Why did Volkswagen go against its "ancestral teachings" and accelerate the construction of Wolfsburg in Anhui as it steps on the accelerator again on the road to transformation?

Have you noticed this phenomenon? In the past era of fuel vehicles, there were always consumers in China looking forward to when a certain overseas model would enter China.

Why did this happen? Because at that time, the world's well-known car companies were all foreign-funded, their R&D centers were located abroad, and their R&D experience was based on overseas experience. The joint ventures in China were only responsible for localizing the models produced overseas.

But now, Volkswagen wants to rewrite the rules.

Anhui is a non-coastal province next to Shanghai, a major Chinese auto city. Volkswagen is investing heavily here to accelerate the construction of the company's second largest R&D center. Specifically, the R&D of pure electric vehicles in China will be concentrated here, referred to as VCTC.

This new version of VCTC is not an ordinary R&D center. It is actually similar to Volkswagen's R&D center in Wolfsburg (Wolfsburg, where Volkswagen's headquarters is located). It has a very high status and authority, but its office is located in China.

Currently, Volkswagen’s pure electric models in China are mainly built on two platforms: MEB platform and CMP platform.

Everyone is familiar with the MEB platform, which is Volkswagen's universal pure electric platform for the world. Currently, all the ID. series models launched by Volkswagen in China are built on this platform. However, judging from the market performance, the ID. series models born on this platform have not met Volkswagen's expectations.

The CMP platform is "exclusively for China" and was mainly jointly developed by Volkswagen and Xiaopeng.

In fact, the emergence of this platform is enough to prove how much Volkswagen values ​​the Chinese market. Most joint venture car companies only launch "China-specific cars", while Volkswagen has come up with a "China-specific platform."

But in Volkswagen's view, this platform still cannot meet the needs and needs to be adjusted.

After this adjustment, the MEB platform and CMP platform will use the CEA electronic and electrical architecture jointly developed by VCTC, CARIAD and Xiaopeng Motors. Among them, CARIAD is Volkswagen's software department.

The new cars developed by VCTC will be jointly produced and sold by SAIC Volkswagen, FAW Volkswagen and Volkswagen Anhui. It can be said that VCTC will be the technical "mother" of Volkswagen for some time to come.

This positioning also shows how much Volkswagen values ​​China's new energy market. It is almost parallel to Volkswagen's current R&D system. Volkswagen concentrates its electric vehicle R&D resources in the Chinese market in VCTC, which gives a sense of tragedy of going all out for the development of new energy.

What will the newly adjusted VCTC bring to Volkswagen?

Traditional manufacturers such as Volkswagen are not much behind domestic manufacturers in core new energy technologies, but technology is one thing and how to implement it is another.

Taking the new car development cycle as an example, in the past three years, in order to adapt to the development pace of new energy vehicles, Volkswagen has invested a lot of resources to shorten the new car development cycle from 54 months to 40 months, and then to 36 months. It can be said that it is a rapid progress.

But this speed is still too slow in China's new energy market. 48 months ago, even BYD was relying on fuel vehicles to survive. If Volkswagen does not speed up its research and development, its new energy vehicles are likely to fall behind when they are launched, and will be extremely passive in the market.

After this adjustment, VCTC will dominate the CMP platform, and the product development cycle under this platform will be further shortened by 30%, barely keeping up with the mainstream pace of China's new energy market.

However, this speed is still not enough for Volkswagen to take the lead in China's new energy market. Whether the car sells well or not is a matter after it is launched on the market. The first thing the joint venture should do at this stage is to manufacture the car as soon as possible.

In addition, VCTC will help Volkswagen optimize its electronic and electrical architecture, reduce the number of controllers by 30%, and cut production costs by 40%.

If this can be achieved, it will be a key boost to Volkswagen's electrification transformation.

One of the main reasons why joint ventures are dragging their feet on the research and development and launch of new energy vehicle models is that their production costs are too high.

China's new energy vehicle companies have the most complete industrial chain in the world, with a stable supply chain, fast technology iteration, and rapidly declining production costs, forming a positive cycle that most joint venture manufacturers cannot do.

If VCTC can really cut production costs by 40%, then Volkswagen will be able to make a comeback in the Chinese market with its already strong product development capabilities, strong brand influence and complete after-sales service network.

In addition, after the adjustment, VCTC may be able to draw more on the new energy development experience of the Chinese market and enhance the competitiveness of its new energy vehicle models.

There are a number of joint venture models on the market: judging from the technology alone, they are not backward, but they give people a feeling of being out of touch with reality. This is caused by a lack of understanding of the Chinese market and Chinese consumers.

A car designed and developed in Germany is unlikely to meet the needs of Chinese consumers no matter how it is investigated in the Chinese market. In the era of fuel vehicles, the so-called "special vehicles for China" launched by joint ventures are nothing more than some operations such as lengthening and adding features, and there is no essential change.

VCTC currently has about 2,000 employees, which will be expanded to 3,000 this year. The expanded talent team will be mainly composed of Chinese local designers and R&D personnel, and the products developed will be more down-to-earth, rather than "magic" versions of overseas models.

In a sense, the success or failure of VCTC can determine Volkswagen's future in China's new energy market, and it has an important strategic position. In the past few years, many joint ventures have claimed that they would hand over the leading power to the Chinese team, but now it seems that only Volkswagen is serious.

Why is Volkswagen so eager to increase its investment in new energy in China, even at the expense of violating its ancestral teachings that research and development should be mainly concentrated in the country?

Unlike Toyota, Volkswagen has no aversion to electric vehicles and remains committed to its goal of "providing at least 30 pure electric models in the Chinese market by 2030." In addition, Volkswagen is highly dependent on the Chinese market, and has always been known as "China's Volkswagen."

Volkswagen's continuous increase in investment in China and its willingness to accept technology output from China's emerging manufacturer Xiaopeng show its sincerity in developing new energy vehicles.

Although Volkswagen's new energy business in China is not progressing smoothly at present, in July 2024, the best-selling model in the Volkswagen ID. series was the Volkswagen ID.3, with monthly sales of 8,282 units, while the monthly sales of other models did not exceed 3,500 units.

Also in July 2024, China's new energy vehicle penetration rate exceeded 50% for the first time, which was a landmark event. After crossing this critical point, traditional fuel vehicles will be phased out faster. Since Volkswagen is determined to develop new energy vehicles, it must speed up its transformation.

According to Volkswagen's plan, the first model of the CMP platform, led by VCTC and in cooperation with Xiaopeng, will be launched in 2026, and will be sold through a direct sales system established by Volkswagen Anhui. This pace is already very fast.

Of course, Volkswagen's radical move will also face many challenges, such as how to adjust the relationship between the German team and the Chinese team, how to persuade Volkswagen South and North to increase investment in electric vehicles, and how to balance the interests of new energy vehicles and fuel vehicles within the group.

There will be many problems, but Volkswagen has decided to step on the accelerator first and deal with the rest on the road.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.