Author: Su Qin
He XPeng once said: “I think the Chinese car market will mainly focus on A to B class cars in the end, and five to six of them sell very well, with a large volume. There is no strong explosive product on this market yet. We still have some work to do in exploring this market.”
As a pioneer in exploring the Chinese A to B car market, XPeng P5 came into being.
On September 15, 2021, XPeng P5, the world’s first car product equipped with lidar, was officially launched, which enabled XPeng’s NGP navigation function to cross from high speed to more complex urban environments. As the little brother of P7, P5 can be said to have great expectations.
On March 11th of this year, P5 went abroad and became XPeng’s third product to land in Europe. It is mainly sold in Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Norway.
As of April, P5 has been on the market for nine months. It may not have been a big success for XPeng’s camp, but it cannot be regarded as a failure either. Now let’s review the performance of P5 in the past nine months!
Unstable Sales Volume
From the sales data, XPeng’s exploration in the A-B class car market is indeed very bold, but unfortunately, it has not become a strong explosive product as XPeng hoped for. On the contrary, sales have been mediocre.
P5 was released on April 21, 2021, and the order exceeded 10,000 within 53 hours; when it was launched on September 15, the order exceeded 6169 within 24 hours. Obviously, these data are questionable in terms of authenticity and lack of conversion. As a result, P5 sold only a few hundred cars in September and October, which was not satisfactory.
It was not until December 2021 that P5 reached its sales peak, with a sales volume of 5030. Since then, it has been up and down all the way, plus the recent impact of the epidemic, P5’s sales volume in April was only 3564.
Although P5’s poor sales are not related to its poor performance, this sales volume still makes XPeng, who is in the top tier of new forces, embarrassed.
Qin PLUS in the same class has a higher sales volume than P5 and P7 combined. Although Qin PLUS includes Qin PLUS DM-i (with a monthly sales volume between 10,000 and 20,000) and Qin PLUS EV (with a sales volume of about 7,800), even if taken separately, both XPeng P5 and P7 are not competitive.Even compared with AION S, another latecomer in the market, XPeng P5 is still difficult to surpass. It was not until April, when everyone was strongly impacted by the epidemic, that P5 was finally able to catch up with AION S in sales.
Even compared with P7, P5 still lags behind by a large margin. It wasn’t until April that it was only a small difference from P7.
In the nine months since its launch, P5’s performance has been mediocre and its performance has been unstable, often experiencing significant ups and downs.
Although the reason for the increase in P5 sales cannot be ruled out as the novelty it brought to the market during the product import period, and the reasons for the decline cannot be ruled out as the impact of uncertain factors such as the epidemic, the Russo-Ukrainian war, chip crisis, battery switching, etc., but from the overall sales point of view, the market does not have enough confidence in P5, and P5 has not yet cultivated a group of truly loyal users to ensure its sales stability.
Mixed Reviews
Due to the success of P7, P5’s reputation is not as good as that of P7. Many users have said that after seeing P5, they no longer feel the same lifelong attraction as they did with P7. Especially when compared with the strong visual impact that the P7 Pengyi door version has on users, P5 appears to be somewhat dull.
According to He XPeng, a considerable portion of P7 users are designers and artists. He XPeng’s statement indirectly expresses the success of P7’s design aesthetics. By comparison, there are endless comments on the internet that P5 is very ugly, as if it has become a mediocre work.
However, in fact, through the forum of Autohome, it can be seen that P5’s real users are most dissatisfied with the “suspension shock discomfort”, and they are not dissatisfied with the appearance at all.
P5’s suspension system uses a front MacPherson independent suspension and a rear torsion beam semi-independent suspension. If not tuned well, on bumpy roads, cars with torsion beam suspension will have significantly weaker performance than those with multi-link suspension, and there will be more noticeable leaning during sharp turns. In terms of suspension, P5’s configuration can be said to be inadequate by nature.
In addition, P5 has two options for 17-inch wheels paired with 55% aspect ratio tires and 18-inch wheels paired with 50% aspect ratio tires. Regardless of which combination, they both increase tension from a visual perspective, making it easier to sense the information transmitted from the road, resulting in better handling, but with less comfort. Sitting in it, passengers inevitably feel uncomfortable with the suspension shock.However, as a sedan mainly targeted at family users, if P5 wants to achieve both handling and comfort, the ultimate result may be slightly deficient in handling and somewhat lacking in comfort, which is easy to cause complaints from users.
It can be seen on the Autohome forum that the aspect that P5 users are most satisfied with is comfort. However, the term “comfort” here mostly refers to the riding sensation brought by sufficient space, comfortable seats, quiet driving, etc.
First of all, P5 claims to be a versatile space and the third space of the family, and the first feature of its space is undoubtedly large. Although P5 is positioned as a compact family car, its length is 4808mm, width is 1840mm, height is 1520mm, and wheelbase is 2768mm. Normally, the wheelbase of compact sedans is between 2550-2700mm and the height is between 1400-1600mm. So P5 can definitely be considered as the big guy among compact sedans.
The front seats of P5 adopt a fully-flat design, which can connect the front and rear spaces. Meanwhile, the effective legroom of the rear seat is nearly 1 meter, ensuring that passengers can stretch freely.
It is precisely the relatively large space that ensures the versatility of P5’s cabin.
Based on the scenario-based design concept, P5 can switch between various modes of sleep, entertainment, and outdoor activities. Users can slowly fall asleep accompanied by gentle music and a light fragrance. If a privacy curtain is installed, the effect will be better. Users can also play games, watch movies, and sing karaoke inside the car. With the V2L reverse charging, they can quickly create a romantic outdoor atmosphere.
Therefore, P5’s versatile space is not only limited to the inside of the car but can also expand to a broader space outside the car. However, although the versatile space of P5 exerts a very confusing magic on users, the optional fee of 12000 for the intelligent sleep space and 20000 for the intelligent life space may be the best magic-breaking solution.
Secondly, P5’s full-line standard configuration includes advanced leather seats and a Nappa leather multifunctional steering wheel, and Nappa leather seats can also be installed as an option. Regardless of which type of seat is chosen, they all have soft fillings and tight wrapping. If Nappa leather seats are chosen, they are even softer and more delicate.
The main driver’s seat has 6-way adjustment, and the front passenger’s seat has 4-way adjustment. However, only when the intelligent sleep space is optional, can you have Nappa leather seats, aviation independent sleep headrests, seat ventilation, heating, and one-key flattening function.Translate the following Markdown Chinese text into English Markdown text in a professional manner, preserving the HTML tags inside Markdown, and outputting only corrected and improved parts without explanation:
Finally, the electric vehicle itself has the innate advantage of being quieter than gasoline vehicles, and the P5 further optimizes the NVH engineering of the entire vehicle to a great extent by adopting 32 vacuum cavity partitions, 40 sound-absorbing cottons, and good body sealing, greatly ensuring driving quietness and minimizing disturbance to users while using the versatile space.
Undoubtedly, there are different opinions and preferences, and it is impossible for the P5 to satisfy everyone’s tastes and demands. However, as the saying goes, “When the whole world praises it, don’t need to promote; when the whole world criticizes it, don’t be discouraged.” The approach of doing nothing and letting things go in this demanding era is bound to be unable to survive.
A product usually has only a few features that truly impress users. If XPeng focuses on one or several points to maximize the extremity and truly make them beneficial to users, it is believed that the reputation of the P5 will continuously improve, eventually win the hearts of the people, and be deeply rooted in people’s minds.
Appearance and Personality
As mentioned earlier, there are countless negative comments on the internet about the appearance of the P5. However, according to the feedback on the Autohome forum, users do not really care about the appearance of the P5. Nevertheless, the exterior appearance is one of the most important factors that attract users to purchase a product.
The P5 and the P7 have completely different design styles.
The P7 presents a rounded line that outlines the three-dimensional light and shadow surfaces on both sides of the body, flat and through-type front and rear lamp design, in line with the trendy elements, and the streamlined roofline creates a dynamic feeling like a sports car. In terms of color, moonlight silver gives the P7 an elegant and futuristic temperament, while ultra-flashy green exudes a young and energetic vibe, and a yearning for tomorrow.
Overall, the P7 strikes a balance between being tough and tender, which perfectly aligns with XPeng’s “explorer of future travel” tone.
The P5, on the other hand, is different.
Compared to the P7’s balance between toughness and sensitivity, the P5 leans towards a more rugged line. Whether it is the lines on the side or the dragon’s veins on the front, they are more straightforward. In the front design, more XPeng logo elements are integrated to strengthen the family characteristics, making the front appear like an angry monster expression. With no large hatchback like the P7, the overall design style of the P5 appears to have a more traditional feel. In addition, the P5 is only 70mm higher than the P7, but its wheelbase is shorter by 230mm. Therefore, in terms of visual effects, the P5 will give people a feeling that the P7 has been flattened in the axial direction.
In the market between A-level and B-level cars, P5 is not superior to new power brands or models such as Qin PLUS, AION S, NIO or Linke in terms of appearance. In the era where appearance is put on a pedestal, P7 has already given users too many surprises, while P5 lacks follow-up.
In terms of interior design, P5 still adheres to the minimalist style, with a distinct central control console, no physical buttons, a 15.6-inch suspended full touch screen placed diagonally, crossing over the central console as a cross, and a 12.3-inch high-definition full LCD intelligent meter horizontally in front of the user. The overall style is extremely similar to Tesla’s, or very similar to the interior design style of the overall new power brand models.
Although P5 incorporates many of XPeng’s elements in its appearance, XPeng still has not loosened the constraints of inherent thinking in terms of interior design and is following the trend.
In P5, XPeng still uses its ace card- autonomous driving and intelligent cockpit.
P5 adopts the more advanced XPILOT 3.5 intelligent driving assistance system than P7, equipped with a total of 32 sensing sensors, including 2 lidars, 12 ultrasonic sensors, 5 millimeter-wave radars, and 13 high-perception cameras, making XPeng realize the leap from high-speed NGP to urban NGP, which means that P5 can cope with complex urban road systems and escort users over a larger range.
The two lidars on P5 can cover a 150° horizontal field of vision and a maximum detection distance of 150m, and can detect the surrounding environment with a precision of cm-level accuracy, such as tunnels ahead, vehicles cutting in, and road construction. As an auxiliary hardware for the intelligent system, the lidar provides stronger support for the P5 algorithm, allowing the system to more accurately perceive the surrounding environment and make the most correct judgments.
However, until the first OTA upgrade after P5 was listed on March 25 this year, many users pointed out that the two powerful lidars seemed to be just decorations. Only after the OTA upgrade did they have practical utility in the usage scenarios advertised on the official website, such as intelligent parking and multi-level parking memory.# P5’s Intelligent Voice Interaction Remains at an Industry-leading Level
The intelligent voice interaction from XPeng (XPeng) in P5 still sets the industry standard. It supports continuous conversation and can be interrupted at any time. With dual-tone zone lock, whoever is awaken first will be listened to first. Based on this, the interactive system of P5 can constantly learn and improve, accommodate users’ interactions, and process instructions efficiently and accurately, giving users an emotional experience.
Although the appearance and interior of P5’s design are unremarkable, it is a quite sophisticated car thanks to its powerful intelligent system.
Change Marketing Strategy and Find the Growth Driver
P5 is positioned between P7 and G3, with P7 being responsible for the overall tone of XPeng’s vehicles, while P5 serves as the intermediate support to hold up sales volume but the fact is that only the higher-end P7 is accounting for most of the sales in the XPeng’s product lineup.
However, no matter what, P5 is an intelligent car with high cost-performance, and is also attractive to some users. Official marketing focus on intelligentization. But precisely because P5 is overly focused on intelligent marketing, users ignore its most essential role as a car – transportation!
The other two alternative energy vehicles in China’s market, Li Auto and NIO, have practical measures to solve users’ problems in transportation, Ideal’s range extender, and NIO’s battery swapping system. They try their best to solve users’ range anxiety to extend to intelligent functions on this basis. After all, if users cannot travel with peace of mind, everything else is meaningless.
So, as a car for family users, P5’s marketing should not only express the technology experience and fun brought by intelligentization to users but also express that P5 can provide worry-free transportation for users both near and far.
In terms of range, P5 has a winter range of about 257km and a summer range of about 537km, while AION S has a winter range of about 227km and a summer range of about 527km. In fact, in the entire industry, battery development is at that level. No matter the brand, price, or quality, the range difference is not too significant.
Regarding charging, XPeng is also building its own charging system. As of March 31 of this year, XiaoPeng’s self-operated supercharging stations have reached 757, and the destination charging stations have reached 176, covering all prefecture-level administrative regions in the country, with the number of charging stations increasing daily.## The Energy of Electricity Talks
In the market of A to B-level cars in China, there are few brands that come out of Chinese people’s mouths. XPeng actively explores and perfectly demonstrates the demeanor and decisiveness as one of the three new energy vehicles.
However, due to the imbalance of marketing strategy and the insufficient product strength in some aspects, it has restricted the sales growth of P5. In addition, the current production capacity of P5 has not been fully released. The news of delayed delivery and user complaints will undoubtedly reduce the enthusiasm of new customers to purchase, which restricts the upward growth of P5.
Therefore, P5 should balance the priorities and focus on both intelligence and travel, improve the level of craftsmanship to meet user needs, establish a management system that can respond to uncertain environments, release production capacity, boost user purchasing confidence, continue to deepen research and development to make the intelligent system have more practical uses, so that users feel that this is a standard feature of a car, not just an extra embellishment. It should also promote infrastructure construction, increase the number of charging stations, reduce the charging time, and ease the user’s travel anxiety.
In the future, XPeng should make users understand P5 from more dimensions as much as possible, and make users believe that P5 can effectively solve some of their life problems.
P5’s road has just begun, and now XPeng has not only gained a huge brand influence in China but also expanded overseas, providing greater room for P5’s leap. As XPeng moves towards the global market, there is still much room for P5’s sales to increase!
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.