Author: Guo Hehe
NIO ET5, BYD Dolphin, Deep Blue SL03, Seres C01, and other reliable and mature pure electric cars have emerged like mushrooms after rain in recent years. However, three years ago, in addition to the Tesla Model 3, if you wanted to choose a reliable pure electric car, the XPeng P7 was definitely an option you could not bypass.
On March 10th, the new XPeng P7, the XPeng P7i, was officially released with a suggested retail price ranging from 249,900 yuan to 339,900 yuan, and a total of four configurations were launched.
This car company, which is sitting on the crest of the wave, has gone through a mid-term facelift of its hottest selling model three years later.
On the surface, this is a mid-term facelift, but in reality, it concerns the life or death of XPeng.
Once the new car was released, the comments and barrage were better looking than the car itself. Many netizens asserted that XPeng was finished.
However, many old XPeng P7 owners claim that this price is really not expensive.
This has completely confused me. Is the new car priced high or not?
Let’s take a brief look at the differences between the new and old models.
The changes in appearance and interior are not many, mainly upgrades and optimizations in terms of configurations.
The four doors are equipped with electric suction doors. The car’s chip has been upgraded from the original Qualcomm 820A to the mainstream Qualcomm 8155. The auxiliary driving chip has been upgraded from the 30TPS calculating power NVIDIA Xavier to the 254TOPS NVIDIA Orin-X. The MAX version is equipped with two Orin-Xs and two additional Sentronic M1 lidars compared with the PRO version. It supports NGP urban navigation assisted driving, LCC-L lane keeping enhancement, and VPA-L parking lot memory parking enhancement. The auxiliary driving ability is on par with the company’s flagship G9.
In terms of power, the power of the single-motor version has been increased from 196 kW to 203 kW, and the 0-100 km/h acceleration has been reduced from 6.7 seconds to 6.4 seconds. The four-wheel-drive version is equipped with a front 145 kW asynchronous motor and a rear 203 kW permanent magnet motor, with an acceleration time of 3.9 seconds, directly squeezing into the 4-second club.
In terms of power, the XPeng P7i can be regarded as a mainstream configuration of domestic new energy vehicles, but the differences between them are not significant. The upgrade of the new model mainly lies in the optimization of the chassis tuning, which enables the previously false sense of hand feeling to be corrected, and the handling to be improved. Interestingly, the new car has added a driver mode, where the ESP will not excessively interfere with the user’s driving control during aggressive driving. At the same time, the brake and throttle are optimized linearly in response to the driving control, which can finally live up to its sports car publicity strategy.
The range version is not complicated, with a total of two versions, 702 and 610, corresponding to CLTC range of 702 km and 610 km, respectively, without using the 800V platform, but it supports high current fast charging.
If we compare the configurations of the old and new models, there are actually quite a few changes. The configuration of 249,900 yuan is higher than most people’s expectations, mainly because previously optional configurations are now standard, such as:
1. 86 kWh ternary lithium battery;
2. High-current fast charging with a maximum power of 180 kW;
3. Better Nappa seats, heated seats throughout the car, front seat ventilation, and heated steering wheel;
4. NGP High-speed navigation assisted driving and VPA memory parking;
5. 20-speaker Dynaudio sound system with 7.1.4 channel audio and a maximum power of 860 W;
6. Four-door electric suction door;
7. Brembo four-piston calipers;
8. 10-way valve heat pump;
9. External discharge function;
10. The chassis standard Sachs multi-valve shock absorber, and the Peng Wing Edition with CDC shock absorption.
Especially for old car owners, the buying rights of new car owners are also enviable, without going into detail, the most important ones are as follows:
1. Worry-free charging: The first non-commercial vehicle owner enjoys free charging for four years, with a card that can be charged with 1,500 kWh per year;
2. The previously more than 30,000 yuan optional Dynaudio Confidence series original sound system is now upgraded for free for a limited time (20 speakers);
3. Gifted XPILOT 3.0 + software and upgraded autonomous driving assistance services;
4. Red interior does not require extra payment.
Free charging is a traditional right of XPeng, but the right has been reduced from lifelong free charging for the first owner to four years of free charging for the first owner. XPeng seems to have become more cautious, and perhaps as compensation, until April 30th, ordering a car can upgrade the Dynaudio sound system for free, which is considered more benevolent.
Actually, from a configuration point of view, there are quite a lot of changes, why don’t consumers buy it?
Firstly, the changes in appearance and interior design are too small. Apart from replacing the new headlight unit with a laser radar and electric tailgate button, changing the appearance of the taillights slightly, and adding a new electric tailgate button which seems to be a millimeter wave radar in the rear bumper, it is basically consistent with the old model except for the style of the front and rear bumpers, which is really small.
The interior design remains the same, only the style of the steering wheel is changed to G9. The wireless charging board is placed vertically below the center control panel. The change in the interior design is not significant. Such a small change would inevitably make people feel insincere at the first impression.
Secondly, with the news of purchasing C6 for 120,000 yuan in Hubei Province and various car discount information everywhere on the Internet, not only are joint venture car companies trampling on each other, but the news of buying BBA for 120,000 yuan is also heard frequently. Whether such news is true or false, consumers’ normal car-buying moods have been influenced. Negative emotions of losing tens of thousands of yuan may surround consumers if the price of cars is not heavily reduced.
For many people, what they need is probably a low configuration version with a price around 220,000 yuan. After all, the adjacent Tesla has lowered the starting price of Model 3 to below 230,000 yuan. However, this brings us back to the cycle of your criticism of Xpeng’s lack of high-end development.
If it were three years ago, the price and quality of Xpeng P7 were definitely a hit. However, three years later, competitors have caught up in the field of electric sedans. The automatic assist driving function and voice assistants, which are Xpeng’s specialties, are still among the top tier but have not achieved a leading position in isolation. The biggest challenge faced by Xpeng is the trust crisis caused by the chaotic pricing of the product and the readjustment of the price after the launch of G9.
For public relations crisis, referring to the practice of competitors, the extremely cool 001 was criticized for slow in-car system and a lot of bugs, so it upgrades the chip to 8155 for free. And for the negative news of suspended air suspension of the Ideal L9, the warranty policy of air suspension will be extended for another year. Ultimately, what XPeng needs to do most now is to put the user’s needs in the forefront, not only to be called “Xpeng Friend” but also to regain the trust of users like real friends.
Intelligence is still the most powerful weapon for XPeng to differentiate itself from others. XPeng said that the city navigation and assisted driving function will be launched in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Shanghai in March. That is to say, when the car is delivered, this feature can already be used, instead of the routine of new carmakers of launching first and updating later.
In addition, P7i, with Xmart OS 4.0 car system as its standard version, does not need to wait for half a year after delivery, as with the first batch of old P7 cars. Only then can users experience the complete intelligent cabin function. It can be said that P7i is sincerely and worthy of recognition, as its level of completion is high before entering the market.
As stock prices fall and personnel structures change, XPeng is entering a darkness before dawn. The market environment is no longer the same as that in 2020. The P7i is no longer the hottest product at this price point. There are rumors that the new Model 3 will be launched soon, and with competitors like Nio ET5, the time for XPeng P7i, even XPeng itself, is running 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.