Volkswagen sold 9 units of ID.7 in China in January

Volkswagen offered 9 items of its all-electric sedan ID.7 in China final month, down 99.6% from 2,269 items in January 2024. The German automaker offered solely 4,552 electrical automobiles (EVs), down 71% from 15,828 in January 2024.

Its best-selling automotive was the ID.3 hatchback, which offered 2,623 items, down 65.5% from the identical month final yr. It was adopted by ID.4 X, which offered 1,020 items, down 70% from final yr, and ID.4 Crozz, which offered 889, down 59.3% from final yr.

Volkswagen manufactures the ID. sequence of electrical vehicles, with its two primary joint ventures being SAIC and FAW. For instance, ID.4 X and ID.4 Crozz are almost the identical automotive however made with completely different Chinese language companions.

The ID.7 Vizzion, which offered 9 items in China in January, is made with FAW. Final yr, the SAIC three way partnership unveiled ID.7 S, a barely larger model of ID.7, however gross sales by no means actually took off, foreseeing the way forward for ID.7 Vizzion.

VW ID.7 Vizzion began pre-sales in China in November 2023 and launched a month later, in December, for 227,777 yuan (31,400 USD) for an RWD model with a 642 km CLTC vary, 84.8 kWh battery pack, and single 150 kW e-motor.

After rounds of reductions, the ID.7 RWD now begins at 197,700 yuan (27,200 USD), and the AWD model with 230 kW and 472 Nm peak torque begins at 232,700 yuan (32,000 USD).

Editor’s remark

Volkswagen ID.7 Vizzion is a Tesla Mannequin 3 competitor that needed to compete in China’s most dangerous market: the overcrowded 200,000 yuan (27,300 USD) sedan phase. The ID.7 needed to rival not simply Mannequin 3 but in addition a flood of recent electrical sedans from Chinese language EV startups and legacy automakers resembling BYD Seal, Xpeng P7i, Nio ET5, Xiaomi SU7, Zeekr 007, IM L6, and dozens of others. Furthermore, SUVs are rather more widespread in China than sedans, and they’re outselling them at 1:3.

Nevertheless, the Wolfsburg-based legacy maker had an opportunity – the Chinese language love Volkswagen. Particularly for older patrons, it’s a synonym for German high quality. Youthful patrons have a tendency extra to the brand new native EV startups, however even they know that Das Auto could make automotive.

And that’s the issue. They know easy methods to make automotive however don’t know easy methods to make good EVs for China. From speaking with dozens of EV patrons, I can inform that younger patrons not care about steering really feel, chassis, driving dynamics, construct high quality, and different stuff at which Volkswagen is finest. They need connectivity, OTA updates, watching a film within the automotive (many grownup individuals in China reside with their dad and mom, and that is utilizing the automotive as a “second front room”), reference to smartphones and residential home equipment, slim bezels on screens, no lagging, excellent UX and honest sufficient ADAS. And Volkswagen didn’t provide any of this on ID.7 and ID. sequence usually.

Nevertheless, I stay fairly optimistic about Volkswagen’s future in China. The corporate signaled they weren’t prepared to go away the biggest automaker on this planet. It doubled down on China, asserting heavy funding, and an “In China, for China” technique that fixed the product improvement cycle by partnering with or buying native startups and automakers. We’ll know extra when the primary Volkswagen EVs based mostly on the Xpeng platform or Audi’s based mostly on SAIC’s IM platform will launch. We’ll keep watch over that.