Author: Feng Jingang

Introduction: The arrival of P5 tells us that XPeng has taken another important step on the road to smart electric vehicles. This time, it is redefining the “A-class car”.

On the afternoon of July 6th, at the XPeng P5 smart third space sharing meeting, I asked the deputy general manager of XPeng Automobile Product Planning Department, Jiang Weizhong, who P5’s competitors are. He said, “Camry.”

Considered that P5 is about 200,000 yuan, which overlaps with Camry, Jiang Weizhong’s answer is not a problem. However, from traditional cognition, this answer has a problem: P5 is an A-level car, why is the competitor locked in the B-level car like Camry?

So I looked back at the core official information of P5 and found that in the comparison of wheelbase and rear space, the luxury B-class cars such as Tesla Model 3, Mercedes-Benz C-class, and BMW 3 Series are compared with P5.

Therefore, it is not difficult to draw a conclusion that although P5 is an A+ class car, its direct competitors are B-class models, regardless of whether they are electric or fuel driven.

Regarding this subtle change, Jiang Weizhong admitted that XPeng has always been a brand full of exploration spirit.

After years of development, the Chinese automobile market has become increasingly mature, and various segmented markets have been fully developed and formed an approximate classification of ABCD levels. Mainstream automakers will have corresponding layouts.

However, smart electric vehicles are a new thing, and because the cost of new technologies is high, there is indeed such a cross-level competition. For example, although P5 is an A-level car, due to the use of new technologies such as Lidar, the top configuration easily exceeds 200,000 yuan, which is exactly the home court of the B-class car.

Of course, in the long river of history, there are also many fuel-driven cars that failed due to excessive reliance on new technologies. So, will P5 follow in their footsteps?

It’s hard to say because there are significant differences in technology between fuel-driven cars and smart electric vehicles, so there is no direct comparability. But one thing is certain, if XPeng wants to seize market share from higher-level competitors, P5 will face many difficulties.

So, can XPeng overcome this hurdle? Judging from the performance of P7, the success rate of P5 is not low, which is why XPeng is so confident.

Last year, when P7 suddenly emerged, there were not a few skeptics. On the one hand, P7 had already penetrated the traditional BC-level car base, and on the other hand, there was the formidable Tesla Model 3 in front of it, and XPeng was still a new brand.However, starting from the bulk delivery in July of last year, P7’s performance has been improving. In June of this year, XPeng P7 delivered 4,730 units, becoming a flagship model of domestic B-class cars, and the best-selling P7 is the second-top model priced at 366,900 yuan.

The success and counterattack of P7 also made those who questioned P7 at that time start to reflect and ask themselves: Why does P7 sell so well? This is not logical, is it?

In fact, whether it is a fuel car or a smart electric car, although they belong to two different markets, the core remains unchanged – product strength speaks.

Take P5 as an example. When there was controversy about its superior competition, it fought back the outside world with superior product strength. As an A-class car, P5 even comes with a luxury configuration such as a built-in refrigerator, and the rear space is also an invincible presence.

In addition, in the most core intelligent configuration, P5 will be equipped with XPeng Motors’ XP3.5 automatic driving system, which is stronger than the current P7.

Therefore, the competition logic of smart electric cars is indeed different from that of traditional fuel cars, so P5 naturally does not conform to the logic of traditional fuel cars, and it has its own logical line.

The arrival of P5 tells us that XPeng Motors has taken another important step in the smart electric car road, this time redefining the “A-class car”.

Regarding the continuous exploration of smart electric vehicles, He XPeng said that XPeng Motors is excited internally. When I asked He XPeng whether P5’s performance will surpass P7, he said it should.

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.