but the development is not smooth, in 2021, the Passat sales in the Chinese market is 133,900 vehicles, it seems that it is also selling more than 10,000 vehicles per month, but compared with the Camry's 217,700 vehicles, accord's 197,700 vehicles, the gap is still not small.
At present, after the arrival of the new energy era, where will traditional fuel vehicles such as Passat, Maiten, Camry, and Accord go, and will their glorious era be drowned in the torrent of new energy? We'll see.