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Recently, according to a number of media reports, SAIC Volkswagen is suspected to stop producing manual transmission models. A document entitled "A letter to all employees of Volkswagen Transmission (Shanghai)" was exposed on the Internet.

The letter points out that the automobile industry is undergoing a subversive change. At present, the only product of the company is manual transmission. Affected by the declining market demand, in recent years, the company's product line, production scale and the number of employees are gradually shrinking. Under the comprehensive consideration of the changing environment of the industry and the changes in the actual business, SAIC-Volkswagen made the decision to stop production of manual transmissions at the beginning of the year. Under this background, after careful discussion between the company's management and stock Dongfang, the company plans to formally stop production at the end of March next year, after which the company will enter the shutdown and liquidation process.

Subsequently, in response to the news, the relevant person in charge of Volkswagen China told the media that the news was true. "the company has communicated with all factory staff about the decision," he said. At present, the company is promoting the formulation and implementation of the employee placement plan in an orderly manner. "

According to relevant data, Volkswagen Transmission (Shanghai) was established on October 29th, 2001, with a registered capital of US $47 million. It is jointly invested by Volkswagen (China) Investment Co., Ltd., Shanghai Automobile Co., Ltd., and car Co., Ltd. Volkswagen (China) Investment Co., Ltd. holds 60%, Shanghai Automobile Group Co., Ltd. and China first Automobile Co., Ltd. each own 20%.

The company mainly produces MQ200 manual transmissions, which are used in Volkswagen's A-class models. The main customers are Shanghai Volkswagen, FAW Volkswagen, FAW sedans. Service models provide manual transmissions for Polo, Fabia, Lavida, Touran, Bora, new Bora, Octavia, Sagitar, Golf and other models.

It is worth noting that SAIC-Volkswagen will stop producing manual gear models or foreboding. Volkswagen announced in 2021 that it expects to gradually move away from manual models in the global market in 2023. In addition, it is reported that a new generation of Volkswagen Tiguan Tuguan will be launched in 2023, with only automatic transmission models, and the medium-term Passat model will also eliminate the manual transmission option. At present, SAIC-Volkswagen's manual transmission models include Santana, Lang Yi, Polo and Tu Armour.

In recent years, as Volkswagen has vigorously promoted the development of new energy vehicles, it is not surprising to close the production of manual transmission companies. According to relevant data: in the first three quarters of this year, Volkswagen delivered a total of 366400 pure electric models, of which 211900 were in the European market. According to Volkswagen's earlier plans, it will produce 800000 pure electric vehicles worldwide this year and 1.3 million by 2023, in an effort to meet its goal of accounting for half of its total car sales by 2030.

In addition, as the market share of manual transmission models continues to decline, closing companies that produce manual transmissions will also help simplify product structure and further control R & D costs.

According to relevant data, only about 10.7% of the new manual transmission models were sold in China in 2020. It fell to 7.2% in 2021 and its share fell to 4.8% from January to May this year. With the continuous improvement of the penetration of new energy vehicles, the proportion of manual transmission vehicles continues to decline. Manual gearing may be more fun for many users, but more and more models no longer offer manual gearing options. In other words, Volkswagen will completely cancel the manual gear model in the future is also in line with the trend, in line with the future development trend.

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