- Over 20,000 charging piles operated by the two companies covering 420 cities in China will be available to Xpeng and Volkswagen customers.
- The partnership will also extend to the possibility of building co-branded superfast charging stations in China in the future.
Xpeng (NYSE: XPEV) today announced that it and Volkswagen, one of the world's largest automakers, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for strategic collaboration on superfast charging networks in China.
Under the MOU, Xpeng and Volkswagen Group China will work together to build one of the largest superfast charging networks in the world's largest electric vehicle (EV) market.
More than 20,000 charging piles operated by the two companies, covering 420 cities in China, will be available to Xpeng and Volkswagen customers, according to an announcement today.
The collaboration will also extend to future possibility of building co-branded superfast charging stations in China to further accelerate the expansion of the charging network and improve operational efficiency, Xpeng said.
The strategic cooperation is the fourth milestone in Xpeng's long-term strategic partnership with Volkswagen, the Chinese EV maker said, adding that the two companies plan to explore further strategic cooperation opportunities to broaden their technology cooperation and strengthen their mutually beneficial strategic partnership.
Xpeng announced on July 26, 2023 that Volkswagen planned to invest $700 million in it and co-develop EVs.
In the initial phase of the partnership, the parties planned to co-develop two Volkswagen-branded EV models for the mid-size car market in China, which were scheduled to go on sale in 2026, according to an announcement made at the time.
On February 29, 2024, Xpeng announced that the two had entered into a joint sourcing program for common components for vehicles and platforms used by both companies to reduce costs.
On April 17 of last year, they signed a new agreement for technical cooperation in Electrical/Electronic architecture to jointly develop and integrate Xpeng's latest generation of architecture into Volkswagen's China Main Platform (CMP).
Today's announcement represents the fourth major partnership the two have announced since joining forces last July.
Xpeng, like its main local counterparts, has built its own supercharging network in China.
It announced last month that as of December 12, the company had 1,790 charging stations in China, offering 9,070 charging piles across 420 cities.
Xpeng released the S4 supercharger on August 15, 2022, with a peak charging power of 400 kW and a claimed range of 210 kilometers in five minutes.
Last July 30, the EV maker's chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng unveiled the S5 supercharger at a technology event, saying that this next-generation Xpeng charger would bring up to 800 kW of charging power and get more than 300 kilometers of range in as little as five minutes of charging.
Volkswagen is also building a charging network in China, establishing CAMS New Energy Technology (CAMS), a charging facility operator headquartered in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, in May 2019 with China FAW.
By 2025, CAMS planned to have 17,000 fast-charging terminals in China that cover most of the country's cities, Volkswagen mentioned in July 2023.
Late last month, CAMS announced that it has 1,621 supercharging stations in China, providing 7,670 charging posts and 13,121 charging terminals covering 213 cities.
CAMS charging piles have a peak power of up to 600 kW and can get a range of 500 kilometers in as little as 10 minutes of charging, it said last month.
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