Volkswagen and Xpeng Motors executives pose for a photo during the German automaker’s launch event in Beijing, China, on August 24, 2024.
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Beijing—hundreds of people Volkswagen Staff spend time with Xpeng Motors Xpeng Motors co-president Brian Gu told CNBC on Monday that the German auto giant and the Chinese startup are working to build electric vehicles for China.
He also said that this cooperation will help Xpeng Motors achieve its global ambitions.
Volkswagen announced in July 2023 that it would invest US$700 million in Xpeng Motors to jointly develop two electric vehicles and deliver them in China in 2026. world SUV.
Gu said the German company’s employees spend more time in Xpeng’s offices than the startup spends in Volkswagen’s offices. They are learning about the startup’s technology.
Xpeng Motors’ driver assistance technology is widely regarded as one of the best in China right now. Tesla’s version is billed as “full self-driving,” but it’s not fully available in China.
The German automaker did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gu stressed that the upcoming vehicles will be “very different” from those currently sold by Xpeng Motors or Volkswagen. He said the cars would likely have “better range, charging, smarter driving, more feature-rich luxury technology for the same price.”
China is an important market for Volkswagen. German car manufacturer delivers Last year, the number of cars in China was 3.2 million. That’s more than 3.1 million across Western Europe.
But like many traditional foreign auto giants, Volkswagen has struggled in China as the local market rapidly shifts to pure battery and hybrid vehicles. corporate China deliveries plunge 19.3% quarter ended last June.
Although Xpeng’s second-quarter deliveries increased 30% year-over-year to more than 30,200 vehicles, the startup still lags behind many Chinese rivals.
Look overseas
At the same time, the company has Like Chinese electric vehicle companies, expand overseas BYD and Nioh. Xpeng Motors said that in the second quarter, overseas sales accounted for 10% of total revenue for the first time.
Xpeng Motors CEO and founder He Xiaopeng told Bloomberg last week that the Chinese automaker is in the preliminary stages Choose a site in the EU as part of future localized production plans. The interview was published on Tuesday.
Asked for comment, Xpeng Motors said it was considering the possibility of overseas production as it told the Beijing Auto Show in the spring.
Gu also told reporters on Monday that localization work in Southeast Asia may be carried out earlier than in Europe.
He said the 10-year-old startup aims to cover at least 40 countries and regions by the end of this year, up from about 30 currently.
Xpeng Motors launched in Thailand, Hong Kong and Macau earlier this month. This week, the startup will launch in Malaysia and officially announce its entry into Singapore, where Xpeng Motors has a pop-up store, Gu said.
The startup also plans to enter Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Gu said.
supply chain partnership
Talking about how the Chinese company is learning from its German partners, Gu said Xpeng Motors employees visited Volkswagen’s offices in Hefei, the capital of China’s Anhui province, for design and technology and traveled to Beijing for supply chain discussions .
The two companies announced in February that they had entered into “joint purchasing plan“For car parts.
Gu told CNBC that Xpeng Motors has been investing in robotics since 2020 and is currently focusing on humanoid robots that can handle multiple tasks in factories. He said Xpeng Motors may reveal more details soon.
But when asked whether the humanoid integration would include Volkswagen-related supply chains, he said it was too early for implementation.
—CNBC’s Sonia Heng contributed to this report.
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