Xpeng Says It Has Guangzhou Approval for Citywide L4 Robotaxi Demonstrations, and Volkswagen Says It Has an L3 Road-Test Licence in Hefei

Xpeng and Volkswagen each announced a Chinese autonomous-driving approval on Monday; both are the companies' own announcements, and neither describes a service open to everyone.

Xpeng in Guangzhou#

Xpeng said on October 26 that it has been approved for Guangzhou's intelligent connected vehicle demonstration operation qualification, which it says enables L4 robotaxi demonstrations across the entire city. CnEVPost quotes Candice Yuan, head of Xpeng's robotaxi business, saying on Weibo that the team will continue to open access gradually through invitation codes in the initial phase. Xpeng says the approval moves its robotaxi from technology validation to operations and commercial-model validation.

CnEVPost reports that Xpeng received a road-testing permit in Guangzhou in January, set up a robotaxi division in March, and had more than 2,000 internal test rides in Guangzhou by August. It says He Xiaopeng said then that Xpeng aims to operate passenger services without safety drivers in 2027. Xpeng says it will position its robotaxi as a technology provider and does not plan to run large fleets itself, and that it is in advanced talks with several European mobility platforms. The vehicle runs on four in-house Turing AI chips that Xpeng rates at 3,000 TOPS.

Volkswagen in Hefei#

The Next Web reports that Volkswagen Group China said on Weibo it has received an L3 road-test licence in Hefei and has begun testing and collecting data on real roads there, aiming for L3 technology readiness in 2027. It says Ralf Brandstätter, who runs the group's China business, added a comment under the post, and in The Next Web's translation from Chinese he wrote that the licence "lets us test in real traffic in Hefei and collect data at scale." Volkswagen will hold its first China technology day in Hefei on October 28, according to The Next Web.

The regulatory backdrop#

The Next Web, citing Bloomberg, says the approvals suggest regulators have moved past this year's Baidu robotaxi incident in Wuhan. It reports that China suspended new robotaxi licences in April and launched an industry safety review, and that approvals resumed in July, with Momenta among the first to receive one. Baidu's Apollo Go, a separate robotaxi business, is mentioned there as having won L4 approval in Switzerland. Pony.ai, another developer of Level 4 robotaxis, detailed a new Level 4 domain controller built with NVIDIA in April; our report on that controller treats its performance figures as vendor claims, not an independent safety certification.

Limits#

• Both approvals are reported from the companies' own posts and press materials. None of the three sources quotes the authorities that granted them.
• Xpeng's wording is a "demonstration operation" qualification with access by invitation code; none of our sources says riders are paying or that safety drivers have been removed.
• Volkswagen's licence is for road tests, not commercial service.
• The licence-freeze timeline is Bloomberg's, as relayed by The Next Web; we did not open the Bloomberg report.
• Xpeng's 3,000 TOPS figure and the 2027 targets are company statements.

Sources#

• XPENG: XPENG Robotaxi Granted L4 Demonstration Operation Qualification in Guangzhou (October 26, 2026)
• The Next Web: China clears VW for Level 3 tests and Xpeng for Level 4 robotaxis (October 26, 2026)
• CnEVPost: Xpeng wins Guangzhou robotaxi trial approval in step toward public service (October 26, 2026)
• Times of AI: Pony.ai’s Thor L4 Controller: 4,000 FP4 TFLOPS on DRIVE Hyperion (April 25, 2026)