Volkswagen to launch $20,000 EVs on a new platform in China, its most important market
Volkswagen plans to launch a new entry-level EV platform in China to keep pace with Tesla and BYD. The automaker will introduce EVs starting at around $20,000 (140,000 yuan) to win back buyers in its most important market.
Competition in the world’s largest EV market is intensifying as price cuts from market leaders like Tesla and BYD are pressuring other automakers.
The Chinese market is very “price-sensitive,” VW China boss Ralf Brandstaetter told reporters Friday, according to Automotive News Europe.
During a visit to its new EV facility in Hefei, Brandstaetter said the new entry-level platform will cater to local Chinese buyers in regards to the battery, electric drive, and motor. Perhaps, more importantly, Chinese buyers are younger and looking for the latest tech and software.
Based on VW’s MEB architecture, used for its existing lineup of EVs, the new platform will use local suppliers to cut costs.
Brandstaetter added the new platform, slated for 2026, will improve development times by a third.
With plans to introduce ten new EVs globally by 2026, Volkswagen wants to accelerate development time to keep pace with Chinese automakers. It aims to launch new models in around 2.5 years, compared to its current four-year cycle.
The company is already having some success lowering costs already. Ludger Luehrmann, CTO of Hefei (Volkswagen Group China Tech Company), which is developing the platform, said the company can lower the price of the dashboard display by 37% after switching suppliers.
Volkswagen to introduce $20,000 EVs in China
Legacy brands (like VW and Audi) that have long dominated the market are now being swapped for domestic brands with more modern tech. And many times, these EVs come at a lower price.
VW lost its long-standing title of best-selling brand in China to BYD earlier this year as buyers look for the latest EVs.
China is VW’s most important market, accounting for nearly half its profits. Its top-selling electric model, the ID.3, ranked 22nd among Chinese EVs this year. And that’s after slashing prices by 16% to around $17,500 (125,800 yuan) in August.
The lower prices helped boost demand, with ID.3 sales reaching 10,000 in July compared to an average of around 2,200.
The automaker will use this strategy with its new archetecture, called A Main Platform. Volkswagen plans to launch four new EVs priced from around $20,000 (140,000 yuan) to $23,800 (170,000 yuan).
The new VW models will be built by its joint ventures with SAIC and FAW, Brandstaetter said. The company invested around $1.1B (1B Euros) to establish VCTC, which will be key in regaining market share.
The facility uses local suppliers and involve VW’s joint venture partners to accelerate development times. VW China’s boss explained this will cut out “time-consuming coordination across time zones with developers in Germany.”
He added this will enable VW to “shorten the time it takes to bring products to Chinese cutsomers by 30%.”
The automaker opened ID.7 Vizzion orders in China this week, starting at $33,000. The Vizzion is FAW-VW’s version of the flagship electric sedan built for China.
Volkswagen also began producing batteries at its Hefei factory. The plant will be the first to manufacture cell-to-pack (C2P) batteries, which will help improve energy density and efficiency.
Electrek’s Take
With VW’s price cuts helping to boost demand in China, the company is taking notes. VW now plans to double down and introduce four new EVs priced around $20,000 to regain buyers in its most important market.
VW will need to with low-cost EVs like BYD’s Dolphin, starting at about $16,100 (116,800 yuan) and Yuan Plus electric SUV at about $18,500 (134,000 yuan). BYD sold around 30K Dolphin models in May, about 11 times the ID.3.
BYD’s 6 millionth NEV (including hybrids) rolled off the line Friday as the automaker aggresively expands the brand.
T o regain competitiveness, VW invested $700 million into Chinese EV maker XPeng for a nearly 5% stake in July.
Although the brand expects new models built with XPeng will help sales, CFO Arno Antilitz explained VW could lose further market share until they hit the market (from 2026).
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Paris’ bike-share system, Vélib has long been considered one of the shining success stories of urban micromobility. With a massive fleet of over 20,000 pedal and electric-assist bicycles around Paris, the service has helped millions of residents and tourists get around the City of Light without needing a car or scooter. But lately, a growing problem is threatening to knock the wheels off this urban mobility marvel: theft and joyriding.
According to city officials and the service operator, more than 600 Vélib bikes are now going missing every single week. That’s over 30 bikes a day simply vanishing from the system – some stolen outright, others taken on “joy rides” and never returned.
“At the moment we’re missing 3,000 bikes,” explained Sylvain Raifaud, head of the Agemob company that currently operates the Velib system. That’s nearly 15% of over 20,000 Vélib bikes across Paris.
The sticky-fingered culprits aren’t necessarily professional thieves or organized crime rings. Instead, they’re often regular users who treat the shared bikes like disposable toys.
The city estimates that many people have figured out how to pry the bikes out of the system’s parking docks, unlocking one for a casual cruise and then ditching it somewhere far from a docking station.
Once pried free, the bikes are technically usable for the next 24 hours until their automatic locking feature kicks in. At that point, the bikes are often simply abandoned. Some end up in alleyways. Others get tossed in rivers. A few just disappear completely.
And since the bikes are intended to be parked at their many docking stations around the city, they don’t have GPS chips, further complicating recovery of “liberated” bikes.
The issue started small but has grown into more than an inconvenience – it’s beginning to undermine the entire purpose of the service. With bikes going missing at such a high rate, many Vélib docking stations are left empty, especially during rush hours.
Riders looking for a quick commute or a convenient hop across town are increasingly finding themselves without available bikes, or having to walk long distances to find a functioning one.
That kind of unreliability chips away at user confidence and threatens to drive potential riders back into cars, cabs, or other less sustainable forms of transport at a time when Paris has already made great strides to dramatically reduce car usage in the city.
The losses are financially painful, too. Replacing stolen or vandalized bikes isn’t cheap, and the resources spent on tracking down missing equipment or reinforcing anti-theft measures are stretching thin. Vélib has faced theft and vandalism issues before, especially during its early years, but this latest surge has officials sounding the alarm with renewed urgency.
Officials acknowledge that there’s no easy fix. Paris, like many cities with bike-share systems, walks a fine line between accessibility and accountability. Part of what makes Vélib so successful is its ease of use and widespread availability. But those same features make it vulnerable to misuse – especially when enforcement is limited and the consequences for abuse are minimal.
The timing of the problem is especially unfortunate. In recent years, Paris has seen impressive results in reducing car traffic, expanding bike lanes, and promoting cycling as a key part of its sustainable transport strategy. Vélib is a cornerstone of that plan. But if the system becomes too unreliable, it risks losing the very people it was designed to serve.
Meanwhile, as Parisians increasingly find themselves staring at empty docks, the challenge for the city and Vélib will be to restore confidence in the system without making it harder to use. That means striking the right balance between freedom and responsibility, between open access and protection against abuse.
In a city where cycling is supposed to be the future of mobility, losing thousands of bikes to joyriders and sticky fingers isn’t just frustrating; it’s unsustainable.
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