GermanyVolkswagen is preparing to sell some of its China-only cars in Europe. Brand CEO Thomas Schäfer told Autocar at the Paris motor show that Volkswagen is “getting ready for bringing one or more vehicles in from China.” He called them “selected imports”, meant to test the idea, and said they are “not to replace any of the existing vehicles.”
Our August report covered a feasibility study into building Chinese designs at underused European plants. Schäfer’s comments describe imports rather than European production, and he gave no decision, date or price.
What Schäfer said
Schäfer said Volkswagen has spent the past two years cutting both material and engineering cost in its China programme, working with partners in Europe and China, and that the cars are now cost-competitive in the Chinese market. Export has begun, he said, to the “global south and countries that have easier access from China than Europe, such as Australia and the Middle East.”
He gave one example of the kind of car he means: one that Volkswagen would not necessarily develop for Europe because it is “technically too big,” such as the ID.Era. Autocar describes it as a 5.2 m SUV. Of the three ID.Era models we cover, only the ID.Era 9X is that long, at 5,207 mm.
The candidates are Autocar’s list
Schäfer named the ID.Era but no other model. The other names in the story come from Autocar, which called the ID.Unyx 09 “one potential candidate” and suggested the ID.Aura T6 could sit above the ID.Tiguan in Europe. The ID.Unyx 09 is an electric sedan co-developed with Xpeng that opened pre-sales in China in September from 199,900 yuan (~$29,700), with its launch set for late October. The ID.Aura T6 is a 4,811 mm electric SUV.
Treat the list as a set of possibilities. Volkswagen has not confirmed any model for Europe, and it has not said what adapting a China-built car for European roads would involve.
