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Volkswagen (Anhui) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Volkswagen Anhui") has recently officially put into production the all-electric model Cupra Tavascan for export to the European market, while another Volkswagen brand model for the Chinese market will be released in 2024, according to a news release on the official account of "Anhui launch" Wechat on December 30.

In addition to Volkswagen Anhui, Volkswagen Group has also set up Volkswagen (China) Technology Co., Ltd., Volkswagen (Anhui) spare parts Co., Ltd. and Volkswagen (Anhui) Digital sales and Service Co., Ltd., with a total investment of 23.1 billion yuan in Anhui.

It is understood that Volkswagen (Anhui) Co., Ltd. is located in Hefei, Anhui Province, established in 2017, with a registered capital and paid-in capital of 7.35561528 billion yuan. The company is a joint venture between Volkswagen (China) sales Co., Ltd. and Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Co., Ltd. it is the first joint venture of Volkswagen Group in China to focus on new energy vehicles, its predecessor is Jianghuai Volkswagen. At the beginning of its establishment, Volkswagen and Jianghuai Automobile each held 50%. In May 2020, Volkswagen China acquired 50% of JAC Holdings, the largest shareholder in JAC, and increased its stake in JAC Volkswagen to 75%. Since then, JAC Volkswagen Co., Ltd. has changed its name to Volkswagen (Anhui) Co., Ltd.

In May this year, at the launching meeting of the series of activities of "investing in Anhui", Haryogan, chief financial officer of Volkswagen Group (China) Volkswagen Anhui, said that Volkswagen Anhui will continue to invest in Hefei, Anhui, with a total planned investment of 23.1 billion yuan. the total investment in fixed assets between the production base (phase I) and the R & D center is 14.1 billion yuan, and the total investment in research and development before the model is on the market is about 9.05 billion yuan. Then, at the 2023 China Automobile Forum in July, Baird, chairman and CEO of Volkswagen Group (China), said that the new joint venture Volkswagen Anhui will be officially put into production at the end of this year. In addition to the pure electric model Cupra Tavascan, which is exported to the European market, another Volkswagen brand model is expected to be offline in 2024.

Volkswagen Anhui is the third automobile production base of Volkswagen Group in China after Anting in Shanghai and Foshan in Guangdong, but what is different from the first two factories is that Volkswagen Anhui only focuses on the R & D and production of new energy vehicles. At the level of technology research and development, we pay more attention to vehicle networking technology, including infotainment technology, advanced auxiliary driving and self-driving technology.

According to the plan, the Tavascan, the first pure electric model of Volkswagen Group's brand Cupra, will be manufactured in a joint venture plant in Anhui, which will also be the first car produced by Volkswagen in Anhui.

The Cupra Tavascan, based on the Volkswagen MEB platform, locates the sedan SUV and uses a unique and sporty design language. The car is expected to be available and exported to the European market in 2024. Volkswagen Group expects the brand to sell more than 70, 000 vehicles a year.

As a model built on the MEB platform, the Cupra Tavascan can be seen as a sister to products such as the Volkswagen ID.5 or Skoda Enyaq Coupe iV. However, compared with the above models, the new car adopts a relatively radical design style, with multiple streamlined lines on the hood, a number of wide diversion grooves around the front, and integrated black strips inside. the headlamp group uses a highly recognizable triangular light source layout, making the front part of the car more aggressive. In addition, the front Logo of the new car incorporates the LED backlight design, which can bring stronger recognition after lighting.

On the side of the body, the new car adopts the SUV shape of the sedan car, and the low-lying body is matched with angular shoulder lines, which further enhances the sports flavor of the vehicle. In terms of size, the length, width and height of the new car are 4644/1861/1597mm and the wheelbase is 2766mm. On the rear side, the new car taillights adopt the current popular through-type design, and the luminous rear Logo echoes with the design of the front. The top is equipped with a duck-tail spoiler, a bright black style surrounded by the rear and a diffuser shape to make the rear look more sporty.

In the interior part, the new car uses a large number of arcs and special-shaped panels to create a sports atmosphere, and embellished with rose gold and matte silver. The door is equipped with 15-inch suspended central control screen, trapezoidal full liquid crystal instrument, AR-HUD and three-spoke multi-function steering wheel, full of science and technology. In addition, except for the emergency flasher, there are almost no physical buttons on the center console of the new car, and all the functional controls are integrated into a large central control screen, but many physical buttons and knobs are retained on the multi-function steering wheel.

In terms of power, the new car will offer single-motor and dual-motor models to choose from, with a maximum power of 210 kilowatts and a peak torque of 545 Nm, while the dual-motor version will have a maximum power of 250 kW and a peak torque of 679 Nm. The WLTP mileage of the single-motor version is 550km and the WLTP mileage of the dual-motor version is 520km.

As for why Volkswagen Group invested so heavily in Volkswagen Anhui? Auto Industry concern believes that it may be related to the current changes in China's electric car market and the performance of Volkswagen Group's electric vehicle sales in China. According to the data, Volkswagen Group delivered 6.7158 million new cars worldwide in the first three quarters of 2023, an increase of 10.9 percent over the same period last year. Among them, sales in China were 2.2891 million, down 3.0 percent from the same period last year, accounting for 34.1 percent of the global market share. It is the largest single market in the world, but it is also the only market that has declined.

Since 2023, Volkswagen has begun to accelerate the process of electrification, especially in the Chinese market. Before investing in Hefei, Anhui province, Volkswagen Group announced in April that it would invest 1 billion euros to set up a new company in China, while at the end of November, Volkswagen China officially announced that it would launch a new electric vehicle platform designed specifically for the Chinese market within three years. The development cycle of the new platform is 36 months, about 1/3 shorter than the previous platform development cycle of Volkswagen Group. It is understood that Volkswagen Group plans to launch 140000-170000 yuan of Volkswagen A-class entry-level pure electric models in China within 36 months, so as to deepen the Chinese market.

However, although Volkswagen Group is a relatively positive brand of electric transformation among many multinational car companies, Volkswagen sales are not optimistic compared with the current main electric car brands. GE Wanqu, CEO of Volkswagen (Anhui) Co., Ltd., pointed out: "We choose to take root in Hefei, which can be explained by an old Chinese saying: 'climate, geography, people'. We hope to help Hefei become the future capital of new energy vehicles, and Hefei's high-quality resources will also help us better focus on the field of new energy vehicles."

According to Volkswagen Group's plan, Volkswagen Group's brands, including Volkswagen and Audi, will offer more than 30 pure electric models in China by 2030.

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