Introduction: This is the best era for XPeng Motors.
On July 27th, the XPeng P7 delivery anniversary celebration was held in Chengdu. At the same time, the XPeng flagship experience center in Daci Temple, Chengdu, also held its opening ceremony simultaneously.
At this “XPeng Friends Festival,” He XPeng did not absent himself. However, this westward trip of He XPeng was not just for the two celebrations mentioned above, there was also a secret mission – the landing location of the XPeng R&D Center and the fourth factory.
In fact, on that day, before attending the evening celebration, He XPeng and his team had a seminar with the core leaders of Chengdu’s Jinjiang District Government. The purpose of the seminar was to discuss increasing investment.
It is reported that the core personnel of the Jinjiang District Government who participated in the seminar included District Party Secretary Chen Zhiyong, District Deputy Secretary and District Governor Miao Xiaobo, and the attendance of the top two leaders in Jinjiang District demonstrated the importance of this seminar.
During the seminar, He XPeng promised that “in the future, XPeng Motors will continue to increase investment in Chengdu, and establish more project settlements in Chengdu and Jinjiang.”
In fact, as early as 2018, XPeng Motors had cooperated with Jinjiang District and subsequently landed multiple projects such as sales, car rental, and travel, in addition to this Daci Temple flagship experience center.
Chen Zhiyong, representing Jinjiang District, said, “Jinjiang District attaches great importance to XPeng Motors’ development in Chengdu. The cooperation between the two sides has a good foundation and broad prospects. We hope to continue to deepen exchanges and cooperation with XPeng Motors and actively explore more cooperative projects.”
Subsequently, the electric motive journalist called Chengdu’s Jinjiang District on this matter and was informed, “We are indeed negotiating cooperation matters with XPeng Motors, including R&D centers and factories.”
However, the other party further revealed that if the negotiations are successful, the R&D center will be located in Jinjiang District, while the factory may be located in the Longquan Industrial Zone. It is reported that the Longquan Industrial Zone is a national-level economic and technological development zone, mainly for factories in the machinery and automotive classes.
Regarding the matter of the R&D center and factory settling in Chengdu, this magazine’s journalist consulted with XPeng Motors related personnel, but the other party said they were not aware of it.
Currently, XPeng Motors’ R&D center headquarters is located in Guangzhou, and R&D branches have been established in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Silicon Valley, and San Diego.
On April 8th of this year, XPeng Motors announced an investment of 10 billion yuan to build an intelligent connected car manufacturing base and R&D center in the Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone. This is XPeng Motors’ third independent smart manufacturing base, with the other two bases located in Zhaoqing and Guangzhou.It is worth mentioning that before independent manufacturing, XPeng first chose contract manufacturing. In December 2018, XPeng Motors first announced to the public the G3 model produced by Haima Motors, a contract manufacturer. However, recently XPeng Motors announced that its cooperation with Haima Motors will end by the end of this year.
Between contract manufacturing and independent manufacturing, XPeng’s choice has tended towards the latter.
In terms of production capacity, the Wuhan plant plans to produce 100,000 vehicles, plus the Zhaoqing and Guangzhou factories, XPeng’s total production capacity reaches 300,000 vehicles. With proper transformation and increased shifts, peak production capacity of nearly 500,000 vehicles can be achieved.
It can be seen that although XPeng has a relatively large number of production bases, the production capacity planning of each base is not particularly large.
Regarding the consecutive landing of Guangzhou and Wuhan factories, XPeng once stated that it is “laying the foundation for the arrival of the overall intelligent automobile industry.”
Sales data shows that XPeng Motors delivered 6,565 vehicles in June, a year-on-year increase of 617%, reaching a record high in monthly deliveries. From January to June, XPeng Motors’ cumulative deliveries have exceeded the total deliveries of 2020, reaching 30,738 vehicles, which is 5.6 times the same period last year, setting a historical high.
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.