This evening offered no stage for the highest-ranking manager in the group. VW boss Oliver Blume only joins the 22 other men (yes, there is actually not a single woman among them) and cars in the headlights when the big show is already over. In Shanghai it was left to others to present the new top model of the electric Volkswagen family: the ID7 sedan. Above all, the managers of the Chinese VW partner companies SAIC and FAW were allowed to show the new battery car to several hundred journalists, most of them from China.
“In China, for China” is the credo that the group repeated that evening. For good reason: In the Chinese electric car market, German manufacturers are in the unfamiliar role of outsiders, including Volkswagen. The Wolfsburg-based company only had a five percent market share in electric vehicles sold in China last year, and VW is three times as strong when it comes to combustion engines. But the future in China is not cars with diesel or petrol engines, but those with battery drives. A look at the streets is enough to see this development, especially in the large metropolises. Electric cars are easy to recognize there by their green license plates. In Shanghai, for example, every second car will probably be battery-powered by this year.
The auto show in Shanghai begins on Tuesday, initially for press and trade visitors, and from Saturday also for all other visitors. After the major auto shows in China only took place nationally in the past three years due to the corona restrictions, international guests are now represented in Shanghai again. This is one of the reasons why the exhibition is considered a particularly important preview of the models with which manufacturers want to survive in the world’s largest car market in the coming years.
At VW, new impetus should also come from the ID7, which was also shown in Berlin and other cities at the same time. It will have the largest battery of any model in the main division to date, and it should have a range of up to 700 kilometers. VW will start building the Europe and North America variants of the ID7 at the Emden plant from the second half of the year. The Chinese version is being made in the People’s Republic itself. Unlike in Europe, limousines are still a big issue in China alongside SUVs. That’s why VW dedicates the really big show to the ID7 on the eve of the auto show. The shape and size of the new electric model ranges between the Passat and the former Phaeton luxury sedan. The starting price of the ID7 should be less than 60,000 euros.
“What works in China works anywhere in the world.”
But not only VW relies on high-priced models in Shanghai: Mercedes has been focusing on particularly expensive electric cars for some time. On the eve of the auto show, the people from Stuttgart grab the top price shelf right away. There, Mercedes is showing an electric Maybach for the first time – in SUV form, of course, based on the EQS luxury sedan.
And BMW is also all about luxury and performance. On the eve of the first day of the fair, the Munich company presented the top version of the i7 electric luxury sedan. With 660 horsepower, from zero to one hundred in 3.7 seconds, it is the Group’s fastest battery car to date. A treat for Chinese customers: the 31-inch screen with 8k resolution in the rear. And then there is also the premiere of a particularly brutal machine: The BMW XM with the addition “Red Label” is not an electric car, but a plug-in hybrid that, according to the manufacturer, can drive up to 83 kilometers using only electricity. Total power: 748 hp. There is also a market for such cars in China, BMW is convinced of that.
China is the group’s lead market: “What works in China works anywhere in the world,” says Development Board member Frank Weber. And it goes one better: “Munich is where we come from,” he explains. “But we are at home in China.”