Jochem Heizmann interview

Q: Can you make an educated guess on the consumer situation in China’s new-energy market when the Volkswagen Group introduces the Audi A6 plug-in hybrid and the C-class sedan, in 2016?

Heizmann: We can see more Chinese cities limiting cars on the road by plate numbers and more cities focusing on cutting fuel consumption. In these cities, people purchasing e-vehicles can get a license plate more quickly than those with internal combustion models. I think this will be a reason behind the increased demand for new energy cars in the future. And, I hope all cities will give equal treatment to pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid models. We can also see China’s fuel consumption goals and policies becoming more stringent. It has its sights set on bringing fuel consumption down to 5 liters/100 km by 2020, which will force people to consider new energy cars, especially the SUV and large sedan owners. The Group has already cut fuel consumption in its products by 20 percent and expects to reduce it by 11 percent by 2015.

Q: Everyone’s talking about a small economical car that Volkswagen Group will bring out. When will that happen and will it be a Volkswagen brand?

Heizmann: We’ve already made headway in developing economic cars, and will make final decisions soon.

Q: Earlier, the Group said it would produce a top model soon, and there are rumors that it might be a Porsche. How’s this project going?

Heizmann: We don’t have plans to produce Porsche models, here in China, but will launch a C-class model with a mixed power system that includes plug-in hybrid power and internal combustion engine in the future. It will be a higher-end model than the existing ones.

Q: According to an earlier plan, you will be at the top in global car sales by 2018 and China will obviously contribute a lot to this. How will China sales figure in the Group’s global sales in the future? And what do you think of the Group’s dependence on China?

Heizmann: The Volkswagen Group’s global sales reached 9.7 million, last year, 3.3 million of that in China, a 16-percent year-on-year increase. We can see that China sales account for a third of the total, with a faster growth rate. This year, China sales hit 880,000 in the first quarter, up 14.5 percent from last year’s same period. I can’t say exactly how much China will contribute to global sales in 2018, but its car industry and market will continue to grow faster than other countries on average. We need to consider the opportunities that the Chinese market will bring to us and how to deal with them. It’s important for us to understand Chinese consumer demand, how that demand will develop in the future, and exactly what is special in the Chinese market and Chinese consumer demand. I think we need to provide custom-made cars to satisfy that demand, which is why we’re providing a wider range.

In addition, we’ll strengthen R&D in China, which means we need more technical staff here. Currently, they number around 2,700 and this has everything to do with our people-oriented strategy, which covers customers, employees and society. We need good staff and are responsible for society and environment protection.

Q: What’s your opinion of SEAT’s performance in China? What has contributed to its failure? And what is the plan for producing it in China?

Heizmann: Perhaps you heard about SEAT on Volkswagen Group Night. In Europe, SEAT customers are the youngest and the brand represents youth, athletics and perception. More young people are getting to know SEAT’s value, so it had a good performance last year, especially in Europe. I personally think that what SEAT represents fits with Chinese customer needs, which is why we’re looking at producing it in China. We haven’t reached a decision, but I don’t think SEAT is really a failure here. The low sales may come from Chinese customers not fully understanding the brand.