Every major car manufacturer wants to be in China. Volkswagen is no exception, as the Wolfsburg-based producer is enjoying good sales in Asia`s bigest country. To further consolidate its position in the region, Volkswagen managed to ensure a strong partnership with SAIC Motor Corporation, one of the most important Chinese manufacturers.
 
Both car producers signed a a key agreement on the automobile future of the Volkswagen Group in China. More exactly, they agreed to expand the main plant of the Chinese joint venture SVW in Anting to meet the new challenges associated with the local production of electric vehicle models. With this decision, full localization of the Volkswagen Group’s electric vehicles in China is to be gradually implemented. Research activities in the field of fuel cells and plug-in hybrid vehicles are to be intensified as well.
 
It was also agreed that a new C-segment model of the Volkswagen brand would be produced at the Anting plant, to the west of Shanghai, from 2016. In about four years time, a new electric vehicle model based on Volkswagen’s Chinese bestseller, the Lavida, is due to roll off the production line at the Anting plant– this will be the first fully electric vehicle produced at the plant.
 
These agreements form part of the total investment of €22 billion in China planned by the Volkswagen Group together with its joint ventures by 2019. Together with its joint ventures Shanghai Volkswagen and FAW-Volkswagen, the Volkswagen Group delivered a total of 3.7 million vehicles in China in 2014