- The ID. UNYX 09 all-electric sedan has appeared in China’s regulatory filing catalog, signaling its imminent launch.
- The model comes in single-motor and a dual-motor variants, both equipped with LFP batteries from CATL.
Volkswagen Anhui, the majority-owned Chinese joint venture of the German automaker Volkswagen, has made a regulatory filing for the ID. UNYX 09 all-electric sedan, signaling the imminent launch of the second model from its collaboration with Xpeng (NYSE: XPEV).
The model was included in the latest batch of new vehicle filings released by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on July 10. Entry into this catalog is the final major regulatory step before a model is allowed to go on sale in China.
Volkswagen Anhui later said on its social media channels on Friday that the ID. UNYX 09 is its first B-segment intelligent all-electric sedan. The model is expected to go on sale in the second half of this year.
The model comes in two versions in this filing — a single-motor rear-wheel-drive variant and a dual-motor four-wheel-drive variant.
Both are equipped with lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, with the cells supplied by CATL (HKEX: 3750) and the battery pack assembly produced by Volkswagen Anhui Components Co.
The five-seat large electric sedan measures 5,081 mm in length, 1,980 mm in width and 1,509 mm in height, with a wheelbase of 3,030 mm. Both versions have a top speed of 200 km/h.
The dual-motor all-wheel-drive version has a curb weight of 2,307 kg and is equipped with 255/45R21 tires. The front motor delivers a peak power of 140 kW, while the rear motor delivers a peak power of 230 kW, for a total power output of 370 kW (496 hp).
The single-motor rear-wheel-drive variant has a curb weight of 2,207 kg and is equipped with only a single rear motor with a peak power of 230 kW, with tires optionally sized 255/50R20 or 255/45R21.
The strategic partnership between Volkswagen and Xpeng began in July 2023, when the German automaker announced a $700 million investment in the Chinese EV maker and agreed to jointly develop two Volkswagen-branded models based on Xpeng’s G9 platform as well as its connectivity and ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System) software.
The first model from the partnership — the ID. UNYX 08 electric SUV — went on sale in China on April 16 this year, with a starting price of 229,900 yuan ($33,900).
The project took just 24 months from the signing of the joint development technology agreement to the start of mass production of the ID. UNYX 08 at the plant in Hefei, Anhui province.
The ID. UNYX 08 is equipped with two Turing AI chips supplied by Xpeng, delivering a total computing power of up to 1,500 TOPS, and adopts Xpeng’s second-generation Vision-Language-Action (VLA 2.0) smart driving solution.
The ID. UNYX 09 is expected to adopt a similar smart driving configuration, though the detail has not been confirmed.
Xpeng chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng said in an internal letter in February this year that Volkswagen would become the first commercial customer for the VLA 2.0 autonomous driving solution, marking the first time a Chinese EV maker’s core AI technology has been exported at scale to a top global automaker.
Volkswagen is counting on these new models, which integrate locally developed innovative technologies, to recapture the market share it has gradually lost in China’s increasingly competitive EV market.
To boost sales, the company has broken down the sales barriers between its joint ventures, allowing some FAW-Volkswagen stores to sell models produced by Volkswagen Anhui under a “store-in-store” model, according to an April statement.
Volkswagen is evaluating for the first time bringing models developed for the Chinese market to Europe, with its Zwickau plant as a potential production site.
($1 = 6.7770 yuan)
