This photo, taken at the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show, met Li Bin and He Xiaopeng, the founders of the two new car-making forces, at the Weilai booth. Even if it is positioned side by side as a "new car-making force", the two companies have never had a "head-to-head confrontation" since their establishment because of brand positioning and product sequence planning. However, since the beginning of this year, the two companies have invariably entered each other's tracks.
For a long time, Xiaopeng has mainly relied on the trump card of the family - pure electric car P7 to support the entire sales. Taking 2021 as an example, the annual delivery volume of Xiaopeng Automobile is 98,155 units, of which P7 accounts for 60,569 units, accounting for 62% of the total. All the models that NIO can deliver are SUVs, and the annual delivery volume in 2021 has reached 91,429 units.
Entering 2022, NIO will deliver pure electric cars for the first time, and Xiaopeng will also have a medium and large SUV G9 on the market. They enter each other's tracks, and the time has finally come for the two new powers to confront each other?
Battle medium and large SUVs
In the field of pure electric SUVs, Xiaopeng has only had the Tepid G3 series with tepid sales, and it is even more blank in the medium and large SUV market. However, Xiao Peng had already begun to prepare. In 2021, on the eve of Xiaopeng Automobile's listing in Hong Kong, it revealed in the prospectus that Xiaopeng's fourth model, a medium-sized SUV, was unveiled at the Guangzhou Auto Show at the end of last year.
Xiaopeng G9
Looking at WEILAI, for a long time, Weilai only has three SUVs available: EC6, ES6 and ES8. The earliest ES8 has been on the market for more than four years, the most recent EC6 has also been listed for nearly two years, although there are small changes, but in the face of the current development speed of trams and the frequency of replacement, it can be said that the product force has not kept up with the current first echelon.
NIO ES6, EC6, ES8 three models
If you use the G9 to compare the three pure electric SUVs of Weilai, I am afraid that Xiaopeng can win from the perspective of product strength alone, after all, the car that is separated by several years is compared, which is a bit "not to talk about martial virtue". However, it happened that at a recent communication meeting at Weilai, Qin Lihong, president of Weilai Automobile, announced plans for ES7 for the first time. I believe that this car is the product that wants to touch with today's Xiaopeng G9.
The more detailed parameters of the two cars have not yet been announced, but through the information disclosed by the official and the revelations provided by various parties, the highlights of the two cars can already be seen.
Let's make a simple comparison.
First of all, in terms of size, the size of Xiaopeng G9 is expected to be around 4 meters 8, which is similar to ES6. The size of the ES7 is between ES6/8, and it is expected to be around 4 meters 9, and the difference between the two cars is not large. In terms of appearance, the two have not made too many changes, such as the G9 still uses the X ROBOT FACE family front face, and the Weilai ES7 has not announced the appearance at present, but through the previous online spy photos, it is not much different from the design of the current Weilai model. Which of these two do you prefer?
NIO ES7 spy photos
In terms of endurance, the Cruising range of the G9 is expected to be about 600-700 km (UNDER NEDC conditions), and according to The usual practice of Nio, the ES7 will not have a single motor version, so the endurance with the current 75kWh and 100kWh battery packs is expected to be about 450-600 km (UNDER NEDC conditions). However, Weilai's 150kWh battery pack is expected to start delivery in the fourth quarter of this year, and if this battery pack can be used smoothly, the endurance is expected to be about 850-900 kilometers.
The two ways to quickly replenish energy are slightly different. G9 thanks to the use of 800V platform, the maximum can support 480kW charging speed, the official data given is that charging 5 minutes can have 200 km of endurance. But the difficulty is whether Xiaopeng's 480kW fast charging pile can be laid in a short period of time. Xiaopeng's current supercharger pile is generally 120kW. Under the current charging system of Weilai, there are generally only 120kW charging piles, and some charging stations can provide a charging speed of 180kW, but the center of gravity of Weilai has never been fast charging, but power exchange. At present, there are more than 800 Weilai replacement power stations in the country, distributed throughout the country, and at this point, the vast majority of pure trams cannot compete with Weilai.
Intelligence can be said to be the main label of Xiaopeng. Looking at the car machine first, although the G9 and ES7 are equipped with the same Qualcomm 8155 vehicle specification level chip, I believe that the experience brought is still not the same. Judging from the two existing models, Xiaopeng has a good performance in the recognition speed and accuracy of speech, the diversity and flexibility of voice functions, the fluency of the car and the richness of the application. I don't know if Weilai, which uses the Qualcomm 8155 chip, can also have a "generation-skipping" experience.
With the blessing of lidar and two Nvidia Orin-X chips, the Xiaopeng G9 can support point-to-point navigation assisted driving (NGP) on some urban roads and expressways and highways.
MEMS lidar on the Xiaopeng G9
We are still looking forward to the specific performance of the NT2.0 platform of intelligent assisted driving. Weilai ES7 adopts the same NT2.0 platform as ET5 and ET7, the sensor layout is basically the same, lidar is set above the front windshield, and four NVIDIA Orin-X chips are used in the chip, but one of these four chips is redundant, and one is personalized local training, and not all computing power will be applied to the master. With the blessing of these hardware, it can provide an autonomous driving experience (NAD) in high-speed, urban and parking scenarios.
NIO's "watchtower" sensor layout
However, it should be noted that whether it is Xiaopeng's NGP or Niolai's NAD, although it can be "automatically driven" by vehicles on some sections, the driver does not need to control the steering wheel and acceleration/brake pedal, but this is still L2 level auxiliary driving, and the driver needs to always pay attention and take responsibility.
In addition, the charging model may also have an impact on the potential users of the two car companies. Both assisted driving "software" are charged separately. Xiaopeng adopts a one-time buyout system, referring to the current price of XPILOT3.0 on Xiaopeng P7, the purchase is 20,000 yuan before delivery and 36,000 yuan after delivery. The G9-equipped XPILOT4.0 is also expected to be in this price range. Nio's NAD will adopt a subscription system, and the previously announced price is 680 yuan a month. This is a way of hardware embedding, software selling money, and many times different consumption patterns also determine different groups of consumers.
According to the data on the prospectus of Xiaopeng Automobile, Pinchai speculated that the price of Xiaopeng G9 would be between 260,000 and 400,000 yuan. Weilai said that the price of ES7 will be between ES6/8, and the predicted price of ES7 may be between 400,000 and 550,000 yuan, if you use the BaaS solution (battery rental), the car price can also be reduced by about 70,000-120,000 yuan.
Both cars are presumably unveiled at the Beijing Auto Show in April, and the Xiaopeng G9 is expected to start delivery in August this year, and the delivery time of the NIO ES7 is still unknown. So before the ES7 can be delivered, the Xiaopeng G9 may indeed pose a threat to several SUVs existing in NIO.
However, in terms of cars, the two new forces have chosen different directions.
The car market avoids confrontation
Xiaopeng P7 has been released for two years, but at present, Xiaopeng has no official plan to upgrade the P7 or launch a new car of the same level, but launched the P5 compact car. Through the pricing of about 160,000-220,000, it can be seen that Xiaopeng's goal is to further conquer the sinking market.
Xiaopeng P5
At the end of last year, Weilai released the car ET5, even if it is the lowest price of the car in The current product line of Weilai, the starting price is still as high as 328,000 yuan. If you choose BaaS (Battery Rental Scheme), the price can be reduced to 258,000 yuan, but you need to pay about 1,000 yuan per month for "battery rent".
NIO ET5
Weilai ET5 and Xiaopeng P7 are still a lot worse in price, although P7 lacks higher-order auxiliary driving functions and power exchange advantages, but there are advantages in space, and cost performance, and ET5 is not lost in performance parameters, so ET5 will not pose too much threat to P7.
On the whole, the two car companies will not have an overly direct "showdown" in the car market. Putting aside the product itself, Weilai and Xiaopeng, can they become opponents?
Although the two car companies of Weilai and Xiaopeng are classified as "new car-making forces", they have different tones. Xiaopeng emphasizes more on the sense of technology, personality and youthfulness, such as the launch of the Pengyi version of the model and the NBA co-branded car, etc.; while Weilai has always emphasized itself as a high-end brand, such as ET7 directly benchmarking BMW 7 Series.
The different tonalities also make it difficult for the two new forces to enter the market that the other is good at. If Xiaopeng takes the high-end route, it is indeed a more difficult road to go low and up.
But in contrast to Xiaopeng, it is easier to go down from the high. However, the current situation weilai faces is that it can no longer continue to explore. It is understood that the gross profit margin of Weilai's vehicle can be maintained at about 20% in recent quarters, but there are still large losses, on the one hand, due to the current large investment in research and development and charging and replacement network construction, on the other hand, it is also caused by the "luxury" services provided by Weilai. Therefore, it is difficult for Weilai's car to reduce the price.
The "head-to-head confrontation" between Xiaopeng G9 and Weilai ES7 and several other SUVs should be the most recent product positioning of these two car companies in recent years, which is a rare encounter. However, if you look at it openly, the two companies need to face far more opponents than each other. Traditional car companies have gone all out to enter the field of electric vehicles, Toyota Honda's pure electric models have entered the country, BBA a variety of high-end trams have been launched at the same time, and the new forces not only have to "fight infighting" but also need to face more external opponents.