The German automaker is losing ground in China under pressure from young Chinese companies and wants to fight them with their own weapons — it will create a new youth electric car sub-brand , the first model of which will be a slightly modified and renamed Cupra Tavascan coupe crossover.
The production version of the Cupra Tavascan crossover debuted last month with a promise to start sales in 2024, the main surprise during the premiere was the country of origin of the novelty – China. The fact is that the Spanish Cupra brand is not officially represented in China, but the underlying reason was quickly revealed: the German business publication Automobilwoche, citing insiders, reported that Volkswagen was going to start selling Tavascan in China under a new youth sub-brand, that is, it will not be Cupra, but some other brand, name not yet revealed.
Cupra Tavascan
Volkswagen has dozens of factories, but specifically the Cupra Tavascan and its clone for the Chinese market will be produced at the Volkswagen (Anhui) plant in Hefei, Anhui Province. The history of this enterprise began in 2017 as a joint equal-share project between VW and JAC for the production of affordable passenger electric vehicles. VW initially intended to launch the Seat brand in China as part of this joint venture, but the Chinese authorities did not want to see another foreign brand and did not give the go-ahead, instead of Seat, the Sol brand appeared in China, which later became Sehol – today it is one of the JAC sub-brands. In 2020, VW became the main owner of a JAC joint venture with a 75% share and began preparations for the production of electric vehicles of its own design on the MEB platform, for this, the Volkswagen (Anhui) plant was modernized and expanded at the end of last year, its capacity increased from 100,000 to 350,000 cars a year.
Cupra Tavascan
In short, preparing for the launch of a new sub-brand is not a spontaneous decision, but rather a decision made a long time ago, it just seems especially relevant now. Statistics from CAAM (China Association of Automobile Manufacturers) for the first quarter of this year shows that the mass brands of the German concern are losing ground in China: the parent brand Volkswagen sold 442,203 vehicles during the specified period (-21.8% compared to January-March 2022) , having lost its absolute leadership and let BYD pass ahead (484,365 cars sold, + 67%). Audi sales totaled 123,673 units. (-10.4%), Jetta – 35,533 units. (-23.1%), Skoda – 6003 units. (-61.4%).
Cupra Tavascan
Recall that the Jetta brand was launched in 2019 specifically for China, but so far has not been doing well in attracting the young audience it was designed for. The Skoda brand, it seems, is of no interest to anyone in China at all and will soon leave the largest market on the planet. Now Volkswagen will be trying to appeal to young Chinese with a local counterpart to the Cupra brand, this time purely electric. Tavascan will be the first model of the new sub-brand, subsequent ones will not necessarily copy the European Cupra models, that is, some exclusive electric trains designed specifically for China are also possible.
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