Volkswagen To Assemble Low-Priced, Joint-Venture EVs In China With JAC

A new brand will be created to market the budget electric cars manufactured with China’s Jianghuai Automobile (JAC) through a new joint venture, going by comments made by VW China chief Jochem Heizmann to the media at the recent Paris Motor Show.

Notably, no joint venture has actually been created as of yet between Volkswagen Group and JAC. Or at least no public announcements have been made as of yet.

The new, low-priced electric cars will reportedly be based on JAC’s electric car platform.

Automotive News provides more info: “Doing so would allow VW to quickly start EV production in China, Heizmann said. Last month, VW and JAC signed a memorandum to incorporate an EV joint venture. The two parties expect to ink a definitive agreement later this year. Heizmann also said that Volkswagen’s joint ventures with SAIC Motor Corp. and China FAW Group Corp. will produce EVs built on Volkswagen’s EMB platform for electric cars. That will occur in 2020 or 2021. Local EV production will allow VW to meet China’s increasingly strict fuel economy requirements as well as its requirements for EV production.”

Continuing: “By 2020, automakers operating in China must cut average fleet fuel consumption to 5 liters per 100 km, down from 6.9 liters as of last year. That would equate to an average fuel economy of 47 mpg, up from 34 mpg. In 2018, Beijing also plans to introduce a California-style carbon trading scheme that will require automakers with sales exceeding 50,000 vehicles to produce EVs locally.”

In contrast to much of the other news out there involving Volkswagen and electric vehicles, this news actually seems to have something solid behind it.