不负「7」待，「一」生有你——小鹏P7一周年征文活动

On the first anniversary of the launch of the Little Xpeng P7, as an owner now for half a year, I will take this opportunity to share the story of how I met, got to know, and have been with my P7 in a Q&A format.

Q1: Why did you choose the P7? What about Model 3 or BYD Han?

A: To be honest, the idea of changing my car was inspired by the Model 3. Let me introduce my background first. I used to drive my family’s old Passat with out-of-town license plates, which was a bit inconvenient to drive around Shanghai. During the National Day holiday in 2020, I had been licensed for one year, so I could take a test drive. The first car I chose was a Tesla nearby my home. As I had always driven gasoline cars before, I was really impressed by the electric car during the first test drive. It changed my attitude toward electric cars from a negative to a nearly 180-degree shift in perspective. After the test drive, I didn’t plan on changing cars, but I put the idea of getting an electric car on my to-do list.

During the car selection process, I narrowed my search to the category of “20-30W, pure electric, sedan”. At that time, the three biggest names in this category were the Model 3, P7 and Han.

The BYD Han was ruled out first. The reason…um…must be because it didn’t match my temperament! (doge)

So, the competition was between the Model 3 and the Little Xpeng P7. Honestly, I was about to buy a Tesla Model 3 because, compared to the P7, I personally preferred the “primitive” interior design that many people criticized. I, on the other hand, thought it had a sense of technology and luxury. The handling was good, acceleration was fast, there were mature supercharging and supporting facilities, in addition to some positive feelings I held for Elon Musk. These factors might also have an impact on the brand.

However, considering that I still need to drive this car for long trips back to my hometown (nearly 1000km away), and the Little Xpeng P7 has a higher appearance configuration, lower cost of use (free charging), ultimately, I compromised with my wallet. Looking back now, I regret not buying the 2020 Model 3, otherwise, I would probably have regretted it even more! Hahaha…

Q2: As a Little Xpeng owner, how is your experience with the car?

A: I won’t mention the pros and cons that everyone knows. Instead, I’d like to share some feelings that only a car owner can have.1. After picking up the car, the first thing that struck me was how amazing it was to have free charging! Since the community’s electric capacity is insufficient to install private charging piles, I had to go to external charging stations. Luckily, there is a small range of five kilometers near my home with small charging stations run by XPeng that are quite fast and also offer free parking. What’s more delightful is that XPeng has partnerships with third-party charging stations like Xiaoju, Telego, and Xingxing, which means I can use XPeng’s app to scan the QR code to start charging for free, and also park for free. This gave me more opportunity to save on parking fees.

2. Automatic parking is also a highlight, with a high recognition rate and success rate. Moreover, there were times when I could not park the car by myself, but the car could recognize and park it. It could even be remotely controlled using my phone outside the car in some narrow places where it was difficult to get out of the car. This was very convenient. I had previously shared my excellent experience with the P7 automatic parking in the garage, and now even the most challenging parking spaces are entrusted to the P7, while I park in simpler ones. I feel as if I have a driver with great parking skills, and it is a very reassuring feeling.

3. The P7 has a high topic and return rate, and its appearance design is indeed futuristic and eye-catching. Moreover, various cool lighting effects and features like unmanned parking make me want to show it off a bit in front of my friends.

4. Compared to the Model Y, which I drove some time ago, I realized that the P7’s chassis and steering were quite good. The three gear lightness and heaviness can be adjusted, and everyone can find a suitable feeling. The speed and angle gain were also done very well, and the adjustment of the gas and brake pedals was also very mature. The five different modes showed significant differences, and the power output was very linear. According to someone who has driven this car before, it feels more like a traditional gasoline-powered car while still having the advantages of electric cars such as regenerative braking and excellent power output.

5. The sound insulation and quietness were also good, despite using frameless doors, and even when driving at high speeds on the highway, I did not have to talk louder in the car. Even when there were large vehicles next to the car at a traffic light, it was able to isolate most of the noise.

6. Voice! Voice! Voice! XPeng’s voice is really powerful. Although many people have said this already, I still want to say it again! XPeng’s voice is indeed very easy to use, and after activation, I could have a continuous conversation, and the system could pick up what I said even if not in the perfect condition. These features make for an excellent voice control experience, and it can effectively reduce the time looking away from the road while driving, making it safe.

7. Personally, I think the P7 is a car that is suitable for driving at night. When it gets dark, the strip-shaped ambient lights light up, and the quiet electric motor sound create a great feeling while driving on the urban elevated roads with some background music. When I am feeling down, I would just drive around the city without a destination, relying on the P7’s precise handling and power response, while XPeng’s voice will intelligently respond to my instructions, making me feel as if the car and I are one entity.

Q3: Anything to criticize?A: People are always like this. At first, they only see the good side of things, but after a long time, they discover each other’s temper and shortcomings. After living with the car for more than half a year, I have found many issues, some of which could potentially be OTA resolved if small improvements are made by XPeng, and some of which I hope XPeng can absorb the opinions of us car owners in order to make future improvements in design.

Firstly, regarding the hardware, most of the car’s external shortcomings are concentrated in:

1. The opening method of the front trunk: due to design issues, the front trunk can only be opened by opening the driver’s door and pulling the mechanical handle, which leads to low utilization rates…

2. The back trunk has a small opening, even though it is a hatchback design, it does not open entirely. In addition, there is no external opening button. Before the installation of the electric tailgate, it could only be opened via phone/voice commands etc., which is very inconvenient. After an official update, an electric tailgate was added along with a foot-kicking opening method, which is a slightly more convenient way to open it, but it still doesn’t compare to a simple button. I am curious as to why there isn’t a button in the notch below the taillights where the design seems to allow for it?

3. The same criticism extends to the charging port. While the electric charging port opening method is graceful, it cannot be opened directly by pressing a button from outside the car. It can only be opened through the phone/key/central control screen, which is a little inconvenient.

4. This time after the XmartOS update to 2.6.0, the daytime running light brightness is too low, and it is not as nice as the “classic” style. Additionally, the taillight will also light up, which seems a bit abnormal.

As for the issues inside the cab:

1. The ergonomics design has some problems. The front seat cushions are too hard, the co-driver cannot adjust the leg rest, and the position of the steering wheel and seat cannot be adjusted to a suitable position. The position of the central control screen is also far from hands reach due to its design, which rounds out to a bending position.

2. The storage space in the central control area is not designed very reasonably. The wireless charging board location is too deep and not easy to retrieve the phone. Frequently, it gets forgotten inside as well. The two diagonal cup holders in the middle area take up too much space and are not very deep, and they do not make full use of the electric car & gear advantages, while Tesla’s new center console design is very handy and practical. The back armrest storage does have a large space, but it’s unpartitioned and there is no storage space, making it quite messy inside.

3. The air conditioning outlet location is counterintuitive. When holding onto the steering wheel, the hand gets directly blown at, and the only option is to use the entire car’s ventilation. However, when the car is traveling at low speeds, the air conditioning fan blades still make mechanical noise even though the car is quiet.

4. The seat ventilation and heating are only available for the bottom layer of the seat cushion. This hidden cost-cutting operation is a bit awkward. Also, to turn on/off the seat heating/ventilation, unless one uses voice commands, one must go into the air conditioning interface, which opens the air conditioning, and sometimes one just wants to turn on/off the heating/ventilation alone and has to be forced to turn on/off the air conditioning.5. The space utilization is not high, and the rear space with a wheelbase close to three meters cannot be considered spacious. When I sit in the back seat and go over a speed bump, I will hit my head… It can only be said that many sacrifices were made for the elegant body shape, but it doesn’t really affect me as a driver.

5. The automatic wiper logic is very stupid. I don’t know if it’s a sensor calibration problem, but it’s very difficult to use. The wiper often doesn’t wipe the rain on the glass even when there is a lot of rain.

6. Can the sound system have an EQ? I don’t know which of the several music modes is standard and which has effects added, and they all don’t sound good.

7. The interior lighting cannot be kept on after opening the car door. This is really strange. Please fix it with OTA updates as soon as possible!

Now let’s talk about the advanced driving assistance system, which everyone cares about. When I bought my car, I didn’t choose the top-level Xpilot3.0. Instead, I chose the Xpilot2.5 with ACC, lane keeping, turn signal changing, and automatic parking functions. It seems that this version is not discussed much online because the NGP and memory parking of 3.0 obviously attract more attention. However, according to official data, more people still choose the 2.5 version among car buyers. Here, let’s talk about the Xpilot2.5 function of the P7 in detail.

1. ACC has been very reliable in my half-year use, but there was one time when it did not recognize the vehicle ahead and did not decelerate. I also took a picture after the vehicle stopped. So, as I always say, don’t fully trust the car’s advanced driving assistance system. After all, it is just an assistance function. You must always be vigilant and pay attention to the road conditions while driving.

2. The experience of LCC lane keeping is not as perfect. Praising aspects include: in places with clear markings such as city overpasses and highways, the lane keeping ability is good. After several software updates, it can also easily handle some large curvature bends, such as the spiral ramp of Nanpu Bridge. However, when the left and right lane lines begin to split into two lanes at a Y-shaped intersection, LCC will continue to assume to drive along the middle of the two lines. At this time, the driver almost always needs to take over, otherwise the car will go straight to the water horse in the middle of the fork. Moreover, the lane keeping of the 2.5 version cannot be activated until the car reaches speeds over 60kph (although it can be activated anytime in some elevated highways, apparently based on geographical location. 3.0 version requires a speed of 30kph). Compared with the handling of some scenes when driving a Model Y before, the 2.5 version still has significant room for improvement.3. The ALC lane change function can only be used at speeds above 45kph. At the same time, it has been discovered that the vehicle must identify the two adjacent lane lines on the instrument panel visualization in order to change lanes. The lane change experience is still user-friendly when there are few cars and the vehicle can clearly recognize the two lane lines on both sides. However, once there are more cars, the action of signaling for a lane change will become more hesitant. The waiting time after signaling is relatively short, only about 10 seconds, and if there is no suitable time during this period or if adjacent lane lines cannot be identified, then the lane change will fail. Therefore, overall, the success rate is not high.

3. Also, when the assisted driving is turned on, the voice prompts inside the car are quite frequent and can frequently cause unease for the driver and passengers. Additionally, there is an important issue where except for the first time the ACC is activated when a “assisted driving has been turned on, please drive safely” voice prompt is given, there are no other voice prompts for subsequent activations of ACC. This can lead to a certain safety risk, and we hope that the XPeng Motors team can optimize this issue as soon as possible. Take a leaf out of Tesla’s book and give one sound for the ACC startup, and two for LCC. Also, we hope that an option can be added to increase the frequency of the assisted driving voice prompts, letting the driver select whether frequent voice prompts are needed. At present, the voice prompts are too verbose, so if it is for safety considerations, it is also hoped that an option for “voice prompts only” can be added.

4. In addition, since the P7 can already recognize traffic signs, it would be great if a function could be added where a one-touch setting to the speed limit could be implemented.

Furthermore, regarding software optimization suggestions:

1. When signaling for a lane change, it would be great if blind spots of adjacent lanes can be displayed on the instrument panel through the 360-degree surround-view cameras. Currently, the blind spot monitoring does not seem to be accurate enough and sometimes doesn’t alert the driver while at other times it falsely alarms.

2. In narrow environments, it would be great if the 360-degree surround-view cameras can be turned on automatically and can be turned off with the return key on the steering wheel. Currently, the fastest way to find parking in a narrow area is to manually tap the screen, and even after it is turned on, it cannot be turned off using the return key on the steering wheel, and has to be manually clicked through the screen to turn off.

3. There are sometimes ads on the opening screen of the mobile app, and it has not yet been adapted to the dark mode. I have also proposed other suggestions in XPeng’s circle of friends, and I hope the XPeng Motors team can take note of them.

Conclusion:

It seems like the section discussing the shortcomings was more prominent throughout the entire article. That being said, many people have discussed the selling points of the P7 online, so it’s not as interesting to read about it again. However, the real-world experiences of these details have been seldom mentioned by other car owners. If you ask me if I regret my purchase decision, my answer is no. Because as mentioned above, the longer you spend time with a car, the more you become accustomed to its advantages, while its shortcomings will continue to amplify.After half a year of driving, I have encountered some problems, some big and some small, that can be improved by OTA upgrades from the official. This is also one of the great benefits of electric cars. I hope our voices as loyal customers can be conveyed to XPeng through the platform of Garage 42. We not only play the role of “car owners”, but also “product managers” and “testers”, constantly providing XPeng with suggestions for optimization and improvement. It is also hoped that the driving experience of car owners can be improved and the product of XPeng can be more competitive!

I am lucky to have XPeng P7 as my first car, which I consider an outstanding vehicle. It has also made me have more expectations and passion for driving and the future of cars!

Name: Guojia

Contact information (mobile/WeChat): 13501812739

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.