On the afternoon of April 27th, at a press conference without a live audience, He XPeng officially announced the price range of the P7: 229,900 to 349,900 RMB.
The version that drew the most attention, featuring “long-range endurance” and “XPILOT 3.0,” was priced at 276,900 RMB. Compared to the corresponding version of the Tesla Model 3, all versions of the P7 are generally about 60,000 RMB cheaper.
This means that XPeng Motors has made a strategic move to undercut the price of the Tesla Model 3.
The official price of the P7 is both within and beyond our expectations. As expected, XPeng Motors managed to keep the price of the long-range endurance version under 300,000 RMB. Unexpectedly, the price of the top-of-the-line long-range endurance version is also under 300,000 RMB.
After the official price of the P7 was announced, we conducted a survey on Weibo, asking users: “If you have a budget of 300,000 RMB, would you choose the XPeng P7 at 276,900 RMB with a NEDC range of 656 km or the Tesla Model 3 at 303,550 RMB with a NEDC range of 445 km?”
The results showed that 36.6% of users chose the P7 and 63.4% chose the Model 3. In the current public opinion environment, I believe the XPeng P7 is a success.
I then asked those who chose the P7 a question: “Would you rather give up Autopilot and FSD to choose the ‘long-range endurance’ version?”
Their answer was: “Tesla cannot achieve full autonomous driving in the short term, and I don’t expect it. The current assisted driving capabilities are enough to meet my daily needs. For those of us who don’t have charging stations, endurance is more important. XPILOT 3.0 is also not bad in terms of playability.”
I then asked those who chose the Model 3 a question: “Despite the shorter range and higher price, why did you choose the Model 3?”
Their answer was: “I don’t have a need for long-range driving, and the standard range upgrade is sufficient.”
As someone saving up to buy a Model 3, I hesitated after seeing the price of the P7. The Model 3 meets my needs, and the features that drew me in were mentioned at the P7 press conference. The only thing left is to check if the P7 delivered on what was promised at the conference.So, I wrote down “If XPeng He’s bravado about P7 at the press conference today comes true, I want to buy one” as the title.
Now let’s take a look at what XPeng He said about the P7 at the press conference in 4 points: range + performance + XPILOT 3.0 + configuration.
Range is fundamental
At present, long enough range is still the top priority to attract petrol-car users.
The main model “Super-long Range” is equipped with NINGDE TIMES 811 lithium battery with a battery capacity of 80.9 kWh and an NEDC range of 656 km.
This result is even in the forefront of the first echelon of electric cars.
There are two points about the range of the P7 that are very interesting. The first is the battery, and the second is XPeng Motors’ understanding of “electric cars” as an attribute.
Firstly, let’s talk about the battery. XPeng He mentioned a piece of information at the press conference: the height of the P7’s battery pack is only 110mm, which may not be conceptually understood by many friends who are unfamiliar with electric cars.
Currently, most pure electric vehicles that use NINGDE TIMES’s cylindrical battery cells have a cell height of about 150mm. XPeng is the only one who can make the height of square cell battery packs to 110mm.
In order to make the height of the battery pack only 110 mm, XPeng Motors customized this low-height module from CATL. The benefit of a lower height is naturally less vertical height invading the car’s interior, thereby ensuring interior space. The disadvantage is the higher cost.
You may have a question here. If the height of the battery pack is raised by 4-5cm, why not simply raise the height of the car by 4-5cm? Why spend extra money to customize such a battery cell with NINGDE TIMES?
Because XPeng’s goal is to create a “sedan”, not an SUV. Therefore, XPeng needs to find a battery cell that is suitable for itself, rather than building a model that adapts to existing parts.
The result of this product concept is that XPeng P7 has successfully entered a blue ocean market. At present, among pure electric sedans priced between 200,000-300,000 yuan, only XPeng P7 and Tesla Model 3 exist.
Now let’s talk about XPeng’s understanding of the “electric car” attribute. This statement is indeed somewhat abstract, but for any enterprise that wants to make an electric car, this point is particularly important.
When you create an all-electric car based on the characteristics of a gasoline car, you often find it difficult to achieve low energy consumption, because the characteristics of gasoline cars and pure electric cars are not the same in many details.
On the P7, you can see a lot of efforts made by XPeng to reduce energy consumption. In an era when battery costs are still high, reducing energy consumption not only lowers usage costs but also extends the range of the vehicle.### Extremely low drag
As electric cars do not have a gearbox, the motor’s speed increases with the speed of the car, resulting in lower efficiency under high-speed conditions. Therefore, in order to reduce high-speed energy consumption, the aerodynamic drag coefficient of electric cars is particularly crucial. The drag coefficient of the Xpeng P7 is 0.236 Cd, second only to the 0.23 Cd of the Tesla Model 3.
Close to 100% kinetic energy recovery rate
The P7 uses Bosch’s new generation iBooster braking system, which can achieve 100% kinetic energy recovery. Xpeng engineers have revealed to us that the kinetic energy recovery of the P7 can continue until it almost stops, similar to Tesla’s stop mode, in order to maximize the energy recovery.
More efficient thermal management
It is well known that temperatures that are too high or too low are not suitable working temperatures for lithium-ion batteries, so a heat management system is particularly important for electric cars.
On the P7, the system will use the residual heat of the motor to heat the battery, which can improve energy utilization efficiency to a certain extent compared to using PTC heating, thus reducing power consumption.
These three points are details that do not exist in fuel-powered cars. Only after a deep understanding of the characteristics of pure electric cars can these targeted optimizations be made. It is precisely because of these details that I am very much looking forward to the P7’s tested range.
In terms of range, choosing the standard range upgraded version of the P7 with a price similar to that of the Model 3 with ultra-long range, the NEDC range is more than 200 km less than that of the Model 3 with a range of 668 km, which is about 60,000 RMB more expensive if you want to buy it. Therefore, under the two evaluation criteria of range and price, the P7 and Model 3 are not competitors in the same category.
For those who do not have charging conditions or are heavy users, longer range is obviously a more practical choice, which is one of the more convincing features of P7.
It should also be noted here that range anxiety does not depend entirely on range. Tesla’s superiority lies in its better charging experience with its Supercharger facilities, which are superior to other brands of electric cars in terms of refill experiences.
But don’t forget that Xpeng is also a car maker with a self-built Supercharger system and has cooperated with NIO in the field of Supercharging.
The imagination-filled XPILOT 3.0I believe that most of the Tesla buyers are attracted by Autopilot. For users who are interested in Model 3, it is essential for the P7 to be outstanding in terms of assisted driving. Based on the content of the release, XPILOT 3.0 did not disappoint us.
Let’s first take a look at hardware comparison.
Besides achieving a 360-degree perception through 10 cameras and 5 millimeter-wave radars, XPeng P7 also uses high-precision maps from AutoNavi and centimeter-level high-precision positioning. On the other hand, Tesla only has 8 cameras for 360-degree perception.
Undoubtedly, in terms of perception hardware, XPeng P7 almost surpasses Tesla Model 3 in every aspect.
However, hardware only represents the ceiling of the ability of automatic assisted driving systems, and the actual level depends on software capabilities.
At today’s release event, XPeng Auto defined the “XPILOT 3.0 Automatic Assisted Driving System” as a “solution for automatic assisted driving in Chinese traffic scenarios”.
In terms of function, XPILOT not only realizes NGP (Highway Autonomous Navigation), but also recognizes traffic lights and ice cream cones.
Looking at the numbers alone, XPeng Auto, with only 5 years of experience, has already caught up to Tesla in terms of ability, and He XPeng stated at the release event that XPILOT 3.0 has also been optimized according to China’s road conditions.
The Director of XPeng Auto’s Autonomous Driving Product Department confidently stated on Weibo after the event that “NGP is not the end point, it is just a new starting point.”
In addition to the usual “assisted driving”, XPeng also proposed a new concept of “autonomous parking system that does not rely on parking lot renovation” at the release event.
Automatic parking has been a very capable feature of XPeng Auto since G3, and with P7, XPeng has further improved this ability.
Based on the vehicle’s perception equipment, the vehicle will automatically record the parking lot environment and remember the parking space where the vehicle is parked. The vehicle can then find a parking space and automatically park the vehicle the next time it comes to this parking lot.
Although in terms of function, XPeng’s XPILOT 3.0 and Tesla’s Autopilot are very similar, there are significant differences in hardware and software.
On the hardware side, Tesla focuses on visual perception, while XPeng uses a 360-degree fusion perception composed of vision and millimeter-wave radar.
On the software side, XPeng has developed targeted research and development based on China’s road conditions, such as traffic jams, construction sections, and entrance ramps to high speeds, and will also achieve higher level automatic parking through SLAM technology.
From hardware layout to software direction, XPeng’s P7 XPILOT assisted driving system has a lot of room for imagination, and we are also looking forward to testing XPILOT 3.0 under the standards of 42Test.
Performance is an indispensable card
All brands that hope to break through need “performance” as support, and this is also true for XPeng P7.
The “Long-Range” and “Super Long-Range” versions are equipped with 196 kW motors, with an acceleration of 6.7 seconds per hundred kilometers, which means that even the most entry-level P7 can have power that can beat most fuel cars.
On the “Four-wheel Drive High-performance” version, P7 uses a combination of 120 kW+196 kW motors, achieving a maximum output power of 316 kW, which translates to 430 horsepower and a 4.3-second acceleration time per hundred kilometers.
In terms of acceleration performance, there is usually nothing to fault on an electric car, but straight-line speed alone is not enough. Therefore, XPeng P7 adopts a front double-wishbone + rear multi-link independent suspension. The “Four-wheel Drive High-performance” version is also equipped with a CDC active continuous damping system.
From a hardware perspective, P7 is also very attentive to performance, so the remaining aspect to test is tuning.
ECU is 100% upgradable
The final point is “playability”. OTA gives Tesla extremely strong playability, and also gives Tesla the possibility of exploring the potential, but the premise to achieve this is to open up the vehicle’s underlying electronic and electrical architecture.
At the press conference, He XPeng mentioned that P7 can achieve 100% ECU upgradeability, which means that even upgrades to the air conditioning system’s working logic can achieve improvements in vehicle range in the future.
Model 3 expanding the market is actually good news for XPeng P7.Since the official appearance of Shanghai Chezong XPeng P7 in April 2019, it has become a strong competitor to Tesla Model 3. Every major event from the announcement of the domestic long-range Model 3 price to the introduction of new subsidy policies seemed to add immense pressure on XPeng P7, and the feedback after the launch event suggests that it successfully revitalized itself.
From the perspective of Model 3’s target users, XPeng P7 has indeed covered many of Model 3’s highlights. This launch event was impressive, but if this were a hardware-only era, the iPhone would probably have died long ago.
At the turning point of the automotive industry, software is becoming increasingly important to vehicles. Fortunately, we can see that XPeng values software.
After the launch event, XPeng P7 successfully transformed from being “the car I am most looking forward to in the first half of 2020” to “the car I most want to test drive in the first half of 2020”. Stay tuned for 42Test, where we will fully experience P7’s “software” capabilities, from its range and infotainment to its driver assistance system.
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.