Nio and Volkswagen: key to the future for JAC
A shakeout that began 12 months ago is causing many brands to disappear from China’s monthly sales charts. Anhui Jianghuai Automobile also looked vulnerable for a while. Instead, the mid-sized automaker has found a niche by producing electric vehicles to order and continuing a steady rollout of its own JAC-branded models.
Joint ventures: Volkswagen
Two years ago this month, Volkswagen Group China signed a MoU with Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group (JAC) and SEAT. The three groups planned to establish an R&D center with a focus on the development of electric vehicles, connectivity and autonomous driving technology, plus a battery electric vehicle (BEV) platform.
The SEAT brand was set to return to China “by 2020/2021”. A second media statement in November 2018 saw this date shifted to “by 2021” and noted that work on the R&D centre would begin in late 2018.
However, JAC Volkswagen no longer includes SEAT, the Spanish company announced four months ago that it had “decided to postpone its entry into China and not to be part of the JAC Volkswagen shareholder structure, although it will continue to collaborate in the areas of Design and R&D”. Then, in May, the Volkswagen Group spent the equivalent of one billion euros to buy 50% of Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Holdings Limited (Jianghuai Automobile Holding), the company that controlled Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group (JAC Motors).
This not only gave the German company full control, but at the same time Volkswagen increased its stake in JAC-Volkswagen, the electric vehicles JV, to 75% (from 50%). Furthermore, the Volkswagen Group told the media about new intentions to not only launch five more electric models by 2025, but also to set up a factory for such vehicles. Production of MEB architecture models is to begin at this factory in 2023, said Stephan Wollenstein, the head of Volkswagen Group China. The annual production target is set at between 350,000 and 400,000 units, to be reached in 2029.
Joint ventures: Nio
Startup electric carmaker Nio is JAC’s other main partner. The company’s JV is called Jianghuai-Weilai (Weilai is Nio in Chinese). Nio was working on setting up its own factory in Shanghai’s Jiading district, but it canceled it in March 2019 due to cost-cutting concerns. Now that Nio is reportedly turning profitable, the official line-up is that it would like to continue with Jianghuai-Weilai, but whether that will continue into the 2020s is uncertain. The current model line-up is small, but volume is increasing and Nio may want to invest in its own production facilities. However, the recently unveiled Nio EC6, an additional EV, will be built by JAC at a factory in Hefei.
JAC: Current models
June was less than a stellar month for JAC, with own-brand sales down 68% compared to a 6% decline for the market, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association. It’s worth remembering that June 2019 was a particularly strong month due to the then-impending new emissions regulations, which saw many OEMs have to clear out non-compliant models. And as bad as the previous month’s drop was, 7,495 retail deliveries actually saw the brand climb up the sales charts from 38th to 35th in May.
The Jiayue A5 was JAC’s best-seller in June, with total sales of 2,752 units. It was followed by the Refine M3 (1,313), Refine M5 (912), Jiayue X7 (792), Refine M4 (672), Refine S4 (553), iEV6E (154), iEVA50 (98), iEVS4 (75), iC5 (54), Refine S3 (49), Refine R3 (29), iEV5 (21), Refine S7 (8), iEV60 (7), iEV7S (4), Refine A60 (1) and Heyue A30 (1).
New and future JAC models
With the worst of the COVID-19 crisis in China seemingly over, JAC began announcing several future models in May. One of them, a 4,795 mm long SUV, will be called Jiayue X8 (possibly X8 in export markets). An SUV positioned above the also new X7, it will be available with five, six or seven seats. The standard engine is said to be a 1.5-liter petrol turbo.
The Jiayue X4 is another new model for the brand’s Chinese market range. A sketch of the 4,410 mm long SUV was published by the company in March and sales started in June. The term ‘Jiayue’ is difficult to translate, but an English equivalent would be the encouragement: ‘Go for it!’. The standard engine is a 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol turbo and the model itself has strong ties to the older Refine S4.
Also in March the larger one was announced Jiayue X7a 4,776 mm long SUV. The powertrain is a 1.5-liter petrol turbo with a claimed output of 174 hp and 251 Nm. As with other JAC vehicles, more details including expected lifecycle actions such as facelift timings can be found in PLDB.
A third pickup will join the T6 and T8 later in 2020. The T9 (Shuai Ling T9 on the Chinese market), like those trucks, has a ladder-frame construction and there will be RWD and 4WD variants. Prototypes will have four full-size doors, but there may be other body styles.
The S432 (codename) will be launched in the Chinese market by the end of the year. Engine details for this six-seater crossover are yet to be confirmed.
Reports on upcoming models from many other manufacturers are grouped in the OEM product strategy summaries section of just-auto.com.
Future platform intelligence
More details on past, current and future models can be found in PLDB, the future vehicle database that is part of GlobalData’s Automotive Intelligence Center. This includes JAC vehicles not reported above.
The next OEM to review its future model plans is Mazda.
“Nio and Volkswagen key to JAC’s future” was originally created and published by Just Cara brand of GlobalData.
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