As the warm spring sun in Hefei shines through the glass curtain wall of the Volkswagen (China) Technology Co., Ltd. building and onto everyone's faces, Volkswagen China CEO Bared is standing at the table in the office area, waving his hands and having an impassioned conversation with hundreds of engineers around him.
This scene appeared in the content published by Baird's personal Weibo on February 21. This professional manager, who was called "precise as a gearbox" by Germany's Manager Magazine, shattered the inherent reserve of senior executives of multinational auto companies with this moment that was almost a performance art.
In a Weibo post a day ago, he had just held an exchange with senior executives of various Volkswagen China entities in Anhui, reviewed the achievements made at this stage, and discussed the development blueprint for 2025 and the future.
In the same week, Bared also completed the second meeting in six months with Liang Yanshun, Secretary of the Anhui Provincial Party Committee, and Wang Qingxian, Governor of Anhui Province. From the desk under the incandescent light to the podium under the spotlight, and then to the negotiation table for government-enterprise cooperation, Bared's itinerary is like a microcosm of Volkswagen China's strategic transformation - a Chinese-style breakthrough in speed, localization and innovation.
In two consecutive Weibo posts released within 48 hours, Baird revealed three key pieces of information: new models based on the CMP pure electric platform and CEA electronic and electrical architecture will be launched this year; local intelligent driving solutions have made breakthroughs; and the Chinese team has gained unprecedented decision-making weight. Compared with the "five-year plan" when Volkswagen Anhui R&D Center was established in 2021, the current technology iteration cycle has been compressed to 18 months.
The CEA architecture is regarded as the core of this transformation. The CEA electronic and electrical architecture has three breakthrough significances. First, the architecture reduces the number of vehicle control units by 30%, and reduces hardware costs and improves software development efficiency through highly integrated domain controllers, directly targeting Tesla's electronic and electrical architecture evolution path. Second, the intelligent driving system integration solution jointly developed with Xiaopeng Motors marks the first time that Volkswagen has adopted a "technology input" rather than "technology output" cooperation model for core technology. Third, the 24-month development cycle is set to compress 55% compared to the traditional R&D system, reflecting that Volkswagen is adapting to the rhythm of the Chinese market.
Industry analysts pointed out that the CEA architecture is not only a technological upgrade, but also a restructuring of the organizational structure. Volkswagen is shifting the focus of decision-making from its R&D system, which was originally scattered in Wolfsburg, Munich and Beijing, to China.
In Hefei Economic Development Zone, more than 2,000 engineers in Volkswagen VCTC are conducting R&D experiments at "China Speed". The team has led the development of an L2+ autonomous driving system adapted to local road scenarios. Its data training model includes more than 1.2 million kilometers of special road conditions in China, from spiral interchanges in Chongqing to heavy rain in Guangzhou.
This deep localization is also reshaping the supply chain.
Take Anhui as an example. It is becoming the core fulcrum of Volkswagen China's electrification layout. In 2024, Anhui's new energy vehicle production will reach 1.684 million units, accounting for 1/8 of the national total, and automobile exports will rank first in the country with 1.4 million units. On this land, Volkswagen Anhui is not only the group's first joint venture in China focusing on new energy, but its smart manufacturing base has become a benchmark for Volkswagen's global factories with a scale of 510,000 square meters and an automation rate of 1,200 robots. Liang Yanshun, secretary of the Anhui Provincial Party Committee, repeatedly emphasized in the talks that "you can build a new energy vehicle without leaving Anhui", and behind it is a full industrial chain ecosystem built by more than 1,200 parts companies. And this has also become the confidence for Volkswagen Anhui to fully accelerate the development of new cars and subsequent supporting facilities.
Public reports show that the domain controller of Volkswagen's new Chinese models will use the Horizon Journey 5 chip, the smart cockpit system will be customized and developed by Thundersoft, and the battery management system will be jointly debugged with CATL. At the software level, the VW.OS 2.0 system jointly developed by Volkswagen and a Shanghai startup has achieved deep ecological integration such as the WeChat car version and Meituan charging.
Baird emphasized "delivery this year" three times on Weibo, reflecting the urgency of its transformation. Facing BYD's "Eye of God" and Huawei's "autonomous intelligence" Xiaopeng XNGP full-scenario intelligent assisted driving, Volkswagen needs to prove its speed of "elephant turning".
Although it is "urgent", we must have strategic determination. Volkswagen's plan for 5 new cars in 2025 includes Audi's first mass-produced car based on the PPE platform and a pure electric B-class car built in cooperation with Xiaopeng; the three core technologies focus on intelligent networking, electronic architecture and battery technology46. Baird compares competition to a "marathon" rather than a "sprint". In his plan, Volkswagen will build a "technology-market-manufacturing" trinity moat through cost reduction in the local supply chain, expansion of the export market (such as the Cupra Tavascan model, which exports 25,000 units to Asia and the Middle East annually), and a roadmap to launch 30 pure electric models by 2030. Lowe, founder of consulting firm Automobility, believes: "Volkswagen is building a full-chain local ecosystem from hardware to software, from research and development to production. This deep binding has no precedent among multinational automakers."
Even if you are emotionally prepared, the challenges are obvious.
Brands such as BYD, Huawei, Xiaomi, and Xiaopeng have occupied nearly 40% of China's new energy market in 2024 with their flexible decision-making mechanisms and highly vertically integrated smart electric vehicle ecosystems. Although Volkswagen's pure electric models have exceeded 200,000 units in China, they are still not enough in the overall new energy vehicle base of more than 10 million units. "China's new energy vehicles are developing too fast. The leading automakers can sell more than 200,000 units a month. For Volkswagen, there is not much time to slowly iterate." Mei Songlin, a senior analyst in the automotive industry, said last year.
On the other hand, Volkswagen's new energy vehicles rely more on the "price for volume" strategy. For example, the ID.3 once reduced its price by 51,000 yuan for promotion, resulting in a low profit margin per vehicle. In contrast, Ideal Auto achieved profitability when it sold 15,000 vehicles per month, and BYD reduced costs by 40% through vertical integration of the supply chain. Therefore, in addition to the issue of whether the technology is leading, Volkswagen also needs to "grasp the chicken and the egg" between the localization of the new energy vehicle supply chain and sales.
As Volkswagen Group recently announced that it would increase the sales profit margin of the Volkswagen brand from 2% to 6.5%, and China is Volkswagen's core market, the burden on the helmsman, Bared, is not light.
