He added: “It’s too early to decide if we want to localise a Chinese platform in Germany, but if we would do it, our priority would be to take one of our own platforms first.
“This year we are ramping up the CMP platform, which is planned for 2027 in China. This work has to be done first, and then we could think about options in Europe and check which products could be the right ones.
“We are getting right now the feedback and response from the market for our first new product in China. Then we will decide, depending on the success we have in China, which models would fit in Europe, especially in segments where we are not present with our current portfolio in Europe.”
Blume said a “second step” could be to offer European production capacity for some of its Chinese joint-venture partners, which include MG owner SAIC and FAW, calling it a potential “clever solution to reduce [spare] capacities”.
The Volkswagen Group’s push to introduce China-only platforms is part of a major push to regain standing in the region. Once the dominant player in the market, it has faced a stiff challenge from Chinese brands lately, with its sales in the country in the opening quarter of 2026 falling 20% year on year.
Blume said that “having a strong footprint” in China meant the Volkswagen Group’s Western operations could benefit from “innovation, speed and practices”. He called the Chinese ecosystem “a blueprint in terms of architecture, including for our Rivian [software] joint venture in the Western world.”
Overall, deliveries in the first quarter of 2026 were down 4.0% year on year to 2.0 million vehicles, mostly due to declining sales in the US and China. The group sold 200,000 electric cars, down 7.7% year on year.