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VW plan was to JV with a Chinese auto brand (or buy one outright), design & make in China, and then re-import them into Europe. The only way they could get pric
by hunglee2 2y ago
VW plan was to JV with a Chinese auto brand (or buy one outright), design & make in China, and then re-import them into Europe. The only way they could get price down for the consumer, at the quality level required to sell in Germany, is to leverage China supply chain and automated manufacturing advantages. VW EV built in Germany currently incurs significant loss per vehicle. This is part of the reason why German auto was so against EU tariffs - which basically scuppers this plan
- cjrp 2y agoWouldn't the tariffs help them sell their own cars though? Collaborating with a Chinese manufacturer would only be required because the Chinese cars would undercut on price in the EU market. With tariffs, they won't.
- hunglee2 2y agoGermany made VW EV are already too expensive (and yet still make a loss per vehicle). Tariffs might give a short window - VW CFO has said 1-2 years - to get to the level where they can make cars profitably and affordable for the consumer. No chance of this
- ianbooker 2y agoVW has Chinese joint ventures since decades. They already sell their "jv-EVs" in China, just not in Europe. I think in that regard, they are undecided wheter these products will meet brand standards in Germany. VW as a brand went upmarket in the 2000s, with Skoda / Seat / jvs going for the meat. They became world class in repackaging and rebadging, and EoS helped a lot. That also made them kind of conservative in engineering, since everyting everywhere is super path dependent. You could find the same switch in a Seat Arosa and in a Bentley. They are not trying to make a good EV, they try to replicate their ecosystem as a whole and that needs EoS above anything.