SEAT increase unbalance between Shanghai

　　“As Presently Shanghai Volkswagen has two brands VW and Skoda, two-brand strategy is being implemented steadily.” Relative officials from Shanghai Volkswagen said no news has been heard about SEAT. Since the existing capacity of Shanghai Volkswagen has been very limited, in the first half of this year the focus will be upgrading production capacity under premise of quality assurance. Therefore, there is no time to consider other things.

　　Shanghai Volkswagen has been always in a weak position to win better products. Referring to the Volkswagen brand products, Shanghai Volkswagen’s most advanced product is Passat Lingyu series based on the B5 platform. On the other hand, after obtained Audi brand, the products of FAW-Volkswagen such as an upgrade Passat B6 MAGOTAN, are all superior to Shanghai Volkswagen’s product line, , recently, there has been talks about Passat CC will be gained by FAW-Volkswagen.

　　In fact, after FAW-Volkswagen got MAGOTAN, the discussion about the unbalance of the products of FAW-Volkswagen and Shanghai Volkswagen has never stopped. Moreover, FAW-Volkswagen owns golf while Shanghai Volkswagen has POLO. But in terms of power, the FAW-Volkswagen has overall priority compared with Shanghai Volkswagen. For example, as to the products of Volkswagen brand, FAW-Volkswagen all equips with momentum portfolio “TSI + DSG” while Shanghai Volkswagen’s top-level configuration is “TSI + Tiptronic automated manual transmission” used for many years. Even though Shanghai Volkswagen said this is a mature technology and has been adjusted and upgraded constantly. However, market reactions reflect that it is much worse than that of FAW-Volkswagen.

　　The industry believes that Volkswagen’s partiality made FAW-Volkswagen develop rapidly. But from the perspective of the development of China automobile industry, Volkswagen has indeed evolved into a alternative factory of Volkswagen. As the experiment fields of the opening up of China auto industry, Shanghai Volkswagen has stepped up the prospects on independent innovation. Although recent years, relying on new products introduced into China, FAW-Volkswagen has gained rapid development; Shanghai Volkswagen actually has not lost the market status at the same time. Shanghai Volkswagen’s Santana Zhijun, LAVIDA and the new Lingyu have all achieved impressive results.

　　It is reported that this year, Shanghai Volkswagen will carry out the trial production of NMS model. In July 2007, after Shanghai Volkswagen and German Volkswagen jointly announced to develop a totally new model based on the German Volkswagen’s new generation of B-class platform for North America and China, news about the NMS has been nearly sealed. However, recently the relevant news comes from Shanghai Volkswagen that they has been secretly developing a new mid-size car with the code-named “NMS” (New Midsize Sedan) based on the Passat B6. It can be seen from the production platform that the market position of the new NMS will be higher than the current flagship model of Shanghai Volkswagen Passat Lingyu. It is learned since the second half of 2008, the focus of Shanghai Volkswagen including engineering, market, quality, production, sale and other departments has moved to this NMS.

　　The introduction of Seat only aims to expand the product sequence of Shanghai Volkswagen in the A-class car market. In addition to the Shanghai Volkswagen Santana, LAVIDA and POLO are nearly mature. In the A-Class car fields, Shanghai Volkswagen’s products have always maintained strong market competitiveness.

　　Insiders analyzed that through the way of “integrating introduction and independent innovation” Shanghai Volkswagen has always stuck to; the company has accumulated fairly mature technology strength. When innovation power is expanded to the high-class car field, Shanghai Volkswagen will have more advantages in production costs. Currently it is too hard to say which one will be come out on top.

　　In fact, after years of efforts, Shanghai Volkswagen has become very pragmatic. To reinforce basic technical strength and keep up with the times are the most powerful “weapons” for Shanghai Volkswagen to be the market leader in the future.

　　(Translator: Yalong/Jessie)

　　See original Chinese report Please click:http://auto.sohu.com/20100402/n271274810.shtml