faces another regulatory prod
backing it into the electric-car cor-
ner. China’s central government,
which for the past several years
doled out billions in electric-car
subsidies, is pulling back that sup-
port and implementing a mandate
instead. In what amounts to a
polluter’s tax, one modeled on
a policy in California, China is
requiring that automakers peddle
a certain number of electric cars
each year to offset their internal-
combustion sales—or buy credits
from greener rivals.
In short, the Chinese govern-
ment is switching from a carrot
to a stick. Wöllenstein, VW’s
China head, predicts that, by
decreeing more electric-car sales,
Beijing will force economies of
scale that, within a few years, will
make electric cars less expensive
than combustion cars to produce.
“The lines will probably cross in
2022 or 2023,” he says.
If that happens, the Chinese
government will have birthed a
new global automotive era.
VW has been preparing for this
shift since early 2016. That was
when, in the immediate aftermath
of the diesel scandal, the company
realized it needed an alternative
low-carbon technology that it
could deploy at scale. VW had for
a few years been manufacturing
small numbers of electric ver-
sions of a couple of its combustion
models, notably the E-Golf, a vari-
ant of its basic hatchback. But in
2016, VW started work on a new
platform designed specifically for
electric vehicles—the modular E-
drive kit, or in German, Modularer
E-Antriebs-Baukasten (MEB).CHANGE
THE
WORLD
A drone’s-eye view of the 74-acre VW electric-car facility under construction in western Shanghai. It
will be Volkswagen’s most advanced plant worldwide when it opens next year.
PHOTOGRAPH BY QILAI SHEN
SMART
ROBOTS
ARE
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OUR JOBS.
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