Chinese electric vehicle maker Xpeng is discussing a plant acquisition with Volkswagen to secure a production base in Europe, as capacity at its contract manufacturing line in Austria tightens. Xpeng produced G6 and G9 models for Europe at Magna Steyr in Austria and completed trial production of the 2026 P7+ sedan in January. Xpeng\'s April overseas exports rose 62 percent from a year earlier. Volkswagen is pursuing cuts to excess capacity in Europe and is considering transferring some capacity to Chinese partners.

European governments are expanding efforts to reduce reliance on U.S. software and cloud services and shift to European “sovereign technology.” The trend is linked to concerns over the 2018 U.S. CLOUD Act, which can require U.S. firms to provide access to data stored abroad. France is moving health data off Microsoft Azure to a sovereign cloud provider, and the European Commission has awarded sovereign cloud contracts to several European firms.