XPENG COPYING TESLA ARCHITECTURE And over in China, EV maker Xpeng saw its sales fall off a cliff in the first quarter. They were down nearly 50%. But maybe this can help turn around sales. It just introduced a new platform that it developed in-house that it says will help reduce the cost of developing cars and manufacturing them. Called the Smart Electric Platform Architecture 2.0, it's very similar to what Tesla is doing right now. It integrates the batteries into the vehicle's body and it includes front and rear aluminum die castings. Xpeng says the new platform reduces the costs of the powertrain, including the batteries, by 25%. Xpeng's G6 SUV will be the first model to use the new architecture. And with a price war going on in China, the company says the platform will give it a cost advantage with its competitors.