The charging stations of Xpeng (“XPeng” or the “Company”, NYSE: XPEV, HKEX: 9868. HK) have covered 333 prefecture-level cities and 4 direct-controlled municipalities by the time of Jan. 17, 2022.
- In total, there are 813 super-charging stations and 166 destination charging stations launched.
- Xpeng claims to be offering a rare 180kW DC super-charging service in 12 cities nationwide, including Bortara, Jinchang, Gannan, etc.
- Xpeng plans to open more super-charging stations in cities that lack supercharging opportunities. Those cities include the 12 mentioned and also some of the prefecture-level cities in east-north and west-north China.
The comparison between Xpeng, NIO and Tesla’s charging stations’ layout:
Current layout extent:
- Tesla’s supercharging stations are the earliest to be constructed and operated. Since super-charging is one of the most important components of Tesla’s industry, the company has ambitiously implanted 1533 stations and 13344 charging devices.
- Being the first Chinese company to establish charging stations by itself, Xpeng is now expanding as fast as it can. Xpeng has built 979 free charging stations already. The number is increasing by about 3 stations per day at this time.
- The first NIO station in Suzhou started to operate in July 2019. NIO starts relatively late, but it is actively finding companions and planning constructions of potential stations.
Price:
- Tesla charges 1.95RMB per kilowatt hour; Xpeng charges 0.65-1.6RMB per kilowatt hour; NIO charges 1.2 RMB per kilowatt hour.
- Tesla is the most expensive, while Xpeng the cheapest, depending on the situation.
Convenience:
- Tesla has established its stations near restaurants, shopping centres, and wi-fi hotspots.
- The distribution of Tesla’s station can be found on its official website or the car-implanted navigation system. Most of the stations have parking locks to prevent non-Tesla users from occupying the place.
- Xpeng decided to build most of its stations in city centres, where there are sufficient infrastructures in the surroundings. There are extra charging lots built along the highway, especially in rest stations.
- Xpeng has a ‘charging map’ on its app. Drivers can also check the parking lots via take-out apps such as Ele.me or Meituan.
- NIO’s charging map is relatively difficult to find because it is not directly displayed on its app.
- Xpeng’s users are able to find charging lots faster than users of other companies’ stations, as there are more information sources and parking lots.
- Tesla and NIO’s stations are only available for owners of cars of their brand. On the other hand, Xpeng opens its station to all drivers, even if they do not own an Xpeng vehicle.
Charging speed:
- On the original 85 kWh Model S, Tesla’s Supercharger takes about 20 minutes to charge to 50%, 40 minutes to 80%, and 75 minutes to 100%.
- NIO’s Power Charger charges up the vehicle from 20% to 80% in just half an hour.
- Xpeng is able to charge up to 80% in 20 minutes theoretically, which makes it the fastest charger among all.
Technology used:
- For Tesla, it supplies 4 stalls at up to 250 kW each and can have a 575 kW battery storage. However, the grid input is limited to around 350 kW.
- XPeng is using the C9 super-charging station provided by XCharge company, which guarantees a 120-480 kW power supply. The maximum power supply can be achieved by installing more charging modules into the machine, which is not yet achieved.
