Emerging Transport Industry Media under Travel of One Hundred People Focuses on Evolution of Automotive Travel Industry Chain

Author: Roomy

“Would you go or not go if you had a time machine that could send you to a society with more developed technology 50 years from now?”

Choosing this familiar debating approach, the third “1024 Xpeng Car Technology Day” was officially opened. Under the fierce debate between the affirmative and negative, He XPeng did not give a definite answer of “go, or not go”.

However, a positive answer was still found in He XPeng’s response.

“Willing to live till 50 years later, not willing to be sent to 50 years later.”

This answer is in line with He XPeng’s usual image: coming from an engineering background, he is almost fanatic about new technology. He has always emphasized that intelligence is the core advantage of Xpeng, and he has been committed to deeply imprinting the labels of intelligence and technology in the brand genes from G3 to P7 to G3i, and then to P5, persisting and continuously thinking and challenging for 7 years. Its purpose is clear: “technology benefits, truly realizing the future of intelligence”.

Only with a judgment of the development of past technology can there be a prediction of the future. Therefore, through the 7-year journey of brand technology DNA engraving, the sentence “live to 50 years later” is not empty talk.

The best way to foresee the future is to create it, which is the most suitable way to describe this technology company.

After the question of “Why do we need to continue exploring from 0 to 1024” was raised, a grand future technology and intelligent ecological layout officially began, and a technology company with a clear future layout emerged.

This layout, according to the technical product field, is generally divided into four major blocks: Super Energy Supplement, Intelligent Driving, Intelligent Robots, and Flying Cars. In addition to the 800V high-voltage SiC platform, 480 kW super charging pile, XPILOT intelligent driving system, and other intelligent electric vehicle-related products, there are also more long-term technologies and products such as intelligent machine horses and the sixth-generation flying cars.

“We are always exploring the possibility of intelligent travel in the future,” He XPeng always insists on this sentence.

“Kite Flying Man”

Often when prosperity is exhausted, He XPeng’s engineer genes will run out of his bones, and he still holds a rope under endless imagination, which is called reason. Just like what he said, “Xpeng does not make concept cars, everything is for mass production.”

Under the technology layout opened by “living to 50 years later,” XPeng is like a “kite flying man,” floating in the imagination of high altitude, and the rope that holds the direction, today, seven years later, XPeng has already manipulated it freely.

However, He XPeng’s prediction on the penetration rate of new energy vehicles is still somewhat astonishing.

“I think the penetration rate of new energy vehicles will reach 35% by 2025, and even possibly 50%. In the next ten years, the head effect will be stronger. The challenge is that a large amount of long-term R&D investment is needed.”

Based on this penetration rate prediction, XPeng has made more “redundant” R&D and layout. Some people say that XPeng’s layout in energy supplement and intelligent driving, given during the 1024 Technology Day, uses more mature and comprehensive technology to alleviate “anxiety”.

In terms of super energy supplementation, XPeng will become the first vehicle manufacturer to mass-produce an 800V high-voltage silicon carbide platform. He XPeng said: “XPeng hopes to become the first to mass-produce an 800V high-voltage platform configured with silicon carbide chips, supporting 5-minute charging and 200 kilometers of endurance.” The focus is on mass production.

In fact, 800V is not a new thing. Including Porsche, NIO, and Hyundai Kia have all released 800V electrical architectures. However, a thick fence called “costs” separates technology from mass production. Since Porsche began mass production of the Taycan, the 800V system has been defined as high-end.

In order to fully tap the energy supplement technology potential of the 800V platform, XPeng also released the first mass-produced 480kW high-voltage super charging pile. The focus is still on mass production.

“Many times, the biggest concern when buying an electric vehicle is the complexity of endurance and charging,” so XPeng Automobile has been building its own charging network: 439 brand ultra-charging stations covering 121 cities, 1648 free charging stations covering 221 cities.

Another focus of the 1024 Technology Day was “intelligent driving,” which is XPeng Automobile’s strength.

Today, XPeng has passed the 100,000-vehicle mark, and the penetration rate of the XPILOT 2.5 intelligent driving assistance system has reached 89.74%, especially the share of XPILOT 3.0, which is as high as 59.29%. These proportions have surprised He XPeng, as “users are increasingly accepting smart cars,” which has given him more confidence.Remember when the P5 was released, XPeng attached a slogan “Born Intelligent, Explore Beyond”? With the deployment of the XPILOT 3.5 system, a new NGP(Next-Generation Platform) for city scenes is added, and it aims to promote the development of intelligent driving technology in cities.

“XPILOT 3.5 has the first mass-produced, centimeter-level positioning capability for city scenes that does not depend on laser point cloud maps,” said Wu Xinzhou, vice president of autonomous driving at XPeng. The city NGP will open its first batch of city roads in the first half of 2022.

“If we can achieve a high penetration rate of city NGP in a high-speed scene, it is possible to elicit a qualitative change through quantitative accumulation.” In order to truly integrate into urban scenarios, XPeng has upgraded its positioning accuracy from decimeter-level to centimeter-level, without relying on high-precision point cloud maps. The new NGP is equipped with a four-fold sensor-fusion architecture.

XPeng has defined the qualitative change as the mass production of city scene assisted driving and the end-to-end full-stack closed-loop capability, which will be the ticket to the second half of the game. Currently, XPeng is the only company with a clear definition of the development phase and technology of intelligent driving, which is not even a year from what He XPeng called “New forces of automobile-making have not been added to the arena.”

The exploration of intelligent driving does not stop here. Models equipped with XPILOT 4.0 will achieve full-scene intelligent assistance driving in 2023. XPILOT 5.0 will realize a fully redundant automatic driving software and hardware architecture, achieving true automatic driving.

“Building integrated hardware and software is a balancing act,” this is what He XPeng and Lei Jun have discussed as the “balance art of automobile-making.”

Although He XPeng thinks of himself as “less aggressive”, he is always straightforward according to his colleagues. Stripping away his indifferent appearance, he is actually bold and daring.

“I always imagine that in the not-so-distant future, everyone should be able to enter into flying.” He has always believed that a new and lighter electric flying device will unlock many of the technical barriers that once seemed insurmountable.

The flying car of XPeng is made by XPeng HT, a joint venture invested by He XPeng and XPeng. The fifth-generation flying vehicle was released in 2021 and has safely flown more than 15,000 times.”We never make concept or show cars, all exploration is to put them into mass production and change the intelligent travel life. Looking up at the starry sky is based on being down-to-earth,” repeatedly emphasized by He XPeng, mass production.

$500 million financing and the cost planning for the next generation product of 500,000 to 1 million are all indicating “truly achieve mass production of flying cars.” Although He XPeng feels that the fifth generation flying car is not “low-key” enough, the truly “low-key product,” the sixth generation flying car will also have mass production time, by 2024.

“The price will be controlled below 10 million yuan as much as possible.”

“Do practical groups if we want to do”

Baidu’s Li Yanhong once said, “We don’t want to be a technical innovation atmosphere group, we want to be a practical group willing to endure loneliness and see the stars and the sea.”

This sentence is also suitable for commenting on XPeng.

When XPeng was first established, he boldly chose a road that Li Bin of NIO had said was “impossible to do.” In a market where competition is sufficient and scale effect is obvious, stick to making cars for tens of thousands. Although He XPeng once said, “Facing competition requires courage, and it is easy to die.”

However, XPeng always firmly believes in one direction, “making cooler and cooler products.” For this reason, XPeng’s products have three key words: intelligent, design-balanced, and cost-effective.

After seven years of sticking to this car-making philosophy, XPeng, who has always been in the top new forces, has successfully implanted the technology label into the brand and exceeded 100,000 in sales. After that, many people started to understand He XPeng’s character, which is not as “calm” as it seems on the surface.

With a deep understanding of intelligence, XPeng’s self-developed technology system can always accurately release the landing points of future intelligent travel, just like He XPeng’s self-evaluation, “more progressive than aggressive.”

Although the landing of XPILOT 3.0 means that XPeng has become the only Chinese car company to complete the self-developed full-stack. Coupled with the fact that the urban NGP will open part of the city’s roads in the first half of 2022, and has already obtained the ticket to enter the second half, XPeng still maintains caution and repeatedly emphasizes that “intelligent driving assistance is not automatic driving” and “human-machine co-driving will be a necessary choice for a long time.”

Safety has always been regarded as the “highest requirement” for intelligent driving by XPeng Automobile. Nowadays, when the concept of automatic driving is booming, XPeng can still keep calm in the face of the continuous progress and leading technology of his own science and technology.It can be said that while the giants are all in the transformation era, XPeng has already shown the attitude of how to run a good technology company, “endless imagination, down-to-earth execution”. At the same time, XPeng’s release mode also provides a reference for the transformation of traditional car companies.

1024, which was originally a programmer festival initiated by the public, has become an important label for XPeng thanks to the founder’s tech background. Using “Technology Day” as an annual technology release conference, this year marks its third year. This model is not common in traditional car-making companies, typically being seen in tech companies.

For example, Huawei Developers Conference brings together various companies in the industry chain to explore technological interconnectivity in a more open way in order to build an intelligent-connected world. The Baidu Apollo Ecosystem Conference comprehensively showcases the latest advances in intelligent transportation, smart vehicles and autonomous driving. Additionally, Lei Jun often exhibits the “dead concentrated hardcore technology” and enthusiasm for co-creating the future of technology with Mi-fans at Xiaomi Developers Conference.

The format of Technology Day allows for more comprehensive and direct communication with users throughout the process of communicating technology. Perhaps, XPeng’s 1024 Technology Day will provide a new reference model for major car companies transforming into technology companies.

Of course, XPeng, who “only does practical teams”, explores the endless possibilities of technology that extends beyond the automotive field.

“We are always exploring the possibility of future intelligent travel”, said XPeng, whose exploratory range has extended from the automotive industry to other travel scenarios.

“Far more than autonomous driving and intelligent cockpit, there will be many points in the field of traffic revolution in the future.” Flying cars are one of XPeng’s future incursion points, as are bionic inteligent robots.

In fact, companies such as Porsche and Geely have also released flying cars, but they are still in the concept stage. It is well known that the significance of concept release represents future technological trends and current popular concepts.

The industry has also expressed positive views on flying cars. Roland Berger estimates that by 2050, there will be nearly 100,000 manned or unmanned drones flying in the sky around the world, with the Chinese market having the greatest potential.

Previously, after General Motors announced the new round of electrification and aircraft-car technology, its stock prices surged. In 2017, Geely Group acquired Terrafugia, a flying car company from the United States, to take the high ground of technology trends concepts.## Why XPeng?

XPeng has once said that he believes he can create something great, even if it requires hard work. Choosing to enter the automobile industry seven years ago, he was fully prepared to “persevere”.

Seven years later, XPeng not only persevered to produce 100,000 vehicles, but also successfully replicated the Internet’s way of thinking in the field of intelligent technology.

“The logic behind Internet thinking is very simple: openness, equality, technology, innovation.” These four words, sixteen letters, “democratization of technology” have become the essence of XPeng’s exploration of future technology.

Electrification and intelligent technology have long been the chips for automakers to compete with. In the early days of range anxiety, before “range” became the “technology label”, the industry promoted L3 and L4 autonomous driving technology with great fanfare, fearing falling behind the times.

However, beneath the glamorous packaging lies consumers’ “excessive optimism” about autonomous driving technology. Previously, I met a Tesla owner who took his hands off the steering wheel and gave the reason that “there is autonomous driving”. According to a survey on Zhihu, “promoting the intelligent automobile label has become a key aspect of industry brand promotion”.

In fact, few carmakers have mastered independent research and development technology. Stripping away the excessive promotion of intelligent technology, the “technologies that XPeng can implement” have become more precious. XPeng, who has always persevered, has become the only car manufacturer in China to complete full-stack self-research with the implementation of XPILOT 3.0.

“It is clear that XPeng hopes to lead the industry and users to more practical technology. ” A person familiar with XPeng’s thoughts evaluated him on the occasion of the birth of the XPeng P7, saying the same thing.

“XPeng has always wanted to bring more practical technology to the industry and users.” XPeng’s words have always been trustworthy.However, he always thinks ahead. “We did nothing wrong, but we still lost.” This sentence from Nokia’s CEO has always impressed him. Stories of traditional giants suddenly being replaced by new players always happen unexpectedly.

“Beating oneself, beating the industry leader, is never about being in the industry, it is always about interpreting it in new ways.” He XPeng hopes to master the way of the future and the interpretation of new technological trends in XPeng’s hands.

Therefore, on the first day of creating XPeng, He XPeng decided that the technology gene must be deeply embedded in every car and imprinted on every person’s mind. Technology is always XPeng’s most active DNA. As the earliest domestic company to start full-stack self-research of software and hardware deployment and development, XPeng’s self-driving team size will reach 1,500 people by the end of this year.

When asked how to evaluate the programmers who are rushing to XPeng Automobile by the “technology company label”, He XPeng gave an interesting answer. “Honest, hard-working, money-making, and money-spending.”

Behind this answer is that XPeng will always be down-to-earth and invest heavily in research and development for the realization of technology. In fact, throughout the field of automobile manufacturing, there is no traditional automotive enterprise or new force in automobile manufacturing with such a high concentration of research and development personnel.

He has been asked more than once, what kind of company does XPeng hope to become? “I hope it is a technology company with enough innovations that are made by ourselves,” and his answer has never changed.

From G3 to P7 to G3i, and then to P5, the release of each car and each “industry’s first” technology marks XPeng’s technological improvement in the field of intelligence. With the advancement of smart technology, the goal of “making truly intelligent cars” is getting closer, and the increasing percentage of Pangyo’s choice of autonomous driving technology also proves the depth of XPeng’s technology label.

“In terms of technology differentiation and design differentiation, XPeng will go deeper and deeper in the future. I’m looking at the 2026 product line now, and I think it’s quite interesting and worth waiting for.”

So, let’s look forward to XPeng’s “second half, mass production.”

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.