Author: French Fries

At 4:32 this afternoon, XPeng announced the new XPeng G9 product configuration combination.

This moment is less than 48 hours away from the launch conference of the XPeng G9.

This should be the fastest configuration change in the history of new energy vehicles, and it is also a rare case in the history of the entire automotive industry.

Compared with the previous 6 models, the number of G9 models has increased slightly after the reconstruction, but due to the fact that intelligent driving, 5D audio and other configurations have become standard for the corresponding models, the optional configurations have been greatly reduced, leaving only the 4C battery. And only the 650 four-wheel drive model can choose this configuration. For ordinary people, the logic of choice between different models has become clearer.

What is more sincere than the configuration is the price. If the current model configuration is compared with the previous optional models, the highest can be reduced by 30,000 yuan.

“No fear of challenges, face it and solve it“, this is what He XPeng expressed.

After the press conference

Let’s turn back the time to 7 pm on September 21, 2022, when XPeng G9 was officially launched.

By now, the flagship series of the 2022 “Wei Xiaoli” seems to be finally coming to an end.

In movies, this is usually the time when unexpected things happen, and the unexpected really happened.

As a new force model that made its mid-to-late appearance this year, the complexity of the XPeng G9 model selection has received unprecedented attention. If you have browsed other XPeng car models on the official website of XPeng, you will find that the number of G9 SKUs has been greatly reduced.

One of the reasons for the widespread attention is that XPeng G9 does indeed have many “latecomer advantages” new features. For example, the ultra-fast charging brought by 800V high-voltage + 3C/4C batteries, the first dual-chamber air suspension in domestic cars, the composite sensory 5D music cockpit, the upgraded traditional strength advantage’s all-scene voice interaction, and the upcoming end-to-end intelligent assisted driving.

For those interested in these features, please feel free to review our previous video.

On the other hand, He XPeng explained that in order to provide consumers with more choices, XPeng Motors has made XNGP, 5D Music Cockpit, and 4C Battery Pack as optional configurations.

However, contrary to their wishes, many users do not agree with this based on feedback from social media.

The scheduled media interview with He XPeng on the next day became our best opportunity to seek an official response.

The sharpest thing often appears at the forefront.

When we scroll to ten o’clock on the morning of September 22, 2022, He XPeng appeared fifteen minutes later than the scheduled time, and the first question he received addressed consumers’ complaints about the complications of car configuration logic.

Regarding this issue, He XPeng admitted that they had never received as much feedback and calls from customers, potential users, and friends as they did on this night.

“Previously, our optional features did not attract such high attention, it is related to its ability, price, and selection logic, and I think these three reasons are all related.”

As for the solution to this issue, He XPeng also did not hesitate to state his opinion.

“From my point of view, I want to make it simpler, I want to make it simpler. In the future, I will promote it and soon, I want the company to make it simpler.”

From 10:00 a.m. on September 22 to 5:00 p.m. on September 23, in the concept of He XPeng, “soon” was less than 27 hours.

After all, for a mature organization, the model and pricing strategy of a heavyweight new car must be the embodiment of collective decision-making will. In other words, XPeng Motors may have gone through another round of collective decision-making within 27 hours. The difficulty behind this is definitely not as simple as a private boss slapping his thigh.

And in the adult world, rules often lie in a world that values results more.

The final result is here, and it meets the promise He XPeng made in media interviews to “solve complex configuration problems within 1-2 days.”

The Present of XPeng Motors

Previously, some people said that the new forces may be becoming the old forces, especially for the top three new forces, which are not only facing the fact that more players are joining, but also the pressure brought by traditional car companies trying to catch up with intelligence.

When asked about the development status of XPeng Motors, He XPeng gave an example, comparing competition and development in the new energy vehicle industry to running a circle.

“When you are on a straight, you can accelerate fast; when you enter a corner, you need to slow down and turn to the next acceleration process.”

For the current situation, He XPeng mentioned not only XPeng Motors itself, but also two other friendly competitors, “I think the first generation of new forces today are all on a curve. Maybe one company has already entered the bend, and XPeng Motors is also in the bend.”

In He XPeng’s opinion, the challenge of the curve lies in controlling the speed while also taking the curve too fast.小鹏汽车 has both experience and lessons in this regard.
After the launch of NGP for the P7, P7 began mass production. This is the sweet spot that XPeng relies on for insisting on self-research and development of smart driving.

“We thought that the urban NGP would be fast when launching the NGP, but in fact, the urban NGP is not that fast. The biggest difficulty lies in the very complicated management of maps,” said He XPeng.

He XPeng’s “very complicated” statement is very intuitive. After the public beta version of NGP was launched for more than one and a half years, CNGP is still in the momentum stage.

To overcome this difficulty, XPeng did two things.

One is that in the surveying and mapping of high-precision maps, XPeng chose to cooperate with Amap.

The second is to continue to promote the iteration of smart driving technology.

Whether it is the current NGP or CNGP, they cannot do without the support of high-precision maps, but high-precision maps need to be approved. He XPeng said, “New technology can be used without high-precision maps”. To be more specific, “the new technology must be a combination of high-precision maps and ordinary navigation maps.”

Some people say that from the perspective of “5 million”, “beyond one million”, “500,000” and other statements, He XPeng is the most pragmatic.

From the perspective of the progress of the new technology disclosed by him, even for the words in his circle of friends, he has a basis. XPeng began to develop a plan to integrate high-precision maps and ordinary maps last year, and by next year, “we want to achieve 90 points in this regard.”If XPeng can really achieve this step, it will undoubtedly be a step for XPeng to get rid of the current situation on the bend and immediately follow is the straight road. “Once you solve this problem completely, go and look at the speed, which will exceed your imagination.”

At the same time, He XPeng also made his judgment on the current and next steps of intelligent driving. “Before true unmanned driving, I think this generation is about finishing the hardware, and the next generation is a combination of completely unmanned redundant system, software system, and data system.”

As He XPeng said at the listing conference, “G9 is the last generation of intelligent cars before the move towards unmanned driving.”

Ambitions of G9

If it were an ordinary person, encountering such a situation in just over ten hours, would probably be extremely anxious.

However, when asked by reporters, “Are you anxious?” Perhaps the level of anxiety for the bigwigs is different, and He XPeng’s answer was, “I was more anxious before, but now it’s much better.”

This is not to say that he is completely non-anxious, “Every day of making a car is a bit anxious, especially in such a turbulent market.” In He XPeng’s view, anxiety is divided into different levels, is changing, and is cyclical; the most critical point is to see the problem and the future.

“We see many problems, we know how to improve, and we see what can change every quarter in Q4 this year, and in the first, second, third, and fourth quarters next year.”

I believe the new technology mentioned above occupies a considerable portion of He XPeng’s confidence.

Returning to the XPeng G9, to put it simply, the core of the future vitality of the model lies in sales. Regarding the sales of G9, at the conference on the evening of the 21st, He XPeng set the goal of surpassing the Audi Q5L next year and having stable sales of over ten thousand units per month.The premise of this goal lies on two aspects. On the one hand, it comes from He XPeng’s definition of G9, “Some friends say it’s a water tank truck. Whether it’s design, performance, space, or intelligence, its balance coefficient of combination is absolutely the highest. I have great confidence in this.”

On the other hand, it comes from customer research, “Based on the ordering situation yesterday, we have about 50% of our customers who are BBA car owners who are upgrading. The second largest user group for XPeng Motors is between 85-95, and there are more male than female. From our perspective, our goal in such a user group is to exceed this number.”

Can this goal be achieved? The time point for it is next year, but let’s put that aside for now. In the communication meeting, a media outlet raised a more immediate question: what is the pass line for XPeng G9’s sales volume?

He XPeng’s answer was, “Higher than P7.”

This may be a vague answer. Since the large-scale deliveries of XPeng P7, over two years have passed, with sales data during the sales ramp-up period, the highest monthly sales volume exceeded 9,000 units, and the current sales volume is 6,200+ units.

This could also be an accurate answer. If the target line is set at 9,000 units, the gap between the pass line and the target line is not like the gap between 100 points and 60 points.

Or perhaps He XPeng’s expectation for XPeng G9 is only a starting point next year?

If that’s the case, then at the beginning of the article, XPeng’s ability to make a major new decision in a very short period of time seems to have even more reasonable reasons.

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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.