INSIGHT-How Volkswagen stalled in China

In early 2020, that team decided that strengthening metal components should be added to the front of all new Passats and a variety of other models made at the Shanghai-based venture, at a cost of about 400 yuan ($62) per vehicle

BEIJING: In late December 2019, managers at Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg realised they might have a serious problem in China, the company's biggest market and ticket to its electric future.

Its flagship Passat sedan had fared badly in an unofficial safety test carried out by an insurance industry body which simulated a front-on driver's side collision, a test that's been widely used in the United States for around a decade.