Germany’s carmakers are now trying to shift engineering east, both to stay competitive in the Chinese market as well as to integrate technologies developed there into cars sold abroad.
Volkswagen said a year ago that it could now design cars from start to finish in China at its centre in Hefei.
Both BMW and VW have said they hope to export vehicles from China into other parts of the Asia-Pacific region.
The low-cost Volkswagen ID.Every1, slated for European launch in 2027, will meanwhile have an electric motor made in China.
They were betting on their bribes being enough to keep competition out. Turns out they failed because while they were busy throwing money at eu legislators in the hopes of keeping their shit products around the competition actually innovated and now had a superior product for a cheaper price than their dinosaur guzzling dinosaur product.