30 Years of Partnership in China: Audi and First Automotive Works (FAW) to Expand Production Network by 2022

Audi and Chinese partner First Automotive Works (FAW) celebrated their 30th anniversary at the FAW plant in Changchun on Monday, 19th November 2018. The approximately 650 guests include representatives of the province of Jilin, of partner FAW, and of the FAW-Volkswagen joint venture, as well as members of the boards of management of Volkswagen AG and AUDI AG.

OneShift Editorial Team

26 Nov 2018

China has developed into Audi’s strongest growth engine and biggest single market. In the past 30 years, Audi has delivered more than five million automobiles. Sales volume has increased more than fivefold in the past ten years. Models such as the Audi A4 L, A6 L and Q5 L are especially popular with Chinese customers, and China is the most important sales market also for the Audi A8 L.

Its popularity in the Chinese market, has seen the need to expand their local portfolio to more than ten models by 2022. Hence, Audi will be further expanding its local research and development competencies in order to launch more China-specific model variants and digital services.

The first electric car tailored for Chinese customers, the Audi Q2 L e-tron, will already be launched in 2019. Local production of the Audi e-tron will follow in 2020, one year after its market launch in China.

The Four Rings were also the first automobile brand to launch services developed for China such as 3D maps and Chinese Character recognition, in order to respond precisely to the wishes of Chinese customers.

Alexander Seitz, Audi Board of Management Member for Finance, China, Compliance and Integrity, emphasized: “We will use our experience to locally develop and produce even more models specifically for China in the future. We will continue our shared success story with the latest technologies, digital services that focus on market needs, and models like the Audi Q8 and Audi e-tron.”

Audi currently offers six locally produced model families in China. The Audi A4 L, A6 L, Q3 and Q5 L series are built at the Changchun plant in the north. The Audi A3 Sedan, A3 Sportback and Audi Q2 L drive off the assembly line in Foshan in southern China.

A further step in the cooperation between Audi and FAW is the start of Audi production in Tianjin. The Chinese plants are making a significant contribution within the Audi production network. Their flexible structure will allow the ongoing gradual expansion of capacities.

Herbert Diess, CEO of Volkswagen Group and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of AUDI AG, says: “30 years of Audi in China tell a success story of innovation, transformation and friendship. I am looking forward to the next 30 years.”

In addition, the partners are intensifying their cooperation along the entire value chain, with connectivity services and mobility offerings. FAW CEO Xu Liuping added: “Together we have achieved numerous pioneering milestones and thus created a successful win-win cooperation.”