From the first generation to the all-new P7, over the past five years, with prices decreasing, products becoming more comprehensive, and stricter control over details, isn’t this exactly a reflection of He Xiaopeng and XPeng’s deepened understanding of the automotive industry?
Last night, the all-new Xpeng P7 went on the market and received over 10,000 firm orders within 7 minutes. However, He Xiaopeng, in the interview room that night, did not dwell much on this news.
This restrained emotion stems from the far-from-over competition and the new-stage challenges that Xpeng Motors still faces, including profitability, sales volume, and even the newly completed new headquarters.
“When I pulled up the photos of the lights being on, I could see the decoration of each floor. I scolded many people there today,” He Xiaopeng said, referring to the lighting ceremony of Xpeng’s new headquarters building a few days ago. He mentioned that he carefully checked the decoration of each cubicle and office using the high-definition pictures taken by the photographer, and didn’t get home until after 12 o’clock midnight.
This is perhaps He Xiaopeng’s daily routine as CEO: even amidst cheers, he has to calm down to confirm the progress of project implementation.
The launch of the all-new P7 may be no exception. August 27th is a “this day in history” for He Xiaopeng – the day he joined Xpeng Motors, Xpeng listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and the M03 was released. The all-new P7 carries Xpeng’s expectations for entering a new stage.
Except for the previously mentioned goal of entering the top three in pure electric sedan sales, Xpeng did not mention specific figures regarding sales targets throughout the group interview.
If the first-generation P7, with a subsidized price of RMB 229,900-349,900 ($32,000 – $49,000)five years ago, was an imperfect product for Xpeng, then five years later, after a major facelift, the all-new P7 with a price of RMB 219,800-301,800 ($30,600 – $42,200)shows the changes in He Xiaopeng’s and Xpeng’s understanding of the automotive industry over these five years.
Hardware First
Compared with the old P7 and P7i, the all-new Xpeng P7 has solved many user pain points.
The above two versions are no longer available for sale on the official website. For example, the problem of insufficient interior space, which more or less exists in many similar coupe products on the market, also existed in the old P7 and P7i.
As a result, we can see that the rear seat backrest angle of the new car is 30°, the trunk volume is 575L, and the co-pilot can be optionally equipped with a zero-gravity seat, and there are 33 storage spaces in the whole car, catching up with the level of family cars.
Since it is a pure electric coupe, one of the core highlights of the all-new P7 lies in its performance and handling.
He Xiaopeng said that the all-new P7 is his favorite to drive among the cars he has test-driven recently, so much so that he is reluctant to use the assisted driving function, because it would reduce the time he spends experiencing the driving performance of the all-new P7.
Xpeng has also shown sufficient sincerity. The all-new P7 is equipped with an “AI intelligent chassis”. In terms of performance, the 4WD performance version priced at RMB 259,800 ($36,372)can also have a maximum motor power of 437kW.
Considering people’s concerns about battery life and energy replenishment, the CLTC cruising range of the all-new Xpeng P7 is 702, 750, and 820km respectively, and DC fast charging can be completed from 10% to 80% in as short as 11.3 minutes. This 5C supercharging AI battery is also one of the standard features of the all-new Xpeng P7.
To this end, Xpeng has spent a significant amount of time focusing on the handling, chassis, and driving pleasure of its new cars. For example, the new P7 four-wheel drive high-performance Ultra version’s Zhejiang Circuit lap time of 1:38.767 and the total driving distance of 3,961 km in the 24-hour endurance test have drawn people’s attention to the handling and performance of the new car.
At less than RMB 220,000 ($30,954), consumers can have 20-inch wheels, a three-axis flexible screen, AR-HUD and other configurations, which makes it easy to understand why the new car received over 10,000 firm orders within 7 minutes of its launch.
However, to make another push forward, Xpeng is facing a completely different environment. Even the once unique intelligent track is now crowded with competitors.
Faced with the influx of strong opponents in the pure electric coupe track, He Xiaopeng’s secret to making the all-new P7 surpass the first-generation P7 and its competitors is self-developed chips and what he considers to be the real VLA. When talking about this part, he even made a rare comparison.
The Turing AI chip with a single-chip computing power of 2250TOPS is installed on the all-new P7 in three units. For comparison, the previously popular dual Orin-X has a total computing power of 508TOPS. Coupled with the self-developed identity of the Turing chip, Xpeng will be able to use this capability more efficiently.
As for the realization of this capability, Xpeng’s VLA will be launched via OTA in September this year, and the hardware of VLM will be upgraded for free in November, with the software available via OTA.
He Xiaopeng said that it is expected that after the cross-generational update of VLA at the end of this year, the assisted driving capability will achieve a leap forward – “to be more than 10 times stronger than all the first-tier competitors”.
He Xiaopeng remains confident in Xpeng’s VLA capability, even stating that Xpeng is the only one in China’s automotive industry that has truly developed VLA, “What we are seeing now in part is grafted VLA”.
With hardware taking the lead and software catching up, before VLA is installed in the car, the all-new P7 will be strongly associated with the label of a coupe.
5 Billion and Reality
From the earnings conference to Luo Yonghao’s interview, and then to last night’s group interview, we can clearly feel that Xpeng is currently facing two major transformations: transformation into a technology company and improvement of design capabilities.
Whether it is He Xiaopeng’s statement about the difference between “real and fake VLA” or his assertion that an investment of 5 billion yuan in VLA research and development is not too much, it ultimately points to the struggle for the right to speak on technical orthodoxy, rather than a temporary emotional outburst.
On the one hand, it is an opportunity for Xpeng to regain the “technology” label; on the other hand, it is also the technical accumulation and admission ticket for Xpeng to enter fields such as Xpeng robots, Robotaxi, and flying cars.
But after all, this is still a distant ideal. For Xpeng at present, the most effective way to improve the comprehensive strength and competitiveness of its products is to enhance the appearance of the vehicles.
To this end, Xpeng specially rented two buildings in Shanghai for its design team of over 400 people and increased the team’s voice in the entire organization. The innovative design style of the all-new P7 will be reflected in Xpeng’s “multiple new models” to come.
In today’s era where technical capabilities are becoming increasingly homogeneous, Xpeng obviously cannot gain a foothold in China’s automotive market relying solely on the “technology” label. A combination of more labels such as “good looks” and “assisted driving” may be more effective in attracting the target group of the all-new P7 – the emerging elites.
In fact, as the first model of Xpeng that truly entered the public eye, people’s expectations for the replacement of the P7 came much earlier than the launch of the all-new P7. In the five years of rapid technological iteration, referring to NIO during the same period, both the P7 and P7i should have been replaced long ago.
But no one could have predicted the ups and downs in the emerging industry. The fiasco of the Xpeng G9 launch in 2022 made Xpeng take more than 2 years to recover, and it is still the most difficult period in He Xiaopeng’s mind.
In last night’s group interview, he even joked that “if there had been no wrong decisions”, the all-new P7 should have been launched in 2024. But he also believes that the P7 is a competitive model no matter when it is launched, showing the familiar confidence of He Xiaopeng.
The automotive industry is a long-cycle industry. As He Xiaopeng stated in Luo Yonghao’s program, no Chinese automaker has yet firmly secured a ticket to the “final five”. Before that, the innovative commercial benefits derived from persistent R&D investment are the key to success.
(End.)
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