On April 28, CARIAD, a new software company under the Volkswagen Group, officially announced its China strategy, marking the official establishment of CARIAD's Chinese subsidiary. The China team will drive the development of software products for Chinese consumers, including working with headquarters to develop a new unified and scalable software platform, advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous driving, and next-generation intelligent connected capabilities.
The China team will drive the development of software products for Chinese consumers, including advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous driving, next-generation intelligent connected features, intelligent cockpit and body design, big data and software operating systems. CARIAD's China subsidiary will work with its European headquarters to develop a unified and scalable software platform for all of the Group's brands to meet the specific needs of different markets. The entire technology stack will be launched around 2025 and will be pre-equipped with L4 level autonomous driving technology.
Local software talent is the key to enhancing the R&D strength of CARIAD's Chinese subsidiary. By integrating the best talents from the Volkswagen Group China, the Volkswagen brand and the Audi brand, we have assembled a strong Chinese team. CarIAD currently employs more than 600 people in China and expects to double by the end of 2023, with more than 90 percent of them being local software talent.
At the same time, CARIAD is building R&D forces in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Hefei to gradually build a national distributed R&D network.