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Volkswagen China Reopens Dealerships, Reports “Clear Signs Of Business Recovery”

China is still recovering from the COVID-19 scare as Europe and North America are fighting to contain – and eventually triumph over – the coronavirus pandemic. Volkswagen’s higher-ups, therefore, decided that it’s high time to resume business in China, reopening all 2,000 dealerships in this part of the world.
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“Our dealerships are seeing customers on the showroom floors once again. There are growing signs of recovery, with a good chance that the Chinese car market could reach last year’s level in early summer,” said chief executive officer Stephan Wollenstein. However, it’s too early to tell what the future holds for Vee-Dub.

Yes, showroom traffic during the last week of March 2020 was comparable to the same period of 2019. Yes, Skoda and Audi are also reopening their Chinese dealers. A few facilities have resumed production as well. But despite the automaker’s eagerness to get back on track, consumer demand weighs heavily in this equation.

Take a good, long look at the press release at the end of this article. Do you see any sales figures for the last week of March 2020 mentioned by Volkswagen? That should be a clear indicator that sales have yet to recover to March 2019 levels.

In the second half of the year, Volkswagen’s Chinese division will open two plants where MEB-based electric vehicles will be produced for the local market. The automaker’s only MEB-based nameplate today is the ID.3, a Europe-only compact hatchback that will soon be joined by the ID.4 compact crossover.

The production sites in Foshan and Anting gear up for 600,000 units per year at maximum capacity, a rather optimistic output if you remember how many plug-ins were sold globally in 2019. To the point, 2.2 million is the tally. The Model 3 was the most popular of them all, racking up a little more than 300,000 sales.

Speaking of Tesla, Giga Shanghai is where the Model 3 is built for the local market. The Model Y will join it by the end of the year, helping the Palo Alto-based automaker grab a little more market share to the detriment of the BAIC EU-Series.
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About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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