VW to set up own sub brand – joining GM, Honda and Nissan

Industry News | Ash | January 20, 2011 at 2:42 pm

Volkswagen have already worked on the VW Bora and VW Lavida for the Chinese markets with their Chinese partners and with this extreme level of localization they managed to gain two major sales winners, now VW are planning to recreate the localization recipe for another new car.

VW China CEO, Karl-Thomas Neumann was quoted by China Daily as saying “The Chinese government has been promoting Chinese brands for some time. We are currently in talks with our Chinese partners” “In general, we see a local brand as an opportunity to enter new market segments, especially those we have not been able to get into so far”. So it appears that rumors that VW are working on a sub brand for the Chinese market do have some truth in them. GM, Honda and Nissan are already working on their own sub brands so it seems that the next logical step would be for VW to jump onto the bandwagon before it leaves town without them.

VW announced earlier this month that they are planning to boost their Chinese war chest with a 10.6 billion Euro investment over the next five years, making it the biggest ever investment by a foreign car maker into the Chinese market.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.