Volkswagen will invest 15 billion euros in China to bet on electric cars

British media said that the auto giant Volkswagen Group announced on the 24th that it will invest 150 billion euros (about 100 million US dollars) in electric and autonomous vehicles in China by 2022.

According to Agence France-Presse reported on April 24, Herbert Diss, the recently appointed Volkswagen Group CEO, said at a press conference in Beijing, "China is our second hometown" and the Chinese market is about to become the world. The largest electric vehicle market. He said that these funds, which will come from the Volkswagen Group and its joint venture partners in China, will make “making a car cleaner, safer and smarter, thus truly improving people's lives”.

Diss said that by 2021, the world's largest automaker plans to produce battery-powered cars at "at least six factories in China."

Diss also announced the formation of a new joint venture with China's Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co., Ltd. to launch a new car brand sol and introduce an electric SUV (sports utility vehicle) with a mileage of more than 300 kilometers after a single charge.

The Chinese auto market sold about 28.9 million units last year, and its market size may soon rival the combined market of the EU and the US. Volkswagen plans to launch about 40 new car models in the Chinese market in the next 8 years. The company said in a recently announced restructuring plan that it will set up a business unit focused on China.

Diss’ visit to the Beijing Auto Show, which opened on the 25th, was his first overseas visit since he replaced the former CEO of the public, Matthias Miller. Miller was a firefighter who responded to the crisis after Volkswagen’s “Diesel Door” scandal in 2015. During his tenure, Miller adjusted this huge group and its 12 brands to promote the development of electric vehicles, digital connectivity and autonomous driving. But the public has not yet emerged from its shadow of acknowledging the fraud in the exhaust emissions detection of 1,100 diesel vehicles around the world.

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