Introduction: Although XPeng Motors has raised billions of dollars in financing and has the backing of Alibaba, as a new force whose survival issues have not been completely resolved, every penny should be spent in the right place at the right time. At this time, XPeng needs to focus on enriching its product matrix and supporting the development of intelligent driving systems with more resources to maintain strategic stability.
On September 7th, XPeng Motors officially announced the new member of its ecological enterprise, Shenzhen Pengxing Intelligent Research Co., Ltd. (referred to as “Pengxing Intelligence”), and released the first prototype of the intelligent machine horse – internally codenamed “Little White Dragon”. As an ecological enterprise of XPeng Motors, Pengxing Intelligence will introduce the thinking of the automobile system and empower R&D and manufacturing of intelligent robots. The intelligent machine horse unveiled this time has achieved technological breakthroughs in power modules, motion control, intelligent driving, and intelligent interaction compared to previous four-legged robots. It is the world’s first intelligent machine horse that can be ridden, carrying Pengxing Intelligence’s vision of a better future life.
According to XPeng’s official introduction, Pengxing Intelligence team was established in Shenzhen in 2016 and is one of the earliest teams in China to invest in quadruped robot research and development, accumulating multiple core patents in the fields of robot power modules, motion control, intelligent driving, and interaction systems. In 2020, Pengxing Intelligence received investment from He XPeng and XPeng Motors, becoming an ecological enterprise layout of XPeng Motors under the “Future Traffic Explorer” strategy, starting its high-speed development.
Pengxing Intelligence claims that “Little White Dragon” is the world’s first intelligent machine horse product that can be ridden and has a similar promotional slogan like Xiaomi – it will become “the first smart transportation tool for XPeng friends” to explore future transportation, thus XPeng Motors takes a step towards realizing its dream. Currently, Pengxing Intelligence has R&D centers in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Beijing, and the United States, and is gathering top talents in robotics, automobiles, and technology from around the world. It is also recruiting a large number of robotic-related talents on various online platforms.
XPeng is building an ecosystem?From the above official information, it can be learned that the Xiaobai Long machine horse released by XPeng is just one of the products in the ecosystem industry invested by XPeng Automobile, with the aim of exploring future transportation and using a trendy phrase recently -“Big Picture”. We know from Apple’s iPhone that a successful product must have its complete product ecosystem, including hardware products such as iPhone, iPad, iMac, Apple Watch, EarPods, etc., and software such as Apple Store, iCloud, Apple Music, etc., forming a whole set of software and hardware combined ecosystem and winning consumers’ love with excellent product experience.
From the perspective of building an ecosystem, XPeng’s Xiaobai Long machine horse product, as a specific scene of XPeng Automobile and an extension of the transportation tools of some people, seems to be reasonable. The release of this product also shows XPeng’s ambition, that is, not only limited to the well-known XPeng electric vehicles, but also to build an ecosystem of various travel methods.
Previously, He XPeng and XPeng Automobile jointly invested in and controlled XPeng Huitian, an aviation high-tech innovation company, which has now been established for seven years. In August, some media reported that when He XPeng talked about the future direction of XPeng Automobile, he said that he would launch a flying car by the end of this year and open it for trial rides and test drives.
In December 2020, He XPeng posted a picture of “XPeng Huitian Flying Car T2” on his Weibo. The electric drive reporter also saw a video of a flying car carrying people flying test made by XPeng engineers at XPeng Automobile headquarters in Guangzhou. At present, XPeng Automobile has not officially released the product yet, but we believe that flying cars are also an important part of its future ecosystem. If He XPeng’s plan is not delayed, XPeng will launch the test ride of flying cars within the remaining less than four months of 2021, and then we can understand its true strength.In the field of flying cars, XPeng Motors is not the first, in China, Guangzhou EHang is more famous, which had conducted short-distance human flight tests, but eventually disappeared from the public eye due to financing problems. On January 15th, this year, Transition (TF-1), which is under the Geely Technology Group, has obtained the airworthiness certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States. Traditional car companies and tech companies at home and abroad, such as Audi, Toyota, Uber, Great Wall, etc. have already quietly laid out in the field of flying cars. It is estimated that in the near future, Musk, who plays in the spaceflight, will also enter the field of flying cars. After all, Musk is the CEO of Tesla and SPACE X. A new silent war is foreseeable.
Is XPeng’s timing right for building an ecosystem?
This year, the products related to robots can be described as one after another, and the popularity has not decreased. On the evening of August 10th, Xiaomi’s eleventh anniversary, Lei Jun gave an annual speech with the theme of “My Dream, My Choice”. In addition to releasing products such as mobile phones and tablets, it also launched a heavyweight new product, Xiaomi’s first bionic quadruped robot – CyberDog, priced at 9999 yuan and already on the market.
On August 19th, US time, Tesla launched the artificial intelligence training computer system DOJO and 7nm DOJO D1 chip at the “Tesla AI Day” event, and also launched Tesla’s next major project: humanoid robot (Tesla Bot). Tesla CEO Musk once again emphasized that Tesla is an artificial intelligence robot company.
It can be seen that major new energy vehicle brands are laying out in the field of robotics and will introduce products to the market one after another. Perhaps Musk’s understanding of the first principle can better envision that the future of travel cars may be robots with artificial intelligence, and cars are just smart robots using single or multiple wheels to move.
Some people may say that since Boston Dynamics in the United States opened its patents related to robots, companies that imitate quadruped robots have sprung up like mushrooms. Just like when Tesla opened its patents related to electric vehicle manufacturing, new domestic forces blossomed, and the manufacturing difficulty has been greatly reduced.
The second-quarter financial report of 2021 showed that XPeng Motors had an operating loss of 1.44 billion yuan, compared with 780 million yuan in the same period last year, and 900 million yuan in the first quarter of 2021. XPeng Motors stated that the expansion of losses is mainly due to the further investment in research and development and sales network, which is the company’s long-term strategy. As of June 30th, XPeng Motors’ cash reserve was 32.871 billion yuan.
If it is justifiable for XPeng to create its own mobility ecosystem, then is it appropriate to expand into more fields while reporting huge losses in the financial statements? This needs consideration because since entering the new energy vehicle market in 2014, XPeng has only just started to show signs of success. Facing competitors such as NIO, LI, Zero Run, NETA, and WM Motor, XPeng still cannot afford to let down its guard for the main competition.
XPeng’s production plan for pure electric vehicles next is to launch the revamped G3i in July this year, and the more affordable P5 will be officially launched on September 15, 2021, with deliveries starting in October. With the imminent delivery of these two new models, XPeng’s sales figures are expected to further increase.
According to XPeng’s disclosed product roadmap, the fourth SUV model will be launched in 2022, which is believed to be aimed more at private family use rather than G3’s ride-hailing function but will also compete with Tesla Model Y, NIO ES6, and EC6 – all popular SUV models among Chinese customers.
Besides the product layout, XPeng expressed that the company may launch a flying car in the future, “entering the high-end market with a price range between CNY 500,000–1,000,000 through a car that can fly and drive.” Although XPeng has raised hundreds of billions of yuan in financing and enjoys Alibaba’s backing, as a new force that has yet to solve its survival issue completely, every penny should be spent judiciously. More funds should be invested in enriching the car product matrix, and resources should be devoted to smart driving assistance systems, maintaining strategic stability.
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.