Volkswagen New brand will be launched in Germany

VW does a quite good job at different market segments by having variable brands with different market positionings. Recently, IIA learned that the new sub-brand of Volkswagen will be officially released on Feb 26th in Wolfsburg, Germany. The launching of the new brand is to further meet the needs of young consumers in the Chinese auto market. The new brand will be introduced to China by FAW-Volkswagen and FAW-VW will also be responsible for production and sales.

Volkswagen’s new sub-brand production capacity planning

It is reported that in the next year the new brand may launch a total of 3 models, including A SUV, A+SUV and A SH sedan. The A SH sedan will be based on the Jetta series and will adopt the current power combination.

FAW-Volkswagen has assigned the production capacity of SAGITAR of Chengdu East Plant to the new sub-brand. After the technical transformation, the production capacity of A SUV will be 75k units per year. The production capacity of A+SUV will be 150k units/year and the capacity of A SH sedan will be 75k units/year.

The A SUV is positioned as a compact SUV. The A+SUV is 200mm longer than the A SUV. The A+SUV has a body size of 4600/1841/1611mm and a wheelbase of 2730mm.

Volkswagen's new sub-brand will focus on the lower-level market, which will meet the needs of young consumers with a chic and practical style. In addition, according to previous reports, the new brand is expected to compete with Chinese brands in the price range of 60k-150k yuan.

Three major brands of FAW-VW aim at different market segments

As the third brand after FAW-VW and FAW-AUDI, the new brand will have a very different pricing to fill market gaps

FAW-AUDI is positioned as a luxury brand, focusing on the technology and the luxurious experience. All the latest technologies will be adopted in its flagship models. FAW-Volkswagen is positioned as the mid-range brand, focusing on the practicality and quality and the pricing is more acceptable.

Volkswagen is going to compete with Chinese brands in the market with the price below 100k yuan by launching a new brand. In the under 100k yuan market, Haval, Geely and some other Chinese brands have taken up most of the market share for a long time. The launching of the new VW brand is expected to change the current market structure, which will also have an impact on Chinese automakers.