With the wave of electrification sweeping the global automotive market, the Volkswagen Group, as a fuel vehicle giant, is already in this situation, so it is naturally the best choice to complete the strategic transformation as soon as possible.
As early as the end of last year, the Volkswagen Group began to reorganize its management structure and its functions. Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess successfully remained in office, but the focus will shift to the software division and the group business.
At the same time, the Chinese market will also usher in a new person this year, and Ralf Brandstaetter, CEO of Volkswagen Passenger Car Brand, will replace the current Volkswagen China CEO Feng Sihan to take charge of the China business.
The Volkswagen Group also announced a new round of five-year plans, which stated: "The Volkswagen Group plans to invest a total of 159 billion euros in the next five years, of which 89 billion euros will be used for technologies such as software and electric vehicles, accounting for 56% of the total investment." This wave of "increased weight" of the Volkswagen Group will also greatly promote the process of the transformation of the Group.
In terms of the Chinese market that everyone is most concerned about, the current CEO of Volkswagen's passenger car brand, Brad, said in a recent interview that by 2023, Volkswagen will be able to produce 1 million electric vehicles per year in China to cope with the rapidly increasing domestic market demand. So how do these 1 million electric vehicles come from every year, and what electric models will Volkswagen launch in the future? In this issue, we will take you to find out.
Where do the 1 million annual electric models come from?
Previously, Diess had said: "Electrification and digitalization are rapidly and completely transforming cars, and economies of scale are critical to both electrification and digitalization." "As the largest and most important segment of Volkswagen, 40% of the world's deliveries are completed in the Chinese market, so the capacity problem of new energy models has become an urgent pain point to be solved in the transformation process.
At present, Volkswagen Group's phased goal is to achieve an annual output of 1 million electric models by 2023, so Volkswagen has taken the lead in laying out three MEB platform plants in China, namely SAIC-Volkswagen's Anting plant, FAW-Volkswagen's Foshan plant, and Volkswagen's Anhui plant, which is still under construction.
Volkswagen (Anhui) Co., Ltd.'s new manufacturing base, volkswagen's third MEB platform factory in China, officially started construction in April last year, and has completed more than 50% of the construction as scheduled. According to the plan, the plant's first production model will roll off the production line in the second half of 2022 and is scheduled to officially start production in 2023.
It is reported that the design annual production capacity of Volkswagen's Anhui plant is 300,000 electric vehicles, and the completion of the plant has also filled the gap in Volkswagen's annual output of one million electric vehicles, and is also an important support for Volkswagen to increase the global production of pure electric vehicles based on the MEB platform to 19 million in 2030.
More than that, Volkswagen has also extended the layout of electric vehicles to the entire electric vehicle industry chain. Construction of Volkswagen's battery systems plant in Hefei, Anhui Province, has begun and is expected to start production in the second half of 2023. The gradual improvement of the electric supply chain will not only accelerate the development of Volkswagen's electric vehicles, but also help Volkswagen achieve its goal of producing million vehicles per year.
The Pains of Change: The ID of the Blue Wisp of the Road. clan
Perhaps, as Mr. Lu Xun said, "Reform has never been smooth sailing." As the "most understanding of Chinese consumers", Volkswagen's performance in the domestic new energy field has not lost the style of a sword to sacrifice the world.
Earlier this year, Volkswagen China released its 2021 sales figures, and the Volkswagen brand (and its Jetta sub-brands) delivered a total of about 2.428 million vehicles in Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, down 14.8% year-on-year. In the field of new energy, according to Volkswagen's official data, new energy vehicles were sold in China last year with about 119,000 units, an increase of 128% year-on-year.
(Table data from the official information of the Association of Passengers)
Although the year-on-year growth momentum is good, the 119,000-unit base is indeed difficult to meet Volkswagen's expectations. 2021 is a year of intensive listing of Volkswagen's ID. series of electrification products in China, but at the moment when local brands are soaring, Volkswagen has not met the expected performance, at least not compared with the performance of the same products in Europe.
Since its launch at the end of March 2021, the ID. family has delivered 70,625 units, failing to meet the planned sales target of 80,000 to 100,000 units. At the beginning of the launch of the ID. family, the highly anticipated ID.4 CROZZ and ID.4 X even sold a total of only 1213 vehicles per month, which once triggered netizens that "the public will not sell electric vehicles".
Although the ID. family is very popular in overseas markets, it seems to be a bit "unsatisfactory" when it comes to China. The reason is that overseas consumers pay more attention to the practical performance of vehicles, but domestic electric vehicles represent technology and trends in a sense, compared with Tesla, "Wei Xiaoli" and other new forces in the software system, intelligent advantages, volkswagen ID. series is difficult to escape the definition of "oil to electricity".
Moreover, in order to transform to the agency system at the sales terminal level, the north and south volkswagens have adopted the agency system model for the sales model of the ID. series, and the change of channels requires more running-in and sales climbing time.
In addition, the common problem of chip shortage has also caused a certain impact on the sales of volkswagen ID. series. According to Volkswagen China CEO Feng Sihan, "If there is no chip shortage impact, the ID. series is expected to complete the annual sales target of 80,000-100,000 units, and in 2022 (target) it is possible to set 160,000-200,000 units."
However, compared with the dismal situation of the "pioneering stage", from September 2021, the Volkswagen ID. series models broke through the 10,000-unit mark for the first time, which can basically be on par with the single car company of the "Wei Xiaoli" first-line new forces. Among them, in October, the Volkswagen ID. series surpassed Xiaopeng, Ideal and WEIlai with a delivery volume of 12,736 units, showing the background and development prospects that Volkswagen should have. At the same time, in order to promote sales, the SALES network of ID stores has increased from 115 to 200 this year, with the goal of doubling the sales of electric vehicles.
Push 12 new cars, ID. New members of the family may be "online"
Finally, let's take a look at volkswagen group's new car planning this year, according to the information released so far, Volkswagen is expected to launch 12 new cars this year, half of which will be pure electric models. Among them, FAW-Volkswagen will bring 8 new cars such as sagittarius, Bora, Tangue and Tange in the medium term; while SAIC Volkswagen has initially exposed 4 new cars such as the revamped Langyi and the new generation Lingdu.
In terms of new energy, the most concerned is FAW-Volkswagen's upcoming launch of the medium-sized pure electric car codenamed "VW413/1 CN_B", which is also its third pure electric model after ID.4 CROZZ and ID.6 CROZZ.
ID.VIZZION concept car
The new car, or a production version of the ID.VIZZION concept car, has completed trial production in December and is expected to be available within this year. The car will be produced at the FAW-Volkswagen Foshan plant, and will compete with Tesla Model 3 and BYD Han after the future listing.
In addition, Volkswagen will also work with Guoxuan Hi-Tech to develop battery technology and launch standard batteries. At the same time, through the large number of "plus" of Volkswagen Group, this year will also upgrade the existing MQB and MEB platforms, enhance the intelligent interconnection function, and launch the L2+ automatic driving function to better complete the comprehensive transformation of electrification and digitalization.
As the "culprit" that caused the overall decline in Volkswagen's sales last year, the chip shortage problem is expected to continue in 2022. However, the importance of the Chinese market is self-evident, in order to reverse the decline, Volkswagen Group will give more priority to the Chinese market in the distribution of chip supply, and then it is expected to rebound in 2022 and return to or even exceed the level of 2020.
Written at the end, there is a saying that "it is difficult for the ship to turn around", which is also a true portrayal of the volkswagen group at this stage. However, the layout at this stage is only the beginning of the "great war", and the public, who are in a critical period of change, have stepped into a new round of five-year plans after rationalizing the personnel and organizational structure in stages.
The completion and commissioning of new factories, the solution of chip shortage problems, and the comprehensive upgrading of electrification platforms and technologies have also enabled Volkswagen China to face the surging competitive pressure in the domestic new energy field with more confidence. Today, the "confrontation" between Volkswagen and Tesla and the "wrestling" between the new forces of car manufacturing have just begun, and there are still many hard battles to be fought in the future.
(This article was first published on the Titanium Media App, author/often laughs)
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