Volkswagen is looking to develop cars outside Germany for the first time, according to a new report.
The German car giant plans to release about 30 electric vehicles in China over the next five years, and hoping to sell them around the world, as well as in China, it said on Tuesday.
VW said it found that supply-chain efficiencies such as battery procurement, lower labour costs and shorter development time-spans meant that production costs for some models in China were about half of 2023 production costs in Germany, a report by the Financial Times said.
The carmaker has an innovation centre in Hefei, in eastern China, with advanced testing facilities for modern car technology and batteries.
The company, which was the biggest carmaker in China in years gone by, said the traditional development cycle for a car was just over four years, but that had been reduced by about a third as local engineers had helped to achieve tighter integration.
In recent years, it has spent several billion euros to boost its car tech in a shift to producing electric vehicles and modern driving systems to help it compete against rivals such as BYD.
Read the full report: The FT.
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