The Third “1024 Xpeng Automobile Technology Day” officially held on October 24th, 2021

The number “1024” has a profound meaning in the binary world of computer operation, representing 2 to the power of 10, and is one of the basic measurement units. Therefore, this day is also the Programmer’s Day.

Xpeng is an exploration-loving company that constantly tries new products and functions, from the G3, P7, and P5 models to today’s flying cars and machine horses. Although exploration means there will be failures, for He XPeng, entrepreneurship is all about doing something different, just like everyone needs to be a unique individual.

It is precisely this spirit of exploration that led He XPeng to state that if a time machine could send him into the future 50 years from now, he would not want to go directly to the future world, but rather define the future world through his own exploration and thinking.

At the Xpeng Automobile Technology Day, He XPeng brought new explorations and thinking for the four major areas: Super Energy, Intelligent Driving, Intelligent Robots, and Xpeng Huitian.

He XPeng stated at the event, “We never make concept cars or display cars. All our explorations are to produce them, thereby changing our intelligent travel life. Looking up at the stars relies on solid ground.”

Super Energy System

At present, for electric vehicle owners, range anxiety is largely due to the imperfect energy supplement system. Currently, the two technical routes on the market are battery swapping and supercharging. For Xpeng, the super energy system is the foundation of future travel.

Currently, Xpeng Automobile’s self-built charging network has 439 branded supercharging stations and 1648 free charging stations. It is reported that Xpeng’s supercharging will promote comprehensive technical upgrades in vehicle-end, pile-end, and station-end in the future.

For the vehicle-end, Xpeng released China’s first 800V high-voltage SiC platform for mass production, with a maximum charging peak current exceeding 600A. It adopts high-energy density and high-charging-rate batteries, and can recharge for 200 kilometers in 5 minutes.

For the pile-end, Xpeng Automobile released the first mass-produced 480kW high-voltage supercharging pile. It adopts liquid-cooled heat dissipation technology for the charging gun, with a current capacity of more than 670A, and a lightweight design with ultra-thin cables, small plug-and-pull force, and light lifting weight.

Since the capacity of the power grid is an important basis for expanding the charging service capacity, Xpeng’s supercharging will bring self-developed energy storage charging technology at the station-end, using energy storage supercharging stations and mobile energy storage vehicles to shave peaks and fill valleys, while reducing the pressure on the power grid.

From Highway to City with NGP

With the continuous release of high-level intelligent driving assistance functions, intelligent driving is changing more and more users’ travel methods. Xpeng believes that intelligent driving assistance is still not automatic driving, and human-machine joint driving will be an inevitable choice for a long time.## How XPENG Solves the Dilemma of Balancing Safety and User Experience

XPENG adopts three strategies to tackle the challenge of balancing safety and user experience, which are intelligent assisted driving functions, user safety education, and human-machine interaction.

To bring intelligent assisted driving technology to urban areas, XPENG’s XPILOT 3.5 has the first mass-producible and centimeter-level urban positioning capability that does not rely on lidar point cloud maps. This innovative technology combines multiple sensors, including visuals, high-precision maps, GPS, IMU, and wheel speed gauging, and offers a granular city map with static information, and can be updated to the day.

As of April this year, XPENG gradually shifted its focus from high-speed to urban settings to actualize the intelligent assisted driving technology. The public announcement of XPENG’s application in urban settings signals the start of the second half of intelligent assisted driving.

For its users, XPENG will launch a trial operation of “Zhidao Fen” and formulate a comprehensive assessment system for intelligent driving behavior to check whether car owners’ self-driving meets the standardized requirements.

In addition to the automobile-related technology exhibitions, there were on-site presentations about machinery horses and flying cars.

To address XPENG’s strategy for ecological layout and how it prepares for new energy markets, CEO He XPeng held a discussion with Photon Planet and other key players.

The Dialogue with CEO He XPeng Summarizes the following Points:

Question: Recently, companies engaged in self-driving cars have started to test autonomous vehicles. How does XPENG achieve the same experience and safety redundancy that Robotaxis offer? What is the difference between Robotaxis (L4) and XPENG’s current technology?

He XPeng’s Response: I think they lack or do not have sufficient redundant safety measures. There are several types of redundancy: software redundancy, hardware redundancy, and some Robotaxis can achieve an excellent level of redundancy in terms of software and hardware. However, not all Robotaxis have done this successfully. Regarding the redundancy issue, we put a lot of effort into this aspect with XPILOT 5.0. For 3.5 and 4.0, most of the organizations, including L4-level enterprises, have reached L4’s foundation in terms of software and hardware. Having hardware does not mean having the algorithm and data. Having hardware and an algorithm with data still does not guarantee software and hardware redundancy. To achieve L5 requires data aggregation.

Question: What is XPENG’s ecological layout, from PENG to Intelligent Universe, like?

He XPeng’s Response: XPENG’s transportation sector mainly focuses on automobiles, including PENG, G3, P7, and other models, which provide mobility solutions to our users. Meanwhile, XPENG Intelligent Universe relies on the Internet of Vehicles (IoV), where cars and people are connected, and massive data is generated, which can be used to improve driving and other services. We deploy a dual product and technology strategy to achieve a user-centered ecological layout.He XPeng: Whether it’s Huitian or Pengxing, they are both our ecologically-oriented enterprises, and we may have a light investment in the future. Our hope is that ecologically-oriented enterprises can fit into XPeng’s strategic positioning and product orientation. In addition, XPeng will provide assistance for their manufacturing and partial sales, which will increase their sales scale and manufacturing requirements.

These enterprises, XPeng Motors, and myself will all invest in, so that they can have sufficient funds. Huitian recently announced a Series A financing of over $500 million, mainly from China’s top VCs and PEs.

Question: How can XPeng reflect its brand tone in intelligent technology, and can consistency be reflected?

He XPeng: We are following a gradual logic, and while you can imagine a far-off and excellent vision, rhythm is the most important thing. There are two options for rhythm: one is to jump through the middle stage in one breath, and the other is to take it step by step. We may lean towards the latter.

I think that for most innovative thinking, macroscopically it is correct, but microscopically it is wrong. Like longitude and latitude, you don’t know the exact longitude and latitude, and you need to adjust your direction through the process of constant advancement, maybe by only 3% or 5% angle, but this is important, this is the process of entrepreneurship.

Question: XPeng has emphasized the concept of full-stack this time, but the industry still has the opinion that professional matters should be entrusted to professionals, and there are many companies researching intelligent technology to develop white-label products for car manufacturers. Which mode does XPeng think is the main one?

He XPeng: All roads lead to Rome, and either approach can be successful. However, we believe that in fast and large-scale innovations, for the sake of efficiency and change, full self-development is needed. And in the more stable times, clear division of labor, you shouldn’t opt for self-development because you don’t have others’ scale, others’ craftsmanship, and others’ management, and you should leave it to them.

We may develop some things by ourselves at the beginning, but if another company does it better and cheaper when things become stable, let them do it, and we will do something more valuable.

Today’s smart cars may enter the next stage before 2024, and the following stage in 2026. These changes will go beyond our imagination, at a speed that even a group of entrepreneurs like us at the forefront cannot fathom. It is difficult to achieve such changes through partnerships alone.

Because they need to grow and develop, they will definitely be slower than you think. This is due to market logic. In fact, they are more capable than us, but they don’t need to think that way from their perspective. When we become more stable, we may open up some possibilities.Question: What do you think of XPeng’s creation of an ecosystem? NIO is building a single automotive ecosystem, while XPeng has separated the battery and electric drive components, and may even separate the intelligent driving component in the future as a supplier. What do you think of the current market changes?

He XPeng: The ecosystem of mobility will be gradually expanded in the future. Looking at the past 200 years, global changes in life have come from technology, and the pioneer of technological change is the combination of technology and transportation. Without airplanes and passenger cars, our lives today would be very different. The internet is also a form of transportation, digital transportation. Without these changes, you would find that many others are missing, such as food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and entertainment. Transportation is the foundation. After meeting physiological needs, such as being well-fed and well-dressed, transportation is very important. So based on this foundation, we will do something more.

Our peers have done a great job, but we are taking a slightly different path. We are still exploring within our own system, but all roads lead to Rome, and eventually we may achieve the same goal.

Question: We now see automatic parking, high-speed and urban NGP, which point in time do you think these three will be fully deployed in all scenarios?

He XPeng: The key is the quality of the deployment. I think good deployment will happen by the end of next year, very good deployment will happen by 2025, 2026, 2027, and complete deployment may be after 2030.

Question: In the future, the operating costs of supermarkets will be very high, and they may return to the model of investors building stores. What do you think of this?

He XPeng: Many people have discussed this issue with me. I think that for the next several years, selling cars offline will still be the core. I believe that there will be some changes in the supermarket model in the future, perhaps not far away. But supermarkets still have value. We cannot all go to supermarkets, nor can we all leave supermarkets. This is the logic of a flow group.

Just like why China’s internet and mobile internet have grown very fast in a decade, it is the flow group. The offline flow group is changing, and the online flow group is also changing. These two need a process of change, integration, iteration, and spiral. This is a difficult topic, and we are constantly thinking and exploring.

Question: Tencent is now also saying that it will not participate in car manufacture, only build a platform. Huawei is also doing the same. XPeng will also build a complete ecosystem in the future. When everyone has different ecosystems, where are the collision points of competition? How to highlight XPeng’s own advantage?

He XPeng: First, I think XPeng is still a relatively small company, far from the platform or three-dimensional ecosystem they are talking about. I don’t think they have really achieved a true ecosystem yet, but they have all built a very strong network effect, which is not yet an ecosystem effect.Secondly, we expect to have our own ecosystem in the future, but it will take 5-15 years, maybe then we can share it. However, today our most important task is to deepen and improve our AI and manufacturing capabilities, and gradually make progress in both China and the global market. This is our core mission. Every company has its own strengths and weaknesses, but it doesn’t matter. The world of technology changes very quickly, and looking from a different perspective, we think that no one can surpass certain companies in the social field, but maybe in a few years, the probability is very low, but the possibility is absolutely there. This is the charm of technology.

Q: How does XPeng weigh the input and return of Machine Ma and Flying Car?

He XPeng: They are both part of XPeng’s ecosystem companies, and any company needs sufficient profits in the long run to give back to shareholders and employees, so they can bear the cost of research and development. When we started as an ecosystem company, we considered strategy as the main focus. As an investment company, we mainly consider finance, that’s why we only focus on strategy as the main priority.

Q: Why does XPeng try to innovate in products and features? What if the exploration fails?

He XPeng: Since exploration always involves failures, if there are no failures, it is not called exploration. Then, we can commercialize or turn it into a product.

In my opinion, more and more entrepreneurs want to make better things rather than making more money. They put this stamp on their company’s products and corporate culture. I sat in a car for the first time in 1982, and the cars then were not that different from today’s cars. Why hasn’t there been a huge change in cars in the past 30 years? If we build another car that has no significant changes and only pursues its design, positioning, and price differentiation, what’s the point of starting a business? Starting a business means doing something different, just like each of us must be a different person.

Q: The competition in the automotive industry is also fierce. How do you allocate your own energy in so many ecosystem architectures?

He XPeng: I allocate my time dynamically, and I’ve been spending more time in the robotics field recently. But most of my time is still in the XPeng automotive system because it is a macro strategic layout. What you see today is not very closely related to XPeng, but in three to five years, XPeng’s actions will have more connections with theirs. By then, we can see things that are 10 times cooler than today.

Q: The 800V high-voltage silicon carbide platform, supercharging technology, and energy storage launched by XPeng will inevitably increase costs. How does XPeng consider this?He XPeng: I’ll consider both the rhythm and the cost, as well as the replacement cost brought about by technological changes. Doing more in the early stage will lead to more changes after the technology has been replaced. In addition, I will also consider the changes in the different stages of intelligent assisted driving in 2023, 2025, and 2027, and I will consider many rhythms. But I have also set a goal. We will do a good job of renewable energy by 2023, which is what we firmly believe in. We will not only do it in China, but also overseas.

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.