The Jetta's toughness and durability are widely praised. I looked through history: in 1996, a Jetta in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, set a record of 600,000 kilometers without major repairs, and FAW-Volkswagen specially rewarded the owner with a brand-new Jetta.
The first Jetta A2 rolled off the assembly line at FAW Car on December 5, 1991. On July 1, 1992, FAW-Volkswagen's temporary assembly line went into production, and the first SKD-assembled Jetta rolled off the line. Thirty-five years later, the Jetta has 5.3 million owners and has also grown from a single model into an independent brand: on March 22, 2019, the Jetta brand was officially launched in Chengdu.
The reason for talking about history here is that the Jetta M6 was launched on October 22, and this all-electric family sedan opens a new era for the Jetta brand.
The launch event venue is quite close to FAW-Volkswagen's Chengdu branch, and the Jetta M6 was born in the Chengdu Economic and Technological Development Zone, so the venue had a strong Sichuan flavor: bamboo charm, teahouses, bobobo chicken, mahjong... full of the breath of daily life. Isn't this ease and comfort exactly the most important quality of the Jetta M6 all-electric family sedan?
FAW-Volkswagen knows how to put on a launch event. On March 8, 1998, FAW-Volkswagen held the launch ceremony for the new Jetta King sedan at the China World Trade Center in Beijing—this is the first documented new-car launch ceremony in Chinese automotive history. For the Jetta M6 launch event, FAW-Volkswagen played new tricks again. This launch did not read from PPTs or pile on specs; it focused more on feelings, using a stand-up comedy format to express its understanding and definition of the Jetta. Even clothing and styling were particular: every person on stage had a signature color corresponding to the six car colors—quality, safety, intelligence, comfort, and price, six aspects in one step, each person speaking about one, ultimately converging into the Jetta M6 selling-point summary: "Within 100,000, all in one step."
It really is under 100,000. The most expensive 9.98-million-yuan 555 Ultra version offers 2820 mm of large space, 555 km of long range, assisted driving with highway and urban NOA and full-scenario parking, plus quality you do not usually see and safety you need at critical moments.
And the entry version at 7.98 million yuan already has assisted driving functions such as intelligent cruise assistance, lane change by stalk, and automatic emergency braking; an intelligent cockpit with Doubao, Qianwen, and DeepSeek onboard; full coverage of phone-car connectivity with CarPlay, HiCar, and Carlink; and range of 465 km. In cockpit experience, safety configuration, and many other aspects, the three versions remain highly consistent.
The Jetta M6, inside and out, has the flavor of a new-energy vehicle, while the toughness of the old Jetta will of course be inherited in the Jetta M6. Jetta's "Lao Ma" (Dirk Mayer, general manager of Jetta Automotive Technology) said: Jetta's quality cannot be "about right."
As for whether this statement is put into practice, we need to look at the later user reputation of the Jetta M6, but the manufacturer is giving users reassurance in advance: for the first non-commercial owner: lifetime warranty on the three electric systems, lifetime backing for automatic parking, lifetime free full-vehicle inspection, lifetime warranty on original parts, and if the vehicle spontaneously combusts due to three-electric quality problems, lifetime compensation. It is clear that Jetta is quite confident in this car. In the fuel era, toughness meant durable three core components and cheap parts; for an electric car, reliability means stable three electrics, stable quality control, and after-sales backing.
Jetta is an old-timer in the auto world, but its new way of expression and new product form give people a brand-new experience. This keeping pace with the times is just like a sentence from Dong Xiuhui, director, party secretary, and general manager of FAW-Volkswagen Automotive Co., Ltd., in his opening speech: "The launch event below is handed over to the young people."
Every era has its own 100,000-yuan family sedan, for the young families of that time.
