出行百人会 (Travel 100) Media Under The Pastoral Water Owners, Focusing on the Evolution of the Automotive Travel Industry Chain
Author: Roomy
In July, XPeng Motors delivered 8,040 vehicles, surpassing the 8,000-vehicle mark for the first time. While this number may be a simple figure for the entire automotive consumer market, it means confidence for XPeng Motors.
With strong brands such as Tesla and NIO in this arena, “practicality” has always been the label of XPeng Motors. A traditional automaker’s engineer previously commented on the new forces, “This may be a company that is good at thick accumulation and thin hair.”
From January to July 2021, XPeng Motors delivered 38,778 vehicles, which is 1.4 times the total number of deliveries in the previous year, showing the company’s notable growth. In July, XPeng Motors surpassed NIO to become the second-ranked automaker in terms of delivery volume among new automakers, with Ideal Motors ranking first.
This also marks the first time that the new forces list has changed from “Weichai, XPeng, and Li” to “Li, XPeng and Weichai.” This transition is exciting for new forces, including XPeng Motors. With the accelerated electrification of traditional automakers, the “eager to fight” atmosphere of new forces has become more intense.
In April, many asked Li Bin, He XPeng, and Li Xiang, “Are you afraid of facing the backlash of traditional automakers?” The answer was the same: “No.” The reasons are the first-mover advantage and the control of technology.
These attackers, who have cracked the market of traditional automakers that seemed unbreakable, have established advantages based on their futuristic designs and new experiences in autonomous driving. Traditional automakers that have entered the game later have instead become the “chasing lights.”
Cai Ming, the general manager of JD Power China’s automotive product business unit, stated: “As more and more automotive brands enter the competition for new energy vehicles, the competition has intensified. They have already achieved differentiation and first-mover advantages in these areas.”
However, the market is still contradictory.
From the anxiety of electric vehicle’s cruising range, the contradiction gradually turned into: “Is the safety of electric vehicle collisions worse than that of fuel vehicles?” As a leading new force company, XPeng Motors has expressed understanding of these concerns and found solutions.
To address the anxiety of cruising range, XPeng Motors launched the intelligent sports car, XPeng P7, which features a 706-kilometer cruising range. To address consumers’ concerns about the safety of electric vehicle collisions, XPeng Motors took the P7 for a crash test.
After this collision, the XPeng P7 received three authoritative certifications, including the C-NCAP Five-Star Collision Certification, the i-VISTA China Intelligent Car Index’s first Five-Star vehicle model, and JD-Power’s first-place in Charm Index.
Looking at the 8040 vehicles data now, it means “accumulate strength for a sudden outbreak.”
This Five-Star rating comes at the right time
On July 26th, XPeng Automobile CEO He XPeng posted on Weibo: China Automotive Technology Research Center announced the results of a new round of C-NCAP tests. The XPeng P7 won the C-NCAP Five-Star rating with an ultra-high score of 89.4%, and in terms of active safety, it achieved the highest score so far for pure electric vehicle models at 98.51%.
After the XPeng G3, the XPeng P7 once again achieved a Five-Star safety rating. Its intelligent driving, intelligent safety, intelligent interaction, and intelligent energy efficiency scores were outstanding (G), and it received full marks in many detailed items. After the collision test, the electric safety performance met the technical requirements of C-NCAP. Additionally, the XPeng P7 is the first Five-Star vehicle model in the history of the “i-VISTA China Intelligent Car Index.”
To put it in words that are easier for consumers to understand, it means that “the A-pillar did not deform, all airbags deployed, the battery did not catch fire, and the dummy had no problems…”
The industry’s concerns about the safety of electric vehicles have always been clear. The impact on the safety of electric vehicles mainly focuses on two aspects: the battery, which is the most basic and core aspect of electric vehicle safety, and intelligence, which is a emerging industry that needs further regulation.
It is worth noting that traditional giants that are good at regimental combat have been relatively mature in the field of safety systems, although they have lagged behind in the field of electrification. For most new forces, this is a difficult shortcoming to overcome in a short period.
In 2017, in a IIHS crash test result, Tesla Model S and BMW i3 performed at the bottom. In 2019, AIWAYS U5 only received three stars in the crash test in Europe. The resulting public opinion that “electric vehicles are not safe” could be described as “when it rains, it pours” for the new forces which were still struggling to grow at that time.
In recent years, Tesla’s frequent autonomous driving accidents, the safety debate between lithium iron phosphate batteries and lithium ion batteries, has aroused widespread attention to the safety of electric vehicles.
Last month, after the BYD Han EV and the JH Alpha S were tested in a collision test by a certain media, the former suddenly caught fire in a stationary state, once again raising doubts about the safety of electric vehicles, even suggesting that “electric vehicles are not as safe as fuel vehicles”.
This time, the safety score of XPeng P7 reaches 98.51% in the active safety category, which is the highest score among all pure electric cars tested so far. It can be considered a timely boost of confidence to the electric car market. In terms of intelligent safety, P7’s advanced assist capabilities such as AEB automatic emergency braking, LDW lane departure warning, and rear collision warning all scored full marks.
Currently, the safety of electric cars has been further validated, and statistics released by insurance companies have also provided evidence. The data shows that the ratio of injury and fatality reports after an accident is up to 40% lower than that of traditional gasoline-powered cars, indicating an improving safety trend for electric cars.
Is the structure of an electric car relevant to safety?
Domestic and foreign media have called for specialized safety tests for electric cars to be conducted by authoritative institutions and made public to consumers. In fact, many car manufacturers have experienced some setbacks in safety structure and crash testing since the advent of pure electric cars.
In 2017, the BMW i3 and Tesla Model S, representing electric cars, were tested on the stage of the IIHS, which claimed to have the most stringent crash test standards. For various reasons, including the 25% small overlap front test and lighting issues, the results were not satisfactory.
This raised questions about whether the structure of electric cars is really related to safety, prompting major car manufacturers to continuously optimize structural layouts.
Of course, XPeng Motors has also put in a lot of effort in this area. The XPeng P7 adopts a brand new pure electric chassis platform, with a focus on both “sedan” and “sport,” providing high handling and comfort comparable to luxury cars, while the lightweight steel-aluminum hybrid structure increases safety.
The 5-star C-NCAP rating of XPeng P7 also refutes the view that electric cars are less safe than gasoline-powered cars. With excellent body structure, body material, and safety configuration protection, electric cars can achieve maturity comparable to gasoline-powered cars.
However, XPeng P7’s ability to achieve a 5-star rating is not a matter of chance.
In hundreds of days of R&D testing, from the south to the north, from extreme heat to extreme cold, a consistent safety standard has been maintained throughout the development process of XPeng P7. Large amounts of high-strength body materials and scientifically reasonable vehicle design have established the standard for safety.From the collision result, the XPeng P7 achieved a 5-star rating through the use of more ultra-high strength steel materials, along with a safer platform architecture, resulting in lower collision deceleration and smaller intrusion into the vehicle body. With the addition of intelligent safety configurations, the car has a superior performance in real-life situations.
Some key parameters of the XPeng P7 are also noteworthy. The utilization rate of ultra-high-strength steel is 16%, while hot-formed steel utilization is 13%. Additionally, a large number of parts are hot-formed, with a utilization rate double that of most cars and 1.5 times that of luxury vehicles.
The XPeng P7’s steel-aluminum hybrid architecture has an aluminum usage rate of up to 9%. Cast aluminum and extruded aluminum materials can significantly improve the rigidity of the vehicle body when invaded by external forces.
In terms of battery layout, the XPeng P7 considers safety as a top priority during the vehicle structure design phase. The electric drive system is placed at the back, while the steering system is placed closer to the front. The rear end of the front compartment has a 1223mm energy absorption space, which is 2.4 times that of a fuel car. This helps to reduce the deceleration of the entire vehicle and the intrusion into the passenger compartment, effectively lowering the peak deceleration rate of the collision.
In this collision test, the XPeng P7 achieved exceptional low-speed endurance scores in both the front and rear. During a frontal collision, the peak deceleration rate was reduced from 42g to 25g compared to a fuel car, a decrease of 41%. Furthermore, the rear subframe was precisely torn to prevent the entire subframe from moving and effectively stopping an intrusion into the battery pack.
Moreover, electric vehicle powertrain systems are smaller and have longer front crumple zones, resulting in lower collision deceleration rates. With the addition of intelligent safety configurations, the XPeng P7 provides better passenger protection.
What constitutes balance in electric cars?
The safety protection of electric cars is not just about protecting the battery pack, but also about intelligent driving. Regarding frequent accident reports about Tesla, the focus of attention and condemnation has sometimes fallen on autonomous driving technology and intelligence.
Li Bin, He XPeng, and other leaders of traditional automakers who are leading the transformation all agree that “when autonomous driving becomes mature and standard, the intelligent cabin will become the basis of competition.”
Therefore, the XPeng P7’s intelligent performance in this collision test also became an area of interest. The 2020 rear-wheel drive long-endurance intelligent version of the XPeng P7, which participated in the test, was the first model in the i-VISTA China Intelligent Car Index to achieve a 5-star rating. Overall, the vehicle’s intelligent driving, safety, interaction, and efficiency performance are excellent (G), with multiple sub-items achieving full marks.The performance of P7 in i-VISITA is due to its strong software and hardware capabilities. Since its inception, Xpeng Motors has insisted on full-stack self-research and independent design, including its XPilot autonomous driving technology and intelligent operating system Xsmart OS.
By integrating the factors of research and development, production, software, and hardware into a closed-loop system, Xpeng has achieved efficient information circulation and rapid iteration and upgrading of user experience. This is particularly evident in the P7 model.
P7’s XPILOT 3.0 autonomous driving assistance system is equipped with the Xavier supercomputing platform, with a computing power of 30 tops and a power consumption of only 30W, 15 times more energy-efficient than the previous DRIVE PX 2 system.
In addition, P7 also has 5 high-precision millimeter-wave radars, 12 ultrasonic sensors, 4 automated driving surround view cameras, 10 automated driving high-perception cameras, and a sub-meter level high-precision positioning system. This achieves dual 360-degree perception with a camera and radar, and supports high-precision map matching and positioning, giving P7 a better perspective and achieving more advanced intelligent driving.
Moreover, Xpeng’s urban NGP system assists drivers in executing driving tasks based on navigation routes, allowing for red light intersection passage capability, city road overtaking capability, customized following capability, and roundabout passing capability, with dynamic automatic speed limit adjustments based on ground and road conditions.
The laser radar + visual perception scheme provides more accurate perception of the environment and road conditions. To some extent, this is currently one of the most advanced autonomous driving architectures among production vehicles.
As expected, with many outstanding achievements, the Xpeng P7 has been awarded the J.D. Power Top Index ranking, ranking first among its peers in the past half month with three top-level certifications from authoritative organizations.
According to the “2021 China New Energy Vehicle Preliminary Quality Study” released by JD Power, Tesla’s Model 3 ranks third in the mid-size pure electric vehicle (BEV) sector, behind the BYD Han EV and Xpeng P7.This report is based on JD Power’s investigation of 53 cities in mainland China, and the analysis of information, data, and materials of 28 different car brands and a total of 50 car models, presenting both authority and market generality.
From the qualification of XPeng Motors’ Zhaoqing factory in May 2020 to the official production of its 10,000th P7 car in October of the same year, and further achieving the top ranking from three major authoritative certifications in July of this year, all of those results are accomplished within just one year and two months.
As a deeply rooted product in the car market, the XPeng P7 breaks the prejudice of “electric cars are not safe”.
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.