With only SAIC VW’s Urumqi vehicle plant in the country’s west still offline, Volkswagen Group China now has 32 of 33 car and component production sites back up and running. Meanwhile, all Volkswagen brand dealerships have re-opened and “strong customer interest” is claimed.
According to a company statement made earlier on 9 April, the Chinese market’s dominant OEM says its operations “are showing clear signs of business recovery”. That is qualified by the fact that 2,000 VW dealerships are open again, with showroom traffic during the last weekend of March said to be comparable to the same period last year. Further, fewer than 5% of dealerships selling Audi and Škoda vehicles remain closed.
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Until recently, only Urumqi in Xinjiang and Changsha in Hunan were yet to be restarted but the second of these was restarted earlier this week. That also means that FAW Volkswagen is fully operational.
Volkswagen Group China CEO Stephan Wöllenstein said: “Our dealerships are seeing customers on the showroom floors once again. There are growing signs of recovery, with a good chance that the Chinese car market could reach last year’s level in early summer. This year, MEB production will begin and the Volkswagen ID. family will debut in China,” he confirmed.
