In 1978, a Chinese delegation wearing Mao fits travelled to Wolfsburg with a surprising message for the lads operating Volkswagen: Deng Xiaoping’s China was open for enterprise.
Now, after 4 many years constructing the world’s greatest automobile market from scratch and taking advantage of the rise of an financial superpower, the automaker has immediately discovered itself combating for its place in China.
While the sprawling German group, which right this moment contains Porsche and Audi, sells extra vehicles in China than some other firm, its flagship VW model was lately dethroned because the nation’s best-selling automobile by BYD, the Shenzhen-based conglomerate backed by Warren Buffett.
The German firm is falling behind within the fast-growing electrical automobile phase, the place the VW model sits in ninth place with a market share of simply 2 per cent. BYD, which holds the highest spot, has almost 40 per cent and Elon Musk’s Tesla, in second, has greater than 10 per cent.
Chinese makers of electrical autos, which embody plug-in hybrid and battery-powered vehicles, dominate in their very own market and are additionally increasing aggressively abroad. China overtook Germany in auto exports in 2022 and is about to eclipse Japan because the world’s greatest automobile exporter this 12 months.
VW, one in every of Germany’s largest and most prestigious corporations, depends upon China for at the least half of its annual income, which final 12 months reached €22bn. Its place within the race for EV market share is inserting the longer term safety of these earnings in jeopardy.
Despite this backdrop, VW executives nonetheless didn’t admire the risk they confronted in China, a Shanghai-based marketing consultant to the German group stated.
“A lot of people in Volkswagen have been working there their entire lives; I don’t think they can imagine Volkswagen not being in existence. That is actually what is at stake at the moment,” they added.
VW stated that profitability mattered extra to the corporate than quantity. “Quality of business takes precedence over quantity,” it stated.
The firm final week reported higher than anticipated gross sales for the primary quarter, boosted by Europe and North America. But in China, deliveries fell 15 per cent. VW stated it was assured its new mannequin vary and “China-specific technology” would assist gross sales choose up within the latter a part of the 12 months.
Geopolitics additional complicates the outlook for the corporate. Germany, which was pressured to grapple with its reliance on Russian gasoline following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, is apprehensive about its financial dependence on China underneath President Xi Jinping.
Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s international minister, stated after a quick go to to Beijing in April that China was changing into a “systemic rival”.
At the identical time, VW dangers angering Beijing by responding to rising western stress over human rights abuses in Xinjiang, the location of one in every of its smallest factories.
This has not slowed VW down: up to now 12 months alone it has introduced investments in China price virtually €4bn. The firm final 12 months moved Ralf Brandstätter, its board member answerable for China, to Beijing to work in “close collaboration” with its three principal three way partnership companions, Chinese state-owned auto corporations FAW, SAIC and JAC.

VW’s new technique is touted as “in China, for China”, a plan to localise manufacturing within the nation as a approach to insulate in opposition to provide chain shocks and deepening divisions between the west and China.
When Brandstätter took the stage on the Shanghai auto present final month, he didn’t deal with the worsening geopolitical local weather however as a substitute sought to reply how the corporate plans to win back prospects.
A brand new €1bn innovation centre would construct on the €2.4bn funding in Horizon Robotics, a Chinese chip design firm, introduced late final 12 months, Brandstätter stated. VW’s software program arm Cariad would additionally double its engineers in China to 1,200.
The multibillion-dollar spending plan would slash the time spent creating merchandise by virtually a 3rd and provides extra autonomy for native choice making, he added.
“The needs of Chinese customers and requirements are different to other regions of the world,” stated VW’s chief govt Oliver Blume, standing beside Brandstätter on the auto present sporting starch-white trainers. “It is very important for all of our developments to be very close to the customers.”
But amongst trade consultants, analysts and former VW workers, there’s scepticism over the carmaker’s China plan.
Decisions over design and engineering issues get stalled between Wolfsburg and the group’s quite a few Chinese workplaces and factories. VW vehicles are developed in Germany for European prospects earlier than fashions are tweaked to turn into China-made for Chinese shoppers.
For years this set-up posed few issues. US and Japanese rivals did the identical and Chinese shoppers positioned a premium on all issues international. Yet right this moment it has left workers feeling hamstrung and disempowered as their Chinese rivals unveil sensible driving applied sciences and new EV fashions.
According to 1 former VW govt, who left the corporate in recent times to affix a high Chinese EV maker, the corporate was paying the value for being conservative on EVs as different teams “tested the waters”.
Now, because it tried to pivot to electrical fashions, VW remained “highly dependent” on main suppliers who made components for inner combustion engines, the previous govt stated. This meant that it had fallen behind not solely Chinese rivals but additionally Tesla, which was changing into deeply enmeshed within the native EV provide chain, they added.
“Volkswagen is a giant of fuel vehicles . . . It is like asking an elephant to turn around,” the previous govt stated.
The Shanghai-based marketing consultant to VW stated its China staff was additionally affected by an outdated software program platform for brand spanking new autos.
“They can offer beautiful cars also with an electric battery, that is no problem at all, but the software is just so outdated, it is just embarrassing,” he stated.
“Maybe for Europe it is good enough for a few more years. For China very quickly that will run into a dead end. If they cannot solve that they will have a ‘hole’ in new product launches for maybe one or two years — that can really kill a company,” he added. In an indication of deepening bother for VW, the corporate on Monday eliminated virtually all the executives at its software program arm.
VW’s three way partnership commitments in China pose one other concern.
Spurred by Tesla’s dedication to construct EVs in Shanghai, Beijing in 2018 lifted restrictions on international possession of auto producers. But analysts stated VW and different international teams had been afraid to upset their longstanding JV companions and the profitable enterprise they generated.
“They will continue to milk the cow, but the cow isn’t going to survive much longer,” stated Bill Russo, the previous head of Chrysler in China and founding father of Shanghai-based consultancy Automobility.
Fears over angering Chinese companions and officers additionally complicate the way forward for the corporate’s plant in Xinjiang, the western area the place the state has dedicated widespread human rights abuses in opposition to Uyghur and different Muslim teams.
VW has dominated out closing down the manufacturing facility. It has ducked stress from politicians, human rights activists and its personal union, arguing that it should honour its contract with companion SAIC regardless of having already deserted plans to make use of the plant for the manufacturing of a brand new mannequin.
In an inner memo in February, Brandstätter instructed staff he had made his first go to to the Xinjiang manufacturing facility, citing “deep concern” over stories of human rights violations.
While the memo didn’t deal with human rights abuse allegations on the plant, Brandstätter stated the manufacturing facility was ‘‘of a excessive customary total”. He described a separate canteen solely for halal dishes and a “learning island” the place staff can research the Uyghur language.
Just as VW’s China operations come underneath stress, fast-growing Chinese corporations akin to Li Auto, Xpeng and Nio are pushing their mass-market vehicles ever nearer to autonomous driving performance.
The former VW govt in China stated the corporate had been too “slow to grasp” simply how technology-focused Chinese shoppers had turn into, which had resulted in a large hole between the companies and options provided by China’s homegrown EV makers and people out there within the German group’s vehicles.
“It is like comparing iPhones with Nokias 10 years ago.”
Additional reporting by Nian Liu in Beijing