On the evening of July 9th, XPeng G3i was launched in Chengdu with four versions, 460/520 G and 460/520 N. After subsidies, the price of G3i ranges from 149,800 to 185,800 yuan. Compared with the old version, the entry-level price remains unchanged, while the top-of-the-line version drops by 14,000 yuan.
This time, XPeng G3i’s mid-term upgrade did not update in terms of power, chassis, and intelligent driving hardware. The main focus was on “appearance” and “intelligence.” With the X Robot Face family design language, G3 upgraded to G3i, which is more “intelligent”.
Why did the changes of G3i focus on these two aspects? The answer given by He XPeng at the press conference was, “G3i optimizes the aspects that everyone cares about the most, such as intelligence and appearance, and we believe it will become the first choice for young people’s intelligent electric SUVs under 200,000 yuan.”
Why did the first release of G3i use the X Robot Face from P7? Did the designer take a shortcut? Of course not. First of all, although G3 is XPeng’s first car model, for an automobile brand, the flagship car model guides the design style of all the brand’s car models. The family design language is often first launched on the flagship car model, and then adjusted to other secondary car models. P7 to P5 follows this logic.
Secondly, P7 is XPeng’s most influential car model. In addition to its performance configuration and intelligent driving function, its fashionable design is also an important highlight. The highly recognizable X Robot Face combined with the low-slung coupe styling captured the hearts of a group of young people. Young people? Isn’t that the target user group of G3?
Therefore, combining the logic of brand planning and market operation considerations, the mature design language that has been recognized by the market on P7 is applied to G3i aimed at young people, which is expected and reasonable.
However, synchronizing the family design language to different car models is not simply “copying + pasting”, but rather requires adjustments according to the characteristics of different car models. So, is the synchronization of X Robot Face on G3i successful? After all, it was originally the front face of a mid-to-large-sized coupe, now it has to be transplanted to a compact SUV. In my personal opinion, the effect is still good.The Star Channel previously stated in the G3i’s debut review that “if the P7’s front face is sporty and aggressive, then this design on the G3 would be milky and soft.” Thus, the front face design of the G3i not only maintains the overall style of the XPeng family, but also possesses its own characteristics, forming a differentiation with the P7 style.
The reason why the G3i can be “milky and soft” is not only due to adjustments in design details but also due to the help of new color schemes. Prior to its launch, XPeng G3i released five Chinese-styled color schemes, among which the combination of sky-blue and white was the highest voted by XPeng APP users. At the same time, to meet the demands for personalization, the official will provide more than 50 types of exterior and interior film color scheme modifications.
Apart from the front face, there were two major changes to the appearance of the G3i, one was to remove the 360-degree camera on the roof that had a weak user perception and the other was to add hidden door handles that had high user demand. This is considered an adjustment based on user feedback to enhance the user experience.
Compared to the appearance, the interior of the G3i has no obvious changes, it is still familiar, with a 12.3-inch full LCD instrument panel and a 15.6-inch vertical control screen. Considering that the changes were only mid-cycle facelifts, and the exterior had already undergone significant adjustments, it was reasonable to maintain the original interior layout. However, the G3i has added front seat ventilation and rear seat heating to enhance functionality, and part of the seats have been designed to be youthful with Nappa leather.
“Smart Innovation” is the core value of XPeng, and it is also one of the important factors that can move young consumers in the conservative passenger car market in the 150,000-250,000 yuan range. XPeng CEO He XPeng said at the event that “with travel being the third largest time-consuming scenario, just like mobile phones, it will undergo a transformation towards intelligence. However, how to transform requires true practitioners to explore.” To explore this, XPeng chose different focuses on the G3i from that of the P5.At present, the two main fields of intelligentization in the automotive industry are intelligent driving and intelligent interaction. In terms of intelligent driving, the previously released P5 is equipped with XPilot 3.5 with dual Livox HAP Lidars, which even surpasses the XPilot 3.0 of XPeng P7 in hardware resources.
G3i’s focus is on intelligent interaction. By installing the unified Qualcomm Snapdragon 820A chip and Xmart OS 2.0 car system, G3i also has full-scene voice capability, which can achieve high-end functions such as continuous conversation, Visible Speech, bilingual speech recognition, and voice command customization, matching the flagship P7.
When introducing G3i’s continuous conversation ability at the press conference, He XPeng said, “After getting on the car in the morning, I can continuously issue instructions such as opening the window, turning on the music, turning on the air conditioning, and opening the navigation with only one wake-up of Little P, and Little P can accurately identify and execute them one by one.” In fact, according to the official data of XPeng, the usage rate of XPeng’s artificial intelligence voice assistant has consistently exceeded 99%.
He XPeng also mentioned automatic parking at the press conference. Automatic parking has always been a highlight of G3’s products and the differentiation competitive advantage of XPeng’s automobiles. The G3 ranked first in i-VISTA automatic parking in 2020. In the middle and high-grade models, G3i will have XPILOT Parking super-automatic parking assistance, ACC adaptive cruise control, ALC automatic lane change assistance (turning on the lights and automatically changing lanes), LCC lane centering assistance, ATC adaptive curve cruising assistance, and newly added LKA lane keeping assistance.
“Getting closer to young people” is also important. “To let the power of technology benefit more people, allowing every young person to have a truly leading and cool intelligent car.” If the appearance innovation satisfies He XPeng’s “cool enough”, and the intelligentization improvement solves the problem of “leading”, the third thing XPeng Automobile did after clarifying these two directions was to get closer to young people.
The G3i launch conference was held at the “Unconventional Live House” in Chengdu. XPeng cooperated with QQ Music’s “Rapper’s Alliance”. In addition to G3i, the main characters on the scene were rap female singer Naiwan NINEONE, songwriter Ailuo, and young people from the “Z Era”.Actually, this is not the first time that XPeng Motors has broken the traditional communication mode and communicated with young people. In April 2020, XPeng Motors joined hands with the young generation’s thoughts and the entertainment new highland Bilibili to launch a 24-hour long live broadcast.
On the day of XPeng Motors’ Bilibili live broadcast, in addition to the interpretation of P7’s product design, manufacturing, supply chain, intelligence, and autonomous driving, there were also XPeng Motors CEO He XPeng, XPeng Motors co-founder and president Xia Heng, and fashion blogger Rebecca Li who talked about dreams, entrepreneurship, and car-making. They also covered topics such as fashion, DJ, elegance, and talk shows, etc. The live broadcast turned the product into an alternative party for young people.
In the era of media explosion, exploring new communication modes, narrowing the psychological distance with young people, not only XPeng is trying, but also many car companies are striving. However, XPeng seems to be the one who has the “magic spell” for now.
XPeng G3i did not have significant updates in important aspects such as the three-electric system, chassis suspension, and intelligent driving hardware configuration this time. But there were targeted changes under the premise of the positioning of “less than 200,000 yuan” + “the first intelligent electric vehicle for young people”. For a mid-term modified model, it is already sufficient.
If we look at it from a higher level, we need to realize that in the era of intelligent electrification, with the introduction of software-defined cars and Internet thinking, the traditional “mid-term modification” and “upgrade and replacement” in the automotive industry are being blurred and redefined. Before G3i, G3 actually experienced a major upgrade in its battery and gradually bid farewell to the Haima OEM. It controlled the product quality and rhythm on its own. With all the preparations, the “light” adjustment that is now advancing towards youthfulness is a natural outcome.
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.