Since the beginning of this year, the competition in the new energy vehicle market has become increasingly hot, and many traditional car companies have responded to the transformation, and new products of intelligent electric vehicles have continued. New car-making forces such as Weilai, Xiaopeng, Ideal, etc., are also not far behind, and have successively launched new cars or upgraded models, continuing to broaden the product front and strengthening competitive advantage.
Among them, since the launch of the Xiaopeng P5 in September, sales have continued to rise and performed well, with a record delivery of 2154 units in November. In an increasingly crowded track, this is a rare achievement.
Well, here's the problem. How did Xiaopeng P5 fight a bloody road in this highly competitive market? What are its outstanding advantages over the following models of the same price range?
Note: Xiaopeng P5 has six models: 460G, 460E, 550G, 550E, 550P, 600P. Among them, the number represents the NEDC comprehensive working condition mileage of the model, and G\E\P represents the gradient of the model's XPILOT intelligent level
Specifically, as an intelligent electric home car, the comprehensive performance of Xiaopeng P5's motor drive system, intelligent cockpit, intelligent driving and so on will surely become the main point of inspection when purchasing by car owners. Compared with other competitors in the same price range, Xiaopeng P5 has a superior product strength at the above levels.
Endurance design + intelligent cockpit to create a high cost performance
First, let's look at the dynamic performance
In the price range of 150,000-180,000, the low-end models of Xiaopeng P5 are 460G, 550G and 460E, which can compete with the AION S Plus and Qin Plus EV series models with the same price point and similar configuration.
Only from the price and the official mileage, AION S Plus and Qin Plus EV seem to be slightly better: car owners can spend thousands of yuan less to buy a new energy vehicle with a longer mileage.
But that may be just the surface. If the overall design of the power system, charging services and other factors are considered, Xiaopeng P5 actually has more advantages in actual use scenarios, and the comprehensive cost performance is higher.
According to Ouyang Minggao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with the industrialization of ternary batteries with high energy density and the structural innovation of battery systems, the energy of on-board batteries has increased significantly, and the mileage of vehicles equipped with lithium iron phosphate batteries has reached 600 kilometers.
But this level of battery capacity increase only solves part of the battery life problem. In the low temperature environment in winter, technical problems such as the decline in the mileage caused by the attenuation of battery charge and discharge performance have not yet achieved significant breakthroughs.
At this stage, only with the efficient cooperation of various means such as improving charging efficiency, improving the energy replenishment system, and enhancing the adaptability of the battery environment can the mileage anxiety of the user terminal be truly alleviated.
The configuration scheme of "free charging service + standard heat pump air conditioner + intelligent safety heat control" given by Xiaopeng Automobile makes the P5 series more solid and reliable in terms of endurance performance.
In terms of charging services. As of October 31 this year, the 1,734 supercharging free charging service sites built by Xiaopeng Automobile have been opened and basically cover the core main urban areas of the country. At the same time, Xiaopeng P5 also provides 1000 degrees / year of lifelong free overcharge service for the first car owner, and gives away home charging piles, effectively alleviating the owner's battery life anxiety;
In addition, the X-HP intelligent thermal management system equipped with Xiaopeng P5 can effectively improve the comprehensive utilization rate of the energy of the electric drive system under low temperature working conditions through heat pump air conditioning and intelligent safety heat control technology, reduce energy consumption, improve charging efficiency, and enhance the low temperature environment adaptability of the battery.
It is said that Xiaopeng P5 can start normally in the temperature range of -30 °C or more, which can basically meet the needs of users in more than 90% of China's cities.
Let's look at the smart cockpit.
Xiaopeng P5, which is positioned as a "versatile and comfortable smart car", has also made great efforts in this regard.
From the product development stage, Xiaopeng P5 has tried to start from different car use scenarios, combine intelligent software and hardware systems and rich entertainment configurations, create an intelligent ecosystem, and upgrade the intelligent entertainment experience of human-vehicle interaction.
The "versatile intelligent space" of the Xiaopeng P5 is mainly supported by the intelligent digital interactive cockpit, and is supported by the Qualcomm Snapdragon SA8155P chip with 7nm process and 8-core design. On this basis, Xiaopeng P5 is equipped with Xmart OS 3.0 vehicle intelligent system as standard, which can achieve 1 second fast screen lighting and random read and write speed increased by 70%.
Based on this, compared with AION S Plus and Qin Plus EV, the Xiaopeng P5 equipped with "all-scenario intelligent voice" is more brilliant in terms of intelligent interaction; in addition, compared with the more closed application ecology of Tesla Model 3 itself, Xiaopeng P5 is based on more than 100 on-board application APPS equipped with open systems, which also brings a richer and more diversified entertainment experience for drivers and occupants.
On the whole, the relatively high price of Xiaopeng P5 low-end models can be completely used to win back a round with its full series of standard Xmart OS 3.0 on-board intelligent system, lifelong free charging service, X-HP intelligent thermal management system and other bonus points, which is obviously better in terms of comprehensive cost performance.
Lidar + versatile space, intelligent experience bar on Tesla
However, compared with the "appetizers" such as power systems and smart cockpits, intelligent driving is the real "highlight" of smart cars.
Among the above-mentioned benchmark models, if the AION S Plus full range of models wants to install one-button remote control parking, over-the-horizon parking and other smart driving functions, it needs to increase the price by thousands to tens of thousands of yuan, and the price advantage has been weakened repeatedly. In addition, AION S Plus also has a number of customized optional packages such as ADiGO 2.0 intelligent driving assistance system, ADiGO 2.5 intelligent driving assistance system, 5G pioneer suit, etc., which are more classified, and the optional steps are more complicated for ordinary car owners;
As for the Qin Plus EV, its positioning or selling point itself is not intelligent driving. Its top-mounted model is equipped with L2-level assisted driving functions such as ACC, AEB, and LDW, but there are no related functions such as ALC and intelligent parking.
In contrast, the Xiaopeng P5 is equipped with more intelligent driving functions.
Starting from the E series, xiaopeng P5 is equipped with XPILOT 2.5 software and XPILOT 3.0 hardware as standard, including 5 high-precision millimeter-wave radars, 12 ultrasonic sensors, 13 intelligent driver assistance cameras, and 1 set of sub-meter-level high-precision positioning units. Functions such as ACC, LCC, ALC, and intelligent park assist system are all configured on a basic basis.
In addition, through the subscription software and upgrade services, Xiaopeng P5 can also be upgraded to the corresponding hardware-level XPILOT intelligent driver assistance system, opening up high-speed NGP intelligent navigation assisted driving, VPA parking lot memory parking and other functions.
As far as the intelligent driving system that has been put on the ground at present, even in the face of Tesla Model 3, Xiaopeng P5 can also fight with one.
As we all know, Tesla has always pursued a purely visual technical route. Although its driving experience has always been praised by car owners, the occurrence of many car accidents in recent years has also caused concerns about the safety of Tesla's intelligent driving system.
Some insiders said that it is difficult to achieve non-standard static object detection by relying on cameras and millimeter-wave radar alone, which is a technical defect of the basic layer and requires lidar to increase safety redundancy.
The Xiaopeng P5 adopts a dual redundancy scheme of vision + lidar. As the first mass-produced lidar smart car, the Xiaopeng P5 adds two lidars to the original sensor scheme with 550P and 600P. Based on the lidar placed on both sides of the front bumper, the perception distance of Xiaopeng P5 can reach the area of up to 150 meters in front, the point cloud field of view reaches 150°, the spatial resolution is higher, and the object recognition is therefore more accurate.
The dual redundancy scheme of vision + lidar not only improves the safety performance of Xiaopeng P5, but also further strengthens the function of its intelligent driving system on the basis of the previous generation of products.
With the more accurate perception capabilities provided by lidar, Xiaopeng P5 has further extended the urban NGP intelligent navigation assistance driving function on the basis of high-speed NGP function, and the scope of application of NGP has been extended from high-speed/expressway to urban roads. At the same time, the parking function can also be upgraded to VPA-L cross-floor parking lot memory parking, intelligent driving experience is better.
In addition, based on Xiaopeng's geographical advantages, Xiaopeng P5 better responds to the localization needs of a new generation of Chinese users for home cars in terms of space design and scenario-based applications.
At the level of interior space design, compared with the Tesla Model 3, which cares more about the driver's experience, Xiaopeng P5 fully considers the riding needs of the owner and his family, adopts a more transparent and balanced layout design, and the effective leg space of the rear seat reaches 991mm, so that the front and rear head, legs, and knee space can be stretched, creating a more spacious and comfortable riding experience;
At the level of scenario-based application, Xiaopeng P5 takes "versatile intelligent space" as the selling point, relies on the intelligent ecosystem connecting different application scenarios and the spacious and variable car space, transplants a variety of life scenarios such as rest, movie entertainment, outdoor camping and so on into the car, truly making the car a "third space" for life.
Technology research and development + user insight, challenging the traditional fuel car
In fact, the creation of Xiaopeng P5's excellent product strength superior to that of competitors of the same level is inseparable from Xiaopeng Automobile's continuous research and development investment over the years and its deep insight into user needs.
For Xiaopeng, "intelligence" has always been its core positioning. Since its inception, Xiaopeng Motors has always adhered to independent research and development to create intelligent products and services that are comprehensively controllable and have differentiated advantages.
According to the data, the research and development expenses of Xiaopeng Automobile from 2018 to 2020 were 1.051 billion yuan, 2.07 billion yuan and 1.726 billion yuan, accounting for 89.2%, 29.5% and 18.1% of its total revenue in that year, far exceeding the research and development investment of new car-making forces in the same period. In addition, the size of Xiaopeng Automobile's R&D team is also continuing to expand. As of the first half of 2021, Xiaopeng Automobile's R&D team has exceeded 3,000 people, an increase of about 50% over the beginning of this year.
High R&D investment and a huge R&D team have jointly built Xiaopeng's excellent full-stack self-research capabilities. According to the "2021 Automotive Patent Innovation Index" released by China Automobile Research And Consulting Co., Ltd., Xiaopeng Automobile ranks first in the quality of patents in China's intelligent automotive industry.
If the full-stack self-developed intelligent technology is the most valuable "pearl" on the exhibition stand of Xiaopeng Automobile, then the practical response to the needs of a new generation of users is the "spotlight" that makes it more dazzling. After all, no matter how advanced the technology is, it must always be landed in the real use scenario.
As a representative work of Xiaopeng Automobile to challenge the traditional fuel car, Xiaopeng P5 integrates user research, big data application scenarios and designers' insights at the beginning of research and development, so that intelligent interaction, intelligent driving and other functions are more suitable for users' habits and daily preferences.
In today's target group's car consumption habits have undergone obvious changes, this consideration based on the user's perspective is particularly important.
Tencent Advertising's "Consumer Insights on Next-Generation Chinese New Energy Vehicles" report released this year shows that "low energy costs" are the main considerations for car owners to buy new energy vehicles. In addition to the basic endurance and charging requirements, the main consumer population in the future is paying more attention to the comfort, intelligence, automatic driving and auxiliary driving functions of new energy vehicles.
In the face of changes in consumer demand, the traditional fuel family car that can only provide basic experiences such as physical space, simple human-vehicle interaction, acceleration and deceleration + steering + NVH, etc., has more and more prominent pain points such as high fuel energy consumption costs, loud noise, primitive human-computer interaction, and insufficient level of intelligence.
In this regard, Xiaopeng P5 actively responds to the needs of a new generation of users, while solving the problems of car economy and low noise, it also brings a high-level and high-comfort intelligent experience of "high-level automatic driving assistance + third-generation intelligent cockpit + changeable intelligent space" to the car users.
It is foreseeable that the Xiaopeng P5, aiming at the star sea of traditional fuel vehicles, will be expected to redefine the family car with the help of intelligence, subvert the tradition, and become a powerful challenger to the fuel car.
epilogue
Looking at the present, Xiaopeng Automobile, which holds many fist products such as P5 and P7, is undoubtedly at the top of the wave of industry development.
However, with the establishment of new brands such as SAIC Zhiji, Geely Krypton, BAIC Jihu, and Jidu Automobile, traditional and cross-border players have flocked to the track, and the technology on the track is changing with each passing day, and the products are rapidly iterating. In it, how to stabilize the leading edge of its products will become a problem that Xiaopeng must think about for a long time.
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