Car show in Shanghai
VW expects “Playoffs” in China
China is the most important car market in the world. In the meantime, however, there are no longer just pure vehicle manufacturers. Volkswagen expects strong competition.
Volkswagen awaits tightened competition with the increasing competition of large tech companies at the Chinese car market. “This doesn’t make life easier for us,” said Volkswagen board member for China, Ralf Brandstätter, in Shanghai. With its state of art for China, VW sees itself well positioned against the competition and able to take over its part of the market.
“In my view, the playoff season begins now,” said Brandstätter in terms of the usual excretion games in terms of sports. Some market participants could catch up, but not everyone would survive, he said.
The Volkswagen Group, which also includes the brands Audi and Porsche, had announced a large product offensive for the automesse in Shanghai on Wednesday. The evening before, the group showed five world premieres. VW introduces three vehicles in Shanghai as “show cars”, i.e. series -related vehicles.
Among them was an SUV as a so -called range extender, i.e. a car with an electric drive, in which a combustion engine loads the battery and thus guarantees more reach. In addition, VW presented a fully electric car, as well as a car in the very competitive compact class, which is also intended to offer Chinese competition in terms of price. According to Brandstätter, the vehicle would cost around 17,000 euros in China in euros.
Unrealistic prices in China
The prices in China are a problem, said VW brand boss Stefan Mecha. The vehicles of the competition would have everything in technology, but not at a realistic price. For a realistic picture, the cars would actually have to cost twice.
The Wolfsburgers rely on a lot of technology in their vehicles and present a automated automated driving system (ADAS) in Shanghai. The driving system should reach driving ability up to level 2 ++. This does not drive the car completely autonomously, but the technology offers functions such as tracking assistants or speed control, which should be able to relieve the driver, for example, when driving on the highway.
The hard competition in China, but also high renovation costs in the company, added a noticeable one to the entire Volkswagen Group, which in addition to the core brand VW and Porsche also includes. The bottom line is VW almost 31 percent less than a year earlier at 12.4 billion euros. Significantly fewer results came from the former winning charm China.
dpa
Source: Stern
