Volkswagen Opens New Testing Hall in Hefei, Completing Its First Full Development Hub Outside Germany

Volkswagen Group China Technology Company (VCTC) has inaugurated a new testing hall at its Hefei R&D center, marking the completion of a major expansion project and establishing the automaker’s first comprehensive development hub outside Germany with full end-to-end testing and validation capabilities.

The expanded Hefei R&D facility covers roughly 100,000 square meters and includes more than 100 advanced laboratories. Its scope spans software and hardware development, battery and powertrain testing, and full-vehicle platform validation. With the upgrade, Volkswagen now has, for the first time outside its home country, a complete R&D ecosystem capable of taking technologies from concept through localized production.

As a key pillar of the company’s “in China, for China” strategy, the VCTC team is collaborating with CARIAD China to accelerate development of Volkswagen’s new central-computing and zonal electrical/electronic architecture (CEA). The company expects the shift to a software-defined vehicle development model to reduce overall model cycles by around 30% and potentially cut costs for certain future vehicles by up to 50%.

The CEA foundation will also support Volkswagen’s next-generation smart cockpit systems, advanced driver-assistance features, and full-vehicle OTA updates, enabling faster deployment of digital functions customized for the Chinese market.

The center further expands Volkswagen’s battery and powertrain testing capabilities, with the capacity to evaluate more than 500 battery system sets annually across performance, durability, safety, and environmental resilience. Its suite of facilities, including an EMC laboratory, full-vehicle durability rigs, and an urban test track, supports a complete pipeline from lab simulation to real-world validation.

Volkswagen said its Function Integration Testing (FIT) laboratory will begin operations in mid-2026. One of only two such facilities worldwide, the FIT lab will replicate highly complex and extreme testing environments, strengthening Volkswagen’s R&D competitiveness in electrification and intelligent mobility.

With VCTC now fully operational, Volkswagen has completed a full design-to-validation development loop in China, supporting both domestic vehicle programs and export-focused models destined for regions including ASEAN and the Middle East.