Volkswagen wants to become more agile with new R&D centre in China

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After Volkswagen recently lost market share in China, the German car manufacturer has to take countermeasures. The company now intends to invest around 1 billion euros in setting up an R&D centre. The focus will be on the networking of vehicles.

www.eenewsautomotive.com/, Apr. 19, 2023 – 

As the car manufacturer announced at the Shanghai Autoshow, it intends to establish a subsidiary under the name "100%TechCo", which with its novel concept is to shorten the development of new products and technologies by 30%. To this end, 100%TechCo will not work like an ordinary development department, but will also be responsible for the procurement of the corresponding components. In this way, synergies in the development process are to be leveraged and state-of-the-art technologies – in this case technologies developed in China – are to be integrated into product development at an early stage. Overall, the model policy is to become more nimble and agile in order to be able to react more quickly to customer wishes.

In addition, the company is to dovetail the development projects of all joint ventures of the VW Group in China and thus bring SAIC Volkswagen, FAW-VW and Volkswagen Anhui closer to the product and technology strategy of the VW Group. The same should apply to the strategic partnership with Horizon Robotics. Horizon Robotics is considered one of the leading providers of hardware and software solutions for automated driving in China.

Volkswagen sees the establishment of the company as an important step in its China strategy. The bundling of development and procurement will make it possible to integrate local suppliers into the projects at an early stage and thus significantly accelerate the pace of development, explained Ralf Brandstätter, Group Board Member for the China region.

The new company, based in the city of Hefei, is scheduled to start operations in 2024. To start with, 2000 skilled workers are to be employed there. Marcus Hafkemeyer, who currently acts as Chief Technology Officer of Volkswagen Group China, is earmarked for the position of CEO.

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