The new car-making forces are entering the countdown to industry consolidation.
To be honest, all the surviving new EV car-making forces in China have their unique strengths. NIO, Li Auto, XPeng and Leapmotor have basically become a force that cannot be ignored in China's new energy vehicle market.
In terms of product sales, they have built a considerable market scale; in terms of technology R&D, each has its own outstanding core capabilities; in terms of capital reserve, supply chain management and market experience, they are no longer the new car-making companies that relied on financing to tell stories in the early days.
Therefore, from a commercial perspective, NIO, XPeng, Li Auto and Leapmotor are absolutely among the few high-quality assets in the automotive market.
In other words, for some traditional car companies that have difficulties in electric transformation, instead of acquiring brands that have been eliminated by the market, it is a lower-risk strategy to try their best to bring NIO, XPeng, Li Auto and Leapmotor under their control.
Traditional car companies are not short of factories, supply chains, capital or sales channels. What they really lack is a market-validated new energy product development system, as well as the technical and organizational capabilities that can adapt to the era of intelligent vehicles.
But that is exactly where the problem lies.
Represented by NIO, XPeng, Li Auto and Leapmotor, the new EV car-making forces were born with the mission to subvert the traditional automotive industry. After more than a decade of struggles, competitions and investments, they have finally gained a firm foothold in the new energy vehicle era. Who would be willing to easily give up control and change their banner?
Unless, pay more! Pay a lot more!
Then, against the background of the era theme of "large-scale integration of China's automotive industry", a question arises: Is it really necessary for traditional car companies to integrate the new EV car-making forces? And what choices should NIO, XPeng, Li Auto and Leapmotor make?
01
Leapmotor and XPeng are already leading the way
If the relationship between traditional car companies and new EV car-making forces in the past was more like life-and-death rivals, now, after repeated market tests, the two sides are becoming shareholders, partners, even technology suppliers and customers, and are huddling together for mutual support.
Leapmotor and XPeng are two very representative examples.
In 2023, Stellantis Group invested about 1.5 billion euros in Leapmotor and obtained approximately 20% of its shares. Subsequently, the two sides established Leapmotor International, with Stellantis responsible for sales and channel operation in markets outside China, while Leapmotor provides product and technical support.
The value of this cooperation goes far beyond a single round of financing, and it has laid a solid foundation for Leapmotor's overseas expansion.
For Leapmotor, Stellantis has globally distributed brands, dealer networks and production resources, which Leapmotor can leverage to reduce capital investment and operating costs for its overseas expansion.
For Stellantis, Leapmotor's market-validated electrification technology and product development capabilities provide a faster path to access China's new energy technology system.
The cooperation between the two sides continues to deepen. From complete vehicle sales to parts supply, and then to electric drive system development and platform technology cooperation, Leapmotor is turning its technical capabilities into salable commodities.
On the other side, FAW Group is also getting closer to Leapmotor.
At the end of 2025, FAW and Leapmotor reached an equity investment cooperation. In August 2026, the two sides further signed an in-depth strategic cooperation agreement, expanding the scope of cooperation to new energy complete vehicles, intelligent driving, powertrain, power batteries, intelligent chassis and many other fields.
In September, Leapmotor planned to participate in the financing of Qixin Power under FAW, and carry out technical cooperation with battery enterprises under FAW.
This is no longer a simple procurement relationship. Leapmotor opens up its technical capabilities to FAW, while FAW establishes deeper ties with Leapmotor through capital, industrial resources and parts system.
For Leapmotor, the shares it exchanged bring not only capital, but also access to overseas markets and industrial orders from large automotive groups; for FAW, it obtains a set of market-proven new energy technology and product development capabilities at a relatively low time cost.
Let's take a look at XPeng and Volkswagen.
In 2023, Volkswagen acquired 4.99% of XPeng's shares for about 700 million US dollars, and the two sides subsequently carried out cooperation in fields such as platforms, software, and electrical and electronic architectures.
In March 2026, the first jointly developed model of the two sides, the Yuzhong 08, was officially rolled off the production line. It only took about 24 months from reaching the cooperation to putting the model into production.
This means that XPeng's technology has begun to enter Volkswagen's product system.
More importantly, the cooperation between the two sides is not limited to a single model. The CEA electrical and electronic architecture developed with XPeng's participation has been extended from Volkswagen's pure electric models to other vehicle platforms.
For Volkswagen, this is an important step to shorten the technology iteration cycle in the Chinese market; for XPeng, it means that its technology has the opportunity to achieve another form of commercialization through Volkswagen's huge model scale.
In the second quarter of 2026, XPeng's services and other revenues reached 2.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 93.9%. The growth mainly came from providing technology R&D services to automakers and the increase in parts sales. In the same period, the company's comprehensive gross profit margin reached 20.7%.
It was rare in the past for an automaker to export technology to other automakers. But in the era of intelligent electric vehicles, this kind of thing is becoming more and more common.
Of course, XPeng also has its own global business, and is also laying out new directions such as humanoid robots and autonomous driving. Its business boundary is constantly expanding.
But this also brings a new problem: when a new EV car-making force's technology can be sold to Volkswagen, and its R&D achievements can serve more auto enterprises, does it still have to rely on selling cars on its own to prove its commercial value?
From this perspective, it is not impossible for XPeng to be further integrated by a large automotive group in the future.
But it needs to be emphasized that technical cooperation, equity investment and acquisition of the complete vehicle business are three completely different things. Volkswagen has not publicly announced the acquisition of control of XPeng for the time being, and the statement that XPeng will take over the closed factory of Volkswagen in Germany also needs to wait for further confirmation.
02
NIO and Li Auto are seeking new growth points
Compared with Leapmotor and XPeng, NIO and Li Auto have made different choices. They also need to find new growth points, but they have not handed over their complete vehicle business to other enterprises.
In the past few years, NIO has been building its own battery swapping system. This system requires huge investment, and it is difficult to achieve economies of scale only by NIO's own sales in the short term.
But from another perspective, if this battery swapping network can serve more brands, the situation will be completely different.
On September 28, NIO and Geely announced to carry out comprehensive strategic cooperation in the field of charging and battery swapping. Geely will take a stake in NIO Energy with 100% equity of Yiyi Internet and 640 million yuan in cash, and hold 30% equity of NIO Energy after the transaction is completed; NIO will hold 10% equity of Haohan Energy under Geely, and the two sides will promote the interconnection of charging resources.
This is a very interesting integration method.
NIO did not hand over its complete vehicle business, and Geely did not acquire NIO Auto, but through equity cooperation in the energy business, the two sides connected their respective infrastructure and operation resources.
For NIO, Geely brings capital, battery swapping business for operating vehicles, and more potential users, which can improve the utilization efficiency of the battery swapping network.
For Geely, it can use NIO's existing battery swapping technology and service system to reduce its own cost of entering the battery swapping market.
This account is relatively easy to calculate.
If more auto enterprises join in the future, NIO's battery swapping network will have the opportunity to evolve from a supporting facility of a single automaker to an energy infrastructure shared by the entire automotive industry.
This may have more room for imagination than simply selling cars.
Li Auto's train of thought is different.
Li Auto's most successful business model in the past was to enter the family user market through extended-range products, and build its own operation system relying on a relatively concentrated product matrix and high per-vehicle profitability.
After entering the pure electric era, Li Auto began to further extend to the upstream of the industrial chain to fill the gap of extended-range models.
This year, Li Auto accelerated the promotion of its self-developed battery strategy, and some models have been equipped with self-developed batteries. Li Auto has also clearly stated that the goal of self-developed batteries is not only to reduce costs, but more importantly, to open up the data and technology system between the cell, the complete vehicle and the battery management system.
Perhaps because it has sufficient cash reserves, Li Auto has not officially announced any cooperation with any other automaker for the time being. However, BAIC Group has taken the initiative to extend an olive branch.
On September 10, BAIC Group paid a visit to Li Auto for exchange, and the two sides discussed the possibility of cooperation in fields such as batteries and intelligent driving.
In the past, Li Auto was more accustomed to keeping technology in its own product system. Now, with the continuous increase in R&D investment, how to make these technologies generate value beyond vehicle sales has also become a problem it needs to consider.
Obviously, both NIO and Li Auto are looking for new growth points beyond automobile sales.
They are not without the possibility of being integrated. At least BAIC and JAC will be very happy to do that. But compared with directly selling the complete vehicle business, it may be a more realistic solution for NIO and Li Auto to first separate their own advantageous resources and look for partners.
03
Integration has begun, but it is not necessarily an acquisition
Turning our attention from the four new EV car-making forces of NIO, XPeng, Li Auto and Leapmotor to the entire automotive industry, this large-scale integration in China's automotive era has long been more than just a matter between new forces and traditional car companies.
State-owned enterprises and central SOEs have taken the lead in taking responsibilities. The integration of Changan Automobile and Dongfeng Motor once attracted a lot of attention before. Although the relevant progress has entered a relatively quiet stage, the cooperation between FAW and GAC has taken a substantial step.
In October 2026, China FAW, Toyota Motor and GAC Group signed a new strategic cooperation framework agreement. According to the agreement, GAC Group intends to purchase 50% of the equity of FAW Toyota held by China FAW by issuing shares.
After the transaction is completed, FAW Toyota will still exist as an independent operating entity, and China FAW will become an important strategic shareholder of GAC Group. In the future, FAW Toyota and GAC Toyota will strengthen collaboration in R&D, procurement, production and sales.
The logic behind this is not complicated. The competition in the automotive industry is becoming increasingly fierce, and enterprises need to reduce redundant investment and use limited capital and resources in more efficient places.
And this kind of resource restructuring has also extended to the new energy brands under traditional car companies.
On November 12, Changan Automobile listed and transferred 10% of the equity it holds in AVATR through the Shanghai United Assets and Equity Exchange, with a transfer reserve price of 3.1828 billion yuan. Calculated at the listed price, the overall valuation of AVATR is about 31.828 billion yuan.
It should be noted that the equity transferred this time is the shares of AVATR held by Changan Automobile, not the shares sold by AVATR itself. After the transaction is completed, Changan will still remain the largest shareholder of AVATR.
AVATR also said that it hopes to introduce strategic investors who can provide help in high-end brand channel construction, overseas market expansion and other aspects.
Changan did not withdraw from AVATR, but hopes to introduce new industrial resources for the brand through partial equity transfer. This is consistent with the thinking behind FAW's investment in Leapmotor and Volkswagen's investment in XPeng — leveraging external strengths to achieve mutual growth.
In the past, when people talked about automotive industry integration, they often thought of acquiring brands, taking over factories and merging enterprises. But from the cooperation that has taken place so far, the scope of integration is becoming wider.
Technology can be licensed, platforms can be shared, supply chains can be coordinated, battery swapping networks can be opened, and equity can also be restructured. Enterprises do not have to merge to connect the most valuable resources together.
Obviously, the boundaries of the industry will continue to dissolve, and the identities of allies and rivals between new forces and traditional car companies can be swapped at any time.
So, will NIO, XPeng, Li Auto and Leapmotor definitely be acquired in the future?
As things stand, FAW and Leapmotor, Volkswagen and XPeng, Geely and NIO, BAIC and Li Auto have all established connections to varying degrees. But it is too early to talk about acquisition.
However, one thing is certain: in the automotive industry in the next stage, there will be no permanent rivals, and no players who can fight alone forever. Because "integration" has already begun.
This article is from the WeChat Official Account "Auto Community" (ID: iAUTO2010), written by Zhang Zhidong, authorized for release by 36Kr.