All-electric Volkswagen ID.R to stand before China's gateway to heaven
Published on: Wednesday, August 21, 2019
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The mountain, deeply rooted in Chinese mythology and believed by many to be the gateway to heaven, has 99 corners throughout its 11km route for the fully-electric ID.R to navigate through to the top while wearing its new red livery.
By next year, the German carmaker plans to have no less than 10 electric vehicle options for its China market and that will be followed by rolling out the fully-electric ID. product family that's based on Volkswagen's Modular Electric Drive Unit (MEB) platform.
By 2023, there should be some 10 ID. models planned, all fully connected in different body styles, and ready to take to China's streets.
Volkswagen has been producing cars in China since 1983 through joint ventures with the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) and the First Automotive Works (FAW).
Together with the joint ventures, Volkswagen Group China now operates 33 production sites with more than 100,000 employees in total.
The country is also the largest individual market for Volkswagen. In 2018, the Group sold 4.21mil vehicles in China, of which 3.11mil were Volkswagen brand models.
With global sales of 6.24mil Volkswagen cars in 2018, this means that every second Volkswagen car sold was in China.
According to market data from the Center of Automotive Management (CAM), around one million e-cars were sold in China in 2018.
In 2020, more than five million electric cars are expected to drive out onto the country's roads.
For this reason, a SAIC Volkswagen plant in Anting near Shanghai will be converted to produce vehicles based on the MEB platform.
Likewise, a FAW Volkswagen plant in Foshan will build electric cars on the MEB platform with production planned in 2020 for both plants.
