Introduction
This weekend, I and Yanyan brought the XPeng P7 back home. We didn’t buy anything for her in 2020, and our plan to travel to Sanya during the winter break was disrupted by the pandemic in Shanghai. Fortunately, the new car has arrived at the dealership and can make up for the regret of not traveling during the holiday. Let’s talk about the car we chose for Yanyan.
01 Choosing a Car
Why an electric car?
We originally had two cars at home, one was a plug-in hybrid with a range of 63 kilometers, which I drove to and from work every day and took Yanyan to work. The other was a 10-year-old economy car with an out-of-town license plate, mainly driven by my father for city and suburban trips. As time passed, this car needs to be scrapped, so now our whole family needs to buy a new car. Before Shanghai implemented the new license plate restriction policy, we planned to buy a gasoline car worth about 100,000 yuan and continue using an out-of-town license plate. With the new restriction, we gave up this option because we live close to the inner ring road.
When choosing the second car for our family, we first considered the usage scenarios. Our main purpose for the car is to go to the suburbs of Qingpu 1-2 times a month, with a one-way distance of 70 kilometers, followed by taking our daughter to weekend extracurricular classes with a fixed one-way distance of 20 kilometers. From the entire route, it is necessary to cover high-speed and elevated road conditions. Due to the fixed usage scenarios and license plate considerations, buying a new energy vehicle is definitely more cost-effective.
Moreover, because our first car is a hybrid, our suburban home in Qingpu has already installed a matching charging station, so charging is not a problem at all.
Why XPeng P7? Initially, I thought of buying another plug-in hybrid SUV. My first car was the eRX 5, which I bought in 2018. After moving to the city, I had no parking space and basically didn’t use the car. When I finally got the parking space and could finally start using it, the price of our old version went down by 70,000 yuan due to the switch from National standard V to VI. This incident left a slight psychological shadow on our family. Another problem with hybrid models is that the chassis has both batteries and engines, which inevitably leads to smaller cabins or luggage compartments. Having two hybrid cars at home seemed a bit boring.
Later, one of Yanyan’s 90’s colleagues bought a Model 3 in 2020. After experiencing a test ride, Yanyan felt that pure electric sedans were also good: clearer screens, more intelligent operating systems, and felt more friendly to novice female drivers. However, due to our previous experience of car depreciation and Tesla’s price increase model, I found it difficult to accept the idea of buying a Tesla.
This car is mainly for Yanyan. So I made a reference list for her, as follows:
- NIO: The car price starts from 400,000 RMB, which is relatively expensive. Moreover, the car model is relatively large and looks magnificent. But in the small communities where we live, it is a disadvantage. Sometimes, one side of the road is for cars, and the other side is for electric vehicles, which is impossible to pass.
- Tesla Model 3: The price of the entry-level LFP version is actually good. But the interior decoration is a bit of a drawback.
- Tesla Model Y: Currently, it is relatively expensive. The LFP version in the future will also require time, and the cost performance is not high.
- ER6: The styling looks relatively old-fashioned. After seeing Tesla, it’s basically impossible to appreciate this more traditional styling.
- XPeng P7: The cost performance is very high, and the intelligent cockpit is very advantageous.
Originally influenced by a colleague, Yanyan had always been inclined towards buying a Tesla. But after seeing the actual car, she immediately gave her vote to XPeng P7: the exterior looks like a cool coupe, the interior decoration is more comfortable than Tesla, and her favorite is the two screens linked together. Although it is not as large as Tesla’s, the dual-screen mode is more user-friendly and has unique features.
From my point of view, XPeng P7’s size is slightly larger than that of the Model 3. In terms of cruising range, we mainly consider the version with a range of 586 km not NCM 811, based on battery capacity. From the perspective of cost performance, adding some configurations within 250,000 RMB and suitable for XPILOT 2.5+ in high-speed and parking assistance is also a good choice. But XPILOT 3.0’s specification is not suitable for Yanyan.
02 Delivery Process
In the afternoon, we first sent our little daughter to the interest class. This place is very close to the Gongqing Forest Park, and then Yanyan and I went to the XPeng delivery center on Jungong Road, where there was a car parked in front, and there were other 4S stores around. We arrived at around 2 pm. Overall, this delivery center has a relatively open and bright storefront, and the square in front and the hall on the first floor are full of G3 and P7 that are waiting for delivery. The second floor is a place to handle license plates, which is somewhat different from the 4S stores we usually go to.
XPeng’s direct sales channel is mainly on Jungong Road. It was raining on the day of delivery, and many people came to pick up their new cars. The delivery staff who received us were very busy.
While waiting for the delivery staff, we found a self-service coffee machine and enjoyed it for a while. However, the coffee beans were of average quality, so it was no wonder that there were Starbucks takeaway bags on the side.
After waiting for a while, a post-95 guy came to introduce us the car. The central control screen entered the delivery mode, and the overall content mainly includes:
1) Account system: Need to download App and bind the phone number, you can view the location, charging, mileage and other information of the vehicle;
2) Cabin mode: Introduce the sound system, Xiao P assistant, voice function, and rearview mirror adjustment;
3) Driving mode: sports, economy, and standard modes, including energy recovery;
4) Auxiliary driving: parking introduction, including several scenes and beach mode.
Actually, these are mainly for Yanyan to listen to. I have time to test and operate each part separately, on the one hand, to compare with my own car, on the other hand, to see the most important technological sense of P7 and expand it.
Gifts presented with the car: a bouquet of flowers and two pillows.
The whole process of picking up the car includes checking the car, paying fees, operation training, buying insurance, and getting temporary license plates. It was told us that it would take about 2 hours before delivery. Due to the large number of people recently, it actually took 3 hours.
After the completion, Yanyan received flowers and took photos to commemorate. This is Yanyan’s first car, and also the second new energy vehicle owned by our little family of two automotive engineers.
Before returning home, the dashboard showed about 380 kilometers. We drove 35 kilometers at a speed of about 70 kilometers/hour all the way from the central ring road. After returning home, it showed 345 kilometers. According to the NEDC conversion, this is acceptable. I drove back, and the important feeling is that the Xiao P voice assistant is particularly sensitive. It changed the navigation’s route map with just one operation. The lane display on the LCD instrument has little effect, while the small, rectangular route map on the instrument is too small. After the central control was occupied by Xiao P, I missed the prompt to turn from the central ring road to the north-south elevated road and circled around the central ring road.
There is an interesting thing, this car is the first real electric car for Yanyan, and the whole driving habit needs to be adapted all at once. It is very uncomfortable for my dad who has been driving since 1994 to use, including the NFC key that comes with it, the operation of the mobile phone app, and the navigation that he is not used to, all of which need to be taught to him one by one.
Summary
Later, I will write about the operation and use of this car by me, Yanyan and my father, and I believe this will be a very interesting series.
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.