Volkswagen plans to expand its participation in the Chinese vehicle market, the largest in the world. And to this end, it is carrying out its ‘in China, for China’ strategy, which aims to align even more closely with the specific requirements of customers in that country, making a series of models available.
The ID. CODE, a concept car that will be presented at the Beijing Motor Show, which starts today and runs until May 4, is the first model aimed at this segment. It is an electric SUV, designed for level 4 fully autonomous driving.
Volks also launches the ID?UX sub-brand, with fully electric models oriented towards the Chinese lifestyle and which was created to especially attract young customers.
“The Volkswagen brand can now look back on 40 years of success in China and we are continuing this success story in the new era of mobility, thus confirming the trust of our Chinese customers”, declared Thomas Schäfer, CEO of the Volkswagen brand.
According to the brand, by 2030 the ID family – which already has the ID.Buzz (New Kombi and the ID.4) will have 16 models. This includes five electric vehicles from the new ID?UX sub-brand, which will make their market debut in 2027.
The automaker has set its main goal to reach 4 million annual sales by 2030, becoming the largest international producer in the Chinese market, with growth in operating income corresponding to 3 billion euros (US$3.21 billion). If achieved, the number will represent an increase of 23% compared to the previous year’s sales in China and a market share of 15% in a highly competitive environment.
Among the proposed measures, Volkswagen intends to reduce costs of local production projects and joint ventures with other companies in China by 40% – such as the joint initiative with Xpeng to produce batteries for electric vehicles. The objective is to achieve “cost parity” with local competition in the compact car segment by 2026, which should represent more than half of the cars sold in the country by 2030.
(with Estadão Conteúdo)
