He Xiaopeng urges industry collaboration at Paris summit

Xpeng is opening its vehicle platforms, electronics and driver assistance technology to other automakers, Chairman and Chief Executive He Xiaopeng told the Paris Automotive Summit on 13 October 2026. The first Chinese automotive boss to give a keynote at this year’s event, he argued that no single company possesses all the strengths the industry now needs.

The offer covers electrical and electronic architecture, driver assistance, Xpeng’s AI Box, chips, batteries, electric drives and engineering toolchains, provided through Xpeng AI Engineering. Partners would co-develop their own products while building up in-house capability, a model already tested with Volkswagen Group.

That tie-up has grown from electronics architecture into driver assistance and joint vehicle development, with the first co-developed model, the ID. Unyx 08, entering production in March 2026. Xpeng spent about €770m (US$862m) on research and development in the first half of the year.

In Europe, the company has put the G6, G9, P7+ and G9L into production within a year, with a regional centre handling homologation, localisation and driver assistance validation. It aims to take its advanced driving system global in 2027, claiming the same core capability in China and Europe.

“We welcome global partners to join us,” He Xiaopeng said. “Let’s learn from each other, combine our best strengths, and face external challenges together. Let’s bring our technology to life, and create real value for every market and every user.”

Why this matters:

• Licensing sidesteps vehicle tariffs. Selling architecture, chips and driver assistance to other OEMs gives Xpeng revenue that EU duties on finished vehicles cannot reach, embedding its technology in cars that could still count as European-built.
• Where Europe draws the line. Volkswagen’s growing reliance on Xpeng technology sits awkwardly with European calls for protection from Chinese competition, raising questions about whether policymakers will treat Chinese technology inside European cars differently from Chinese cars themselves.
• Regulation may slow ADAS parity. Promising the same driver assistance capability in Europe as in China by 2027 depends on UN-ECE rules such as DCAS, which remain more restrictive than Chinese approvals, so full parity may take longer than Xpeng suggests.