History
In November 1978, the first delegation headed by Zhou Zijian, then Minister of the First Ministry of Machinery Industry, visited the then West Germany Volkswagen.[3] In 1982, China purchased 100 Santana units from Volkswagen and assembled them in Shanghai Automobile Plant for trial. The first Volkswagen Santana produced in Shanghai Automobile Plant was delivered in 1983. On October 10, 1984, the joint venture contract of SAIC Volkswagen Automotive Co., Ltd. was signed in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The Chinese and German parties each invested 50% of the company, and the contract period was 25 years. Two days later, Vice Premier Li Peng of the State Council of the People's Republic of China and Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West Germany laid the foundation stone for SAIC Volkswagen.[4] Shanghai Volkswagen began automobile production in 1985. As car imports fell to some 34,000 in 1990, SAIC Volkswagen's production of its Santana models reached nearly 19,000 vehicles that year. By 1993 SAIC Volkswagen's output had reached 100,000 vehicles.[5]
Volkswagen was aided by some Shanghai municipal efforts. Various restrictions on engine size, as well as incentives to city taxi companies, helped ensure a safe market in the company's relatively wealthy home arena. The Shanghai plant was by far the winner among all new JVs, as it produced cars that could function as taxis, vehicles for government officials and transport for the newly emerging business elite. Volkswagen also encouraged its foreign parts suppliers to create joint ventures in China, and their resulting product helped SAIC Volkswagen achieve an 85 per cent local content rate by 1993.[4] In May 2018, SAIC Volkswagen started to export the Santana, Lavida, Lamando, and Tiguan to the Philippines as part of the new ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA). The joint venture was also in the process of building an electric-car plant in Anting, near Shanghai by late 2018; it was expected to make 300,000 e-vehicles per year, starting in 2020.[6]
On 12 April 2002, SAIC Motor renewed its contract with Volkswagen and extended the term of cooperation for another 20 years. Chinese Communist Party former general secretary Jiang Zemin attended the signature ceremony.[7] Shanghai Volkswagen Sales Co. Ltd, established on 19 October 2000, as the first joint venture in vehicle sales in China.[8]
On 11 April 2005, the Czech automotive brand Škoda Auto was introduced after signing a contract. The first model for the brand was the Škoda Octavia built by Shanghai Volkswagen and commenced production on June 6, 2007. This followed with the Škoda Fabia in December 2008, the Superb in August 2009, the Škoda Rapid in April 2013 and the long wheelbase Škoda Yeti seven months later.[9]
To complete the model lineup for the Chinese market, the Škoda Kodiaq was officially listed in March 2017, followed by the Škoda Karoq in January 2018 and the Chinese built Škoda Kamiq six months later.
SAIC Volkswagen started vehicle export shipments in January 2018 which targets left-hand drive Southeast Asian markets.[10][11] Prior to this, the company briefly exported several hundred Volkswagen Polo sedans to Australia in 2004.[12][13][14]
On December 7, 2015, Shanghai Volkswagen was renamed SAIC Volkswagen. After the name change, SAIC Volkswagen will assume all the rights and obligations of the original company, and the company's business scope and business relationships will remain unchanged.[15] In fact, the reason why Shanghai Volkswagen was renamed SAIC Volkswagen is that automobile manufacturers need to comply with the regulations formulated by relevant national departments that "manufacturer brands cannot be named after regions."[16]
In June 2018, Audi acquired a 1% stake in SAIC Volkswagen, which means that SAIC Volkswagen can produce Audi-branded models in the future.[17]
On October 27, 2020, the pure electric vehicle ID.4 X officially went into production.[18]
In mid 2025, SAIC Volkswagen halted production in its Nanjing plant, with plans to close it in the second half of the year.[19] The remaining production will be relocated to the neighboring Yizheng plant.[20]
On March 26, 2026, Škoda Auto was precisely the withdrawal from the Chinese market.[21]
