Each week, our German correspondent slices and dices the latest rumblings, news, and quick-hit driving impressions from the other side of the pond. His byline may say Jens Meiners, but we simply call him . . . the Continental.
I am writing this post from mainland China. A nearly week-long Audi trip is leading a group of scribes from Shenzhen to Guilin, passing through some of the most interesting landscapes and cities this country has to offer. We are driving a Q3 2.0T—the Volkswagen Tiguan–derived crossover SUV with a 211-hp, 2.0-liter TFSI engine and quattro all-wheel drive. Last Sunday, we arrived in Changchun far up north, in freezing temperatures, and were treated to a plant visit at the Audi-FAW factory there. Audi currently builds a long-wheelbase version of the A4, a long-wheelbase last-gen A6, and the Q5 there; next year, the A6L will move to the current model generation, and, later, the Q3 will be added.
Interestingly, another FAW company, Red Flag, built a derivative of the 1982 Audi 100/5000 until a year ago or so. They are still seen everywhere in northern China.
In Changchun, Audi spoke about the specific requirements of the Chinese market. One of them: Customers don’t like to wait for their car to be serviced, even when they don’t have an appointment, and they like to be close to their car. To make these customers happy, Audi is creating enhanced dealerships with glass walls so customers can watch their precious vehicle being checked and pampered. That seems like a great idea to me. Can you launch such a shop in Germany, too?
For Audi, China has surpassed Germany in terms of sales, and while customers in China want their Audi to be a car of decidedly German character, Audi aims to listen closely to trends and perceptions in this market. Currently, a small team led by interior designer Wouter Kets is exploring the market and reporting back to Audi’s design leaders and board members.
It won’t be long before Audi has its own design center in China. It will be located in Peking and is scheduled to open its doors within a few years.
We were flown to Hong Kong on day two, and drove up from Hong Kong to Canton on the third day. The trip led us mainly over fast highways, and the Q3 performed superbly. It is fast, agile, direct, and easily outdoes the similarly competent BMW X1 in terms of material quality. Day three took us through countryside and remote villages, offering a unique perspective of rural China and its way of life. Car guys will love the variety of the automotive landscape here. You have to commend the creativity of Chinese carmakers, even if they may lack in attention to detail. I find it noteworthy that BYD, Daimler’s vaunted cooperation partner, is one of the worst offenders when it comes to copying the offerings by other carmakers. Their batteries must be great, because I don’t see how their conventional engineering amounts to a lot. It is said, of course, that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; Daimler must be pleased to no end about the styling of, say, the BYD S8 convertible, which bears more than a passing resemblance to Benz’s own bygone CLK.
Will the Audi Q3 be offered in the U.S.? It’s still possible. The company is looking at the business case again—for the current, not the next model generation.
Hyundai is launching the i40 sedan in Europe, following the i40 station wagon. This car is structurally identical to the U.S.-market Sonata, but features an entirely different, more compact body. Engine choices include a 133-hp, 1.6-liter four; a 175-hp, 2.0-liter four; and a 1.7-liter turbo-diesel with 113 hp or 134 hp. Not terribly impressive, considering the U.S.-market Sonata is available with a powerful turbo four. But I think the i40 is the better-looking, more tightly styled car. Neither the i40 nor the Sonata, however, are as impressive as the Kia K5/Optima, which I hear is performing extremely well in its Korean home market. That car is simply turning the Hyundai-Kia hierarchy upside down, and a number of Hyundai executives are secretly annoyed by it.
BMW-PSA Joint Venture Takes Off
The BMW-PSA electric technology joint venture, announced a while back as “BMW Peugeot Citroën Electrification,” has begun. Before the end of the year, 400 employees will be working in the joint research and development center in Munich. The companies have worked together before on a number of projects, most notably the “Prince” engine, which is used in BMW’s Mini and a huge number of PSA vehicles. But there also were setbacks: Work on a joint six-cylinder engine was cancelled, and BMW has stopped buying the PSA turbo-diesel for the Mini, having replaced it with a BMW engine. That decision was a matter of price: Despite warnings from BMW’s purchasing executives, PSA had simply overcharged for its diesel. BMW acted swiftly and tweaked its own BMW turbo-diesel to fit the Mini.
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