Joint venture leaders vow even broader, deeper partnership
After 30 years of successful cooperation that in many ways represents the pinnacle of success in the world’s largest car market, China FAW Corporation Limited and Audi AG are driving into a new era of partnership.
Since the deal with FAW in 1988 to produce Audi 100 sedans, the German marque has been the pioneer and exemplar in China’s premium car segment.
Among other achievements, Audi has topped the sales chart for three decades, delivering more than 5 million units in the country, and has ranked first in sales and after-sales services for 23 years by JD Power.
Building on those laurels, the two sides are now vowing to take their partnership to a new level.
With a focus on valuechain innovation, their future cooperation will cover a wide range of aspects, including the introduction of new models, enhancing local research and development and offering mobility services.
“China’s automotive industry is entering into a new era, and we will actively strengthen our partnership with Audi and Volkswagen Group as a whole in a more open-minded way and at an even higher level,” FAW Chairman Xu Liuping said.
Alexander Seitz, an Audi board member responsible for China operations, noted that China has become the strongest growth engine for Audi and that the company is therefore determined to focus even more strongly on the market.
According to Seitz, the premium carmaker will speed up efforts to introduce more China-specific models so as to better meet the demands of customers in the fast-evolving Chinese market.
A number of models are around the corner, including the Q2L e-tron, Audi’s first electrified model designed for China, and the e-tron, the carmaker’s first pure electric SUV. By 2022, FAW-Volkswagen will localize five Audi new energy vehicles.
Liu Yigong,board member and president of FAWVolkswagen, expects Audi to become a leading player in China’s fast growing new energy vehicle market by 2025, with 30 percent of its China sales being such vehicles.
New technologies including digitalization and mobility services are another pillar of the two partner’s future cooperation, as outlined in a 10-year business plan FAW and Audi signed in 2017.
Volkswagen Group said it is planning to invest 15 billion euros through 2022 for new technologies in FAW-Volkswagen.
A new mobility company is expected to be set up in 2019, which will allow the two partners to advance their joint commitment in this expanding premium business segment.
Marco Schubert, president of FAW-Volkswagen’s Audi sales division, said Audi will seize the initiative and integrate such factors as electrification and connectivity into its cars, thus better meeting the demands of China’s customers.
Schubert said that through the joint venture, Audi has gained a deeper understanding of China, facilitating its efforts to offer vehicles and features that Chinese people value.
The two partners are to further enhance local abilities in research and development in the country.
“We are fully committed to our partners and friends in FAW. We are going to expand our cooperation with FAW by building up further local R&D capacities,” said Herbert Diess, CEO of the Volkswagen Group.
Over the past decades of development, FAW-Volkswagen, a partnership Audi joined in 1996, has built state-of-theart research facilities and manufacturing plants with first-class quality control and supplies.
In coming years, Liu said, FAW-Volkswagen will continuously increase the involvement of the Chinese team in Audi’s research and development. “Now, the Chinese team is around 30 percent involved, but we will exceed 50 percent by 2025. Our goal is that FAW-Volkswagen conducts research and development of Audi models,” he said.
China’s automotive industry is entering into a new era, and we will actively strengthen our partnership with Audi and Volkswagen Group as a whole...”
Xu Liuping, chairman of FAW