AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)04/18 Report--

On April 17th, Xiaopeng Motor and Volkswagen Group jointly announced the formal signing of the EEA Electronic and Electrical Architecture Technology Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement. Under the agreement, the two sides will jointly develop an electronic and electrical architecture for Volkswagen's electric vehicle platform in the Chinese market, and the EEA electronic and electrical architecture jointly developed by the two sides is expected to be used in Volkswagen brand electric models produced in China from 2026.

According to official information, the CEA architecture will be jointly developed by technicians from Xiaopeng, Volkswagen China Technology and CARIAD China, a software company of the Volkswagen Group. From 2026, the architecture will be used in locally produced Volkswagen brand electric vehicles. The biggest feature of the architecture is that it can greatly reduce the complexity of the intelligent electronic control system in the vehicle, reduce the number of controllers by 30%, and cut costs. It is better to upgrade OTA remotely. In the future, various functions, including autopilot, will be integrated into the vehicle and continuously updated and expanded.

This is the third major cooperation between Xiaopeng and Volkswagen Group, which began in July 2023. At that time, the two sides signed a framework agreement on strategic technical cooperation and minority equity investment, and reached a long-term strategic partnership. The two sides plan to jointly develop two Volkswagen brand electric models for the medium-sized car market in China, which will complement the product portfolio based on the MEB platform and plan to enter the market in 2026. In December of the same year, Volkswagen China bought a stake in Xiaopeng Motor. After the completion of the deal, Volkswagen China held about 4.99% of Xiaopeng's share capital, making it Xiaopeng's third largest shareholder, but Volkswagen only got an observer seat on Xiaopeng's board of directors and did not have the right to vote.

In February this year, Xiaopeng signed a joint development agreement with Volkswagen Group on platform and software strategic technology cooperation. The two sides will jointly develop two intelligent Internet models for China's medium-sized car market. The first two models have been confirmed to be on the market in 2026, and the first product is the SUV model.

The signing of the technical cooperation agreement between the two sides means that the direction of cooperation between the two sides is further refined. In response to this cooperation, Volkswagen China said: "the latest progress of cooperation has further strengthened the electrification process of Volkswagen in China, and is a key strategic move for the group to become a leader in the era of Intelligent Network Automotive." Baird, chairman and CEO of Volkswagen Group (China), also pointed out: "by expanding cooperation with Xiaopeng Automobile and deeply integrating into China's industrial ecology, we can meet the product needs of Chinese customers more quickly."

Why did Volkswagen Group choose to cooperate with Xiaopeng Automobile, a new power car company in China? It is generally believed in the industry that Volkswagen may be interested in Xiaopeng's attainments in the field of intelligence. Compared with Ulai and ideal, Xiaopeng is more focused on the technology-led market and has been oriented towards the development and mass production of fully self-driving cars since its inception. It has also been regarded as the "ceiling" of high-level auxiliary driving capabilities of Chinese car companies. For this cooperation, Xiaopeng said in its latest statement: "look forward to defining smart cars in the future together."

Xiaopeng previously said in an announcement that Xiaopeng and Volkswagen would jointly develop two B-class electric vehicles based on their core competitiveness and Xiaopeng's G9 platform, intelligent cockpit and high-level auxiliary driving system software. sold under the Volkswagen brand in the Chinese market, the related models are expected to start production in 2026. At the same time, some people in the industry pointed out that the biggest factor for the two sides to choose cooperation is to achieve a win-win situation and at the same time achieve the goal of reducing costs and increasing efficiency.

For Volkswagen, the Chinese market has become the world's largest single market. In the Chinese market, Volkswagen is the most determined in the development of electric vehicles, and it is also a well-developed international car company in the field of joint venture electric vehicles. The first ID since the end of 2020. ID that Volkswagen is selling in China since the introduction of electric cars into China. Family models include the ID.3, ID.4CROZZ, ID.4X, ID.6CROZZ and ID.6X, but Volkswagen is still unable to compete with mainstream Chinese electric carmakers.

Volkswagen's best-selling electric model in the first quarter of this year was the ID.3, with cumulative sales of 17600 vehicles, followed by the ID.4CROZZ and ID.4X with 8254 and 4658, respectively, according to retail data. Admittedly, driven by the era of intelligence and electrification, Volkswagen has lagged far behind other independent brands in terms of electric products. In this context, Volkswagen put down its posture and cooperate with Xiaopeng Automobile, a new power car company in China, in order to promote the electrification process more quickly and reshape its market position.

It is worth mentioning that Volkswagen is not the only traditional car company that chooses to cooperate with Chinese car companies. prior to this, Audi reached a deepening cooperation agreement with SAIC, Changan Ford and Changan Automobile established a new energy joint venture, and so on. In the view of "Automotive Industry attention", these partnerships are actually the beginning of actively seeking change, and there will be more such cooperation cases in the future.

As for the third cooperation between Xiaopeng and Volkswagen, Xiaopeng CEO he Xiaopeng said: "the scope of this cooperation has been expanded, from joint research and development of models to Volkswagen brand electric models produced in China, and the scale of the cooperation has reached a new level." In short, the scope of cooperation between the two sides has expanded from the original cooperation to building a new CMP platform for Volkswagen for the Chinese market, and the subsequent two models will also be equipped with CEA architecture. It should be noted that the first model of cooperation between the two sides will not be available until 2026, but the competition in China's car market will only be more fierce in the future. Whether the cooperation between Xiaopeng and Volkswagen can be successful in the end. It still takes time to test.

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