The German brand has recently faced a lot of competition from Chinese car brands, which are coming out with new and cheaper e-cars at a much faster pace. Toyota, along with Volkswagen, the world’s largest automaker, is also losing market share in China. Traditional automakers are used to revamping a model every few years. They are struggling to keep up with the pace of Chinese automakers.
For example, BYD, which has achieved great success in the Chinese market, presented an electric model for just over 10,000 euros at the Shanghai Motor Show. According to the manufacturer, this Seagull can drive 300 to 400 kilometers on a battery charge, depending on the size of the battery.
Volkswagen and Toyota can’t reconcile this: Their cheapest models cost three times as much as the Seagull. Despite recent price cuts, Tesla can’t come close to Chinese budget cars. The American manufacturer of e-cars is not present at this year’s auto show.
According to VW CEO Ralf Brandstaetter, his group wants to speed up development with the new research center. Volkswagen expects to be able to bring new models to market 30 percent faster in the future.
Although a significant investment, the billion Volkswagen announced on Tuesday pales in comparison to the €120 billion the car group announced in March to accelerate its electrification and digitalization strategy.
“Total coffee specialist. Hardcore reader. Incurable music scholar. Web guru. Freelance troublemaker. Problem solver. Travel trailblazer.”
More Stories
Bitcoin celebrates record and will Cardano and Bitcoin Cash merge?
Man Loses $68 Million Worth of Bitcoin Due to ‘Address Poisoning’
$4 Billion in Cryptocurrencies Will Be Issued in May: Get Ready