Foreign Brand Use Prohibited
Chinese authorities began to take steps to prevent foreign brands from being exposed in the Chinese electric car market.
China's National Development and Reform Commission recently rejected an application by an electric vehicle joint venture between Volkswagen and JAC to use SEAT, the name of Volkswagen’s subsidiary in Spain, the Financial Times (FT) reported on August 20 (local time).
"The commission’s decision is the first step in making automakers use local brand names," said one source about why the decision was made.
In addition, some commented that it was a clear obstacle for foreign companies to keep them from going ahead of local companies by brand name in the Chinese electric or hybrid car market.
It is said that the decision applies only to the newly established Volkswagen-JAC joint venture and is not expected to be retroactive to joint ventures founded before.
BMW and Audi already founded their joint ventures and are producing new energy vehicles (NEVs) with their own brands.
However, General Motors (GM) launched a US$5,000 small new energy vehicle named the Baojun E100 which does not reveal its identity.