Recently, XPeng Inc. (“XPeng” or the “Company”, NYSE: XPEV, HKEX: 9868. HK) has been publishing photos of its newest version of SUV, which is the second car type in Xpeng’s G series SUVs.
The official name of this new car type has not been announced yet. According to existing information, it should be a middle-large-sized SUV similar to NIO ES6. The car length is about 5m and the wheelbase is at 3m.
The car may acquire the ability of XPLIOT 4.0.
XPILOT 4.0 is all about achieving Navigation Guided Pilot(NGP) in a full-scale scenario. Its core is to link all scenes together to form a full-scale autonomous navigation-guided pilot.
XPILOT is one of the most attractive characteristics of Xpeng’s product. Its NGP published in last year’s 1024 event has provided a better experience than Tesla’s Navigate on Autopilot(NoA).
From the beginning of its car manufacturing history, Xpeng has been very clear to base its strategy on autonomous pilot technology. Xpeng especially stated that its NGP needs to be self-developed and based on domestic background.
The history of Xpeng’s self-driving system can be classified into 4 generations:
- The first generation: this generation is represented by the 1.0 version of the G3 car type. It has achieved mass production in 2018.
- The second generation is composed of Nvidia’s Xavier chip and partly self-developed algorithm. It has achieved mass production in 2020, represented by the P7 car type. This is the generation that Xpeng has formally realised high-speed NGP, the real start of its self-developed system.
- The third generation is composed of Nvidia’s Xavier chip and a set of independently developed algorithms. It will be achieving mass production in 2022, represented by the newest G series SUVs.
The highlight of this generation is point-to-point NGP, which symbolises the completion of the whole NGP program.
- The fourth-generation as planned will be using self-developed chips. It will be achieving complete autonomous driving in some scenes and will be achieved in mass production in 2024.
Views and Awards for XPeng’s autonomous technology
As shown, there has not been a large change in Xpeng’s development of autonomous driving, which might be related to Xiaopeng He’s attitude.
Xiaopeng He has been very confident about independently inventing autonomous technology since he started the company. It is very rare for a car brand to launch its car types based on the development of NGP programs like XPILOT.
Xinzhou Wu has expressed similar attitudes when attending an interview:
“Even when we were undergoing the most difficult time, Xpeng still possessed strong protection for its autonomous driving sector.”
Its devotion has received corresponding rewards.
Xpeng’s P7 has acquired one of the strongest NGP hardware since 2019, using costs less than 300,000RMB. P5 has made NGP available in cities for the first time, using costs less than 200,000 RMB. Xpeng has become the leader in the autonomous driving sector, compared to its competitors.
