A few days ago, the official website of the Jilin Provincial Development and Reform Commission showed that audi FAW's new energy vehicle project has been announced by the Investment Project of the Industrial Department of the Jilin Provincial Development and Reform Commission on February 11. This means that Audi FAW's new energy vehicle project has been officially approved, and Audi's business in China will reach a new height.
A Volkswagen spokesperson said: "Audi FAW's new energy vehicle project is an important cornerstone of Audi's electrification strategy in China. ”
As early as October 2020, Audi signed a memorandum of understanding with FAW to jointly announce the joint production of high-end electric vehicles in China.
In March of the following year, Audi FAW New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. was officially registered and established, and its registered place is located in Changchun City, which means that the company will settle in Changchun. Changchun will also continue to write a new story with Audi.
In the shareholding composition of Audi FAW, Audi accounts for 55%, Volkswagen Group accounts for 5%, and FAW Group accounts for 40%. Unlike FAW-Volkswagen Audi and SAIC Audi, Audi FAW is Audi's first joint venture in China, and the third foreign-controlled joint venture after BMW Brilliance and Volkswagen Anhui.
With the official approval of the new energy vehicle project, the Audi FAW joint venture project will also enter the output stage, and their staff will become much busier than before.
It is reported that Audi FAW's new energy automobile plant is located in Changchun Economic and Technological Development Zone, with a total area of 2.46 million square meters, which is nearly double the area of Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory after expansion.
This is because the factory not only includes common workshops such as stamping, welding, painting, final assembly, battery assembly, etc., but also includes training centers and other supporting facilities related to the industrial chain. There is no doubt that Changchun's new energy automobile industry will greatly benefit from this project.
In addition, the total investment of Audi FAW's new energy vehicle project will reach 20.93 billion yuan, which is nearly 4 billion yuan more than the Anting MEB plant that SAIC Volkswagen has built, which shows that the specifications of the plant are extraordinary. The project is scheduled to start construction in April 2022 and is scheduled to be completed in December 2024, and will produce three pure electric models, B+SAV e-tron, B+SAV e-tron and C Lim LWB e-tron, with an annual production capacity of 150,000 units.
At present, Audi has begun to produce a number of pure electric models in China, including the e-tron model born on the MLB evo platform and the Q2L e-tron born on the MEB platform, and the Q4 e-tron and Q5 e-tron that have been confirmed to be produced in China are also born on the MEB platform. These models are already or are planned to be produced at FAW-Volkswagen's Foshan MEB plant and SAIC Volkswagen's Anting MEB plant.
The biggest feature of Audi FAW's new energy automobile plant is that it only produces models with PPE platforms. Jointly developed by Audi and Porsche, the platform is one of the most important model platforms for Audi in its transition to electrification. According to previous reports, the first model of the platform is the Audi e-tron GT.
This is in line with the Volkswagen Group's repositioning of Audi. Audi CEO Marcus Dusman recently said in an interview with the German media that Audi's high-end brand definition has changed, and the future will limit the development of entry-level models and continuously expand the boundaries of high-end models.
To this end, Audi recently announced that it will discontinue the entry-level models "A1 and Q2" and stressed that there will be no new iterations in the future.
Dusman revealed that Audi is developing an all-electric luxury sedan as the brand's flagship model, which has a spacious interior, a new electrical and electronic architecture and new software. "We are moving forward as planned, with plans to deliver this all-electric flagship sedan to users in 2025." Dusman said.
It is conceivable that as Audi moves towards the goal of higher-end positioning, Audi FAW will play an increasingly important role and will be an important cornerstone of Audi's transition to electrification in China.
According to the previously announced electrification strategy, Audi will invest 35 billion euros in electrification by 2025, and the number of electric models in the product lineup will increase to 30 until it becomes an all-electric luxury car brand.
As the world's largest new energy vehicle market, Audi plans to convert one-third of its sales in China to electric vehicles by 2025. Among them, Audi FAW's PPE platform products will play a key role.