Xi Yate wants Jianghuai Volkswagen to return to the Chinese market? Development and Reform Commission said NO!

At present, the JAC VW new energy vehicle project, which has attracted much attention, has started for more than a month. The news that Volkswagen plans to use a joint venture new energy company to let the Seat brand return to the Chinese market has attracted media attention. The latest progress that Gasgo Motors has learned is that the NDRC and Jianghuai Automobile related parties have denied that Jianghuai VW has applied for the use of the SEAT brand.

Experience two failures to regain the Chinese market?

The memory of Sociedad Eapanola de Automoviles de Turismo SA may have gradually become estranged. This company, which started from parts and components and has successively cooperated with Fiat and Volkswagen Group and gradually reached the peak in the European market, has a presence in the Chinese market. Suddenly left twice.

When SEAT first entered the Chinese market in the 1990s, Nanjing South Asia Automobile Co. ("Nanjing", which has been acquired by SAIC) purchased the Ibiza model for US$45 million. , And with the "Fighter in the mobile phone" Waveguide to create the first model - Ingle, unexpectedly, due to outdated models and various reasons, not long after mass production to quit the Chinese market.

During the 2011 Shanghai International Auto Show, the Volkswagen Group unveiled the models of SEAT and announced that the SEAT brand will soon enter the Chinese market, flaunting youth and sports. In early February 2012, SEAT launched its first model Leon in the Chinese market and officially entered the Chinese market. Although SEAT intends to take the high-end route to replicate the success of Audi and other luxury car brands in the Chinese market, due to major problems in product positioning and market operations, the total sales volume has been less than 4,000 units in the past two years, so they have to withdraw again. .

As the shortest-lived foreign brand in the Chinese market, SEAT does not seem willing to give up the big cake of the Chinese auto market. From 2017, there are rumors that the public wants to introduce its SEAT brand from time to time. In May this year, a domestic road test photo of Ateca, the first SUV model of the Seat brand, was circulated on the Internet. The industry speculated that Seat had already planned to return to the Chinese market. In the early June of June witnessed by the Prime Minister of China and Germany, after Volkswagen and JAC established a new joint venture company, the rumors about the public wanting to use the joint venture company to re-introduce the SEAT brand came up again and again.

Recently, media reports said, "The first product of JAC and Volkswagen will be an A0 electric SUV, which is expected to be put on the market in 2018, while Xiyato wants to return to the Chinese market with the help of the mass Jianghuai project." According to sources, Volkswagen recently planned to use its Spanish subsidiary SEAT brand in an electric vehicle joint venture with Anhui Jianghuai Automobile (JAC). All kinds of rumors increase the possibility of SEAT's reincarnation of the Chinese market. However, this rumor was broken by the NDRC's response.

Development and Reform Commission clarifies that Jianghuai Public will not use overseas brands

Although the speculation about the return of SEAT to the Chinese market was "difficult and difficult", people from the National Development and Reform Commission and Jianghuai Automobile Group denied the "vision" of the outside world. Jianghuai Automobile insiders said that the joint venture established by JAC and Volkswagen Group will create a new brand. It will not use the Seat (Seat) brand under the Volkswagen Group. The Development and Reform Commission also denied that JAC had applied for the use of Xiya. This matter of special brands, and the use of Volkswagen brand does not meet the policy requirements.

According to Gasgoo, the first product of the JAC Volkswagen JV will be produced from the JAC product platform. It is an SUV model and is expected to be introduced to the market by the end of 2018 or early 2019. The second and third products come from the Volkswagen Group. For specific product technologies, Jianghuai Automobile cooperated with SEAT to carry out electrification of the Volkswagen PQ platform. However, JAC Volkswagen will not introduce the SEAT brand, but plans to create a new brand.

Jianghuai Automobile Bulletin screenshot

In fact, Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Co., Ltd. announced on June 2 that the joint venture company should establish a new brand in the “Announcement on Signing a Joint Venture Contract with Volkswagen Automotive (China) Investment Co., Ltd.”. As for why the public wants to introduce the SEAT brand, some analysts have pointed out that the public may be trying to “get more children to fight” and share a slice of the Chinese market; it may also be necessary to expand the front line of sports models in China, SEAT as "Practical design, dynamic driving, and young mindset" practitioners have been working on the market for nearly 70 years. Their accumulated technical experience and brand performance have already been of considerable value, and they have introduced Seat to the Chinese market It would be cost-effective to re-create a brand new brand. If this is the case, the question is whether the golf GTI and Golf R product lines already existing in the masses will still form overlapping coverage if they are still positioned in sports models. In addition, even if SEAT uses the JAC Volkswagen Joint Venture to “revive” in the Chinese market, it will inevitably affect the future distribution of new energy automobile products by SAIC Volkswagen and FAW-Volkswagen. How can this balance of interests be balanced? We have many doubts about why the masses are trying to import the SEAT brand again and again. The only certainty is that each company has its own interests.

The adoption of the SEAT brand by Jianghuai VW has been rejected by the NDRC. The reasons for the veto were interpreted by the outside world as “this move is intended to restrict foreign auto companies from using their brand awareness to sell localized new energy vehicles in China”. As for whether or not Seat will eventually return to the Chinese market, we will continue to pay attention.