Volkswagen Sets Out to Create Chinese People's Car

There used to be a time when Volkswagen made cheap little cars for everyone, from the butcher, to the housekeeper to your grandmother, but the company has evolved into a big conglomerate of brands, developing an amalgam of specialized products that are very good in one market alone. Now Das Auto wants to get back to its roots, in China at least, and is changing the way that it develops its vehicles.

Starting today, Chinese Internet users can post their ideas about the car of the future on the “People’s Car Project” (PCP) platform at www.zaoche.cn. The campaign is scheduled to run a full year and could even be extended to other markets.

Users who access the PCP page can click their way to co-developing their Volkswagen model of the future as well as posting ideas which are then discussed and developed further by other users. They can also upload images or films.

“Volkswagen has set out to create the most innovative dialog platform ever with the ‘People’s Car Project’. The platform is debuting in China, because that is Volkswagen’s largest and most important market. However, we also see potential for launching the project in other markets as well,” Luca de Meo, Director of Marketing, Volkswagen Group and the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand, explained.


"With PCP we are listening very carefully to what our customers have to say and are building cars not only for, but also with people," the executive explains, adding that this gives Volkswagen a valuable insight into the wishes, needs and demands of Chinese customers.