Header image source | Visual China
In 2026, the transition to unmanned driving may be completed.
On March 26, He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xiaopeng Motors, said at the 8th China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum that intelligent assisted driving will enter the stage of high-end automatic driving from the second half of this year, in this context, "Xiaopeng Motors or in 2026 to complete the transition to unmanned driving."
In an interview with future automotive daily and other media, He Xiaopeng revealed the test situation of Xiaopeng Automobile City NGP. According to its introduction, in the test area of Guangzhou's urban area, the Xiaopeng P5 test vehicle equipped with the city NGP has repeatedly maintained that it has traveled tens of kilometers without taking over at all, or only once, which is very close to the effect of high-speed NGP.
"Judging from the test results, the city-level NGP launched within this year will be better than tesla FSD," He Xiaopeng said.
However, the more difficult problem in front of Xiaopeng Motors at the moment is the supply chain. He Xiaopeng said that at present, new energy vehicle manufacturers are affected by three external unfavorable factors: battery cell shortage, chip shortage and epidemic.
For a young startup like Xiaopeng, the challenge is even greater. Recently, in order to cope with the rising costs, Xiaopeng Automobile has carried out a wide range of price increases, and the prices of its three models on sale have been raised by 10,100-20,000 yuan.
In response to this round of price increases, He Xiaopeng explained that the battery scale of each manufacturer is different, and the proportion of price increases is also different, which is directly related to the cost. "For those who have risen less (for manufacturers), there may be some new ways to cover the cost of price increases, but for Xiaopeng, this is the data we think is more appropriate."
In the future, Xiaopeng Automobile will tilt its main production capacity towards models with higher gross margins. He expects that in the second or third quarter of next year, China's battery supply situation will be greatly improved.
He Xiaopeng expects to be able to complete the mule car this year, which can fly at a low altitude and drive like an ordinary car, and can have the ability to fold and deform.
In addition, He Xiaopeng also revealed plans for going to sea. In the second half of 2023, Xiaopeng will have two products for globalization, "that is when Xiaopeng will really accelerate its going to sea." ”
The following is the transcript of He Xiaopeng's dialogue with media interviews by Future AutoMotive Daily and other media (excerpted by Future Automotive Daily):
The company will mainly produce models with higher gross profit margins
Q: How does Xiaopeng cope with supply chain pressure due to the rising price of raw materials for new energy vehicles? What are the next layouts or plans in terms of production capacity? Will the discontinuation of individual low-margin models be considered in the future?
A: This year's external environment brings three challenges to new energy vehicle manufacturers: 1. materials (mainly referring to batteries); 2. chips, in the first half of 2022, we saw that not only did not alleviate, but also deteriorated; 3. The impact of the epidemic this year.
We've done a lot of things lately, the first round of price increases based on material price increases, and from now on, after our price increases, a lot of manufacturers have raised prices. I expect that in the third quarter, raw material prices will not continue to rise, will remain stable or even stable, I think it is still expected.
This year, we will gradually shift our main production capacity to models with higher gross margins.
Q: Will the rising price of power batteries affect the overall sales volume of Xiaopeng Motors and even China's new energy vehicle market this year?
A: We didn't expect the price of power batteries to rise so badly this year. So far, it has not affected our sales. I think that (the battery price increase) has no impact on the average price of Xiaopeng Automobile (about 250,000 yuan). However, for cars that are not intelligent, the number of batteries is relatively large, and the price is relatively cheap, there will be a certain degree of impact, specifically, it will take another 2-3 months to see a clearer impact.
Q: Will the entire industrial chain be interrupted due to the impact of the epidemic? Does Xiaopeng have a plan to deal with it?
A: Now more and more cities are partially closed, which is a huge setback for the automotive industry chain. If this situation continues for several months, it can have a relatively large impact.
Q: Is the battery supply of Xiaopeng Automobile still tight? How much has the cost increase in raw material prices probably led to?
Batteries have been very tight since last year, and there are currently a large number of batteries supplied overseas, in this case, battery supply will still have a relatively big challenge this year. Perhaps in the second or third quarter of next year, the battery supply situation will be alleviated to a greater extent.
(Battery) price increase is very strong, the proportion of price increases beyond our imagination. But we've done a lot of preparation to think about how to buffer and balance such a system. So in the long run, I think the overall battery price increase this year is a good thing.
Q: Now that some models are experiencing some delivery problems, how can Xiaopeng better maintain these users?
A: In the past, we expected to sell before delivery. But now, in the case of extreme supply chain shortages, some supply chain manufacturers have no way to complete their delivery goals. So it becomes that even if there is a contract, there is no way to deliver.
So we are making a lot of adjustments, and in the case of a particularly tight supply chain, we first have the defined capacity of the supply chain before selling. Without supply chain challenges, there can be a very noticeable increase in delivery volumes.
Q: What kind of impact will NIO's affordable brand have on Xiaopeng Motors? Will Xiaopeng enter the high-end market of 500,000 yuan in the future, or build a sub-brand?
A: Many people are looking at the pricing range of Xiaopeng, we were initially positioned at 400,000-550,000 yuan, Xiaopeng will adjust the main price range according to the entire market situation, and has not considered doing it below 150,000 yuan at present, nor is it considering the development of more high-end brands.
I think it's enough for an automaker to be a major brand today. If you do a sub-brand, it is best to have an independent team to do it independently, rather than in the main team.
Q: For Xiaopeng, after about a year at sea, what do you think are the gains and challenges?
A: The core of Xiaopeng going to sea is to take developed countries or more developed countries as the main body. Secondly, we firmly do a good job of To C, which is the same as china's domestic (market). Moreover, we will bring out China's differentiated capabilities, including intelligence, fashion appearance, driving experience, etc.
In the second half of 2023, Xiaopeng will have two products that are fully targeted at globalization, and that is when Xiaopeng will really accelerate its going to sea. It takes 10 years of deployment and determination to go to sea, including predecessor companies such as Toyota, who have been working hard in globalization for 10 years or more.
Xiaopeng Automobile opened its first brand direct experience store in the Netherlands Source: Xiaopeng official
2026 or into the unmanned driving stage
Q: You said before that 2025 may be the end of the window period, and between now and 2025, what are the main challenges that Xiaopeng Motors or the new car-making forces may face?
A: I think there are several important challenges today:
First, all new car manufacturers should play a product differentiation. I recently talked to the founder of a friendly business and said that the car is both a product and not a product. In the fields of Software, Application + Services, etc. of the Internet, the products are visible and touchable by everyone. But the car is not, the car needs to improve the comprehensive system capabilities, including brand, market, sales, after-sales service, delivery and so on. So from a certain point of view, I think that by 2025, the new forces of car manufacturing will have to pull up all the boards of the barrel.
Second, about the way energy is replenished. At present, the technical route of super hybrid can meet the needs of both electric vehicle users and gasoline vehicle users. I think in 2024, 2025, pure electric vehicles will have new changes and enhancements in terms of energy replenishment.
Third, the challenge of intelligence. Since last year, many customers in China's first- and second-tier cities have accepted electric vehicles, but when to start to accept smart cars in a real sense, I think this is an important challenge in 2023 to 2025. Today's intelligence is still the initial intelligence, I think the second step of high-level intelligent auxiliary driving capabilities will gradually begin in the second half of this year, and will end by the end of 2025.
Q: What are your mass production criteria for the so-called mass production of autonomous driving technology (including automatic parking and high-speed NGP scenarios)?
A: At present, L2 intelligent assisted driving is allowed in China, and we are doing it in strict accordance with relevant Chinese standards. From the current effect, we found that the safety and crashability of intelligent assisted driving in millions of kilometers are much better than manual driving, and we are currently further improving this indicator, and we hope to achieve an increase of about 50-100 times the safety level in the future.
Q: What is Xiaopeng's progress in intelligent assisted driving now?
A: Xiaopeng now has a scale of nearly 1500 R&D personnel and data personnel for intelligent assisted driving. At the end of this year, xiaopeng G9 will be equipped with XPILOT4.0, which can be used in more cities.
The technology is getting more and more perfect, and there will be a lot of new high-level assisted driving functions in the future, such as automatic parking, automatic charging, automatic car washing, and automatic driving out.
Q: In the field of autonomous driving, in the future competition with Tesla, what are the advantages and challenges of Xiaopeng?
A: Whether Xiaopeng Automobile can launch XPIRAT3.5 in the second half of this year also depends on the approval of the policy. Judging from the results of the test, we are confident that the city-level NGP launched within this year will be better than Tesla.com. I think intelligent assisted driving will enter the high-level autonomous driving stage from the second half of this year, and may enter the driverless stage by 2026.
Q: Some experts say that the gap between the core key technology areas of China's automobile industry and developed countries is still relatively obvious, and in the field of electric vehicles, some parts and components are more obviously restricted. What is the current localization rate of parts and components? What are the core competencies? How can we promote the electric vehicle industry to lead the world?
A: China's automotive industry has been developing for decades, and at the beginning the gap between us and developed countries was very obvious, but in the past 20 years, especially in the last 5-10 years, due to the increasing investment in technology and resources, I think there is a gap in some parts, but some have been significantly exceeded.
In the power system of electric vehicles, we can see the strength of China's batteries, absolutely not weaker than others. In the intelligent system, in addition to the mainstream chip may take several years to move forward, the other I think is not a big problem.
Regarding the localization rate, a smart electric vehicle has more than 20,000 parts, of which there are about 1,700 chips. In the next few years, the localization rate will increase rapidly, and I am very confident.
From 2025 to 2030, we will see China's smart cars go global, and there will be a technical gap of about two generations or a generation and a half with mainstream smart cars in other countries.
Q: The Xiaopeng P7 became the first model to exceed 100,000 units of mass production of pure electric new forces, what do you think is the reason for this achievement?
A: When we first designed the P7, we repeatedly discussed a question internally, as a new brand, how can we sell well when launching a sedan with an average price of nearly 300,000 - even touching the average price of the Audi A4 and BMW 3 Series?
We found that users have more different ideas about the choice of technology intelligence and personality. Originally, we needed a very comprehensive ability to make a car, but now we should explore some differences in the new direction. In the future, Xiaopeng's model will have new explorations, it is not so comprehensive and balanced, but considering most of the balance and a small number of extreme combinations, this is our gene.
Source: Xiaopeng official
Q: Xiaopeng Huitian's recent popularity is relatively high, but it will take a while for the commercialization of flying cars to land, why do we enter such an industry at this stage? What are your expectations for the development of Xiaopeng Huitian in 2022?
A: Xiaopeng Huitian has entered its ninth year this year, and many people feel that it is far from the real mass production landing, and we felt so three or four years ago. But we're doing flying in a car way right now, not by having an airplane fly on the ground, but by making a car fly at a low altitude. After changing the logic, we found that the scale of mass production of flying cars and the possibility of solving safety and policy control will be greatly improved. I'm looking forward to completing the mule car this year, which can both fly at low altitudes and drive like a car, with the ability to fold and deform.
The author | Ding unique
Edit the | Li Huanhuan