Jia Jianxu, general manager of SAIC Volkswagen
"In 2023, 2024, and 2025, it will be more difficult in the past few years, but in the second half of 2025 and from 2026, the products we have now set will be on the market, and the world will be different. On April 24, Jia Jianxu, general manager of SAIC Volkswagen, gave such a conclusion in media communication. Since taking office last year, Jia Jianxu has promoted SAIC Volkswagen to carry out super reforms, from organizational structure to products to R&D and concepts, it can be said that the seeds of "earth-shaking changes" have been planted within SAIC Volkswagen.
"Everything I'm doing today is laying out for 2026 and that's important to me. Jia Jianxu said. As far as the outside world is concerned, what can be clearly perceived is the change in products and marketing methods. Last year, Jia Jianxu revealed that SAIC Volkswagen is developing long-range plug-in hybrid products, which will be on par with the current mainstream in terms of battery life. And this year, this aspect has continued to escalate. In last year's plan, plug-in hybrid products were developed based on the gasoline vehicle platform, and in this year's new plan, SAIC Volkswagen's plug-in hybrid vehicles will be developed based on the electric vehicle platform, and range extender products have been added.
This has changed the essence of SAIC Volkswagen's plug-in hybrid products. In addition to platform switching, SAIC Volkswagen plans to achieve "almost the same" cost of plug-in hybrid products and extended range products with fuel vehicles. This will greatly enhance the competitiveness of Volkswagen's plug-in hybrid and extended range products. But it is not enough to do this, because for SAIC Volkswagen's current products, intelligence is also a shortcoming. "So far, all the new products launched by the joint venture have a big gap with the competing products in the Chinese market in terms of intelligence, which we must admit. Jia Jianxu said. These are the results of previous technological changes, and in the new products, SAIC Volkswagen will completely change the situation.
On the new Tiguan LPro launched by SAIC Volkswagen in April, the car has been equipped with DJI's most advanced L2+ assisted driving system, realizing the intelligent upgrade of gasoline vehicles. In addition, SAIC Volkswagen's automatic parking has also been upgraded, which can also realize remote parking assistance and memory parking. In the future, SAIC Volkswagen will also adopt a new electronic and electrical architecture for the launch of new plug-in hybrid/extended range products, which means that on the basis of intelligence, SAIC Volkswagen has ushered in an opportunity to catch up. In addition, Jia Jianxu also said that the new generation of plug-in hybrid/extended range products will also increase the intelligent entertainment space.
It is worth noting that Volkswagen has agreed to hand over all hybrid models to SAIC Volkswagen, and SAIC Volkswagen, Volkswagen of Germany, and SAIC Motor will work together to develop hybrid models that meet the needs of the Chinese market. From the perspective of product planning, SAIC Volkswagen plans to gradually introduce four products to the market in the future to fill the blank range of existing hybrid models. According to the Volkswagen Group's previous news, Volkswagen China and the joint venture SAIC Volkswagen and FAW-Volkswagen jointly developed a new pure electric CMP platform, and developed the CAE electronic and electrical architecture.
Volkswagen officially announced that the model developed based on the CMP platform will enter the market in 2026, enriching the product matrix of the group's joint ventures in an all-round way. It is unclear whether SAIC Volkswagen's plug-in hybrid products will be built on the CMP platform, and it is also uncertain whether they will adopt the CAE architecture. The CAE architecture is jointly developed by Volkswagen and Xpeng.
Big single product strategy
Despite their importance, plug-in hybrid products are only one part of SAIC Volkswagen's "Gasoline-Electricity" strategy. In terms of marketing strategy, it is obvious that SAIC Volkswagen has adopted a more flexible approach. For example, the German Volkswagen did not launch such products because the range extender products were technically backward. The comments on the range extension technology also triggered the CEO of Li Auto to "output views" many times before. For example, Geely, Great Wall, BYD, etc., in fact, have not launched extended-range products so far, but focus on plug-in hybrids. SAIC Volkswagen's product technology change is indeed more pragmatic.
In addition to the new power forms, SAIC Volkswagen hopes to achieve the goal of "progress" for electric vehicles and fuel vehicles. "We put forward the core of oil and electricity together, last year was stable, this year is progress. Jia Jianxu said. When it comes to gasoline vehicles, the Tiguan L Pro is just the beginning. The Passat Pro, which will be launched later this year, will also cooperate with DJI Intelligent Driving to achieve "the same intelligence of oil and electricity". In terms of product matrix, SAIC Volkswagen will implement the strategy of "new instead of old", and the classic Passat and Tiguan will continue to be retained. "We want to have products that can participate in the 'volume' together, and at the same time, we want to establish our brand products. Jia Jianxu said.
On fuel vehicles, it can be clearly seen that SAIC Volkswagen's strategy is a "big single product". Yu Jingmin, executive deputy general manager of sales and marketing of SAIC Volkswagen, said that in addition to Santana, Lavida, Passat and Tiguan, the Tourang will also become a large single product in the future, with more diverse forms of products and a wider range of price segments. In terms of positioning, the old products have established the previous market positioning, while the positioning of the new oil vehicles is to compete with high-end luxury brands. "It is good and excellent to use large single products to solve the problem, and the cost can be lower, and the enterprise can make a profit. Yu Jingmin said.
And in the case of electric vehicles, the change continues. Among them, as SAIC Volkswagen's signature model, the ID.3 will also be made into a large item. Jia Jianxu revealed that a new version of the ID.3 will be launched at the end of this year, which is expected to have a great improvement in intelligence. "Everyone thinks that the whole ID. intelligence can be further improved, and the entertainment is not enough, and there will be a big rebuild in the future, which is clear. Jia Jianxu said. It is worth noting that SAIC Volkswagen's entire electric vehicle, especially the ID.3, has narrowed its losses to a large extent. Last year, SAIC Volkswagen revealed that the ID.3 lost 30,000 yuan on a car at that time.
In terms of electric vehicles, SAIC Volkswagen allows a certain amount of loss, and in terms of sales, it wants to enter the top 10. "In the first ten lists, we saw the Volkswagen ID.3, which basically achieved our goal. Jia Jianxu said. In terms of electric vehicles, Jia Jianxu believes that Volkswagen's electric vehicles will have their own consumer groups, "Not everyone wants to be a pioneer in innovation, we give everyone more certainty in products, including safety, reliability, and better handling, which is the key." Jia Jianxu said. In the tram, SAIC Volkswagen will play a complete set of combination punches this year to enhance its competitiveness.
SAIC Volkswagen launched a three-year 6% discount repurchase strategy on electric vehicles this year, and SAIC Volkswagen hopes to intervene in the second-hand car market in advance through car companies to improve the value retention rate, so that consumers can get the latest technology products at the lowest cost of owning a car. In the traditional cognition, the cheaper the car is the cost performance, but the "king of kings" of cost performance is the cost of owning a car. For example, if 150,000 is bought and 100,000 is sold, the cost of owning a car for consumers is 50,000, and if 100,000 is sold, and finally 50,000 is sold, the cost of owning a car is also 50,000.
"If the cost of owning a car is the same, why not buy it better? Okay, it must be a little more expensive. Jia Jianxu said. The reason why it is necessary to propose a three-year hedging repurchase is because the current car technology is changing with each passing day, and after three years, the technology will be replaced, and consumers can change the car. At this point in time, a new generation of SAIC Volkswagen products has also been launched. "Three years later, SAIC Audi has a lot of models launched, you can go up, you can turn PHEV, EREV, three years will be our big year, users can choose our products as much as they want. Jia Jianxu said.
Therefore, no matter how hard it is now, SAIC Volkswagen needs to unswervingly fight against each other for three years. "We can get through the darkest of the most difficult moments, even if the cards I have dealt are not very good, but we can see the order in which the cards are played. Jia Jianxu said.
A change in the R&D model
For the most critical part of the transformation, the change in the R&D model is the most important thing. Jia Jianxu believes that SAIC Volkswagen's current problem is "too slow", and speed up is the key to transformation. "It's very important that we at least don't be very slow, at least catch up. Jia Jianxu said. Enterprises are not fast enough in decision-making and advancement, "there must be something wrong." Jia Jianxu said. He believes that today, whether it is electric vehicles, PHEVs, or EREVs, all core technologies and supply chains have been fully localized in China, and if companies do not catch up with this speed, "there will be a big problem."
Now, SAIC Volkswagen has accelerated its research and development. At the SAIC Volkswagen Supplier Conference in December last year, Jia Jianxu told suppliers three words "fast, complete, and excellent", of which "fast" was in the first place. "Our suppliers need to be 'fast' because we (OEMs) are going to be fast. Jia Jianxu said that SAIC Volkswagen has now shortened the R&D process to 24 months. This is basically on the same level as the new forces. This also means that in terms of intelligence, SAIC Volkswagen's production capacity will be able to maintain a high level in the industry.
SAIC Volkswagen's approach is to let strategic suppliers develop and intervene in advance, which fundamentally breaks the original supply chain process and fully incorporates core suppliers and strategic suppliers. In addition, the "cost department" was re-established in the adjustment of the organizational structure, and the development logic of target cost as the guide and product performance as the core was formed. As a result, a very big development has been made in terms of speed. Speed is only the first step in change. SAIC Volkswagen's top management is making suggestions to Volkswagen Germany to change its development concept.
First, Jia Jianxu suggested that Volkswagen should change the simple way of evaluating the profit of a single car; secondly, it is necessary to change the thinking of engineers and hardware when considering the design of the whole vehicle; thirdly, in terms of software, it is suggested that Volkswagen should make it clear that software should rely on iteration and OTA, and it is impossible to achieve once and for all in software. This also means that Volkswagen's original development ideas and thinking will be subverted. "This is a very big challenge for us, and we have to catch up with the speed of China. Jia Jianxu said.
The second is that the technology is no longer solely dependent on the public, but jointly developed by the three parties. Among them, SAIC Motor has also opened up its technology directly to Volkswagen. "I will open the armory to show you, what you think is good, what is not good, you pick yourself, after the selection is completed, the joint venture will jointly develop, and jointly put a product suitable for the Chinese market into the Chinese market to meet the needs of Chinese consumers. Jia Jianxu hopes that the next generation of products can get independent development rights, and all releases will be sent from SAIC Volkswagen.
Jia Jianxu believes that blindly participating in price wars is an unsustainable way. In the case of BYD, the support behind it is to roll the profits of the entire supply chain into the vehicle market. If you follow the volume, there will be big problems with the financial data and cash flow of the whole company. However, the vertical supply model also has its drawbacks. "Whether the supply chain system can support the entire healthy development of the enterprise, especially in today's rapid development of technology, how to consider the vertical integration of the supply chain, this is the first question. Jia Jianxu said.
In addition, consumer electronics for automobiles will be very challenging in the supply chain. "Today, when making automobiles, the attitude towards the supply chain has not changed, and like consumer electronics, automotive suppliers must not be able to stand it. Jia Jianxu said. He believes that car companies should establish a benefit-sharing mechanism with the supply chain, and if there is no benefit-sharing mechanism in the supply chain, it will be difficult to make electric vehicles profitable. And once electric vehicles cannot be realized, it will be difficult to continue to promote this category in the end.
"If we are not swept up to death in today's oil and electricity rights, we don't know who will win in the market after 2027. By 2027, the current first generation of users will already feel it, and they are faced with the choice of a second car or a third car, which will bring some new opportunities to the public to some extent, so we must hold on. Jia Jianxu said.