Volkswagen in China: Building a Safety Defense with 8,000 Standards and €3.5 Billion | The Frontline

While the Chinese new energy vehicle market is engaged in a cut - throat competition centered around "refrigerators, color TVs, and big sofas", Volkswagen is adhering to a more arduous path, breaking down the engineering details of safety and quality into more than 8,000 test standards: from the extremely cold test at -30°C to the water spray test with an intensity six times that of a natural rainstorm, from the equivalent durability test of chassis components for 300,000 kilometers to the world - first integrated vibration test rig for the whole vehicle and battery.

Volkswagen is trying to prove that in the era of intelligent electric vehicles, "reliability" remains a scarce value.

From Screws to the Whole Vehicle: Volkswagen's 8,000 Test Standards

Volkswagen's testing system is based on a core logic: the visible differences in user experience stem from the invisible engineering redundancy. This 13 - page document reveals that the number of its verification standards far exceeds the requirements of international regulations, and many of them are unique to Volkswagen.

In the range test, Volkswagen requires each vehicle to undergo a nearly 16 - week alternating temperature test from -30°C to 60°C, covering a mileage of over 10,000 kilometers, which is equivalent to the round - trip distance from Mohe to the South China Sea. More importantly, Volkswagen adopts the strict standard of "continuous driving at the maximum speed for 30 minutes" instead of the intermittent tests commonly used in the industry, which places higher requirements on the thermal management stability of the three - electric system.

In terms of cabin odor management, Volkswagen has its own "Golden Nose Team". Using a six - level scoring system, components need to go through three rounds of evaluations: independent heating, after assembly, and in the whole - vehicle state. In acoustic tuning, the measurement accuracy is controlled within 0.1 decibels through patented technology, reducing the in - cabin noise by up to 10 decibels under rapid acceleration conditions. For the tactile feeling of materials, Volkswagen requires interior parts to be tested in an alternating environment from -40°C to 80°C and to undergo a 320 - hour ultraviolet weathering test equivalent to 10 years of wear.

In the key systems closely related to life safety, Volkswagen has designed 140 types of airbag abuse tests (the national standard only has 23 types), including simulating that the airbag does not accidentally trigger during a severe impact on the suspension after the vehicle jumps over a slope, and the airbag remains stationary when an 80 - kilogram wild boar model collides with a vehicle at a speed of 80 kilometers per hour in an offset collision. In the battery pack bottom impact test, a 5 - kilogram metal block is used to hit the battery pack at a speed of 82 kilometers per hour, with an energy of 1300 joules, which is equivalent to the impact force of 1 liter of water falling from a 40 - story building, eight times that of the national standard.

Volkswagen Anhui: Betting 3.5 Billion Euros on Localized R & D

Volkswagen's investment in the Chinese market is shifting from production - oriented to technology - oriented.

Volkswagen China Technology Company (VCTC) located in Hefei has cumulatively invested approximately 3.5 billion euros and gathered more than 3,000 experts, becoming the largest R & D center outside Germany. Collaborating with its joint - venture partner teams, Volkswagen now has more than 7,000 R & D personnel in China, forming one of the largest global innovation clusters.

The unique value of VCTC lies in its integration of the full - chain capabilities from platform development, battery systems, software integration to whole - vehicle verification. Inside the Volkswagen Anhui R & D center, there is its world - first E - 4 - Poster test system.

This system can combine the whole - vehicle road simulation with dynamic battery testing, simultaneously testing the vehicle body, chassis, and battery pack in an environmental chamber from -30°C to 60°C. Through 255 hours of continuous vibration, this system reproduces the real road spectrum collected from the German test track, improving the R & D efficiency by 30%.

Simultaneous with the investment in the Chinese R & D center is the localization of its test standards in China.

Volkswagen's chassis passability test in China is based on the real - user data collected from 25 cities over 15 years. It requires a fully loaded vehicle to scrape the chassis six times in different directions. In the wading test, the water depth reaches 300 millimeters (the national standard is 100 millimeters), and the vehicle needs to pass through a 500 - millimeter - deep water area at a speed of 7 kilometers per hour, simulating the scenario of heavy rain and waterlogging.

It is worth noting that the demands of the Chinese market for Volkswagen will also feed back into the global standards in the future. For example, its global corrosion - resistance test combines the harsh climate in Northern Europe with the high - salt and high - humidity environment in China.