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Chinese car manufacturers increase European production footprint with more near-shoring. XPeng-Magna assembly deal

  • Writer: Matthias Schmidt
    Matthias Schmidt
  • Sep 15
  • 2 min read

Updated: Sep 16

People gather outside a building with "XPENG" signs, a car display, and a robot. The mood is curious and social, with urban architecture. Munich IAA
XPeng on show at the Munich IAA 2025 Auto Show during the Open Spaces inner-city part of the show

Magna International have confirmed to us that they will assemble two models for China's XPeng as suggested in market intelligence reports for the past months. 


Although media reports (Automotive News Europe) suggest they may assemble models for China's GAC also, as they begin their European rollout offensive, which they unveiled at the IAA, Magna wasn't prepared to confirm or deny that. 


Various Magna deals with Jaguar, Toyota, and BMW have or are about to end, with the Austrian assembly manufacturer now securing volume to keep utilisation at sufficient levels with the Chinese client. 


Assembly is not enough to circumnavigate EU anti-subsidy tariffs however.


Assembled vehicles from SKD or CKD kits are still subject to the EU-tariff that has been enforced on Chinese-made BEV models since November 2024 depending on local content. A European Commission spokesperson told Schmidt Automotive Research's European Electric Car Study, last October that "Imports of “disassembled” BEVs can be treated by customs as imports of BEVs and therefore be subject to the AS (anti-subsidy) duty, once measures are in place." Automotive contract assembly employees we have spoken to have told us, for tariff purposes a Bill of Materials (BOM) urgently needs to be published. Xpeng registered 9,900 new models across Western Europe during the opening 7 months of 2025, according to Schmidt Automotive Research data.


Front page of the Q2 2025 Chinese OEM Market Report published by Schmidt Automotive Research



Our full quarterly Chinese OEM European Study including a forecast to 2030 for Chinese brands across all-fuels and also BEVs-only can be downloaded here (€). 


Source: Schmidt Automotive Research 



All of our reports, which feature exclusively researched data, can be purchased here. ◼︎︎


*Western Europe 18 Markets: EU Member States prior to the 2004 enlargement plus EFTA markets Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, plus UK

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