XPeng Motors is one of China’s leading smart electric vehicle (EV) companies. This company was founded by Xiaopeng He, the founder of UCWeb Inc. and a former Alibaba executive, in 2015. The co-founder of the company also are Henry Xia (Xia Heng) and He Tao, former senior executives at Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC Group). The headquarters of Xpeng Motors Company is located in Guangzhou, China. It also contains three other main branches in Beijing, Shanghai, and Silicon Valley. The main goal of Xpeng Motors is to design, develop, manufacture and market smart EVs that are seamlessly integrated with advanced Internet, AI, and autonomous driving technologies. Currently, this company contains 3676 employees that 43% of them have focused on in-house research and development areas (R&D) since June 2020. In addition, to provide ing vehicles, Xpeng is also building out a network of supercharging stations, offering exclusive access to vehicle owners. Xpeng has also established access to more than 200,000 charging stations across China, and it provides free installation of home-based chargers for buyers.
Image Credits: https://en.xiaopeng.com/
Xpeng Motors has been producing two EV models since 2018. The first Xpeng EV model was G3 SUV, which was introduced in November 2018. Its NEDC driving range is 580 km and its battery can be charged from 30% to 80% in 30 minutes. It also has the IP68 confirmation which indicates that it is a waterproof and dustproof vehicle. Besides, Xpeng G3 SUV achieved the highest C-NCAP safety score and it also became one of the top-three best-selling electric SUVs in China based on the HIS market data in 2019. The AI-empowered intuitive voice assistant and the Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) function are the most popular features of G3 based on customers’ opinions. The Xpeng P7, a four-door electronic sedan, is Xpeng Motors another EV model that was introduced in April 2019. This vehicle NEDC range is 706 km which is the longest one in China, based on MIIT NEV catalogs in April 2020.
Fast charging and high battery performance are the other advantages of this vehicle. By charging P7 for 10 minutes, a 120 km driving range can be reached. This manufacture was also equipped with a new-generation permanent magnet synchronous motor with a power density of 2kW/kg, maximum power of 316kW, and a peak torque of 655N.m which allows P7 to respond faster to green traffic lights and overtake faster when there is a lane change. China is a hotbed of EV innovation, and Xpeng is keeping up the pace to compete. In January 2021, the company released an over-the-air upgrade of its vehicle operating system to P7 customers in China, adding 40 new functions and more than 200 optimized features for the vehicle. One of the most important is the beta version of Xpeng's navigation-guided pilot, as owners used the new system to drive more than 1 million kilometers by late February.
"We are very encouraged by the growing customer enthusiasm towards features that are more than what a conventional electric vehicle does. The data shows us, customers, in China are keen to experience a more leisurely style of driving, and see their vehicles more than just a transportation machine to bring them from A to B," said He Xiaopeng. As it can be revealed from the recent facts, Xpeng focuses heavily on autonomous driving technology. In the founder’s opinion, the intelligence system should be as important as the power electric system which can be seen from the Xpilot, Xpeng’s autonomous driving system, technology. This system is developing at a high speed and Xpeng also has a plan to launch a series of advanced autonomous driving functions in the near future. Although Xpeng’s autonomous driving technology is not as strong as world-leading players like Tesla but compared with Tesla, NIO, and most of its competitors, Xpeng is more aggressive in the application of autonomous driving systems.
Image Credits: https://en.xiaopeng.com/
New EV companies have problems in vehicle quality control at their starting most of the time and Xpeng is not an exception. Some negative feedbacks about the vehicle’s durability were also received by Xpeng. The contract manufacturing model inevitably sacrifices Xpeng’s control over production details. Compared with Tesla, which has already owned independent product lines, Xpeng and other Chinese emerging electric vehicle companies are still at a disadvantage in competition. However, Xpeng is now in the transmission from contract manufacturer to self-production. According to the company’s news, it has been manufacturing the latest model of P7 independently since May 2020 which is a great step for this company to follow its dreams to be one of the pioneer EV manufacturers in the world.
Xpeng started generating significant revenue in early 2019, but its rapid growth has been magnificent. In the third quarter of 2020, the company delivered 8,578 vehicles, more than triple the 2,345 it had delivered in the year-earlier period. That's led to big financial gains. Revenue climbed 342% year over year in the third quarter of 2020, on a 376% jump in vehicle sales. The annual revenue of $524M, put Xpeng Motors next to NIO, Li Auto, and Kandi Technologies, the other growing Chinese competitors of Tesla in Chine’s EV market. The global market for electric vehicles is currently about $200 billion in size and is expected to grow to $800 billion by 2027. In this case, Xpeng has released electric sedans to much fanfare, and the capacity for EVs to replace tens of millions of internal combustion vehicles offers a long upslope for potential growth. It currently operates in china and has started delivering manufactures to Norway, however, it has not revealed any plans to enter the United States market yet. Although Xpeng Motors is not as large as some especial companies like Tesla and NIO, it has shown significant improvement during recent years which is telling that it can challenge these companies' dominance in the domestic and also international market in the near future.
References
[1] XPENG, https://en.xiaopeng.com/
[2] “Tesla competitors growing in China: NIO, Xpeng, and more”, Scooter Doll, electrek,https://electrek.co/2021/02/16/tesla-competitors-growing-in-china-nio-xpeng-and-more/
[3] XPENG, Owler, https://www.owler.com/company/xiaopeng
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