Will the public open The Pandora's Box? The plan could have far-reaching implications for the German region

Germany Merkur.de

Will Volkswagen's Chinese SUVs be imported to Europe and sold here?

Volkswagen is clearly emerging as a novelty, and the Chinese-made Volkswagen ID.6 will soon also be sold in Europe, which will be a major blow to Volkswagen's factory in Germany.

Volkswagen is clearly on the verge of taking a breakthrough step in production: the car company from Lower Saxony is said to be planning to sell the ID.6 electric car, which will be available in 2021, not only in Asia, but also in Germany.

The decision could be a milestone, as it will be the first time Europe's largest automaker has sold a Chinese-made model in its native Germany. The Business Insider (BI) portal first reported on such plans for the Wolfsburg-based company.

Volkswagen ID.6: Chinese SUV will soon be imported into Europe

According to the plan, thousands of Volkswagen ID.6 cars will be exported to Europe every year and sold in the Old Continent. By the way, the car must have a different name: the successor of the electric Passat will be launched in this country as volkswagen ID.6. If the report becomes a reality, it will save companies a lot of money in the fierce global competition: manufacturing costs in Germany or other European countries are much higher than in China.

Therefore, a decision should be made not even to include SUVs in domestic production. As a result, the profit margins of electric vehicles will also be higher, the portal continues. Because in a market like Germany, you can charge more for Volkswagen models than in China, for example.

As BI explains, Volkswagen plans to sell 80,000 models in Europe over five years to cushion recent Sales in key sales markets*. This could also be an indirect effect of corona or chip crises: after all, rival Tesla is currently doing well, also because the American automaker makes the electric mid-range Model 3 in Shanghai, saving high production and personnel costs.

Recently, CEO Herbert Diess said that thousands of jobs could emerge across Germany as they move to electric vehicles:

Volkswagen can sell Chinese models in Europe – the troubles of the Labor Commission are threatened

What is the public's view of possible plans? "When a model succeeds in one market, it naturally analyzes opportunities in other regions as well. This of course also applies to the seven-seat SUV ID.6," a Volkswagen spokesperson explained to the portal. It has not yet been decided whether to actually offer crossovers in Europe.

The topic seemed certain to exacerbate the already strained relationship between management and Volkswagen's labor committee: after all, almost nothing would work without strong employee representation from Northern Germany. As BI explains, the import of volkswagen ID.6 may open a kind of Pandora's box: according to this, the Volkswagen management team has long dreamed of making cars cheaply abroad and selling them here in order to be able to achieve higher returns.