¿ Sabías que Europa puso aranceles al vehículo eléctrico de China y eso les afecta incluso a algunos modelos - marcas de Europa que se fabrican allí ?.

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#vw | Michael Sura | 25 comments

A few weeks ago, Volkswagen unveiled a new all-electric SUV ID. Unyx 08 that is based on the e-SUV XPeng  G9's platform and technology.  VW has started to implement the "In China for China" philosophy, which involves creating products and technologies tailored for the Chinese market by combining local R&D, manufacturing, and strategic partnerships. SUV ID. Unyx 08 is a part of a new sub-brand and is developed in China, with local partners like Xpeng, to better compete in the Chinese electric vehicle market. The exact date and pricing for the ID. UNYX 08's release in China are still unknown, but the first model is expected to launch in 2026. In July 2023, VW Group and XPENG formed a strategic partnership, with VW investing around $700 million for a 4.99% share in XPENG. This partnership focuses on jointly developing new electric vehicles for the Chinese market and collaborating on software and platform technology. There was talk about XPENG developing a software-defined vehicle concept for VW in the Chinese market, but for now, it seems that their collaboration is just about rebadging XPENG models. In this example, we see how VW struggles to transform into a modern car manufacturer that produces EVs keeping pace with the global leaders. Modern EVs are about SW, and former CEO Herbert Diess understood this. He successfully pushed for the idea of establishing the software house CARIAD to develop software in-house, similar to Tesla, Rivian, Lucid, BYD, and others. CARIAD was founded by the Volkswagen Group in 2020. This company focused on automotive SW and is responsible for building a unified SW platform for all the brands under the Volkswagen Group, with the ambition to become Europe's largest software company following SAP. However, the goals that VW promised from CARIAD were not met, so in 2024, VW signed a contract worth 5 billion EUR for the development of SDV and E/E architecture with the US car manufacturer Rivian, without CARIAD's involvement. In this case, VW can't be criticized much; they tried to establish an in-house software company, but it didn't work out for several reasons, the main one being a lack of experience in managing a big SW company. The fate of VW is quite similar to that of Nokia. Nokia failed due to a combination of factors: slow to adapt to the smartphone revolution, a failure to recognize the significance of software over hardware, and a corporate culture that was inflexible and very resistant to change. Nokia phones still exist as rebadged Chinese phones produced under a licensing arrangement with the Finnish firm HMD Global. I really don't want VW to end up like Nokia. On the contrary, I liked VW for trying, even though unsuccessfully, to transform into an SW company under the visionary Herbert Diess, which unfortunately did not succeed. It only shows how the VW Group is struggling to adapt quickly to the fast-paced shift towards modern BEVs. What's your take? #VW | 25 comments on LinkedIn