March 16, at the 2024 China EV 100 Forum, He Xiaopeng, chairman and CEO of Xiaopeng Motors, revealed to the outside world: Xiaopeng Motors will launch a new A-class product of the brand within 100,000 to 150,000 yuan for the global market within a month, and put the AI large model into the car in the second quarter. He Xiaopeng said: “The new brand in this price range will subvert technological innovation, create a new species of AI smart driving, and provide young people with a truly AI smart driving car.”
As the second brand created by Xiaopeng Motors, the new A-class products of the new brand will be equipped with Xiaopeng’s high-level smart driving system, or even the unmanned driving system. At the 2024 China EV 100 Forum, He Xiaopeng said that currently, the average smart driving requires human intervention 10 times per 100 kilometers, and it should be reduced to at least 1 time in the future. It is pointed out that the inflection point of high-level smart driving will come in the next 18 months.
At the same time, Xiaopeng Motors also officially released a preview of the new car of the new brand. From the preview, the new car adopts the latest design language, the side lines of the body are very smooth, and the floating roof and hidden door handles are used, which is quite sporty as a whole. It is expected that the new car will be positioned as a pure electric sedan. However, there is currently very limited information about the new car, and autowechat (wechat ID) will also continue to pay attention in the future.
Not long ago on the start date, He Xiaopeng released an internal start letter stating that in the next three years, Xiaopeng Motors plans to launch about 30 new or facelifted models, and will launch two new models this year, including a new car on the 300,000+ level and the 150,000-level platform. Among them, the first model of the 150,000-level platform is the first car of the “MONA” brand code-named in cooperation with Didi; the first car of the 300,000-level platform may be a sedan code-named “F57”, which will be listed in the second half of the year.
In August 2023, Xiaopeng Motors and Didi announced an agreement. Based on this cooperation, the two sides will launch a new electric vehicle brand. The project is code-named “MONA”. The first product is an A-class smart electric vehicle, priced at around 150,000 yuan. It will be mass-produced in 2024, and it will be sold to both the C-end and the B-end. The new brand mentioned above originated from the strategic cooperation between Xiaopeng Motors and Didi.
So far, Xpeng’s models on sale include G3, P7, P5, G6, G9, and X9. Among them, Xpeng’s first mass-produced model G3 and its facelifted version G3i will be discontinued within 2023, which is a decision made by the company based on its long-term planning.
From the perspective of model prices, the price range of Xpeng’s models on sale currently mainly focuses on the 150,000-400,000 yuan range. The release of the new brand means that Xpeng will enter the global auto market of 100,000-150,000 yuan. It should be noted that models in the 100,000-150,000 yuan range are the mainstream choices for consumers, and the sales proportion has never been less than 26%. There are many models in this price range, which also destined the competition in this segment to be extremely fierce. If Xpeng’s new brand A-class products do not have “extraordinary features”, they will also face greater competition pressure. From the official announcement, AI-driven smart driving may become the foothold for Xpeng to enter this market. He Xiaopeng said that Xpeng will carry out an “AI technology upgrade with smart driving as the core” within the year, with a planned annual investment in smart R&D of 3.5 billion yuan and the recruitment of 4,000 new people. And in the second quarter, it will fulfill the promise of “putting AI large models on cars” proposed at the “1024 Technology Day” in 2023. This AI large model will be the first mass-produced automotive artificial intelligence and automotive cognitive engine in the automotive industry.
Previously, regarding the cooperation between Xpeng and Didi, He Xiaopeng was full of confidence and pointed out that it is expected that the annual sales of MONA can reach 100,000 vehicles. If the sales target can be achieved for two consecutive years, there will be additional equity consideration, and the maximum equity ratio can be increased to 5%. For the upcoming new brand, He Xiaopeng used words such as “subversion”. He Xiaopeng said on his personal Weibo: “After going deep into car manufacturing, it will be found that there is a huge market potential in the price range of 100,000-150,000, but it is extremely difficult to really make a good car in all aspects, and equipped with our best smart driving capabilities, and have a suitable profit. This requires the enterprise to have extremely strong scale and systematic capabilities. Many of our peers are also exploring in this price range, but a brand that can achieve the ultimate smart driving experience in this range has not yet emerged. Up to now, we are finally ready, and I believe this brand will be a brand-new species of subversive innovation. Please look forward to it.”
As for this year’s goal, He Xiaopeng said frankly: “The performance will double or more, the organization will supplement all the shortcomings, and the operation will start to move towards the first step of high-quality.” The expected annual sales target will exceed 280,000 vehicles. In his previous open letter, He Xiaopeng pointed out that 2024 will be the first year for Chinese auto brands to enter the “blood sea” competition and the first year of the elimination round. If the annual sales target of 280,000 vehicles is calculated, it means that about 23,000 new cars need to be delivered monthly. For reference, Xpeng’s sales target for 2023 is 200,000 vehicles, and the annual sales completion rate is only 70%.
The latest data shows that from January to February 2024, Xpeng has delivered a total of 12,795 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 14%. Among them, 8,250 vehicles were delivered in January and 4,545 vehicles in February.
