Currently reading: Why China won’t come to the aid of European car manufacturing

​Chinese firms will build cars in Europe but not necessarily in a way that will fill the region’s ghost plants

One analyst on the Volkswagen Group's annual results call this week hopefully put it to CEO Oliver Blume that Volkswagen might want to partner with a Chinese firm to build the ID 1 small EV locally. Maybe MG parent SAIC, a long-time partner of Volkswagen in China, which is looking to build cars in Europe.

The answer came back: no. Volkswagen is building the ID 1 at its Portuguese plant on a Volkswagen EV platform, and while the car might use Chinese-supplied modules, this is a Volkswagen project and as such is so close to the edge in terms of profit margin that neither Skoda, Seat nor Cupra will get a version.

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