Author | Wei Wei
Edit | Xi Xiaolin
Produced by | CNS
On the afternoon of June 27, Volkswagen Group and SAIC Group announced another blockbuster cooperation. Volkswagen Group, SAIC Motor, Volkswagen (China) Investment Co., Ltd., Volkswagen (China) Technology Co., Ltd., and SAIC Volkswagen signed a number of technical cooperation agreements in Shanghai on SAIC Volkswagen's new product projects.
Specifically, the two sides will jointly "technology enable" the joint venture to develop three plug-in hybrid models and two pure electric models in China. It is expected that from 2026 onwards and beyond 2030, new vehicles will be launched to the market one after another. This is another important collaboration announced by SAIC and Volkswagen Group in less than two months. On May 20, also in Shanghai, SAIC Motor and Audi signed a cooperation agreement to officially launch the joint development of SAIC Audi's Advanced Digitized Platform (ADP platform), and the production base of the new intelligent digital platform has also been upgraded, and the new car will roll off the assembly line in 2025. This year marks the 40th anniversary of SAIC Volkswagen's founding, and the successive announcements of major collaborations between SAIC and Volkswagen Group also mean that on the basis of 40 years of cooperation, as shareholders of both parties, they are rapidly promoting SAIC Volkswagen to carry out more dynamic and competitive changes. At the signing of the cooperation agreement, Chen Hong, Chairman of SAIC, Ralf Brandstätter, Managing Director of Volkswagen Group in charge of China and Chairman and CEO of Volkswagen Group China, and Wang Xiaoqiu, President of SAIC, witnessed the signing of the agreement.
The plug-in hybrid model will promote SAIC Volkswagen's efficient transformation
"Volkswagen and its strong partners will further accelerate SAIC Volkswagen's transformation. We are expanding our lineup of fully electric and connected vehicles, and we are focusing on accelerating our deployment in the growing plug-in hybrid vehicle segment to provide consumers with more attractive product choices. Braid said. It can be seen from Braid's speech that plug-in hybrid vehicles will become a new driving force in the process of accelerating the transformation of SAIC Volkswagen. This is undoubtedly a keen insight into the development trend of China's new energy vehicle market.
Since 2021, PHEV sales in mainland China have seen explosive growth, with an annual growth rate of more than 150%. According to the data for 2023, domestic PHEV (including extended range) sales have reached 2.3 million units, while HEV sales will be 800,000 units, and the total sales of hybrid passenger vehicles will reach 3.1 million units, a year-on-year increase of 53%. In the first quarter of 2024, the sales of pure electric vehicles in mainland China will be 1.305 million, a year-on-year increase of 13.3%, and the sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles have also reached 784,000, an increase of 81.2% compared with the same period last year. Judging from statistics and market trends, hybrid passenger vehicles will continue to boom in supply and demand in the short term, and will accelerate the seizure of the traditional fuel vehicle market. Among them, plug-in hybrid vehicles have become a new market outlet. On this basis, some industry experts speculate that PHEVs, including range extenders, will contribute one-third of NEV sales in mainland China in 2024. The PHEV market share is expected to reach 30% from 2025 to 2030. At present, SAIC Volkswagen has the ID.4 X, ID.6 X, ID.3 and Audi Q5 e-tron pure electric vehicles in its product lineup. From January to May this year, SAIC Volkswagen's cumulative sales of new energy vehicles reached nearly 50,000 units, doubling year-on-year, leading the joint venture pure electric camp. With the release of the two blockbuster cooperation in May and June, a number of new luxury intelligent electric vehicles on SAIC's Audi ADP platform will be launched one after another from 2025; From 2026, plug-in hybrid and pure electric models based on the new technology platform will be introduced to the market. It can be said that from next year, every year of SAIC Volkswagen in the future will be a big year for new energy products.
SAIC Volkswagen has created a model for the era of new joint ventures
In the past two years, SAIC Volkswagen has performed steadily in the development of pure electric vehicles (EVs), and its ID. family, represented by the ID.3, has occupied a place in the new energy market, especially the ID.3 has become a rare and strong pure electric vehicle model among joint venture brands.
What's even more commendable is that SAIC Volkswagen has also tried to innovate in the operation of pure electric vehicles, taking the lead in proposing the concept of "owning a car" and launching the ID.Care value preservation package, which allows all models of the ID. family to enjoy a 6% discount for 3 years, locking in costs for consumers in advance, and the vehicle can still maintain a high value after long-term use, so that the interests of electric vehicle consumers can be protected. However, it should be pointed out that although the new energy transition is the general trend, at this stage, fuel vehicles still occupy 50% of the market share in China. SAIC Volkswagen put forward the strategy of "oil and electricity together", which will be laid out in the three tracks of oil, electricity and hybrid, and also innovatively put forward the concept of "oil and electricity with intelligence" in the field of fuel vehicles, which also has a positive demonstration role for the whole industry for the intelligent road of fuel vehicles. It is foreseeable that in the future, SAIC Volkswagen's product series will consist of 1/3 electric, 1/3 hybrid, and 1/3 oil products to meet the requirements of the market.
Behind SAIC Volkswagen's such a layout, it is inseparable from the support of SAIC and Volkswagen Group. Taking these two recent major technical collaborations as an example, the launch of SAIC Audi's new ADP platform products in 2025 and the launch of new plug-in hybrid products in 2026 is a manifestation of the Volkswagen Group's strong and resolute will in the transformation of electrification, and it is also the determination of SAIC Group to empower SAIC Volkswagen with years of technology accumulation. From these measures, it is not difficult to see that in such an era of "involution", SAIC Volkswagen not only does not lie flat, but also actively "uses its brains" to find a new breakthrough and balance in the healthy development of the enterprise itself, the healthy competition in the automotive industry and the protection of the rights and interests of new energy vehicle consumers.
At last
SAIC Volkswagen celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, he is China's first car joint venture, and it is also the first passenger car company in China with a cumulative output of more than 27 million units. Whether it is the new energy vehicle market or the fuel vehicle market, the response measures given by SAIC Volkswagen are bottom-line, boundary, and responsible. With the acceleration of the layout of pure electric intelligent and plug-in hybrid models, it is worth looking forward to whether SAIC Volkswagen will be able to make further progress in the new joint venture era and bring new glory to China's automobile industry.