Introduction

On September 16th, 2021, XPeng held a launch event for its P5 model. In the compact car market where the XPeng P5 competes, there are not only “frequent winners” such as the Nissan Sylphy and the Toyota Corolla, but also equally competitive opponents such as the Qin PLUS EV, the Aion S Plus, and the Geometry A.

In November, XPeng P5 sales reached 2,154 units, showing strong growth. What ultimately impressed users about the XPeng P5, and what did they have to share from their experience of using it?

In this issue of “Owner Reviews,” we invited four XPeng P5 owners from the 42HOW owner community to share why they chose the XPeng P5 and their feelings about using it.

“Tail-odor sensitive” Fatty Fish

Fatty Fish is a very young car owner. her car purchase experience is a bit different from other P5 owners. As a female user who usually does not pay attention to the automotive industry, her first demand for buying a car is more “emotional” – to buy a car without a tail odor.

The XPeng P5 satisfies this demand. she also test drove BYD’s hybrid model, but in comparison, the pure electric vehicle satisfied her more.

Fatty Fish listed a few reasons why she was impressed by the XPeng P5:

1. XPeng, as a new force, gave her the impression of being young and technological, and she remembered this brand very early on.
2. XPeng’s pre-sale service was very enthusiastic, and the car purchase price was also very transparent, as a consumer, you do not need to spend too much energy.
3. The P5 gave her a smooth driving experience, the shift design is very handy, and the center console screen with various functions is very concise.

At first, Fatty Fish booked the 550E model, but later changed it to the 550P. Due to a shortage of millimeter-wave radars, Fatty Fish received the XPILOT 3.5 software gifted by XPeng, but she had to wait until February or March next year to install the millimeter-wave radar.

In terms of post-delivery usage, Fatty Fish said that the P5’s endurance and automatic parking were surprising:

1. Fatty Fish’s workplace and home are both equipped with supercharging stations, and the free credits for charging are very attractive.
2. The location of the charging station is a shopping mall, so you can go shopping when charging and not be bored.
3. The actual range of the 550P model, about 400 km, is entirely sufficient for a week’s usage, and there is no anxiety when running a long-distance trip of approximately 200 km round-trip on weekends.
4. The P5’s automatic parking is very mature and accurate.

Although Fatty Fish is overall satisfied with the P5’s performance and has a very short time of car usage, she still has some opinions of her own:1. There is a gap between XPeng’s pre-sales and after-sales service. Although there is a WeChat group to solve problems, it is unclear who the person in charge of after-sales service is, and the enthusiasm of after-sales service is obviously lower than that of pre-sales, creating a sense of discrepancy.

2. The voice assistant of the P5 cannot directly call up 360-degree panoramic images.

3. The voice assistant of the P5 cannot recognize command sentences, such as “Have the headlights been turned on?” It cannot respond. It is hoped that the function that recognizes questioning sentences about the vehicle status can be added in the future.

4. As a highly intelligent car, it is not appropriate for it to not come with a built-in driving recorder.

Finally, Pangtouyu adds, “Initially, I thought that the long-distance OTA of an electric car could give me a sense of freshness after using it for several years, so I hope XPeng won’t forget to offer OTA upgrades for old car owners.”

Practical Car Owner Aling

Before switching to a new car, Aling was the owner of a Honda XR-V. Due to the high cost of using gasoline-powered cars and the policy of Chongqing’s restricted traffic zone, he had the idea of changing his car.

Aling is also a tech enthusiast. After seeing many digital bloggers switch to Tesla, he found that China also has many excellent electric car companies, and this is where he began to learn about XPeng.

Not long ago, XPeng built a supercharging station near Aling’s home. After visiting the site, he felt that it would be very convenient to charge his car here in the future. As a “pragmatist,” Aling felt that he mainly used his car in the city, and the farthest distance he traveled was only 200 km round trip. Therefore, he finally chose the XPeng P5 460E.

Aling also mentioned several points that he was quite satisfied with after taking delivery of the P5:

1. The car’s infotainment system reacted very quickly. The voice assistant, Xiao P, was always responsive and had a high recognition rate.

2. Although many people criticized the rear torsion beam suspension of the P5, Aling felt that the suspension of the P5 was much more comfortable than that of his previous XR-V.

3. The power and driving feel of the P5 were great. Even in economy mode, the power was always available and the output was quiet and smooth.

4. The “intelligent sleeping space” is very attractive. Aling plans to flatten the passenger seat and lay a single mattress on it for napping during his workday break.

Although Aling did not choose to install the XPILOT 3.0 software, he thought that the performance of XPILOT 2.5 was good enough. Although the system would prompt when there were many cars or unclear road markings, following other cars and changing lanes were not a problem in most cases.

After more than a month of actual use, Aling felt that his P5 460E still needed to improve in the following areas:

1. The driver’s seat is positioned quite high, and sometimes the legs will touch the steering wheel.

2. The steering wheel only adjusts up and down and not in other directions.

3. There is still a new car smell, but it will improve after using yuzu and charcoal to absorb it.4. The exposed wires under the accelerator pedal seem out of place in the delicate interior atmosphere.

4. The trunk is a bit difficult to close.

5. When sitting in a normal posture, the left foot always feels uncomfortable, and according to Aling, many users are discussing this issue.

Geek car owner Long Shao, who works in the IT industry, attaches great importance to the intelligent driving ability of cars.

After reading the NGP test results of XPeng P5 online, Long Shao believes that XPeng will be more in line with the situation in China in terms of assisted driving, and at this price point, XPeng is the only one that does well in intelligence. Therefore, he spent 20,000 yuan to choose XPILOT 3.0 specifically.

At first, Long Shao also considered Tesla Model 3. For Long Shao, who has a family car demand in the future, after seeing the spacious rear seat space and trunk space of P5, he ultimately gave up Model 3 and chose XPeng P5 460E.

Similar to Aling’s driving scenario, Long Shao usually drives to and from work and occasionally travels to his hometown about 130 kilometers away, so the range of 460E is sufficient. From Hyundai Yue Dong to XPeng P5, Long Shao is very satisfied with the improvement in experience:

1. Although they belong to the compact car segment, the interior high-end atmosphere and passenger space of P5 are far superior to Yue Dong, and the suspension is also very comfortable.

2. Long Shao praises the power of P5, and he now uses the Sport mode every day and finds it very exciting.

3. Long Shao had no experience with the car’s voice assistant before. The recognition and response of XPeng P5’s system are satisfactory to him.

4. Assisted driving can alleviate a lot of pressure, which is a completely new experience for Long Shao and very exciting.

5. P5’s automatic parking system works very well, Long Shao uses it almost every day.

Long Shao’s commuting distance to work is less than 10 kilometers, and the winter temperature in Xiamen has a relatively small impact on the battery. Although it is the 460E version, he only needs to charge once a week.

There is a third-party charging station just a few minutes away from Long Shao’s home, and the charging piles that cooperate with XPeng also have free quotas that can be used.

Long Shao also added a few regrets he has about P5:

1. There are some details in the workmanship of P5 that need improvement: there are exposed welding points near the windows, and the glass glue strips near the windows do not seem to fit very well.

2. It is a pity that the 460E model does not have an electric tailgate.## The Enthusiastic Early Adopter Mr. Ma

Mr. Ma is a very meticulous user. After learning that we intended to interview him, Mr. Ma took the time to create a detailed outline for our discussion.

During the pre-purchase experience, Mr. Ma felt that the driving experience of the P5 was even better than that of the Passat and Camry. As a compact car, the P5’s space is almost the same as theirs.

Because of XPeng’s sincerity in their preferential policies, such as the “first-release” offer of a ¥5,000 deposit that is discounted ¥10,000 from the total price, and the free Sleep Space Kit worth ¥12,000 included as a gift, Mr. Ma was even more interested and eventually chose the P5.

Mr. Ma shared with us several aspects of his actual use of the car that he was very satisfied with:

1. Compared with Tesla, XPeng has done a better job in localizing adaptation and car-machine interaction experience;

2. The workmanship and materials of the P5’s interior and driving feel are outstanding among cars of the same level;

3. The Qualcomm 8155 chip used in the P5’s car system is leading in the industry and performs very smoothly;

4. Due to a shortage of millimeter wave radar, Mr. Ma received the XPILOT 3.0 software unexpectedly.

Because Mr. Ma’s car use mainly concerns commuting, he is satisfied with the 550E’s endurance. In addition, since he placed his order early, Mr. Ma has a free quota of 3,000 kWh of electricity each year, so he can easily solve his energy replenishment problem during lunch breaks at the mall.

With the attitude of sharing, Mr. Ma also pointed out several areas for improvement in the P5:

1. The steering wheel should not be adjustable solely in the up-down direction. This problem was repeatedly mentioned by other users during the interview process;

2. Both the main and auxiliary driver’s seat vanity mirrors lack lighting, only a light is installed on the central rearview mirror. Additionally, Mr. Ma thinks the overall lighting in the P5 car interior is too dim and not comfortable to look at;

3. P5’s UI design is not as good-looking as P7’s, and there are no applications like Douyin in the app store. Mr. Ma has purchased the wireless data plan and hopes that P5 can provide more car system applications in the future.

Mr. Ma said that he truly felt a lot of benefit from XPeng’s preferential policies. Based on the price of less than ¥200,000, he has an experience amounting to more than ¥200,000. The XPILOT 3.0 software that he received as a gift will also increase the resale value of his car, so purchasing the P5 was the correct decision.

Conclusion

Through the interviews with the four car owners mentioned above, it is clear that the excellent spatial performance of the XPeng P5 has indeed won favor among consumers, and its excellent voice assistant and auxiliary driving capabilities have also received expected acclaim.The surprising thing is that although there is constant criticism online of the torsion beam suspension of the XPeng P5, several car owners have given relatively high ratings for the driving experience of the P5.

Seeing this situation, we believe that it is related to several car owners purchasing an electric car for the first time, and that the P5’s low center of gravity, heavy weight, and power characteristics of electric drive do have certain advantages over similar gasoline cars in terms of comfort. Therefore, for those users who have rarely experienced electric cars, we believe they can try test-driving the P5 in person to see how much the mechanical quality of the car differs from their expectations.

Regarding the range, the several car owners interviewed this time did not complain, and two of them were users of the 460E version, which suggests that people’s requirements for range are actually quite reasonable when buying a commuter level electric car, and not blindly pursuing longer range.

But another noteworthy thing is that both Pang Tou Yu and Long Shao have charging stations very close to their workplaces or residential areas, which provides great convenience for their daily recharging needs. With the further construction and popularization of charging facilities, the group of non-pole electric car users will also become larger and larger.

The XPeng P5, as a domestic A+ level electric car, sold at the price of a joint venture B-level car, and achieved sales of more than 2,000 units in its second month of production capacity ramp-up, which is actually a rather special phenomenon. The several users interviewed in this article did not think that the pricing of the P5 was unreasonable. On the contrary, they praised the preferential policies when purchasing the car, and even one user felt that the P5 was worth more than the price paid.

Although we cannot ignore the bonus of license plates and exemption from purchase tax policies, we can still see the change in values when consumers choose cars in the era of electrification, where intelligence and space have begun to occupy a higher priority, and the core demand for car purchasing is gradually becoming more experiential.

That’s all for this issue of XPeng P5 car owner reputation. Generally speaking, according to car owners’ descriptions, the P5 meets expectations without being surprising or terrifying. As a city commuter electric car that emphasizes comfort, it performs its duty well. Please feel free to leave your thoughts on this car in the comments section, and if you want to see more real car owner reviews, you are welcome to scan the QR code at the end of the article to join the car owner group discussion~

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.