According to a document disclosed by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on August 28, Xiaopeng Automobile announced that the company will acquire the assets and R & D capabilities related to the smart car development business of Didi Global Limited (hereinafter referred to as "Didi") and reach a strategic cooperation agreement with Didi.。

In order to acquire the underlying assets and research and development capabilities of the subject group, Xiaopeng Automobile will issue a total share capital of 3% after the completion of the transaction..25% of Class A common stock with a maximum total consideration of approximately 58.HK $3.5 billion。

In addition, Xiaopeng and Didi also reached a strategic cooperation agreement to maximize the use of advantageous resources in their respective fields.。At the same time, Didi will become a strategic shareholder of Xiaopeng Motors, with a lock-up period of 24 months for the first shares.。And Xiaopeng will become the first vehicle company to receive full support from the Didi ecosystem.。

As the core of this strategic cooperation, Xiaopeng will release an A-class smart electric vehicle, project code "MONA," which will enter the market as the first product of Xiaopeng's new brand, and is expected to start mass production in 2024。For the first time, Didi will open up all-ecological empowerment for Xiaopeng, providing "MONA" with multi-dimensional support including smart cockpit, smart driving and shared travel market.。At the communication meeting, He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xiaopeng Automobile, said that the MONA model will be the beginning of Xiaopeng's second brand or even the third brand.。

For Xiaopeng, this cooperation with Didi is undoubtedly a major benefit.。

The first is to enrich the pricing range of Xiaopeng cars.。According to Xiaopeng Auto officials, the new brand model will be differentiated from Xiaopeng's existing brand products, and the model will be priced at around 150,000 yuan.。At present, Xiaopeng's models are mostly priced in the range of 200,000-300,000 yuan.。And this range, in China's new energy vehicle market is very fierce。Xiaopeng's recently launched G6 is priced at 20.990,000 yuan - 27.Between 690,000 yuan, the model faces the challenge of two "car kings," Tesla's Model Y (long endurance version) and BYD's multiple series (Han, Tang and Seal, etc.) roughly in the 200,000-300,000 yuan range。

But if the price is between 100,000 and 200,000 yuan, the competition will only be more and not less, such as GAC Aean, Zero Run, Pole Krypton and other brands have a number of models in the 100,000-200,000 or so。In the face of white-hot competition, Xiaopeng's trick is to make the technology the ultimate.。

At the Q2 earnings call a week ago, when He Xiaopeng said that because of cost reasons, no car company has yet been able to launch a competitive fully autonomous vehicle at the 150,000 level.。But with the dead-end technological innovation and cost reduction of the whole process, his view has changed. Xiaopeng is confident that it will launch fully autonomous vehicles in the mainstream 150,000-class vehicles, which will greatly promote the full popularization of intelligence.。Now it seems that "MONA" is the "big killer" that Xiaopeng is brewing.。

Second, for Xiaopeng, its R & D costs will drop significantly。

It is understood that the smart car business sold by Didi is its self-developed A-class pure electric vehicle, codenamed "Da Vinci."。The "MONA" model will be based on the "Da Vinci," adding Xiaopeng's intelligent driving system, such as intelligent navigation assisted driving city NGP, intelligent assisted driving system XNGP and deep visual neural network XNET.。Xiaopeng is equivalent to taking over a semi-finished product, Xiaopeng only needs to use its advantages to complete the finished product, which will undoubtedly greatly shorten Xiaopeng's research and development time and research and development costs.。

He Xiaopeng said that "MONA" will use many of the capabilities of the swing architecture in the future.。Xiaopeng Motors will complete all production development and sales of MONA models based on the preliminary work of Didi.。He Xiaopeng is very optimistic about the sales competitiveness of "MONA."。He predicted that the annual sales of "MONA" could reach more than 100,000。

In addition, according to people familiar with the matter, in addition to Da Vinci's technical assets, some of the equipment and personnel of the project have also been transferred to Xiaopeng.。

Affected by the news, Xiaopeng Auto-W rose more than 10% today。As of press time, reported 71.HK $95。

On the other hand, this cooperation is more like "selling" for Didi.。According to people familiar with the matter, "Da Vinci" project has done a lot of research and development, the cooperation, basically is to sell a completed most of the project to Xiaopeng.。Xiaopeng and Didi's cooperation, it can not help but wonder, Didi as China's network about the car giant, holding a lot of resources, obviously is the most suitable to take the "car" this road, why millet, Huawei and other mobile phone manufacturers are smooth cross-border, Didi has fallen to the point of selling smart electric car projects.？

In fact, as early as after the rise of new energy vehicles in China, Didi has tried to build cars many times.。

In 2018, Didi established a joint venture with Ideal Motors, Orange Electric Travel, and plans to jointly launch a pure electric car。But until the company declares bankruptcy in 2022, no significant results will be available.。

In 2020, Didi announced that it would join forces with BYD to create a customized taxi model D1 electric car.。The car was unveiled at the Beijing Auto Show in 2021, but it is currently on BYD's official website, but the model cannot be found.。

In 2021, it was reported that Didi had set up a car-building project code-named "Da Vinci," with a team size of about 1,700 people, and was scheduled to be released in mid-2023, with deliveries starting a year later.。But in 2022, there was news that the "Da Vinci" project team had shrunk dramatically, leaving only about 100 people.。

Perhaps the road to build a car is not smooth, coupled with the company's deep data security storm, suffered the double test of public opinion and regulation, Didi finally chose to package and sell "Da Vinci."。

In April this year, Didi held an open day for autonomous driving.。During the event, Zhang Bo, CEO of Didi Autonomous Driving, announced its first self-driving automatic operation and maintenance center "Huiju Port" and the first future service concept car DiDi Neuron。Judging from the official introduction of Didi, Didi's current focus is more on autonomous driving technology than on vehicle manufacturing.。

In May this year, Didi announced that its strategic cooperation with GAC Aean was upgraded again.。The two companies will set up a joint venture to jointly release the driverless new energy production vehicle project - "AIDI plan"。According to the plan, Didi will provide its self-driving L4 urban generalization engine and unique self-driving technology solutions for travel services.。It can also be seen from the cooperation that Didi's current focus is still on autonomous driving technology.。

This is not a bad thing for Didi either.。The adjustment of the business direction, indicating that the company for its own positioning more accurate, which for the penalty and delisting from the United States Didi, can take less "detours," as soon as possible to bring up the company's development.。

In addition, Xiaopeng and Didi also mentioned that the two sides will explore mutually beneficial and win-win long-term cooperation opportunities in a number of areas, including the operation of Xiaopeng models on the Didi platform, brand marketing, financial and insurance services, charging facilities construction, Robotaxi and international market cooperation.。

He Xiaopeng believes that the cooperation between the two sides will enable intelligent driving technology to be popularized faster, so that a wider range of user groups can enjoy the convenience of travel brought about by technology inclusion.。He said: "The cooperation between Xiaopeng and Didi will also enhance the brand and commercial value of both sides in a number of potential areas, bringing huge growth opportunities for Xiaopeng to lead the intelligent, shared and internationalized electric vehicles, build the next generation of intelligent travel ecology and explore intelligent driving business models in the long term.。"

Didi Chairman and CEO Cheng Wei also said: "Didi has been committed to promoting the sharing, electrification and intelligence of the travel market.。Xiaopeng Automobile has a leading technical advantage in the field of intelligent electric vehicles, and also has a deep accumulation in automotive intelligent technology.。The two sides will continue to deepen cooperation in various fields and jointly promote changes in the transportation and automobile industries.。"