PEKING (dpa-AFX) - Volkswagen expects two difficult years in the highly competitive car market in China until 2026. "We saw another round of price cuts in April, and the fierce price competition will continue in the coming years," said VW board member Ralf Brandstätter ahead of the auto show in Beijing, which begins on Thursday. Many manufacturers of purely electric cars have significantly damaged their margins in recent years.

According to Brandstätter, Volkswagen wants to prepare for price competition over the next two years and finance the development of its e-car business in China with the sales of combustion vehicles, which are still going well. "That also means two difficult years for us," he said. The Wolfsburg-based company also expected not to achieve the same market share as other competitors in the electric segment over the next two years.

From 2026, the German car giant plans to be on a par with the competition in China in terms of costs and technology for entry-level models in the compact class - in the VW cosmos, this would be a Golf, for example. Among other things, the costs of the platform developed for China - simply put, the floor of the car in which the battery is also installed - are to be reduced by 40 percent. By 2030, the VW Group, which includes Audi and Porsche as well as Volkswagen, aims to have sold around four million vehicles in China. According to VW, this would correspond to a market share of 15 percent. Half of all cars sold are to be electrically powered./jon/DP/jha