Mr. Ni Kaiming, President of Volkswagen China: We will be on time

Volkswagen, which is eager to become the world's hegemon in the traditional automotive sector, has a somewhat vague position in electric vehicles. If the strategy is not proper, this tiger will also become a spectator

In the global trend of new energy vehicles, Volkswagen is not as aggressive as its competitors. It has produced several explosive new products or new subversive technologies. He is like a German old craftsman, and he does his own family for several generations. For the rest of my life, try to be better than my father.

Therefore, when the Toyota Prius, Nissan Leaf, GM Volanda, and China's BYD all made new innovations, the public ignored the new energy, but they made a sensational "one-liter car": one hundred liters of fuel-efficient cars.

Of course, the car company sitting in the top spot will not lose its sharpness. The public needs to guard against all industry changes threatening his position. For the new energy boom, on the EVS-25, Volkswagen has brought golf electric cars, LaVida electric vehicles and Touareg. Hybrid 3 products. Compared to an unknown domestic small-scale enterprise, an electric vehicle was exhibited, and the public's attitude towards electric vehicles was fully revealed.

At the time, Karl-Thmas Neumann, who was the president and CEO of the Volkswagen Group in China for just one month, broke the practice that the top executives did not receive any interview within 3 months and made a high profile appearance on the EVS-25.

From the resume of Ni Kaiming, we can see that the public does not have long-term plans for electric vehicles. Ni is an electric vehicle technical expert. He was the CEO of the mainland company. In November 2009, Ni was appointed as the head of the electric vehicle business of Volkswagen Group. This is a newly created position for Ni - but only a few months later, he was transferred to China.

This shows that the public does not mind responding to the Chinese government's call to participate in the electric car movement. Ni Kaiming is the most suitable executive sent to China and is very good at it. Before the mass-driven diesel vehicles could not open up the situation in the Chinese market, now that China is in favor of electric vehicles, it will allow electric vehicle experts to solve China's problems.

Even if it is the electric vehicle expert, the public does not have too high illusions about electric cars. Volkswagen conducted a detailed inspection of the Chinese electric vehicle market and concluded that before the cost of the battery and the country's power structure change, the electric vehicle still cannot be a product that Chinese owners can afford and use well.

The Germans like to speak with data. According to the general public, the cost of batteries per kilowatt-hour will soon be reduced from the previous 1000 euros to 200 euros. However, considering that the power to drive the current Volkswagen electric golf is 26.5 kilowatts, its battery cost is more than 5000 euros, and it is still relatively expensive from the standpoint of price alone.

From the perspective of power structure, as more than 80% of China's current thermal power generation is still used, the carbon dioxide emissions generated during the power generation process are relatively high. Therefore, taking electric golf as an example, the carbon dioxide emitted per kilometre is as high as 171 grams, even higher than the current public In the sale of the 1.4TSI engine golf 143 grams per kilometre of emissions.

Ni Kaiming has revealed the public's wait-and-see time: "According to the Chinese government's plan, by 2015, the overall energy structure will undergo a greater degree of change, and we will also respond to it."

He said to many media including the "Automotive Business Review" that "in a pure electric vehicle this one is basically on the same starting line", this sentence also exposed the public's demand for electric cars, this phrase often from China The words spoken by their peers are called self-consolation by some Chinese industry insiders.

The public's persistence in the tradition and constant tapping of potential are just like admiring the positive innovations of GM and Nissan. The world is beautiful because of the difference. There is no need to ask everything to happen. However, the public also left a hand to prevent themselves from being wrong. In the wait and see, they took out several electric cars as dinner tickets. If it is not enough, compared with those small businesses, at least the public has cash in hand, which may become the king of mergers and acquisitions in the field of electric vehicles in order to maintain their status.

"Automotive Business Review": In your introduction, you mentioned that by 2018, the Volkswagen Group's production of pure electric vehicles is expected to reach 100,000 cars. It seems that the public is suddenly interested in electric cars.

Ni Kaiming: Just now I said that we will have an annual output of 100,000 units in 2018. Actually, our goal is to have more than 100,000 units. Our choice of a pure electric route is based on the urgent need for a global reduction in CO2 emissions. We believe that only a purely electric route will make it possible to minimize carbon dioxide emissions. We also have hybrids, and we also have plug-in models, such as our hybrid Touareg, which will be available in early 2011.

In fact, in Germany, we started electric cars very early. Volkswagen began to have electric golf demonstration teams in 1976, but we are not satisfied. One important reason is the battery problem. More than 30 years ago, the battery was expensive and very heavy, and the battery life could not meet the demand. Another reason is that in the 1970s, German diesel engines began to develop rapidly. Diesel engines have many advantages, such as strong power, clean combustion, and a lot of driving pleasure. In recent years, electric vehicles have regained popularity because of significant advances in battery technology, especially the development of lithium batteries in recent years.

Will Volkswagen use more energy in electric vehicles in China?

Before the realization of pure electric drive, we will continue to optimize the traditional internal combustion engine, excavate and upgrade the power of traditional internal combustion engines, and add start-stop systems, power recovery systems, and so on. The hybrid Touareg is the most expensive of all hybrid products and the most expensive. It can drive long distances under pure electric drive conditions; it also uses internal combustion engine drives at high speeds to meet customer needs.

We have plug-in golf, with an internal combustion engine and a smaller battery, the cost is still high. In today's speech, Minister Wan Gang said that the Chinese government has decided to take the pure electric road. In China, electric cars must play a very important role in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions due to crowded population. With the government's investment and the government's determination, we believe that this is the direction that everyone chooses.

The Volkswagen Group started developing electric golf three years ago and its technology has been considered mature. Why did we not produce this car in China in 2013 and 2014 because we want to produce what consumers really want and attractive. At the same time, the key is the products that consumers can afford. Such products are meaningful. A demonstration team, or a very expensive hybrid, will not fundamentally change the status quo.

General Motors and Nissan have already put out production models. They will be formally introduced into China next year. The public will not be able to launch them until 2013. Will they lose their opportunities and lose future business opportunities? In addition, please predict the size of the pure electric vehicle market in 2015, including the global scale, and what is the approximate size of China?

First of all, GM and Nissan are not producing in China. They should be produced in other countries and come to China as imports. According to my understanding, their production is very limited and the cost is very high. The Volkswagen Group is not the first one. We do not want mass production for cars that are relatively small and costly. We think that we still have to do a lot of testing, and we need to further reduce the cost. 2013 and 2014 are our goals. Although we know that other companies will produce electric vehicles in advance, this will not affect our decision. We are still discussing the 2013 and 2014 phases. We believe that at this time, we will mass produce our products in China. The car is not late, this is a more mature opportunity.

The current situation is that diesel vehicles emit less emissions than gasoline vehicles, and gasoline vehicles with excellent performance emit less emissions than electric vehicles. According to the current energy structure in China, the possibility of reducing emissions through electric vehicles is not very high. The public now promotes electric vehicles mainly. What is the purpose? Before Volkswagen was committed to diesel vehicles.

The phenomenon you mentioned is very interesting and it is difficult to give a black-and-white answer. What we are doing is to hope that CO2 emissions will decrease every day. According to the energy structure, China's electric vehicles used in 2009 are not as low as diesel vehicles, but it is necessary to see that China is also making progress.

As the energy is getting cleaner and the cars' emissions are getting cleaner, the whole situation will get better and better. But this is a gradual process, not to say that one day or one step can be solved. At present, our DSG and TSI are very advantageous, and they still have advantages in the next 10 years.