Interface News Reporter | Yang Shihan
On July 22nd, Xiaopeng Motors and Volkswagen Group jointly announced that they have signed a strategic cooperation agreement for the joint development of electronic and electrical architecture technology, and will fully invest in the development of electronic and electrical architecture for Volkswagen's CMP and MEB platforms produced in China. The first vehicle equipped with the jointly developed electronic and electrical architecture is expected to be mass-produced within 24 months.
Affected by this news, as of press time, the Hong Kong stock price of Xiaopeng Motors was HKD 33.65 per share, up 3.86%.
Last July, Volkswagen invested $700 million in Xiaopeng Motors, acquiring a 4.99% stake and a board observer seat. The latest public documents indicate that Xiaopeng Motors and Volkswagen Group have established joint development project teams in Guangzhou and Hefei.
According to previous reports from 36Kr, the collaboration between Xiaopeng and Volkswagen will extend beyond the Chinese market's vehicle platform CMP to Volkswagen's global electric vehicle platform MEB. The direct factor driving the deepening of cooperation is that Volkswagen has seen an improvement in car manufacturing efficiency through the collaboration between the two parties. Recently, the white body of a car model jointly produced by the two parties has been taken offline. If the progress is smooth, Volkswagen and Xiaopeng's cars are likely to be launched by 2025, possibly one year earlier than the original plan.
In addition to improving speed, another focus of Volkswagen's development of electric vehicles is to reduce costs. Compared to Volkswagen's existing MEB platform, the CMP platform aims to reduce costs by 40%. The CEA architecture, jointly developed by Xiaopeng, Volkswagen, and CARIAD China, a software company under the Volkswagen Group, will make an important contribution to this goal. In April this year, Xiaopeng and Volkswagen will expand their cooperation to the field of electronic and electrical architecture, announcing the joint development of the above-mentioned architecture.
According to official information, due to the adoption of a regional control and quasi central computing architecture, the number of controllers in vehicles will be significantly reduced by 30% compared to before, and the CEA architecture can bring better cost-effectiveness to Volkswagen brands. In addition, it is also possible to remotely upgrade and continuously update and expand functions such as autonomous driving through OTA.
This architecture will not only be integrated into the two models jointly developed by Xiaopeng and Volkswagen, but also into the CMP platform jointly developed by Volkswagen China Technology, SAIC Volkswagen, and FAW Volkswagen, and will develop four Volkswagen brand pure electric models for the compact entry-level market. With the CEA electronic and electrical architecture, Xiaopeng Motors may have a profound impact on Volkswagen's entire electric vehicle platform in China.
The report also pointed out that hundreds of Volkswagen engineers flooded into the headquarters of Xiaopeng Motors last Thursday (July 18th). Unlike ordinary technical exchanges, insiders revealed that hundreds of Volkswagen employees came to Xiaopeng for interviews and training at the headquarters based on the electronic and electrical architecture cooperation project CEA.
On site photos show that Xiaopeng Motors has set up independent office areas for Volkswagen employees. On the 2nd floor of Xiaopeng Motors' Guangzhou headquarters, a "VW project" sign with the Volkswagen project logo has been hung, and the back of employees' computers is also labeled with the word "VW". According to informed sources, some employees were sent from the German headquarters to study for three years.
A former German Volkswagen technology R&D engineer told Interface News that due to the backward 5G infrastructure in Europe, strict data privacy protection laws, and pressure from labor unions to protect positions, Volkswagen itself is facing strong resistance to reform in the electronic and electrical era. In addition, the senior management of Volkswagen lacks perception of the consumption preferences and changes in the Chinese market, and currently the Chinese market, especially new energy vehicles, is leading the global trend. It is necessary to learn from Chinese partners.