Issue 7
To quote Raymond Carver, “what are we talking about when we talk about XPeng?” P7.
In April 2020, amidst widespread doubts, P7 was listed. At that time, there were no mid-range domestic new energy automotive brands with a sporty and sleek style like XPeng’s unique design. P7 became a hit, thanks to its talent and luck.
After P7, XPeng successively launched P5 and G3i, but neither could surpass the short-lived peak brought by P7. Until now, P7 continues to account for more than half of XPeng’s total car sales. XPeng has been without a hit for more than two years.
On September 21st, G9 was officially released for sale, after a year of brewing since it was first revealed at the Chengdu Auto Show in August last year.
The entire release conference started at 11 a.m. and was followed by 8 hours of program presentation. G9 finally made its debut to the gentle and soothing voice that sounded as the numbers of countless dominoes fell. From conception to presentation, G9’s debut completely overwhelmed the releases of NIO ES7 and Ideal L9 in June.
In the final hour of the release conference, G9 officially debuted.
He XPeng successively talked about the charging performance of G9, which is 1.8 times faster than Tesla Model Y, the handling performance that is comparable to the Porsche Cayenne, and the NVH performance that is not inferior to the Maybach GLS. The core idea is that G9 has the quality comparable to luxury and ultra-luxury brands. The ultimate goal is to make users realize that G9 is really “the best SUV under 500,000 RMB.”
Despite XPeng’s huge investment of labor and resources into G9, the market seems to be pessimistic.
On the night of G9’s listing, XPeng’s US stock price fell by 8.92 points at the opening bell, directly below the issue price. Just as G9 had not yet had the chance to sing sweetly, the US stock market had already started to sing a requiem.
Is the future of G9 really that bleak? Let’s start with its product strength.
Conservative Design
There are always differing opinions on beauty and ugliness in design. Some believe that beauty is subjective, and perhaps some may show disdain. No car can easily claim to be beautiful. But it is obvious that from P7 to G9, XPeng has become conservative in its design.
Interior DesignThe most noticeable change in the design of G9 is the transformation of the interior style, which is achieved by the design of dual screens. G9 adopts dual 14.96-inch high-definition integrated intelligent screens, which is the first time such a large screen is seen in XPeng Motors. Today, as the size of car screens becomes increasingly smaller, this is not particularly special.
What stands out is that He XPeng once said, “I am firmly against having many screens in cars. The basis for having many screens is that there are many people in the car. However, for a car, the proportion of time for how many people, multiplied by a proportion coefficient, using different screens, input-output ratio, this is not of great value.”
What’s more interesting is that despite his strong words, from the 10.6-inch instrument screen and 14.96-inch central control screen in P7, to the 12.3-inch instrument screen and 15.6-inch central control screen in G3i and P5, to the dual 14.96-inch integrated screens in G9, it can be seen that although He XPeng has his own persistence, he still caters to the “general trend”.
The extension of the total 29.82-inch screen to the co-pilot also reflects XPeng’s shift from focusing on the driver to focusing on everyone in the car.
In the co-pilot position of G9, there is also a function similar to NIO Queen’s co-pilot. It has an exclusive leg rest and is equipped with a large-sized intelligent dressing mirror of 200*87mm, which can customize dressing scenes. Similar to memory seats, G9 also sets a “memory makeup sitting posture” function for the co-pilot, which can directly find the best makeup sitting posture. For women who pay attention to makeup, it is simply irresistible.
At the same time, the increase in screen size also tests the computing power and chips. G9 is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon SA8155P vehicle-grade 7nm cabin chip, which can achieve millisecond-level voice response speed. On the other hand, G9 can also use local computing power to voice control more than 600 vehicle functions under weak or no network conditions.
Even if users may not know what more than 600 functions are, the ability to control them via voice commands without a network connection does indeed elevate the practicality and convenience of voice control to a new level.Based on Unity engine technology, XPeng Motors has developed and mass-produced the industry’s first 3D human-machine interaction system for G9, which can render 3D maps in real-time and control vehicle details such as windows and suspension through a large-screen visual interface. It is worth mentioning that the 3D human-machine interaction system is also a technology reserved by XPeng for the future era of autonomous driving.
If you move to the back seat, there are heated massage seats and backrests that can adjust between 27°-37°, as well as an elephant nose-style push and pull mechanism, providing effective leg space of 1016mm and knee space of 118mm. After folding down, it can form a super 2-meter bed. Regarding space variability, XPeng always adheres to the principles of versatility.
It can be seen that XPeng is trying to please every person in the car by means of G9, which explains why a large area of neutral warm brown interior design appears on the XPeng Motors with the labels of “young”, “intelligent” and “technology”. This is very different from the previous P7, P5, and G3i models, which had a more youthful and even nightclub-style interior design.
Although the warm brown interior can give people a warm feeling, does it really provide what XPeng Motors enthusiasts want for warmth when driving?
Exterior Design
Talking about exterior design, XPeng Motors, especially the P7, has a very advanced and stylish design among all new power brands. It was also with the P7 that XPeng established the X ROBOT FACE family design. This style is also continued in G9.
The most unusual feature of XPeng Motors’ exterior design is the use of curves.
Under normal circumstances, many cars use sharp lines to outline their dynamic characteristics, especially many racing car brands. However, XPeng Motors is not like this. Taking P7 as an example, the lines on the body are clearly weakened, replaced by rich curves, especially the closure curve near the rear door of the P7 vehicle, which immediately highlights the stereo light and shadow surface, and the streamlined dynamic sense is about to emerge.
In P5 and G3i, more obvious lines were added, making the style closer to mainstream. In G9, it integrates some of the styles of P7.
Although there are few obvious lines, it does not duplicate the dynamic sense of P7, but instead gives people a very upright and stable feeling.
Unlike NIO ES7 and LI L9, which were launched around June, G9’s dual-laser radar adopts an internal concave design with the front headlights, which avoids the impression of a bump or protrusion on the roof. Although not too abrupt, the internal concave design also has its shortcomings in terms of visual perception.
From the birth of automobiles to the present day, almost all designs aim to create a sense of forward momentum for cars, and this is no different for the overall design of Xpeng vehicles. However, the concave design gives a sense of contraction while moving forward, with two obvious marks on the three-dimensional face, which takes some time for people to adapt to.
Although the appearance of the G9 does not provide strong visual impact, it still holds its own against competitive models such as Ideal L9, WM Motors EX7, and NIO ES7.
Enhancing Driving Experience
During the test drive of the Xpeng P7, the reporter from Electric Potential talked with Xpeng staff about handling, and they proudly mentioned that the P7’s chassis was jointly calibrated with the Porsche team. Although the G9 did not have the luxury of working with the Porsche team, its calibration was still done by a German team. During its release conference, the G9 was demonstrated in a video being challenged by the Porsche Cayenne in terms of handling.
The final result was as expected, leaving everyone pleased. However, daring to compare and compete with the Cayenne in public, the G9’s handling indeed left much to be anticipated.
According to official public materials from Xpeng, the G9 has a total power output of 405 kW thanks to a four-wheel-drive dual-motor system and peak torque of 717 N·m. It has the power reserves of a 4.0T V8 turbocharged gasoline vehicle and can accelerate from zero to hundred kilometers per hour in just 3.9 seconds.
The faster the speed, the higher the requirement for precise control during high-speed driving.
The G9’s chassis features a front double-wishbone and rear multi-link configuration. This configuration, although not exceptional among cars of the same class, is enhanced by the G9’s German-made calibration.
In addition, compared with regular single-chamber air suspension, G9’s intelligent dual-chamber air suspension can instantly increase the anti-compression capability of the air chamber in milliseconds, increasing the stiffness and anti-roll of the vehicle suspension by more than 30%. It maintains the car’s stability and precise driving at high speeds.
This intelligent dual-chamber air suspension also provides exceptional driving comfort. It comes with a 100mm suspension travel and five height options with an electromagnetic active damping system. Compared with its competitors, it has greater flexibility in dealing with complex road conditions and significantly enhances passenger comfort.
With a stable basic platform, passengers can easily enjoy the richer intelligent cabin experience offered by the G9.
Intelligent Cabin
5D Music Cabin
After the transformative space offered by the P5, Xpeng’s previous model, the G9 introduces the concept of a 5D music cabin.To create a 5D music cockpit, the first thing that needs to be addressed is the NVH issue.
On one hand, Xpeng Motors reduces noise generation by further optimizing the vehicle structure, and on the other hand, it controls noise within 35dB through systematic sound insulation arrangements.
Next is to buy equipment. The G9 has a total of 28 acoustic units, with a 2250W high-power amplifier. It adopts 18 Danaher original confidence high-end audio system loudspeakers, supporting 7.1.4 high-quality sound effects. Beijing Olympic opening and closing ceremony sound engineer Jin Shaogang and Danaher’s tuning team joined forces to tune the sound for eight months.
It also invited the world-famous composer Joe Hisaishi as Xpeng’s chief sound effects officer to create car sound effects such as prompt tones and radar sounds for the G9.
Finally, the audio and visual content is linked with the seat, ambient lighting, air conditioning, and fragrance systems to create an immersive riding experience, which constitutes the G9’s 5D music cockpit.
However, just like many people are still unwilling to pay for VIP for music, but always pay for games, G9’s 5D music cockpit may not be as attractive to users as an ideal intelligent cockpit that focuses on games.
It is reported that 80% of current G9 customers are between 35 and 45 years old. It can be seen that middle-aged people are more willing to choose G9, and Xpeng’s originally younger user group has disappeared.
Intelligent Driver Assistance
“The X-version of the G9 uses dual NVIDIA DRIVE Orin supercomputing platforms, with a total computing power of 508 TOPS. The perception system is composed of 31 perception components. Among them, the 8 million pixel binocular camera can achieve target object differentiation and distance redundancy recognition. The dual lidar brings a 180° horizontal field of view coverage range. The front layout scheme effectively reduces the vertical angle blind zone and can better deal with various urban complex working conditions.”
Currently, many brands like to express how powerful their own models’ intelligent driver assistance is in the way of piling up numbers, especially Xpeng, which regards intelligence as its core label. However, recently, accidents caused by intelligent driver assistance have been reported repeatedly, which has also reminded Xpeng and other brands that the prerequisite for intelligence is safety.## The Voice of Electric Momentum
Overall, compared to P7, P5, and G3i, G9 has made certain improvements in luxury, performance, and texture. Therefore, it is also worth spending a day to hold an ultra-long press conference for G9, but all it comes down to is that one important question that XPeng Motors has forgotten – who is G9 for?
With a price range of RMB 309,900 to RMB 469,900, G9 directly occupies the price range of high-end brands such as Li Auto, NIO, WM Motor, and Avita.
After competing head-on with the aforementioned brands, G9 did not replicate P7’s unique style of combining sedan and racing, but chose to go all-in on a single vehicle and directly contend with brands like Li Auto and NIO.
In the opinion of the reporter from “The Voice of Electric Momentum,” such an approach may not be wise.
First, G9’s positioning is very vague. The overall impression that G9 gives is not in line with the preferences of XPeng’s relatively young user group. While Li Auto is steadily and accurately entering the family user market, NIO is focused on targeting urban elites. From this perspective, the launch of G9 is actually somewhat blind.
Second, G9 is also inconsistent with XPeng Motors’ own positioning. As is widely known, XPeng Motors has always followed the path of youth, intelligence, and technology, giving people an overall feeling of being very cool. But G9 is more like the Lexus line of vehicles, stable, conservative, and luxurious.
Since P7, XPeng Motors has not had another explosive product, so it is clear that on G9, XPeng Motors has overexerted itself in trying to please everyone. But in the end, trying to please everyone often results in pleasing no one.
For a startup company driven by Internet capital, the inability to continuously create explosive products is undoubtedly a fatal problem. Without the halo effect from a hit product, capital will inevitably lose confidence.
After eight years of entrepreneurship and a new car launch that caused the stock price to plummet, XPeng Motors has weathered many storms and returned to its initial starting point.
Although it claims to be intelligent, XPeng has yet to build a solid technological barrier; although its sales are still passable, it has already been overtaken by rising stars like NETA, and its position as the top dog is a thing of the past. What is more urgent is that XPeng is still trapped in a vicious cycle of losing money on every vehicle sold.
Yes, all of XPeng’s pressure is on G9, and this is a battle that cannot be lost.After the press conference, He XPeng announced that G9’s sales should break 10,000 each month continuously, and by next year, it should surpass the scale of Q5. However, is the way out for XPeng really on G9?
XPeng came to a crossroads. Should he burn money or return to the path of making money? Judging from XPeng’s current strength in product development, the latter is obviously the way out.
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.