VW plan was to JV with a Chinese auto brand (or buy one outright), design & make in China, and then re-import them into Europe. The only way they could get price down for the consumer, at the quality level required to sell in Germany, is to leverage China supply chain and automated manufacturing advantages. VW EV built in Germany currently incurs significant loss per vehicle. This is part of the reason why German auto was so against EU tariffs - which basically scuppers this plan