A Volkswagen continues to seek to regain the Chinese automotive market. With the Chinese government’s own investments in BYDthe German automaker lost its position as the best-selling brand in the country in 2022. Furthermore, the population’s favoritism for electric (and Chinese) vehicles also meant that the VW left the leadership in sales of combustion models. But a partnership will yield the German company two local electric midsize models, one of them an SUV.
In this way, the German brand announced plans to create a new SUV in partnership with the Chinese XPeng. With the development of new vehicles, the agreement will also yield a new platform for the production of electric cars. Thus, costs should be reduced by up to 40% compared to vehicles made under the platform MEB.
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The German brand’s new platform is expected to debut in mid-2026. The announcement is another step in the agreement that emerged in 2023, when VW announced its intention to purchase 4.99% of XPeng for around US$700 million (R$3.46 billion in direct conversion). The negotiation was concluded in December 2023.
Partnership between VW and XPeng brings new platform
Despite the new China’s Electrical Architecture (CEA) is the result of the agreement between VW and Xpeng, this also counts on investments from China Technology Company (VCTC) and the CARIAD China. The idea is that with the CEA It is possible to carry out vehicle updates via the cloud. Furthermore, technologies such as autonomous driving, for example, could be added to the new models. The reduction in manufacturing costs could enable VW to compete in terms of prices against BYD It is GWMas well as other emerging Chinese brands, such as Zeekr It is Omoda Jaecoo.
Volkswagen launches sedan version of the Passat in China
Just like the Car Newspaper anticipated, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China revealed images this past week of the Volkswagen Passat in sedan version. The arrival of the new model on the Chinese market is part of VW’s strategy to resume its good sales performance. The model carries the surname “Pro” and is made exclusively for the Asian country market. Thus, the objective is to succeed the old Passat by the end of this year. However, there are no plans for the sedan to arrive in Brazil.
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