Volkswagen's China Problem

Writing by Sam Denby, Tristan Purdy, and Christine Benedetti
Editing by Alexander Williard
Animation led by Max Moser
Sound by Graham Haerther
Thumbnail by Simon Buckmaster

References

[Red_crane]

Another issue not mentioned: VWs pricing. They repeatedly cut their cheap options in favor of focusing on luxury, where margins are bigger. The issue being, that's what others did too and VW isn't known as a luxury brand. Best case they cannibalize themselves by poaching Audis target audience, worst case they don't have any customers at all.

[bobthebandit]

Oh thank god we hadn’t had a “A’s B Problem” title in 3 whole months. I was starting to get worried

[antoniogilles]

In my country (Colombia), BYD popularity is boosting, they sell much cheaper EVs. Meanwhile VW doesn't even sell hybrid cars yet 😬

[dimes]

VW literally means "people's car". they forget about the people, and the people abandon them

[Morpheus-ptwq]

That´s not just VW China problem; that´s VW worldwide problem.

[Karlschubo]

Love the license plate on the thumbnail VW 😅
Means "worried" in German

[godzillamothra]

In Hangzhou, China, there is an annual car show for problematic cars, supported by the Chinese government. It is the most terrifying car shows for carmakers in the world. Customers with problematic cars will bring their cars to the show, and tell the world about what is wrong with their cars, sometimes comically, there was one customer who hang IV drip on his car, LOL. Meanwhile carmakers will send their agents to wait outside, trying to prevent their dissatisfied customers from entering the event, by offering them to solve their car problems or offering to buy back their cars, or sometimes try to prevent them from entering physically, which of course illegal. Inside the event, plenty of foreign cars, many from German carmakers including Mercedez and BMW, and of course some from domestic ones too.

[rafario]

14:00
Brazilian here, never saw a VW EV on the road, but BYD i've been seeing more and more.


VW also completely screwed up big time the brazilian market. I don't have any idea why the hell, in a moment where brazilians are complaining that cars are extremely expensive, they remove from production their cheapest models (Gol and Fox) trying to push to the target audience of these vehicles the Polo, a more expensive model, while shifting focus to much more expensive crossovers and SUVs like the Nivus, T-cross and Tiguan.

FOCUSING ON SUVS... ON BRAZIL!!! WHAT ARE THEY THINKING? That brazilian roads and parking spaces become all out sudden wide and large!?

How can a company be so out of touch with the current reality of a country!????

[Nightstalker]

VW used to sell cheap & reliable cars to germans. They kinda forgot about what made them great.

[MaskedMageYT]

dealerships are the real problem. Forced middlemen by law, toyota would cut you a deal to move inventory but a dealership wont. same with VW or any other brand.

[yellowcrescent]

Do people actually buy EVs because they want a fancy touchscreen monitor on the dashboard and a whole OS worth of software? Personally I hate the trend of getting rid of physical controls, buttons, etc. and the idea of having to update my vehicle's software every week is worrying. And I def don't need a big ass touchscreen in the center of the car. Ideally it would display engine and other diagnostic info + basic infotainment with Google/Apple/etc. connectivity -- no built-in maps, games, or other stuff that your phone or tablet can provide via mirroring.

[tomney]

Sam seems to be getting over his plane addiction by developing a car addiction. I’m proud of him.

[thesailboatking]

BYD is not just Volkswagen's problem, it's Tesla, GM, etc problem too.

[THE_BATLORD]

Only German engineers would look to fix their software issues by simultaneously making three from-scratch OS's because One JUST isn't good enough

[Mediarahan]

I DO NOT want a tech rich EV. I want a barebones (but crash safe) commuter with basic navigation tech to drive to work and pile miles on. I don't need it to do 0-60 in 3 seconds or less, I don't need it to drive for me, I don't need it to do 400 miles on one charge, I don't need it to look like a spaceship. I need it to be a safe car to go from A-B in town. Nothing more. Surely there is an untapped market of Millennials and Gen Z that don't care what their car is like, and are basically forced to own one (because it's the only way to travel in most parts of the US) that would rather buy something convenient, low maintenance, and cheap.

[DeniSaputta]

10:38 In 2021. Old OEMs like Geely find it difficult to develop software . Their solution was to buy the 11th largest mobile phone company in the world"Meizu". And ask that company to make software for Geely group cars.

[MrManafon]

There are some things you got wrong - making an EV is not in fact significantly different, gimmicks are. What is different is that every car company seems to think that making the crappiest EV, with the most gimmicks, will do the trick. Nobody cares about 0-50 or led lights with a logo or a robot vacuum. We all just want 600km range, 320kw charging and a super solid assist. We want to recycle batteries and be able to fix the car in a local shop. Thats it. And yet, they all try to superficially imitate Tesla and end up costing insanely expensive.

[feuby]

There is litterally no need for elaborate software in EV. This is stupidity from car manufacturers to make it like luxury products with self driving, lane keeping, and speed keeping things. If I could get a 10k$ cut on the prices to just get the basics : motor, battery, and ICE safeties, then I'd take it. No need to make entertainement systems, no need to put touchscreens, nothing.

And of course if you plan to make software a core of your future, but you pressure it like you did with workers inside factories to get thing rolled out, you end up with bugs, hard to maintain products and almost impossible to improve things.
Software is one of the rares things that you need to get fully done before it works. The more you give it time to test and mature the better. Or you gonna have to start from scratch in 2 to 3 years learning from your mistakes. This costs a bit money, but let's be honnest, doing it correctly the first time is way better and cheaper in the middle-long term. But almost no one gets it. Oh, and of course, competent people make all the difference here, but if you are looking for the less possible salary, you will get line-writters, not programmers. And this will be a problem.

Let's not speak about dieselgate and everything else, they got what they desserve. Especially if they went directly into the "let's do the software in house" instead of making it progressively, model per model, learning from mistakes.

[Ushio]

In China if you can afford a car you wanted a foreign brand which is why VW was the best selling for nearly 2 decades but BYD has changed everything by being the first home grown automaker that China's own citizens see as worth having even if they can afford foreign brands.

Toyota and Honda are also huge in China but is also huge in Europe and the US while VW is a EU and China shop making 2rds of their sales in just 2 markets.

[SomeRandomPersonSomewhere]

Within Australia, BYD's sales have skyrocketed over the last few years to the point where its cars (plus the MG4) make up a rather large portion of EVs, with Tesla quickly declining while Volkswagen has only released a few Audi models that barely sell.