In May this year, domestic sales of domestic brands increased by 12% year-on-year to 980,000 vehicles, with a market share of 57.6%, a year-on-year increase of 7.3 percentage points. However, sales of joint venture brands in May were only 490,000 vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 21%.
Today, I am afraid that all foreign brands have already confirmed one fact - if they want to gain a foothold in today's Chinese automobile market, relying on the old methods will only lead to exhaustion.
Now, if you want to fool the Chinese by lengthening the original model, they will not buy it; if you want to send a few foreign engineers to China and call it "in China for China", it will probably be difficult to convince the public. Only by truly establishing a research and development center here and getting as close to the Chinese market as possible in terms of technology, talents, concepts, etc., can you survive in the market.
Not to mention the Japanese, American, Korean, French and other automobile brands that have relatively weak foundations in China, even Volkswagen, which has been deeply rooted in China for 40 years, now has to do this.
At present, the electric vehicles with the ID+ digital tail label series (ID.3, ID.4, etc.) launched by Volkswagen North and South are already among the "best" among joint venture brands, but compared with Chinese brand electric vehicles, their scale is still small.
Intelligence is considered by both the outside world and the inside to be the weak link of mass-market electric vehicles. At the same time, cost control is also a huge obstacle that foreign electric vehicle brands need to overcome when facing Chinese brands.
To this end, Volkswagen’s third joint venture in China, “Volkswagen Anhui”, came into being.
"Volkswagen Anhui" is just a general concept, which includes Volkswagen (Anhui) Digital Sales Service Co., Ltd., Volkswagen (Anhui) Parts Co., Ltd., and Volkswagen (China) Technology Co., Ltd. From vehicle manufacturing to parts supply, from three-electric research and development to intelligent research and development, everything is done here.
Public information shows that Volkswagen (China) Technology Co., Ltd. is the largest R&D center of the Volkswagen Group outside its headquarters in Germany. It is one of the bases for this German automobile manufacturing giant to prove that it has enough strength to conquer Chinese consumers again in the era of smart electric vehicles.
As Volkswagen's first smart electric coupe SUV, ID. UNYX is an important step in its transformation to new energy and an important part of its layout for future travel. The suffix "UNYX" reminds us of "different". The meaning is reflected in the literal meaning, that is, to create a product that is "different" from Volkswagen's previous electric vehicles and electric vehicles of competitors.
On July 17, Volkswagen Anhui's first model ID. was officially launched. The new car has three versions: Pro long-range, Ultra long-range, and Max high-performance. The official guide price is 209,900 yuan to 249,900 yuan.
Recently, we test drove this "unique" electric car in Beijing. In general, its design is very original, and its body lines and posture are more combative, enough to arouse young people's desire to drive. In terms of driving orientation, it maintains the typical traditional style of large manufacturers - not simply pursuing straight-line acceleration, but paying more attention to comprehensive driving control quality.
ID.'s target users are Chinese urban consumers who pursue a new lifestyle, and it aims to meet this group's pursuit of the latest technological lifestyle and driving experience.
The ID. is the first car to use the gold Volkswagen logo, and gold elements can be seen everywhere. The front and rear of the car and the wheels are decorated with gold, and the front and rear lamp bowls and grille air curtains are cleverly decorated with gold, which perfectly expresses its uninhibited style.
ID. has adopted a strong texture design, reflecting a full personality and emotion. The swooping front is matched with a sharp parallel waistline and a large sloping back, and the lines full of tension and the light and shadow of the surface outline the powerful coupe shape. The inclined A-pillar and the elegant roof streamline form a dynamic body proportion.
The X-shaped front face breaks the traditional SUV design framework, making the ID.'s unique body posture more dynamic and sharp. The front bumper's perforated wind blade air curtain and the four spoiler diffusers at the bottom fully combine aerodynamic design, which not only brings visual impact, but also improves aerodynamic performance.
ID. has adopted a space floating roof, and the high-gloss black A-pillar connects the windshield to the side glass, creating a panoramic effect similar to the sun visor of a racing car. The 21-inch low-drag mecha wheels are semi-enclosed, which enhances the visual tension of the side and effectively reduces wind resistance.
In terms of interior design, ID.'s unique interior design is driver-centric. The new car adopts an embracing sports cockpit, focusing on the concept of "only me". The window line extends from the front windshield to the side windows, tightly surrounding the driver and the front passenger; the central control screen is tilted towards the driver, which is convenient for the driver to operate and read; the formula touch steering wheel is wrapped with Microfiber skin-friendly material, has a built-in heating function, supports HOD capacitor hands-off monitoring, and feels comfortable to hold.
The HERO sports seats that ID. is equipped with are ergonomically designed to provide good support during intense driving. The entire series is equipped with 12-way electric adjustment and massage functions as standard.
The seat fabric continues Volkswagen's "Leather-Free Animal-Friendly" concept. The light-colored interior uses Microfiber microfiber velvet, and innovatively uses a more futuristic parametric design 3D laser-carved texture. At the same time, the dark-colored interior uses microfiber leather material, which is delicate and skin-friendly to the touch without losing a sense of luxury.
ID.'s unique cockpit uses a lot of gold elements as decoration to achieve unity inside and outside. HERO flying wing gold trim is inlaid under the seat headrest. The gold elements are matched with multi-color soft light ambient lights and door panel dot matrix starry sky lights to create a unique and exclusive atmosphere.
The unique IQ.Light intelligent matrix LED headlights of ID. adopt the new Volkswagen design language, with a unique U-shaped design and gold elements embedded in the lamp cavity. On both sides of the car body, the front and rear dynamic welcome lights are full of ceremonial sense.
The streamer three-dimensional taillights use 3D Surface LED technology. Advanced light-guiding materials achieve uniform light emission and consistent brightness. The three-layer three-dimensional laminated shape looks like it is suspended in mid-air. The Super Red superconducting red light makes the vehicle eye-catching while driving, ensuring driving safety while also enhancing the sense of fashion.
As the first model of Volkswagen equipped with the ID.S 5.0 car system, the ID.'s intelligent cockpit fully adopts the UNYX.OS operating system. The new HMI interaction and flat design allow users to experience more intuitive operation logic and get started easily. Compared with other models in the Volkswagen ID series, there is no longer a row of physical buttons under the center console, but the buttons are integrated into the touch screen.
ID. has put a lot of effort into in-car intelligent voice interaction. The AI smart partner with thousands of faces can provide users with a brand new voice interaction experience. Users can not only highly customize the image of the smart assistant, but also set it according to their personal preferences through face pinching, dressing, movements, real-person voice cloning, etc. to create a personal exclusive AI partner.
In terms of driving, the ID.'s acceleration is not aggressive, with the single-motor and dual-motor versions accelerating from 0 to 100 km/h in 7.7 seconds and 5.6 seconds respectively. It doesn't look fast, but it feels good enough, not to mention that in reality, it's rare to achieve the "3-second acceleration" that electric vehicles love to pursue.
In contrast, the latest high-performance chassis system of Volkswagen equipped in ID. is the key to the vehicle's good driving. The chassis system includes the DCC adaptive chassis adjustment system and the MEB two-stage flexible vibration isolation system, which achieves smoother power and more stable driving control. This system dynamically adjusts the damping softness and hardness of the shock absorber through the real-time road condition information received by the sensor, ensuring that different driving needs from comfort to sport can be met.
Thanks to the 50:50 front and rear axle weight distribution, the new car's starting acceleration performance, braking performance and cornering handling performance are all improved. At the same time, as a handling setting that favors rear-wheel drive performance cars, this car is equipped with a mixed tire width that is only used on high-performance sports models. The asymmetric mixed tire width of 235mm front/255mm rear makes the rear wheels have stronger grip, which not only makes straight-line acceleration more stable, but also prevents the car from drifting out when cornering at high speed.
Born in Volkswagen's Anhui MEB smart factory, ID. has a layout design that is more in line with the needs of Chinese users, freeing up more space for steering and effectively increasing the steering angle of the front wheels. The ultra-small turning radius of 4.7m enables easy cornering. The four-wheel drive version of ID. allows the driver to turn around by turning the steering wheel 1.3 times in one direction. The flexible steering was fully demonstrated on the "gymkhana" track at the event site.
The car has five driving modes and two adjustable energy recovery brakes to meet the driving habits of different users. In addition, the D gear has weak energy recovery, which can increase the vehicle's gliding distance when driving at high speeds; the B gear has strong energy recovery, and the motor can be used to recover energy when the accelerator pedal is released, reducing the use of brakes.
At present, in order to seize the market opportunity, some emerging companies will launch quasi-production vehicles that have not yet completed road testing, and use OTA to cover up the shortcomings of the vehicle's own quality. This is not allowed to happen to Volkswagen.
It is understood that the Volkswagen ID. has undergone 120 vehicle crash tests, covering 43 types of crashes, and 436 battery safety tests, covering all levels of battery cells, modules, and battery packs. In addition, the new car has undergone 3.5 million kilometers of two winter and two summer tests. When some new cars use words such as "it only took 18 months from project establishment to listing" to boast about their R&D speed in their publicity, Volkswagen still chooses to use this "stupid" method to steadily complete the "breeding" process of a car, which is not easy in the era of impetuous car manufacturing.
