XPENG-W (09868) announced that following the joint development agreement for electronic and electrical architecture technology strategic cooperation signed with Volkswagen Group on July 22, 2024, both parties have been accelerating the development of their industry-leading electronic and electrical architecture at "China speed" and have achieved key project milestones. Based on mutual consensus to expand the application scope of electronic and electrical architecture and achieve cross-platform, cross-powertrain electronic and electrical architecture platformization within Volkswagen Group, both parties have signed an expanded strategic cooperation agreement for electronic and electrical architecture technology.

The signing of this expanded cooperation agreement marks that the industry-leading electronic and electrical architecture jointly developed by both parties will not only be integrated into Volkswagen's pure electric vehicle platforms in the Chinese market, but will also be deployed across Volkswagen's fuel and plug-in hybrid vehicle platforms in China. This strategic technical cooperation will extend to broader markets.

This development will also accelerate the realization of Volkswagen Group's software-defined vehicle strategy and strengthen the global competitiveness of Volkswagen Group's vehicle models. Through electronic and electrical architecture platformization, rapid software iteration and remote upgrades will be achieved, significantly shortening vehicle development cycles.

Both parties' R&D teams have adhered to an ultimate platformization design philosophy, designing and validating a platformized technical solution that allows the electronic and electrical architecture developed for pure electric vehicle platforms to also be deployed on fuel and plug-in hybrid vehicle platforms. This represents an important achievement of joint R&D and technological innovation between both parties, demonstrating the advantages and strategic value of their long-term strategic cooperation.

This will significantly expand the quantity and scale of vehicles equipped with this advanced electronic and electrical architecture in the Chinese market, enabling Volkswagen Group to achieve substantial platformization scale effects and product competitiveness.

"This expanded cooperation agreement represents another important milestone in our collaboration journey following the joint development agreement signed on July 22, 2024. This move not only demonstrates the deep mutual trust in our long-term strategic partnership, but also showcases our firm determination and forward-looking vision for continuous technological innovation and joint value creation in the core technology field of intelligent electric vehicles," stated He Xiaopeng, Chairman and CEO of XPENG.

Ralf Brandstätter, Member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Group responsible for China and Chairman & CEO of Volkswagen Group China, commented: "The application of advanced technological achievements should not be limited to a single powertrain form. All brands under Volkswagen Group are always committed to providing customers with the most advanced solutions in each market segment. By extending the CEA architecture to the Group's robust fuel vehicle product matrix, the Group will further consolidate its technological leadership position in the traditional powertrain vehicle market. At the same time, in China's highly competitive automotive market, we continue to optimize our cost structure to ensure we always provide extremely attractive vehicle options for our broad customer base. This will create stronger strategic depth for us, providing more space for our targeted cutting-edge innovation investments, helping us accelerate toward a fully connected, intelligent electric future."