China Fund News reporter Feng Yao
The cooperation between Volkswagen and Xiaopeng has made significant progress.
html On July 22, Xpeng Motors announced that it had signed a strategic cooperation and joint development agreement with Volkswagen on electronic and electrical architecture technology. Both parties will fully invest in developing new electronic and electrical architectures for Volkswagen's two major platforms (cmp and meb platforms) produced in China. .Xpeng also confirmed to reporters that the Volkswagen engineering team has recently entered Xpeng Motors based on the above-mentioned cooperation matters. The first model equipped with a new electronic and electrical architecture from both parties is expected to be mass-produced within 24 months.
Volkswagen's first localized electronic and electrical architecture
It is understood that after Xpeng Motors and Volkswagen signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement on electronic and electrical architecture technology on April 17 this year, the two companies further signed a strategic cooperation on electronic and electrical architecture technology. Joint Development Agreement.
According to the agreement, both parties will fully invest in the development of electronic and electrical architecture for the two platforms produced by Volkswagen in China - cmp and meb platforms.
Volkswagen said that this new electronic and electrical architecture (cea architecture, china electrial architecture) was jointly developed by Volkswagen (China) Technology Co., Ltd. (vctc), Volkswagen subsidiary Cariad China and Xpeng Motors. cariad China will play a key role in the project and develop and integrate the latest generation of advanced autonomous driving assistance solutions and smart cockpit software functions for the new architecture.
It is reported that compared with the current electronic and electrical architecture, the advantages of the CEA architecture are: three highly integrated regional controllers will replace a large number of electronic control units, and the number of bicycle control units will be reduced by 30%, which can significantly reduce costs and operations. system complexity while improving computing performance and security; thanks to the central computing platform and greater computing power, complex functions such as advanced autonomous driving assistance can be integrated into the architecture more quickly and conveniently.
Currently, Xpeng Motors and Volkswagen have established joint development project teams in Guangzhou and Hefei. According to Xpeng, through the technical cooperation of the joint development project team, the first model equipped with the electronic and electrical architecture jointly developed by both parties is expected to be mass-produced in about 24 months.
It is worth noting that the CEA architecture is also Volkswagen's first localized electronic and electrical architecture, which will meet the specific needs of the Chinese market at the technical and economic levels.
public information shows that electronic and electrical architecture plays a decisive role in automotive digitalization. As the central control center that manages all important electronic functions, it is also the digital hub that connects the hardware platform to the vehicle's substructure, including all basic components such as the powertrain and chassis.
This news also caused the share price of Xpeng Motors to surge. In intraday trading on July 22, the company's stock price rose by more than 5%.
Volkswagen engineer team settled in Xpeng
There are already signs of further deepening of cooperation between Xpeng Motors and Volkswagen.
Recently, it was reported that Volkswagen has officially dispatched an elite team of engineers to Xpeng Motors' headquarters in Guangzhou, numbering hundreds of people. This team came to Xiaopeng's headquarters to "receive interviews and training" based on the electronic and electrical architecture cooperation project cea between the two parties.
Xpeng Motors also confirmed the authenticity of the news to reporters, saying that the entry of the Volkswagen engineering team was based on the above-mentioned cooperation.
An insider also revealed to reporters that after Volkswagen personnel move in, Xpeng Motors is expected to further take over the electronic and electrical architecture of almost all electric models of Volkswagen China .
For Xpeng Motors, it has already tasted the benefits of cooperation with Volkswagen. Data show that in the first quarter of this year, Xpeng Automobile's service and other revenue was 1 billion yuan, an increase of 93.1% from 520 million yuan in the same period of 2023, and an increase of 22.1% from 820 million yuan in the fourth quarter of 2023.
It is reported that the growth of this part of revenue is mainly due to the revenue from technology research and development services related to the strategic technical cooperation between Xpeng Motors and Volkswagen on platform and software. "Platform software revenue in the first quarter of 2024 will be more than 100 million yuan. At the same time, the electronic and electrical architecture cooperation reached with Volkswagen will be included in revenue starting from the second half of this year."In the first quarter earnings conference call this year, Xpeng Motors' management revealed the current benefits brought by the strategic cooperation with Volkswagen.
In fact, Volkswagen currently attaches great importance to external cooperation in software and electronic and electrical architecture.
In addition to Xpeng Motors, in late June this year, Volkswagen also announced that it planned to invest US$5 billion in Rivian, a new American car-making force, and establish a joint venture to create a next-generation software-defined vehicle (sdv) platform for The future electric vehicles of the two companies. Among them, software and electronic and electrical architecture are the top priorities of the cooperation between the two parties.
It should be mentioned that Volkswagen has frequently encountered obstacles in the field of software and electronic and electrical architecture.
Previously, Volkswagen. A centralized electronic and electrical architecture called e3 was launched on the meb platform, which streamlined hundreds of ECUs on the vehicle into three high-computing units. However, due to the constraints of software capabilities, the meb platform had a large number of bugs in its early stages. The mass production launch of product id.3 has been postponed multiple times.
Recently, it was reported that Volkswagen’s multiple electric vehicle projects have been postponed again, including the id.4 replacement model and the Porsche new electric SUV. The former will be postponed by 15. months, and will not be launched until 2029 at the earliest. The latter will not be launched until 2031, a full three years later than originally planned.
The reason why the mass production of the above-mentioned models is delayed is because Volkswagen subsidiary cariad is responsible for development. The e3 2.0 software platform is in trouble.
Editor: Captain
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