XPeng, which has been advancing triumphantly, cannot drive its "good friend" Volkswagen Anhui forward.

At the end of September, XPeng Motors launched the G9L. One month later, the XPeng MONA L05 hit the market, and 5,000 nearly-ready vehicles were snapped up within 3 minutes of its launch night.

In the past two months, XPeng Motors' new car deliveries reached 41,256 units and 50,237 units respectively. This marks XPeng's first time achieving monthly deliveries of 50,000 units, with approximately 26.5% of that volume coming from overseas markets.

Volkswagen, XPeng's most critical partner that has established a close relationship through equity participation and technical cooperation, has been struggling in the Chinese market. In the first three quarters of this year, Volkswagen's sales in the Chinese market only reached 1.379 million units, with a year-on-year decline as high as 30%. In the third quarter of this year alone, Volkswagen's sales decline hit 38.5%, a rare figure in history.

The downward trend of Volkswagen in the Chinese market is mainly due to the shrinking share of fuel vehicles, and Volkswagen has no competitiveness in China's new energy vehicle market. Although the number of new energy vehicles sold by Volkswagen in the Chinese market is limited, the 42.5% decline in the first three quarters of this year further highlights Volkswagen's sluggish performance in promoting new energy transformation in China.

XPeng Motors cannot drive Volkswagen's performance either. The ID.UNYX 08, launched in April this year, has seen its latest monthly sales drop to less than 300 units after two price cuts, and this model that was originally highly expected has completely become a laughing stock.

Volkswagen Learns From XPeng, Spending Money With No Alternative

The cooperation between the two parties began in July 2023, when Volkswagen invested 700 million US dollars to take a 4.99% stake in XPeng Motors. In April of the following year, the two sides signed a framework agreement on strategic cooperation in electronic and electrical architecture technology, and signed an official cooperation agreement in July of the same year.

Since Volkswagen's MEB (Modular Electric Drive Matrix) platform officially entered the Chinese market in 2020, the first mass-produced model based on the MEB platform was the Volkswagen ID.4. The scalable capability and modular design of the MEB platform increase the general parts rate of platform models to 60%-70%, giving it advantages in model expansion and cost control, but it is difficult to meet users' demands for intelligent upgrading of automobiles.

That is precisely why Volkswagen had to spend 700 million US dollars to open the door for cooperation with XPeng Motors. In an agreement announced in August 2025, the two parties clarified that the jointly developed CEA electronic and electrical architecture will not only be integrated into Volkswagen's pure electric vehicle platform in the Chinese market, but also deployed to Volkswagen's fuel and plug-in hybrid vehicle platforms in the Chinese market.

The ID.UNYX 08 is the first mass-produced model of the cooperation between the two sides, and exactly 24 months have passed from the signing of the cooperation agreement to the mass production roll-off of ID.UNYX 08. Volkswagen took the lead in product design definition, technical verification and approval, quality standards and driving control calibration, while XPeng Motors mainly provided technical support such as the VLA intelligent driving assistance system.

Volkswagen placed high hopes on the ID.UNYX 08. He Xiaopeng, Chairman and CEO of XPeng Motors, specially traveled to Hefei to affix the car logo on the first mass-produced ID.UNYX 08 together with two Volkswagen executives. The average monthly sales target set at the time of the ID.UNYX 08 project was more than 3,600 units, but tracking data from automotive consulting firm ThinkerCar shows that from its launch in April to August this year, the average monthly sales of ID.UNYX 08 was only 267 units, nearly 14 times behind the target value.

Since the launch of ID.UNYX 08, after two price cuts in the name of promotion, its starting price has been reduced to 189,900 yuan. Data from DCar shows that the sales of ID.UNYX 08 rebounded slightly in September, with 1,188 units sold throughout the month. However, for Anhui Volkswagen behind the ID.UNYX 08, the domestic retail sales of the three available models are only 1,651 units (1,761 units according to official caliber), and this growth can hardly be regarded as a recovery.

Since he joined Anhui Volkswagen as the Chief Operating Officer of Volkswagen Anhui Digital Sales and Service Co., Ltd. (the sales company of Anhui Volkswagen) last November, Liu Zhanshu has mentioned on many occasions: "The first battle is the decisive battle, and Anhui Volkswagen only has one chance to play its cards."

This sales company is responsible for Anhui Volkswagen's brand, channels, pricing and user operation. But obviously, he did not learn lessons from the pricing failure of ID.UNYX 06. After the fiasco of ID.UNYX 08, it was not until the ID.UNYX 09, the second mass-produced model of the cooperation between Volkswagen and XPeng, that Anhui Volkswagen made up its mind to participate in price competition.

The ID.UNYX 09, launched on October 24, has a starting guide price of 179,900 yuan, which is lower than the starting price of ID.UNYX 08. However, this model still retains some of Volkswagen's traditional practices: for 179,900 yuan, buyers can only get an 800V high-voltage platform, a 92kWh battery pack from CATL, XPeng's VLA large model and Turing AI chip. The dual-chamber air suspension, ZF DCC variable damping shock absorber and AI magic carpet preview that can improve driving and riding experience require an additional 40,000 yuan.

The price inversion between ID.UNYX 09 and ID.UNYX 08 further highlights Anhui Volkswagen's determination to "gain fame", but on the other hand, it also squeezes Volkswagen's electric models in the Chinese market into the most fiercely competitive price range.

At the end of October, with the launch of the Jetta M6 and ID.UNYX 09, Volkswagen's new energy vehicles in China are divided into four different camps: three models of the FAW-Volkswagen ID series, including the newly launched ID.AURA T6; SAIC Volkswagen's ID. ERA 5S, 8X, 9X; Anhui Volkswagen's ID.UNYX 06, 07, 08 and 09; and the first pure electric model M6 under the Jetta brand of FAW-Volkswagen.

The guide prices of these models range from 79,800 yuan to 309,800 yuan. Except for the ID. ERA 9X, all other models are crowded in the 80,000 yuan - 250,000 yuan range. They not only have to face new car-making forces such as Leapmotor, XPeng, Li Auto and Xiaomi, but also giants including BYD and Tesla, whose new energy vehicles are more well-known than Volkswagen's.

Therefore, for front-line sales personnel, the more troublesome thing is to find the most effective solution between "fleeting sales opportunities" and "helping customers understand the differences between different Volkswagen entities".

A salesperson at a SAIC Volkswagen store in Beiyuan, Beijing, told Dianchang: "Many people, after market education, have established a strong awareness of new energy vehicles, but we still need to explain to customers the differences between SAIC Volkswagen, FAW-Volkswagen and Anhui Volkswagen, why some Volkswagen models are equipped with lidar while others are not, or which car is cooperatively developed with XPeng and which one is cooperatively developed with SAIC. Sometimes we get confused ourselves, or customers get completely lost and leave directly." Some sales personnel even reported that customers came to FAW-Volkswagen stores asking questions about the ID.UNYX 08.

But XPeng has already made huge profits from the cooperation with Volkswagen. Since 2024, XPeng Motors has continued to receive technical service fees from Volkswagen, which contributed about 50 billion yuan to XPeng Motors' revenue in 2025. The technical service fees contributed by Volkswagen are recorded as technical service revenue in XPeng Motors' financial reports, and the gross profit margin of this business has remained at around 80% all year round.

If XPeng Motors' technical services cover Volkswagen's plug-in hybrid models and fuel models, the scale of revenue XPeng obtains from Volkswagen will continue to expand. According to optimistic forecasts, it can even contribute 500 billion yuan in revenue to XPeng Motors a year.

However, the fiasco of the ID.UNYX 08 series and the uncertainty facing the sales growth of ID.UNYX 09 have made the public re-examine the substantial impact of this cooperative relationship on Volkswagen and the subsequent challenges.

Volkswagen's High Attention and Attempts

Volkswagen attaches sufficient importance to its new energy and intelligent transformation in the Chinese market. Oliver Blume, CEO of Volkswagen Group, once mentioned: "China is a key innovation source for the Volkswagen Group, and it is increasingly becoming an important product and technology hub for our global market."

Zeng Kai, CEO of Volkswagen Passenger Cars Brand China, also said: "Volkswagen translates its 'In China, For China' strategy into accessible products and scalable technologies. By 2027, new energy models will account for more than half of our overall product matrix."

This year, Volkswagen plans to launch 13 brand new new energy models in the Chinese market, increase the number to 21 by 2027, and reach 30 by 2029, achieving a launch speed of about one new car every two weeks. In Anhui, Volkswagen Group has established the first comprehensive R&D base outside Germany with full-process R&D and verification capabilities, which is mainly responsible for the localized R&D of new energy vehicle platforms, complete vehicles and intelligent connected systems.

That is why the CEA architecture cooperatively developed by Volkswagen and XPeng can be implemented within 18 months, shortening the R&D cycle by 30% and reducing costs by 40%. Based on this architecture, the ID.UNYX 08 has an R&D cycle of 24 months, which is at least 33% shorter than the R&D cycle of other Volkswagen models.

Official Volkswagen data shows that as of November this year, there have been 5 models based on the CEA electronic and electrical architecture, three of which come from Anhui Volkswagen, and one each from FAW-Volkswagen and SAIC Volkswagen.

Anhui Volkswagen, FAW-Volkswagen and SAIC Volkswagen are the three joint venture entities of Volkswagen in the Chinese market. However, Volkswagen has more say in Anhui Volkswagen, as Volkswagen holds a 75% equity stake in Anhui Volkswagen, and the core management is also appointed by Volkswagen. Therefore, it is normal for Volkswagen to tilt resources to Anhui Volkswagen.

What makes Anhui Volkswagen embarrassed, however, is that the first new energy model that can truly achieve high sales volume comes from FAW-Volkswagen. The ID.AURA T6 received more than 33,000 locked orders in its first sales month, and the figure had exceeded 38,000 by the end of October. Although it is still designed based on the CEA electronic and electrical architecture jointly built by Volkswagen China Technology Company, CARIAD and XPeng, it has completely abandoned XPeng's assisted driving solution and adopted the intelligent driving assistance system designed by Xiaocheng, a joint venture between Volkswagen Group and Horizon Robotics.

According to the order data disclosed by FAW-Volkswagen, 91.1% of users chose the version equipped with lidar, of which nearly 80% of order users are first-time buyers of Volkswagen models, showing that this model helps improve the attractiveness of the Volkswagen brand to new users.

In July this year, Volkswagen and Horizon Robotics deepened their technical cooperation in the field of AI foundation large models. Volkswagen hopes to deeply integrate the intelligent driving technology system cooperatively developed with Horizon Robotics with the CEA electronic and electrical architecture.

Back to the cooperation between Volkswagen and XPeng — both ID.UNYX 08 and 09 are equipped with XPeng's VLA large model, and are called "rebadged XPeng G9", but in fact, XPeng's intelligent driving has quite limited positive impact on the sales of the two ID.UNYX models.

This is actually what happened to XPeng Motors. Since the first model of XPeng's MONA series was launched in August 2024, XPeng Motors' sales growth has mainly come from MONA, rather than the P, G and X series. In the past October, of XPeng's 50,000 deliveries, about 40% came from MONA. In the two years since the MONA series was launched, its contribution to XPeng's deliveries has also remained at 40%.

In contrast, since the first generation XPeng G9 suffered a fiasco, the XPeng G9 has gone through three iterations, and this year the brand new generation XPeng G9L was released, but the market feedback is still limited. Data from DCar and Autohome shows that the sales of XPeng G9L in October were less than 1,000 units, which is completely different from the launch performance of a popular new car.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Dianchang", written by Hua Zijian, and published with authorization from 36Kr.