“P7 delivery experience of XPeng, delayed for half a year, a 7000-word detailed article with hard work.”

The Journey of Buying A Car

The initial plan was to purchase a gasoline car around 150,000 RMB after my mom gets her driver’s license this year. However, because I did not have a Shanghai license plate and only needed a car on weekends, I planned on buying a car from another city. However, at the end of last year, Shanghai suddenly released a new, stricter policy for out-of-town license plate usage, which made me abandon the idea of purchasing a car from another city and begin searching for an agent to obtain a Shanghai license plate.

Unfortunately, there were so many people with the same idea, as the number of people participating in the car plate auction in October and November last year had increased dramatically from around 70,000 to over 150,000. After going through a failed attempt at participating in an auction, I gave up and began considering a new energy vehicle with a green license plate.

At the beginning of last year, a friend introduced me to the first domestically produced long-endurance Model 3, and I often traveled with him by car. However, I was initially concerned about the endurance of pure electric cars and originally looked for plug-in hybrid cars. After searching for cars between 150,000 to 200,000 RMB, I did not find a satisfactory model, so I began looking at pure electric cars between 200,000 to 300,000 RMB.

The Car Buying Process

I became familiar with the brand XPeng through videos on the Internet. After watching several videos multiple times, I decided to visit a XPeng P7 experience store during the 2021 New Year’s holiday. I was immediately attracted to its futuristic appearance and simple yet practical interior. After test driving the rear-wheel-drive version that same day, I placed a deposit of 5000 RMB.

After returning home and discussing with my family, they expressed their concerns since they had only experienced the gasoline car era. Therefore, the next day, I test drove the four-wheel-drive version as well, and was equally satisfied. A friend who owns a Model 3 insisted that I go see a Tesla, so on the third day, I went to see a Tesla before going back to XPeng. In the end, I signed the official car purchase contract with XPeng.

The rest of the process was a long wait for the car. There was a small incident in the middle where I initially ordered the middle-level, rear-wheel-drive, ultra-long-range version with XPILOT 2.5 hardware, which did not support NGP. After joining the vehicle owner group, many people suggested that I switch to the 3.0 hardware. Thus, after the car was ordered, I strongly requested that the salesperson help me switch to 3.0, and this decision turned out to be absolutely correct.

Driving Experience

Driving Experience with A Passenger

From signing the car purchase contract on January 3rd to receiving the car on February 5th, it took a whole month. I was extremely excited after I received my car and drove it almost 200 km on the second day within the city limits of Shanghai.

Due to my experience of long-term riding the Model 3, the first car I owned was a pure electric car, so I didn’t have to adapt to various discomforts caused by transitioning from gasoline cars, and the only thing I needed to adapt to was the kinetic energy recovery.

P7’s kinetic energy recovery can only achieve similar gliding effect to gasoline cars when the comfort mode is turned on. Initially, I used low kinetic energy recovery, and after adapting for about half a month, I switched to standard mode + high kinetic energy recovery, occasionally switching to sport mode when the road conditions were good.

The power response in standard mode can already be achieved instantly just by a light press on the accelerator pedal, and the difference from sport mode is only whether the electric motor will output full power when the pedal is lightly pressed. The acceleration is not only highly responsive but also smooth.

Although P7’s rear-wheel drive version takes 6.7 seconds to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h, which is not considered fast compared to electric cars that can reach it below 5 seconds, it is still rare to find competitors on normal city roads. When encountering slow-moving vehicles, it is easy to surpass them. Moreover, although the acceleration is not fast, it excels in having no significant deterioration during mid-to-late acceleration. In actual tests, when accelerating to 0-130 km/h with standard or sport mode, no significant deterioration was felt, but significant deterioration was felt between 130-140 km/h. Beyond that, I have never driven it.

In addition, because of the Brembo brakes with 4 in the front and 1 in the back, it can still brake well even in emergencies. In the past few months, I have encountered a few emergency situations such as almost hitting the car in front, but I avoided accidents through this braking force before the AEB intervention. Therefore, even if driving fast, there is no concern about not being able to stop the car.

Furthermore, P7’s NVH experience is very good, much better than the Model 3. According to my friend, when driving the same road, his Model 3 was already quite noisy, while sitting in the front passenger seat of the P7, it is obviously much quieter. Since I am also a person who dislikes noise, I always close the windows when driving.

Assisted Driving Experience

My Little Xpeng P7 has a rear-wheel drive, ultra-long-range, and intelligent luxury version, equipped with XPILOT 3.0 assisted driving hardware. Without purchasing software, it can achieve ACC adaptive cruise control, LCC lane keep, LKA signal for lane change, visual fused automatic parking, and AEB automatic braking, etc. If software is purchased, NGP navigation-assisted driving, automatic memory parking in parking lots (which can be regarded as low-speed NGP in parking lot scenes), and automatic far and near light adjustment can also be realized.

Since I rarely need to drive on highways, I did not choose to spend 20,000 RMB to purchase advanced assisted driving software when I took delivery of the car. It should be noted that if you want to purchase it after taking delivery of the car, you need to pay 12,000 RMB per year for three consecutive years, a total of 36,000 RMB, to permanently obtain advanced functionalities such as NGP, and the software is tied to the car, not the person. When changing cars in the future, it has to be repurchased.

How to Enable Assisted DrivingTo activate the ACC adaptive cruise control function, push down the gear lever on the right-hand side. To activate the LCC lane keeping function, push down the gear lever two times consecutively, following the same logic as Tesla. Compared to traditional cars, which require multiple buttons to be pressed, this method of activating the driving assistance features is very convenient.

Note that the lever should not be pushed down too quickly when activating LCC. There were a few instances where I thought I pushed it twice, but in reality it only registered once, and ACC was activated. If the steering wheel is released in this situation, accidents may occur. Additionally, if the first attempt to activate LCC fails (for example, during a turn or lane change), you must wait for the warning message on the dashboard to disappear before attempting to activate it again. It will not be possible to activate it again until the warning is gone.

Driving Assistance in Various Situations

1. Elevated Roads, Ground Roads, and Highways

At first, I was nervous and kept my foot on the brake pedal, ready to brake at any time in case another car cut in front of me. However, after using it for some time, I found out that as long as the car was not pushing in too close to us, whether it was at a long or short distance, there was no need for me to brake manually. The vehicle was fully capable of dealing with it on its own.

However, this brings up the first issue. When the current car merges into the lane at a close distance, the car will slow down too much, resulting in a large distance between the two vehicles. At this time, the speed of Little P (Xpeng P7) is relatively slow, which may result in additional cars merging into the lane. As a result, the car will slow down again, creating a vicious cycle of constantly merging.

Therefore, my current strategy is to step on the accelerator pedal quickly when the car automatically slows down. This will manually intervene to accelerate and prevent additional cars from merging into the lane. Rest assured, manually accelerating will not cause the driving assistance system to exit. It will only provide a warning on the dashboard.

In testing on wide, clear straight roads with clear lane markings, Xpeng P7 was able to maintain automatic driving in the middle of the lane, and was able to maintain maximum speed in low curvature highways. In larger curvature zones, it will automatically slow down. At this time, the experience for passengers in the car is not very good. Therefore, if it is a familiar section of the road, I generally choose to lower the maximum speed of LCC to ensure that the vehicle does not slow down in the curve.

In addition, manually signaling when changing lanes is required, as voice-activated lane changes are not supported (only NGP supports these). Lane changes require speeds of at least 45 km/h. As tested on the current software version, dotted lines, dashed lines, and lines with mixed shapes can be smoothly changed. Solid lines will provide a warning message that changing lanes is not possible. In areas where the solid lines have been removed and replaced with dotted lines, if they are not completely cleaned, it may be recognized as a solid line and prevent lane changes.

2. Large-curve Ramps

In conclusion, it is better to take big curve ramps by ourselves rather than using driving assistance.

On these ramps, the driving experience of Xpeng P7 is far from that of a Model 3. For example, the typical Nanpu Bridge interchange, although the latest software version can automatically navigate the curve, the process is still thrilling. The steering wheel keeps adjusting constantly, and the speed is not very fast, it is probably only about 30 miles per hour. In addition, if it is a single-lane ramp, drivers may be secretly cursing behind us, while the ramp master Tesla can even pass through the Nanpu Bridge interchange at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour…## 3. Congested Scenes

In congested scenes, without assisted driving, one needs to continuously step on the accelerator and brake pedals. Assisted driving can greatly alleviate this driving fatigue.

By activating the first-level follow-up mode, the P7’s braking distance cannot be cut in. However, as mentioned above, slow acceleration makes it vulnerable to being cut in. Acceleration intervention is required to avoid this, unless there are no cut-ins in the adjacent lane. In this case, almost no intervention is required except for maintaining a safe distance to avoid unexpected cut-ins.

4. Non-enclosed Ground Roadways

Firstly, XPeng does not recommend using assisted driving on non-enclosed ground roadways. I, however, tested the car to its extreme limits by using the feature twice.

When the cruising speed reaches 60 mph and the preceding car is waiting at a red light at a certain distance, the P7 can accurately detect this and smoothly come to a stop, almost identical to human driving. At crossroads, as long as the distance is not too far, one can align the car with the lane markings on the ground when entering the crossroad.

I must emphasize again: do not use assisted driving on non-enclosed ground roadways.

5. Automated Parking in Parking Lots

To enable automated parking, click the second icon on the left Dock bar to enter parking mode or enable voice control by saying “Hi, XPeng”. The P7 will locate and recognize any empty parking space you drive by. It can park itself under manual control or you can park by disembarking the vehicle after the P7 parks in the designated spot with the gear in “P”.

In the app, the automatic parking process is divided into two scenarios: non-lateral and lateral parking. The P7 can perform automated parking perfectly for both vertical and 45° parking spaces when there is no obstacle around. However, it is not recommended to rely on the automated parking feature as there might be a risk of ending up too far from the curb. Therefore, manual parking is recommended in this case.

During the automated parking process, the P7 will temporarily stop if it encounters any obstacles. Also, it cannot be parked automatically when it drives over speed bumps. It is suggested to use the automated parking feature only in parking lots with low traffic density.

Moreover, the app remote parking function only supports forward and backward movements. Make sure the steering wheel is horizontal when using it.

6. Ghost Braking Problem

I would like to address the ghost braking problem separately. Originally, the P7 did not have this issue. However, it appeared randomly after an OTA update. It happens more often when entering or exiting tunnels or driving over pavement joints at night. Luckily, only a slight decrease in speed (5-10 mph) occurs. In this case, one can intervene by accelerating manually.

The above experiences with assisted driving only apply to the P7 equipped with XPILOT 3.0 hardware.Although the functions mentioned above only require XPILOT 2.5 hardware, according to other car owners, the assisted driving experience of 2.5 is far inferior to that of vehicles equipped with 3.0, and there will be various other problems. Owners of 2.5 suggest caution when using assisted driving.

7. NGP driving assistance via navigation

I have ridden in the NGP twice and will briefly describe my experience.

The two routes were: Wujiaochang to Zhonghuan via the military industry road tunnel, then back again via Zhangyang North Road to Zhonghuan; Bohui Square to Inner Ring via Nanpu Bridge, then back again via Pudong Yanggao South Road.

First of all, the first time was at night, with very few vehicles on the road and good road conditions. There were no problems at all when we reached Pudong. However, on the way back, there was a problem when the system inexplicably prompted that it had detected a stationary object. Both we and the salesperson were confused as there was clearly nothing in front of us.

Secondly, when we got stuck in a traffic jam on the way back the second time, we needed to change lanes to the far right when we got off the Nanpu Bridge, but the vehicle was in the leftmost lane on the bridge. We started signaling to change lanes, but there were many vehicles on the right and nobody gave way. The vehicle continued executing the command, and it took about a minute to successfully change lanes.

Therefore, I can conclude that if you’re not in a hurry and want to relax a bit, you can use NGP during off-peak periods. However, if you’re in a hurry or there are many vehicles on the road, it’s recommended to turn off NGP and use LCC or drive yourself. The role of NGP is to be labor-saving, not time-saving.

8. Manual and automatic exit of assisted driving

When ACC and LCC are enabled, lightly stepping on the brake will exit the assisted driving mode. When the driver tries to grab the steering wheel with force while in LCC mode, the LCC mode will exit and the ACC mode will be entered. When in LCC mode, shifting the right gear lever up will also directly exit assisted driving. I don’t recommend using this function because the vehicle will immediately start decelerating, so you need to step on the accelerator to maintain speed.

If there is an emergency and you need to exit, it’s better to just step on the brake. Two cases where assisted driving automatically exited that I have encountered are:

Firstly, the driver has not paid attention to the road conditions for a long time. Since the P7 uses a steering torque sensor, the steering wheel needs to be shaken every so often. If this operation is not executed after multiple prompts, the assisted driving will exit directly and cannot be re-enabled during the current driving process. However, the new version has adopted a steering wheel camera to assist monitoring, so the number of times the steering wheel needs to be turned has noticeably decreased.

Secondly, the vehicle encounters road conditions that it cannot determine. I have encountered situations such as lane line crossovers causing an exit, an intersection with zebra lines blocking the path causing an exit, and narrow lanes with sharp turns causing an exit.

9. Others

After assisted driving is enabled, if there are complex road conditions ahead, such as many vehicles or a large number of vehicles merging from a right-hand exit into the front, there will be a voice prompt to pay attention to the front road and gently pull the seatbelt.The maximum duration for one LCC activation is 30 minutes, and the driver will be reminded after 15 minutes. I guess it’s a way to prevent driver fatigue. One night, when I was coming back from the inner ring road, there was a section that I couldn’t remember how I drove through…

Sometimes, without the ADAS system turned on, if there is a risk of collision with the vehicle in front, there will be beeps to remind the driver, but there have been false alarms, so it depends on the specific situation.

Summary of ADAS

XPeng’s ADAS system is already very mature. Although there are various problems during the actual experience, you need to be familiar with the corresponding solutions, but overall, even if you do not purchase advanced ADAS software, just using LCC lane keeping and turn signals can greatly reduce fatigue while driving on the elevated highway.

Overall, XPeng’s ADAS strategy is more conservative, focusing more on driving safety, so it is more suitable to use when not in a hurry and want to relax.

Once again, it is emphasized that ADAS is not autonomous driving. After turning on the ADAS system, the driver still needs to keep an eye on the road ahead and safety comes first.

Charging Experience

Since my home is in an old community, I cannot install the 7 kW home charger that was provided, so I have always been using the fast charging station outside.

There are two XPeng self-operated charging stations about 5 km away from me, which takes about 15 minutes to drive, not far away. In addition, when I purchased the car, I was given 3,000 kWh of electricity, which was one of the deciding factors for me to buy the car.

In addition to self-operated charging stations, XPeng also has many third-party free cooperative charging stations. The peak power of the self-operated charging station is about 70 kW, and I have reached 86 kW at some third-party stations such as Techrules and Xiaojv, but some car owners claim to be able to reach 100 kW, which I haven’t seen.

Since most charging stations can park for free for 2 hours, I often check if there are any charging stations near my destination when I go out, and if there are any, I will stop and charge, so there is no range anxiety.

In addition, most self-operated charging stations have ground locks, which need to be manually unlocked on the App or the onboard system, so there will be no situation where petrol cars occupy the space. For third-party charging stations, it depends on whether the site has management or not. If the self-operated charging station is fully charged and not unplugged for 30 minutes, a parking fee will be charged, 1 yuan per minute. Please unplug and leave as soon as possible after charging.

It is recommended that you clarify whether your community can install a home charger and whether there are public fast charging stations available near your community before purchasing an electric vehicle. These two points are very important for buying a pure electric car.

Range Experience

From the time of delivery until now, I have never run out of battery and had to recharge, so I can only give an approximate range level.According to my driving habits, the energy consumption for a single trip of over 10 km with the air conditioning and sound system turned on is generally between 13-14 kWh per hundred kilometers. In winter, with seat heating and air conditioning on, it is about 15-16 kWh. With full WLTP range of 576 km for the extended-range model, I usually drive at 80-90% of the range capacity, and can run over 500 km in summer and around 350 km in winter. This is considered a decent level among the currently mass-produced electric vehicles.

Infotainment Experience

Infotainment is definitely an area that XPeng Motors is proud of. While having a full touch screen center console without any physical buttons might appear similar to Tesla, I personally find it more user-friendly because the full touch screen can lead to operating errors while driving, and the distraction caused by operating the touch screen can also pose a safety risk, which is why drivers of traditional cars prefer physical buttons.

XPeng Motors has introduced a solution called “full-scene voice recognition”, which is better than Tesla in this respect, because it can perform most common operations, such as navigation, adjusting air conditioning, and media volume control through voice commands. This not only solves the problem of blind operation of the touch screen, but also reduces driver distraction caused by touching the screen while driving.

In addition, there is a separate voice recognition button on the steering wheel, so there is no need to worry about difficulty waking up the voice assistant when playing music. However, there are still some problems, such as poor recognition of English and homophones.

The P7’s horizontal screen is also great for watching TV shows and movies, with simple and easy-to-understand menus. For someone like me who loves electronics, it’s easy to use without having to consult the owner’s manual. The infotainment system is relatively responsive and fluid, although there are occasional freezes, but that’s just Android for you.

There is one more thing worth mentioning: the P7 supports storing multiple driving habits under the same account. For example, if you need to call a driver, you can set two completely identical driving habits, and use habit 2 for your driver whereas habit 1 for yourself. However, it is important to note that some settings will return to default values after switching habits, which needs to be adjusted manually. In my opinion, this needs to be optimized. If one vehicle has multiple drivers, it is currently better to have all drivers activate their XPeng accounts, authorized by the owner, so that their corresponding driving habits can be automatically loaded upon logging in.

App Experience

Since it is a smart car, we must also talk about the App experience.

The XPeng App has rich features. Upon opening, the primary options displayed are vehicle-related functions, such as locking, unlocking, and turning on/off the air conditioning, etc., with all the commonly used actions covered. In addition, it also allows for remote parking, vehicle locating, and remotely accessing the cameras installed on the vehicle. All of these functions are very useful in my opinion.XPeng can be started directly by Bluetooth unlocking, and can be successful even in underground parking lots with poor signals. Therefore, I have never used the car key to go out in the past half year, and it may have run out of power now. However, currently Android does not support automatic Bluetooth lock and unlock for mobile phones.

The lock and unlock experience is not as seamless as Tesla’s, but on the app, it is very convenient to view charging-related information, including charging maps, charging records, and remaining free quotas, etc. However, these functions could be integrated into the car’s system for a better user experience.

In addition, the app also has a community function, and new energy vehicles seem to pay more attention to community construction, which is typical of an Internet mindset.

Shortcomings

1. The Autohold design is not user-friendly.

It requires deep pressure on the brake pedal every time to trigger, which can be very annoying during a situation with many red lights. A separate switch could be designed to be turned on during daily driving, and turned off manually when parking. I believe this would be the best experience.

2. In order to have a sports car posture, the back seat space is insufficient.

The back seat space is at the level of an ordinary A-class car, and it is better to only seat two people. Fortunately, I usually drive alone, so it does not affect me too much. In addition, the storage space inside the car is relatively small, and the glove box and central armrest box are not big.

3. There is no external switch for the trunk and there is no self-equipped electric tailgate from the factory.

If it is retrofitted later without a coupon, an additional 2,480 yuan is needed. Opening the trunk with one hand is not very friendly to women, so I still spent money on retrofitting it. Whether or not to retrofit it depends on the actual needs of each person.

4. The steering wheel is mechanically adjustable.

The steering wheel can be adjusted up, down, forward, and backward, but it would be better if it were electric and supported memory like Tesla’s.

5. There is no built-in driving recorder like Tesla.

The driving recorder needs to be installed by oneself, although there is a lowering line interface reserved at the reading light, it is clearly unsatisfactory for someone like me who loves simplicity.

6. There is no reminder for the windshield wiper, and you will not know if you need to add windshield wiper fluid until you spray it and it does not come out.

7. The Sentry mode needs to be manually turned on each time, so after locking the car, an extra step is required on the app.

8. The after-sales service level is not good.

During the first maintenance, an electric tailgate was installed and the brake pads that made noise were replaced. It took from noon until around 5pm, I went to pick up the car at 7pm, and found that the electric tailgate had not been adjusted, which meant it could not be opened or closed normally. In addition, the technician had already gone home for the day, so I had to spend two more hours to adjust the electric tailgate the next day. XPeng also did not compensate me for anything, and surprisingly, they did not refill the windshield wiper fluid during my first maintenance. Due to the light rain that day, when I backed up in the afternoon, it was discovered that the brake pads had not been replaced. Such a work error really disappointed me.

9. Noise problems.Brake squeaking used to be a common problem, but old cars could have their brake pads replaced for free with new Brembo brake pads, sacrificing some braking performance to resolve the squeaking issue. New cars are said to be equipped with new Brembo brake pads as standard.

Although brake squeaking is also an issue for BBA vehicles, I have actually heard more from XPeng vehicles, especially on rainy days. It is no wonder that some people jestingly call it “Peng Jiao”. I haven’t noticed any problems with the window or door frame noises that other drivers have reported; perhaps it is because I drive with the stereo on.

10. Unfriendly wireless charging position

The wireless charging pad is placed horizontally in front of the cup holder, so when the phone is placed on it to charge, no information can be seen. The charging speed is about 10W, which is relatively fast, but it is best to remove the phone as soon as it is fully charged, otherwise, the phone will become very hot for no reason.

One more minor detail: when the cup holder cover is open, there is a gap in the middle between the cover and the wireless charging area, and some drivers have encountered awkward situations where things fall in and are hard to retrieve.

Glass and color films

I had my glass tinted a few days after taking delivery of the car. Although the panoramic glass roof is the same UV-protected glass as the one in Model 3, I could feel the heat even in February on the front, rear, left, and right windows, so tinting was necessary to avoid sunburn during the summer months.

In January, only silver, white, and black were available for free on the P7, while gray and red cost an additional 3,000 yuan. I didn’t like those two colors, especially the red, which was too deep. Instead, I opted for silver, which cost more than the current option to add 5,000 yuan for the red color, but I changed my mind later about the color.

Originally, I was planning to change the color next year, but seeing so many car owners in the group changing the color made me itch to do the same thing. I chose orange and was also planning to blacken the wheels and window chrome trim, but since it was too much hassle and I was running out of money, I decided not to for the time being. Looking back, if I had chosen white and added a car wrap, that would have been a good choice. P7 owners who like to play around can have a lot of fun with their cars, and some of the owners in the group added electric spoilers.

One more thing: after changing the color film, there may be radar malfunctions at the beginning, but if you have it checked again after a week, you can have the film flattened over the radar part by the technician, or you can directly remove the film covering the radar part.

Conclusion

Two years ago, if you told someone that you had bought an electric car, more than 90% of people’s reaction would probably have been, “Why not buy a fuel car?”, or “Is it your second car for going to the supermarket?”.Two years later today, with the rise of Tesla’s sudden emergence, the banner of pure electric vehicles has been raised. There are no longer large-scale air intakes or rear exhaust pipes, and pure electric vehicles with green license plates can be seen everywhere on the streets of Shanghai. More and more people, like me, do not consider pure electric vehicles as supplements to fuel vehicles. Instead, we have been driving pure electric vehicles since our first car.

As the electric vehicle battery gets larger and the energy supplement system gradually improves, range anxiety will become lower and lower. The power response and acceleration of electric vehicles will make a large number of people not want to drive fuel vehicles anymore, not to mention the various smart experiences that pure electric vehicles offer.

As the cost of key components such as batteries continues to decrease, more and more people will enjoy the technological fun of electric vehicles.

It has been 10 months since picking up the car. Although I have only driven it for just over 8,000 kilometers and experienced a minor accident, I am very confident that my initial decision was completely correct. I hope that everyone can find the information they need from my sharing. If you like it, I will write another article next time to explain why I did not choose Tesla Model 3/Y.

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a message in the comments section, and I will answer them one by one!

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.