*This article is from the official account of autocarweekly
Author: Karakush
XPeng Motors has a new logo.
The team explained to He XPeng, “Look at Xiaomi’s logo. It cost two or three million yuan to round a square corner. We didn’t spend that much money, just changed the four petals to two.”
Seems like a profit.
However, when He XPeng saw the new logo, he was still very puzzled.
Our confusion may be the same: what’s new?”
Flowing symbol, “XPeng” is solid
When XPeng Motors announced that it was going to renew its brand, many friends thought that it was finally going to change its name.
After all, even He XPeng himself admitted that “the first time I heard the name XPeng, I thought it was pretty ordinary.” Throw away the tackiness and embrace trends, such as changing the name to “Go Bananas” according to the custom of the average agricultural product consumption of the technology industry- it’s really cool.
But it didn’t happen.
He XPeng thought for a long time. He frankly admits that it wasn’t until the beginning of last year that he realized that it was impossible to change the name in this life.
Although XPeng is only a common Chinese name.
Just like Mercedes-Benz before becoming the “inventor of automobiles”, it was only a common German name without a “von”, no different from the next-door-old Wang from Baden; Ford was just the next-door-old Wang from Michigan, and Toyota was just the next-door-old Wang from Aichi Prefecture. Eventually, these old Wangs became great names looming in automotive history.
Names do not determine how cool things you will achieve, or how cool your company will become. It is the other way around: you can only keep your name and reach a certain height by producing cool products, technologies, and models.
The meaning of a name is constructed by reality.
For consumers, the initial tackiness of “XPeng” stemmed from a kind of middle-aged man’s faith in mainstream beliefs. It seemed that making cars was a must-have for successful people in the Internet circle who desperately needed new jobs. They even had to print their names on flags and spread them on the streets. Although this was not He XPeng’s original intention.
When they saw the first sample car, all the car people cried because it was finally made after countless hardships and they were moved to tears; the Internet people also cried because the product was so ugly. “We feel that this car cannot represent our imagination of smart cars, so we did not put it on the market.”# Today, no one sees “XPeng” as a swollen product. It is a fresh technology company that stands at the forefront of intelligent driving and leads its peers by two streets. When did this transformation begin?
It was probably when XPeng decided to develop a fully self-driving system in-house. Today, XPeng is widely recognized as the best Chinese car company in terms of intelligent assisted driving, with no short-term rivals. Its high-speed NGP has driven more than 11.98 million kilometers and its parking memory parking has accumulated more than 20,000 routes. They will also launch urban NGP next year.
This was based on forward-looking vision. XPeng was the first Chinese company to make a strong effort in self-researching the full-stack; this was also due to their love’s support. XPeng has always adhered to saturated investment in research and development. He XPeng said that, even though in 2019 many teams underwent hair-raising layoffs, only the self-driving team he insisted on because he believed that this could become a reality in the future, to persist in doing difficult and correct things.
It could also be when XPeng planned to make a 300,000-yuan sports sedan. At that time, no one in the industry was optimistic because many had failed before. XPeng hired his very young design team to produce a stylish coupe and made many interesting attempts, such as the unique style of daytime running lights and million-dollar frameless doors, the smart green body and the scissor handle condor wings door.
This P7 model greatly improved XPeng’s appearance, making XPeng stand out from the crowd. Up to now, the cumulative deliveries have exceeded 60,000. He XPeng is proud to say that even in certain months, P7’s sales can surpass BBA’s gasoline cars of the same price.
It could also be when XPeng launched P5. You may have thought it was a P7 with no emotion, but it not only upgraded with a laser radar, but also comes with original projectors and mattresses. They announced that in addition to bathing and using the toilet, you can stay in the car all the time. It is not just a vehicle, but also a wandering paradise. Car utilization has increased from two hours a day to 20 hours a day.
Another possibility could be when XPeng was the first to introduce a full-scene voice-operated car system last year, or when it announced its flying car and machine horse this year, or when it was at its poorest and spoke to Li Bin until dawn, encouraging each other and crying, even the tiger cried but persevered and took a few steps forward.
Or maybe it was just from that DAVID1.0. Until He XPeng joined full-time and stopped production of the car, only a few hundred units were produced. However, XPeng employees are still driving it today, feeling nutrients from XPeng’s first idea, even if it failed.# Exploration is Key to Innovation, Says XPeng Motors
XPeng Motors is not afraid of failure. According to XPeng He’s confession, XPeng has had many failed explorations, such as the sunroof with color-changing glass originally planned for P7, which failed to materialize even though it was in progress.
Another example is a car originally planned after the P5, with a roof that could be raised and lowered to become a sturdy SUV or a sleeker SUV, with a slogan even in place: “Two cars for a penny.” The plan was canceled after a year of work, and it may be reconsidered in a few years.
The important thing is the exploration itself: exploring technology, design, functions, scenarios, and modes. Without the first step of exploration, there will be the possibility of taking the wrong paths or temporarily giving up on them, and finally finding the right path.
So what does “XPeng” mean today? XPeng is an explorer of future travel, an ordinary person who will fail, and who has the courage to start over no matter what stage of life he is in, has the will to explore the unknown, and the determination to continue to fight and the fearless belief and hope for success.
Or to use XPeng He’s original words, “Using an ordinary name to do extraordinary things.”
XPeng’s new goals
Every time humans face their own ordinariness is a huge step forward. When we place ourselves in a greater coordinate system, we can see a wider universe.
XPeng is at such a turning point. They believe that in 2023, 2025, and 2027, the industry will transform from intelligent assisted driving to automatic assisted driving to unmanned driving, and the form of travel will undergo huge changes. In addition to deepening their software, data, and operational capabilities, using true intelligence to lead the hardware stack behind them, it is time to look further.
So they assigned themselves two important new missions:
One is diversity, such as the previously mentioned robotic horse and flying car. XPeng is serious about exploring innovative transportation technologies that can bring great value to human society.
Some may consider XPeng’s exploration to be small, lacking the hardcore feeling of exploring the universe, and not viable in the short term. Regulations prohibit it, and consumption is not widespread; it may seem like a mere “tech attribute.”I disagree that exploring in a mature environment is not exploration, but rather tourism. The essence of exploration determines that you must start with action, and then drive the industry to cooperate with your growth to develop high value. Whether it is low-altitude transportation or household robots, they both have great potential for improving human lifestyles.
Secondly, globalization is also important for XPeng Motors. Since last year, we started exporting the G3 to Norway, and this year we started exporting the P7. XPeng believes that the future market will definitely be a global market. We cannot wait until we dominate the domestic market before thinking about expanding to the global market. We are already competing with companies from all over the world, so we need to consider and deploy globalization earlier. What we can achieve will be completely different.
In addition to expanding into new markets, XPeng is also exploring new products. For example, the next flagship model G9 is a model born for globalization, developed according to China and the EU’s dual certification standards for whole vehicles and designed according to C-NCAP and E-NCAP’s dual five-star safety standards. The environmental protection aspect also closely follows the white-left advocates, with a reuse rate of ≥85% and a recycling rate of over 95%.
With this as a new starting point, XPeng needs a new brand image to let other countries, any country, see XPeng and recognize XPeng. The renewed brand concept is defined in five dimensions:
- To continuously focus on intelligence and always provide the most advanced intelligent experience on the market;
- To improve quality, whether it is product quality or service quality, to achieve a good reputation, like many industry examples that can stand up to scrutiny even nitpicking;
- To always be the most handsome car, using design to inject a cool attitude into life;
- To continue to uphold the spirit of daring to explore, bringing something more COOL, valuable, and with far-reaching impact to the world in the future; and
- At the same time, striving to become a model of carbon neutrality enterprises and a staunch practitioner of sustainable development.
These five dimensions, summarized by He XPeng, come together so that “when people see the products of XPeng, they can think of intelligent, quality, and cool labels, and when they mention XPeng as a company, they can realize that this is a company that keeps exploring and adheres to a sustainable path”.And how to convey these ideas and values clearly across cultures is reflected in the new emblem. It is sharper, extending in all directions, piercing boundaries, and exploring a few more pixels of the outside world. Form-wise, the four petals are combined into two, evolving from cicada wings to wings, more powerful and flying to the distance and the future. It feels like it even has a better taste.
In conjunction with the new emblem, the entire UI has undergone an iteration. Black, white, and green have been established as the brand colors, representing technology, internationalization, and carbon neutrality. At the same time, the font has been changed from the original rudimentary black font to the more stylish Chinese-English XPeng font, which is trendy and delves into details.
To be frank, it has changed and it hasn’t. In fact, every core concept proposed by the revamped brand is something that XPeng has established and has already practiced. The new XPeng brand is just like the XPeng brand we have known in the past seven years, which has been exploring every day step by step. This is worth celebrating, indicating that the past has not been in vain, and XPeng has always been on the right path, but with a more resolute and decisive pace in the future.
When He XPeng saw many new emblems made into flat and three-dimensional shapes placed on cars, he felt that this emblem is really great.
We can also try to place it on more cars, and perhaps we can feel its excellence. This emblem cannot be viewed alone, as it belongs to a larger world and a more magnificent coordinate system.
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.