Why does it produce in China… without being there?

By announcing that it wants to assemble its new Tavascan SUV in China, Cupra surprisingly, is not itself present in the country. But this model will certainly serve the interests of…Volkswagen. Details.

What will be left of the European car industry?

Invasion of cars made in China

This is the question that we can ask ourselves when Chinese goods are pouring into Europe’s doors, who welcomes them with open arms. So the Old Continent can switch from a car shipping mode to an importer mode from… 2025!
In any case, this is what PwC announces, which depends on it 800,000 imports from the Middle Kingdomor 220,000 pieces more than expected in the same year.
“Error” in transition to electric vehiclesin which China controls the majority of the production chain, but it is also clear that it has cheaper labor than Europe, which poses a serious threat to many jobs in our region.
Of these 800,000 units, of course there will not be only Chinese brands. Almost 40% of imported models may have a European logoas an increasing number of brands now prefer to export their models produced in China to the rest of the world.
These can be interesting models, or those that represent low sales volumes for us: DS9, Volvo S90, Citroën C5X, BMW iX3; or models that only have a European flag, such as Polestar or MG.

Volkswagen, a new Chinese strategy thanks to the Cupra

But now, mass-produced models are also affected: Tesla once imported his Model Y from Shanghai while waiting for its Berlin factory to be completed, and at Renault, Dacia Spring is imported from Shiyan.
A recent example: the Volkswagen group, which announced that The Cupra Tavascan, an electric SUV that should be very successful here, would be imported from the Anhui factory. – in China therefore – starting this year.
Quite a sign for the former world number 1 group and the true engine of the European car industry, which chooses China instead of one of its German or Spanish factories for this new model.
But it is not only for economic reasons that Volkswagen made this choice, there is also a geographical rationale for this… Why? Due to failure to distribute the Cupra and SEAT brands in China, Volkswagen will give away the Cupra Tavscan in the country, decorated with the Volkswagen logo !
ID.Unyx, that’s the name of this Tavascan “smoothed” from the Cupra design to better match Volkswagen’s styling language.. So he loses the intensityand more conventional headlight designs, such as shields and rims.