On February 23, on the first floor of Shanghai Hengshan Hui Shopping Mall, XPeng Motors’ first direct experience center in Shanghai was officially opened. This is the first experience center of XPeng Motors in the Shanghai region following the official opening of experience centers in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and other cities.
At the opening ceremony, Ms. Xiong Qingyun, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of XPeng Motors, stated that for XPeng Motors, the entire 2019 was an extremely important “delivery year” and “operation year”, and the high-quality and orderly sales experience and after-sales operation service were the criteria for measuring XPeng Motors by users and the market.
The plan of XPeng Motors consists of two parts: online and offline experiences. In the official online store of XPeng Motors, users can make reservations for test drives, order the XPeng G3 online, and obtain personalized vehicle and service consultations.
Regarding offline experience, XPeng Motors established their own offline experience centers, dismantled the traditional 4S dealership into two 2S dealerships, one located in business districts as the experience center, and the other located in the core automobile trading areas (suburbs) of various cities as the service center.
It’s not a new trick for the new energy automobile industry to open directly operated experience centers in premium business districts. The benefits are obvious. On the one hand, there is a large flow of people in the business districts. Instead of simply placing a car there, it’s better to open a store directly. On the other hand, friends who are interested in XPeng Motors do not need to spend a lot of time going to the suburban stores to experience the vehicle.
The direct experience center of XPeng Motors at Shanghai Hengshan Hui covers an area of approximately 200-300 square meters, mainly for vehicle display, test drive and sales. However, the store manager said that because the store has just opened, there are many consumers who want to experience test drives. To avoid long waiting times, it is recommended that friends who want to test drive should make reservations through the app in advance. In addition to the regular test drive experience and sales, this will also be a place for XPeng Motors users and fans to interact and communicate.
Compared with the experience center, the service center will have a much larger area and more functions. In addition to exhibition and sales functions, it will also provide integrated services such as activities, charging, delivery and after-sales service.In 2019, XPeng Motors will open 70 direct sales stores in 30 cities, with direct sales model adopted for all experience centers, and partnership model considered for service centers in lower-tier cities.
I am particularly interested in whether the stores are directly run by the company. With the development of time, the traditional automotive dealer system has increasingly become a barrier, which hinders transparency in pricing for consumers and the ability of manufacturers to reach users in a timely manner. The traditional dealership system of conventional car companies is too large to change easily, but new automotive forces have the right to choose to establish their own direct sales stores, with huge early investment.
At the opening ceremony, XPeng Motors also announced plans to deploy more than 100 supercharging stations in more than 10 first-tier and second-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Hangzhou by the end of 2018, and 30 before Spring Festival 2019, with an expected 200 laid out in nearly 30 cities in 2019. In the next three years, XPeng Motors will establish 1,000 supercharging stations and basically connect with major third-party charging operators across the country, providing full-chain services for finding charging piles, charging, payment and settlement.
The above is the basic information about the XPeng experience center. Lastly, I would like to talk about XPeng G3.
At today’s opening ceremony, Ms. Xiong Qingyun, Chief Marketing Officer of XPeng Motors, repeated the word “quality.” Similarly, XPeng Motors’ founder, He XPeng, also repeatedly mentioned this at previous press conferences.
For the quality of the G3, XPeng Motors invited Mr. Gongxia Shanjie, former head of quality assurance and management at Guangzhou Automobile Toyota, to serve as XPeng’s senior director of product quality and be responsible for production management of XPeng Motors.
For the quality of the G3, XPeng Motors did not immediately launch the product into the market, but first released about 1,000 1.0 versions of the first-generation XPeng car internally. After a long period of experience, continuous problem solving, and continuous iteration and upgrading, the XPeng G3 was made.
The purpose of doing this was to leave a good impression on the first batch of users and create a good reputation. But what did XPeng Motors lose?
It was time and money. Compared with the concurrently established NIO and WM Motor, they had already pushed their products to the market and gained tens of thousands of unit sales under the subsidy policy in 2018, occupying a part of the market.However, the XPeng G3, which only made its debut at the end of 2018, will face a more severe market environment. On the one hand, the reduction of subsidies has resulted in a decrease in cost-effectiveness, and on the other hand, many traditional domestic brands’ electric cars with NEDC ranges of over 500 km will be launched in 2019, which will cause XPeng G3’s dismal 365 km of NEDC range to be overshadowed.
After experiencing a nearly production-ready version of the XPeng G3 in Guangzhou, XPeng, who is meticulous in his work, is indeed able to lead the way in “quality” compared to his competitors. However, in 2019, can XPeng rely on precise product positioning to open up a path for himself in the harsh environment where there are swords in the front and knives in the back? We are waiting for the market to speak!
He XPeng’s Voice: What is Truly Intelligent Automobile?
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.