Volkswagen Goes ROGUE to Retire “German Engineering” While Switching to “Made in China”...

Volkswagen be like “If Nike can do it with shoes, why not do it with cars? Lmao… 

Well, after decades  of selling “German engineering”, VW basically walked out and said, “Everything we can do, China can do better… cheaper… and faster.” And that’s exactly what they’re going to do now. 

Translation: This didn’t age too well…

(Source: X.com) 

In short, according to reports,  the company’s new Hefei R&D complex…  stocked with more labs than an early-2000s CSI episode…  has convinced VW that it can build whole EVs in China at roughly half the cost of doing it back in Germany. Half. As in: the new era of luxury being built by the hands of children. Why? Because in Hefei, software validation, hardware testing, and full-vehicle integration all happen at once instead of being passed around like a corporate Secret Santa gift nobody wants. Suddenly the development cycle drops by 30%, and VW engineers can finally ship something before the market shifts again.

(Source: Zerohedge) 

For instance, the plan is simple: Make the cars in China, sell them in China… and then start exporting them out of China too. Borders be damned. In turn, Volkswagen wants to drop around 30 China-made EV models in the next half-decade. Bold strategy Cotton. To be fair though, the company genuinely needs it. Chinese EV makers have been body-checking VW out of its former dominance for years. So VW did what legacy automakers eventually do when the existential dread becomes too loud: move in, spend billions, and hope proximity to the people beating you will somehow fix everything.

What’s more is that VW has already poured nearly €4 billion into China since 2022… including partnerships with Xpeng and Horizon Robotics to build AI chips for autonomous features. Meanwhile, Germany is over here quietly downsizing 35,000 jobs by 2030… presumably because in Europe there’s higher labor costs (duh), sluggish European demand, and the cruel reality that China can crank out EVs like they’re producing TikTok dances. As a result, this has pushed VW to quietly back away from its own country.

(Source: Giphy) 

As for the long game, VW’s “in China, for China” motto is already turning into something closer to: “In China, for everyone, because this whole thing is getting too expensive.” And sadly, they’re right. China’s supply chain is a cheat code. Faster approvals, easier battery sourcing, integrated ecosystem, engineers who ship instead of workshop PowerPoints for nine months… it’s all there.

Meaning, Volkswagen didn't just notice the writing on the wall… they’re renting the wall and writing on it themselves: German engineering is now Chinese-powered. What a time to be alive I tell ya. Until next time, friends… 

At the time of publishing, Stocks.News does not hold position in companies mentioned in the article.