SAIC Volkswagen's electrification transformation marks the beginning of the next high-quality development in the Anting region for 40 years | Production | Start
SAIC Volkswagen recently announced that the order volume for the Volkswagen ID.3 pure electric vehicle model exceeded 10000 units in July, an increase of 689% compared to the previous month. Many industry insiders say that the surge in orders this time is mainly due to the outstanding product strength and affordable prices, which have made users pay more. But the underlying reason behind this is that SAIC Volkswagen has relied on 40 years of deep cultivation in the Chinese market, with stable growth rate, excellent structure, strong momentum, and a rebound in sales. At the same time, it has shown tremendous development resilience and actively opened the prelude to the next high-quality development through electrification transformation.
Rooted in the market for forty years, always taking a step forward
As a joint venture car company in the first tier of the domestic automotive industry, SAIC Volkswagen is always able to launch products to the market with a fast-paced pace and a mindset that leads its competitors one step ahead when encountering a new gear. After China and Germany entered into cooperation, SAIC Volkswagen introduced advanced manufacturing and development technology and a sound quality management system into China. The Chinese automotive industry utilized foreign investment and introduced technology, opening up a new situation.
Forty years ago, SAIC Volkswagen introduced Santana and carried out deep localization at the beginning of its establishment, greatly promoting the development of China's automotive industry; Twenty years ago, in August 2003, SAIC Volkswagen officially established the first dedicated testing ground for passenger cars in China at Anting, marking the beginning of SAIC Volkswagen tailoring German quality products for Chinese consumers. As the domestic SUV market continues to grow, SAIC Volkswagen also timely introduced the Tiguan, pioneering the creation of a segmented market for A+SUVs. In addition, SAIC Volkswagen, with its accumulated strong local research and development capabilities, not only led the localization development of the Lavida model, making it a perennial sales tree for A-class sedans in China, but also deeply participated in the development of the Passat Leading Project. In the early stage of research and development, it focused on the personalized needs of Chinese consumers, playing an important role in the long-term dominance of the Passat in the B-class commercial vehicle segment market.
In the past two years, SAIC Volkswagen has maintained a fast pace in updating its models, covering everything from luxury brands to electric vehicles. Especially the main models that bear the sales pillar of SAIC Volkswagen, such as the Lavida, Lingdu, Passat, Tiguan, and Touareg, have all undergone comprehensive renovations. Through significant improvement in product strength, SAIC Volkswagen is able to maintain stable terminal sales in the domestic market even though it has been impacted by the epidemic and supply chain.
When emerging automotive companies emerge like mushrooms after rain, 40 years is enough to become a precious history for any of them. The long river of time endows SAIC Volkswagen with research and production capabilities that are difficult to replicate. Nowadays, SAIC Volkswagen is dedicating these valuable experiences to the Chinese automotive market, becoming a solid support for the high-quality development of the future automotive industry in the new era of development.
The rapid transformation towards electrification is full of vitality
Nowadays, with the increasingly fierce development trend of "electrification, networking, intelligence, and sharing" in the industry, SAIC Volkswagen has accelerated the transformation and upgrading of products, services, business models, enterprise operations, and other aspects. It has also increased investment in future core business areas such as new energy, vehicle networking, intelligent driving, intelligent manufacturing, and innovative services, and strengthened its layout in various fields.
In the era of electrification, Volkswagen has a different strategy compared to joint venture brands from Japan and the United States. In 2018, Volkswagen released the MEB platform, a modular platform specifically designed for new energy vehicles.
On October 19, 2018, SAIC Volkswagen's new energy vehicle factory grandly started construction in Anting, Shanghai, symbolizing the direction of the automotive company's electrification transformation. On November 8, 2019, SAIC Volkswagen's new energy vehicle factory officially opened and quickly began production. Shortly thereafter, the first model of the ID. family was unveiled in front of everyone, and SAIC Volkswagen officially entered the era of electric intelligence.
In the era of electric vehicles, SAIC Volkswagen has maintained strategic composure and acted with determination. The introduction of the MEB platform has given SAIC Volkswagen a first mover advantage in the electric vehicle market among a group of joint venture car companies in China. Since the launch of the first ID. model in 2021, it has delivered a high-quality answer sheet with a pure electric family product layout of ID.4X, ID.6X, and ID.3, as well as a cumulative sales data of over 140000 units.
In the era when the Chinese automotive market is gradually shifting towards young users, SAIC Volkswagen not only innovates in the direction of youth personalization through vehicle models and products, but also reflects trends and novelty in retail and marketing models.
Not long ago, SAIC Volkswagen's oldest production base, Shanghai Anting Base, also underwent a comprehensive transformation. This is a corner in the overall transformation of the automotive industry. Given the limited land space in the Anting area, in order to ensure the rhythm of fuel vehicle production while undergoing comprehensive electrification transformation, SAIC Volkswagen has gradually upgraded the Anting base.
In 2017, SAIC Volkswagen Second Factory completed the upgrade and transformation, becoming the first standardized factory in the Anting area; In 2018, the company invested 17 billion yuan to start the construction of a new generation electric vehicle platform model factory. In 2020, the MEB new energy vehicle factory was completed and put into operation. As part of the MEB factory project, in 2022, SAIC Volkswagen will return a portion of the land used in the first automobile factory to Anji Logistics as a replacement for the previous MEB factory land. The MEB new energy vehicle factory has also become the "new factory" and "new E factory" of SAIC Volkswagen.
In addition, the Anting base will also focus more on electric vehicle production in the future and further expand the functions of the research and development center. In 2021, the second phase of the R&D center located at the original site of the first automobile factory will be fully put into use. The second phase of the project covers projects such as the R&D comprehensive building and the new R&D experimental center, focusing on capacity building for future oriented new energy research and development, forward-looking research, and virtual R&D.
We have reason to believe that SAIC Volkswagen, as an "elephant", will steadily and elegantly enter a new track, providing new ideas and thinking for the next forty years of high-quality development.
