Volkswagen to Start Chinese EV Production by 2014

As we all know by now, Volkswagen intends to become the world's number one carmaker in a few years so, in order to reach this highly-optimistic goal, it tries to take advantage of each major market in the world. The first on VW's list is China, where the German brand plans to start EV production by 2014, according to a report by the China Daily.

Details are yet to be finalized, but it appears that Volkswagen will start several testing campaigns with Golf blue-e-motion and Lavida blue-e-motion to demonstrate the cars' abilities. At the same time, Volkswagen is trying to find a local battery supplier that would help it manufacture a maximum of 10,000 electric cars per year.

All its plans include SAIC Motor Corporation and FAW Group, its two Chinese partners, but Volkswagen is also pondering a potential manufacturing plant in China.

“To import parts is easier, but we want to have a high localization rate for components and to cultivate local suppliers of the battery unit,” Yang Meihong, vice president of Volkswagen Group China, was quoted as saying by the aforementioned source.

As we said, Volkswagen wants to take the leading chair of the automotive world by 2018 and, according to statements issued by chief executives, things are going according to the plan.

"We continued our extremely successful business growth in the first three quarters and are therefore well-positioned to achieve the goals laid down in our Strategy 2018," said Martin Winterkorn, Volkswagen chairman of the board.

“Increased demand for our Group models and our disciplined cost management led to these strong results, which have strengthened our sound financial base," added Hans Dieter Potsch, the company's CFO.