VW to expand BEV production in China

VW is significantly expanding its production capacities for electric cars in China. Together with the third MEB plant in Anhui, the annual production capacity will increase to up to 900,000 units in 2023, as VW China now reveals.

Until now, the production capacity of the plant in Anhui was not known. As the existing plants in Anting (by SAIC-VW) and Foshan (FAW-VW) are known to be designed for 300,000 units per year each, the third plant in Anhui will also come up to this production capacity.

Construction of the Anhui plant has been underway since April 2021, and the plant is scheduled to be completed in mid-2022 and go into operation in the second half of 2023. In contrast to the two previous MEB plants in China, VW is calling the shots at this plant: at the end of 2020, VW had taken a 75 per cent majority stake in the joint venture with JAC and renamed the company from JAC Volkswagen to Volkswagen Anhui. In the other two joint ventures, the Chinese partners still have at least a 50 per cent stake.

Production capacity for MEB cars in China is already well above demand. Last year VW was able to deliver 70,625 ID. models in China. However, it must also be mentioned that VW only started deliveries of the ID.4 and later the ID.6 during the course of the year – towards the end of the year, deliveries increased after a slow start, with 13,747 electric cars delivered in December alone. So 2022 will be the first full year, VW is currently planning for 140,000 deliveries.

Even if VW can double its MEB deliveries in China as planned, the production capacities of soon 900,000 vehicles would not be nearly exhausted. This would free up capacities for export models. In October, there was a report that VW was planning to do just that with the seven-seat electric SUV – there was already talk of concrete unit numbers (15,000 units per year). So far, however, VW has not announced the move.

According to its own targets, VW will soon need the production capacities in China for the market there anyway. By 2025, the Wolfsburg-based company wants to sell around 1.5 million new energy vehicles per year in China. Officially, this includes BEVs, PHEVs and FCEVs, but in Volkswagen’s case it is likely to be primarily battery-electric cars.

welt.de (in German)