Volkswagen stated it’ll produce two Volkswagen-branded fashions co-developed with Xpeng in Hefei, the primary of which is scheduled to enter manufacturing in 2026.
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Volkswagen will make investments 2.5 billion euros ($2.68 billion) to additional develop its manufacturing and innovation heart in Hefei, Anhui province, and strengthen its native analysis and improvement capabilities, the German auto big introduced at present.
As one of many key initiatives of its “In China, for China” technique, Volkswagen is accelerating the tempo of innovation, it stated in an announcement.
Volkswagen stated it’ll produce two Volkswagen-branded fashions co-developed with Xpeng (NYSE: XPEV) in Hefei, the primary of which will probably be a mid-size SUV scheduled to enter manufacturing in 2026.
On July 26, 2023, Volkswagen introduced that it might make investments about $700 million to amass an approximate 4.99 p.c stake in Xpeng, and that the 2 firms plan to co-develop two Volkswagen-branded EV fashions for the mid-size car market in China.
Xpeng and Volkswagen will make the most of their respective core competencies, the Xpeng G9 platform, in addition to connectivity and ADAS (Superior Driver Help System) software program to construct the 2 fashions.
On February 29, Xpeng stated it signed a brand new settlement with Volkswagen to speed up the event of joint fashions and cut back prices by joint sourcing.
The brand new fashions will speed up the electrification of Volkswagen’s product matrix in China, with the group’s manufacturers providing greater than 30 purely electrical fashions out there by 2030, it stated.
Volkswagen is creating its first EV structure particularly for the Chinese language market, the China Fundamental Platform (CMP), on which no fewer than 4 EV fashions for the compact entry market will probably be developed from 2026, in line with the corporate.
The manufacturing and innovation heart in Hefei will permit new applied sciences to be dropped at market at a price that can improve by about 30 p.c, Ralf Brandstaetter, Volkswagen Group’s administration board member for China, stated.
The continued funding within the heart displays Volkswagen’s dedication to quickly strengthen its native innovation capabilities, he stated.
Volkswagen kicked off its electrification technique within the Chinese language market in 2017 and arrange a three way partnership with Anhui Jianghuai Car Group (JAC) in the identical yr.
The corporate was initially referred to as Jianghuai Volkswagen Car and on the finish of 2020, Volkswagen elevated its stake within the firm to 75 p.c and had the corporate renamed Volkswagen Anhui.
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VW Anhui information for 1st mannequin ID.UNYX