Volkswagen Group‘s collaboration with XPeng on the China Electronic Architecture (CEA) ended last year, according to Reuters.
Upon visiting Volkswagen’s plant in the Anhui Province — where validation work on the architecture of in-vehicle hardware is underway — a team leader told reporters that the company is now making software integration decisions independently.
This development comes as “part of a shift,” Reuters reported, with employees saying they “expressed hope that Volkswagen‘s reputation in China for quality assurance and reliability could give it an edge.”
Initial Collaboration
Volkswagen and the Guangzhou-based company first partnered in July 2023, when the German automaker acquired nearly 5% of XPeng and both announced a collaboration on software development for the Group’s China-made vehicles.
The partnership first focused on electric vehicles, highlighting the fierce competition in China’s EV market.
Despite its long-term partnerships with FAW Group and SAIC Motor, Volkswagen has been struggling with declining sales and has lost its long-held top position in China to local automakers.
Since announcing their initial deal, Volkswagen and XPeng have signed several framework agreements that were extensively publicized by both companies.
In February 2024, it became known that the collaboration would involve the co-development of two models.
Two months later, the partnership took more concrete shape with the introduction of a joint E/E architecture known as the China Electronic Architecture (CEA), which was to be integrated into VW‘s China Main Platform (CMP).
Volkswagen later announced that the E/E architecture would be included in all Chinese-produced models based on its global, German-made Modular Electric Drive (MEB) platform.
This was the first hint at the inclusion of hybrid and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles in the partnership.
Hybrid and ICE Models
In August 2025, the German automaker officially called the CEA “one system for all” when announcing that the software “will be deployed not only in its electric vehicle portfolio, but also in all Volkswagen brand internal combustion engine models produced locally in China.”
In a more cautious statement, XPeng said that “adhering to rigorous platform-oriented design philosophy, the joint R&D teams have designed and validated that the E/E Architecture developed for electric vehicle platforms can also be adapted to ICE and PHEV platforms.”
According to CarNewsChina, the Executive VP of VW Group China and CEO of Cariad China Han Sanchu said late last year that they had a clear roadmap for the software integration, with a two-year upgrade cycle.
While the first CEA 1.0 version would launch later in 2025, a CEA 2.0 would follow in 2027, supporting multiple powertrain types, and a third generation was planned for 2029.
Halt of Collaboration
Volkswagen began production of the first model under the platform — the ID.Unyx 07 — in late January.
“With 18 months from concept to production, the project marks the fastest timeline Volkswagen Group has ever achieved for an all-new electronic architecture,” the company stated.
VW plans to add about 10 more models using this architecture next year, including combustion-engine vehicles.
Up until 2030, the German automaker aims to produce “most of its cars” on the CEA architecture.
According to Finn Cemmasson, interviewed by Reuters on Thursday, Volkswagen has “completely optimised our system to accelerate and deliver according to Chinese speed and also according to Chinese customer wishes.”
Cemmasson told the outlet that the joint development phase of the architecture has ended.
Neither company had previously set a formal end date for their joint architecture development or publicly announced the conclusion of that collaboration, despite pointing towards 2026 as the year of the models’ reveal.
Late last year, Volkswagen became the first client of XPeng‘s autonomous driving stack, unveiled at its ‘AI Day’ in November.
