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On February 28, CARIAD, a software company owned by Volkswagen Group, announced that from March 1,2024, Mr. Han Sanchu, former Chief Technology Officer of Changan Technology and Chief Software Architect of Changan Automobile, will take over the management of CARIAD China from Mr. Chang Qing as CEO of CARIAD China and join the Management Board of Volkswagen Group (China) as Executive Vice President of the Group (China). After the successful formation of CARIAD China, Mr. Chang Qing will return to Volkswagen Group headquarters as scheduled.

According to Volkswagen China's official website, Changqing joined Volkswagen Group in 1990 and has deep experience in vehicle development and group platform management. He was responsible for the management of Baukasten and the strategic management of drive and module system (BAM). He is also one of the R & D managers of Volkswagen MEB platform. In addition, as one of the co-founders of CARIAD, Evergreen was responsible for product and project management at CARIAD headquarters in Germany. In December 2021, Chang Qing became CEO of CARIAD China, responsible for CARIAD's software company's business in China market.

As a software expert, Han Sanchu is an experienced manager in automotive software and software-defined vehicle (SDV) development. Han studied mechanical engineering and computer science at Southwest Jiaotong University and the University of Texas at Dallas, according to an official release. In 2021, Han Sanchu joined Chang 'an Automobile as Chief Software Architect and Chief Technology Officer of Chang' an Technology, and led a technical team composed of more than 2000 internal engineers and 1500 partner engineers responsible for the overall development of the "software-defined automobile" platform.

CARIAD (Car I Am Digital) is a business of Volkswagen Group, founded by Herbert Diess, former CEO of Volkswagen Group, formerly Car.Software Organisation, a Volkswagen software division established in 2020. As an important part of Volkswagen Group's drive to transform itself into an electric and intelligent car, CARIAD has always been highly anticipated by Volkswagen. However, due to the lagging R & D progress of the company, the mass production plan of new cars launched by several brands including Audi, Porsche, Volkswagen and Bentley has been pushed forward again and again, which has also caused dissatisfaction among the management of Volkswagen Group. To this end, Herbert Diess has further increased its investment in software, even turning the division into CARIAD independently, avoiding interference from internal forces of Volkswagen Group, and establishing subsidiaries in many countries around the world, including China.

Volkswagen Group has repeatedly stressed that CARIAD and automotive software development are an "indispensable" part of it, but since CARIAD was founded, there have been twists and turns. In May 2023, Volkswagen announced the abolition of all senior executives in the department except personnel and almost reorganized CARIAD's board of directors due to serious delays in research and development of CARIAD, a software subsidiary of Volkswagen Group, and successive years of losses. At that time, Volkswagen Group announced that Peter Bosch, former Bentley Production Director, succeeded Dirk Hilgenberg as CEO of Volkswagen Software Company CARIAD, which was also responsible for finance, procurement and IT. The Volkswagen Group said on its official website: "After a series of technical optimization measures in the past few months, the Volkswagen Group has adjusted the CARIAD organizational structure and personnel aspects-this includes CARIAD organizational restructuring, accelerating the implementation of the E³ platform (end-to-end electronic and electrical architecture), focusing on the development needs of software-defined vehicles (SDV) at the organizational level, strengthening technical cooperation and introducing new leadership and team models. "

It is worth mentioning that although CARIAD's overseas business is not progressing smoothly, CARIAD's localization in China is proceeding in an orderly manner. At present, CARIAD has successively established joint ventures with Horizon and Zhongke Chuangda.

In April 2022, CARIAD released its China strategy and established a Chinese subsidiary in Beijing. After the establishment of the subsidiary, CARIAD China also became CARIAD's first subsidiary outside Europe. The subsidiary mainly focuses on six areas: user experience, user interaction, advanced driving assistance system and automatic driving, vehicle and system integration, data processing and hardware design and adaptation.

In October of the same year, CARIAD announced the establishment of a joint venture with Horizon in China to accelerate the development of advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous driving systems for the Chinese market. To this end, Volkswagen Group plans to invest about 2.4 billion euros (about 16.8 billion yuan), making this investment the largest single investment in Volkswagen's 40 years in China. CARIAD holds 60% of the shares after the establishment of the joint venture company. In December 2023, Horizon and CARIAD officially announced the establishment of CARIZON, a joint venture company headquartered in Beijing.

In addition, CARIAD has established a joint venture company CARThunder with Zhongke Chuangda in China. In April 2023, CARIAD announced the establishment of a joint venture company with Zhongke Chuangda in China, which is the second joint venture company established by CARIAD in China. After the establishment of the company, CARIAD and Zhongke Chuangda hold 49% and 51% shares respectively. Both parties will focus on R & D and testing of software products and solutions in the field of intelligent interconnection and infotainment system, providing software development services such as operating system, human-computer interaction interface, cockpit and cloud.

CARIAD China has more than 1100 employees. In addition to its headquarters in Beijing, CARIAD China has established branches in Anhui (Hefei), Zhejiang (Hangzhou) and Shanghai. In response to this appointment, Ralph Brandstaetter, Chairman and CEO of Volkswagen China, spoke highly of Chang Qing's past work results and said: "I believe that Mr. Han Sanchu will integrate innovative digital technologies into our products with technical expertise and insight into local customer needs. "

Berry pointed out that CARIAD China is an important part of Volkswagen Group's "in China, for China" strategy, which aims to reduce development time by 30% and provide software solutions for China. In addition to improving its own development capabilities, partnerships with Chinese technology companies will also play a decisive role in the implementation of the strategy. CARIAD China leads and integrates the strength of its joint ventures and subsidiaries to form a "C family" to integrate independently developed projects into one. Han Sanchu, who takes over as CEO of CARIAD China, will further lead CARIAD China to develop into a top software technology company, focusing on the rapid integration of cutting-edge technologies into the Group's brand models for the Chinese market.

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