On the afternoon of May 6, Xiaopeng Automobile announced a package of business plan updates, including the newly launched 1 Xiaopeng P5 and 4 Xiaopeng P7; since 00:00 on May 9, Xiaopeng E and above models are equipped with intelligent auxiliary driving system software and upgrade services as standard; and since 00:00 on May 9, they will no longer provide lifetime free charging services and free home charging piles and installation rights.
Obviously, it is difficult to sum up the profit and loss of this package for all Xiaopeng owners in a word. So, if you are the owner of the Xiaopeng (prospective) car that has just picked up the car or is preparing to order, please continue to read on.
On the new 5 models, intelligent driving standard
Starting from 00:00 on May 9, 2022, the model model (E/E+/P) equipped with XPILOT 3.0 or above will be ordered to the Xiaopeng P5 or P7, and the corresponding version of the intelligent driver assistance system software and upgrade services will be adjusted to standard. In other words, NGP that once required a fee of 20,000 to 25,000 yuan (36,000 to 45,000 yuan for later installations) will become standard in the future.
(Note: Xiaopeng designs the model configuration according to the mileage and intelligent hardware P, E, N, and G, of which the P, E, N, and G series correspond to models equipped with XPILOT 3.5, 3.0, 2.5 and those without auxiliary driving systems, respectively.) ）
Let's take a look at the 5 new models.
The Xiaopeng P5 460 P version, the goalkeeper of the Xiaopeng high-end intelligent driving model, is also the lowest priced model equipped with lidar in the industry.
Xiaopeng P7 480 G+/E+ version, compared to 480 G/E price unchanged, with 19 inch wheels, no increase in price.
The Xiaopeng P7 586 G version is a mid-range supplement between the 480 and 670.
Xiaopeng P7 625 E version is a new battery life version between 580 and 670, according to the star channel, the 625 version is based on the 670 to reduce a battery module to meet the diverse battery life needs of consumers.
In addition, due to the intelligent driver assistance system software and upgrade services from optional to standard, the price of Xiaopeng P5 550 P and 600 P increased by 7,000 yuan.
Why standard?
Starting from May 9, Xiaopeng models based on the XPILOT 3.0/3.5 high-end intelligent driving platform will all be equipped with high-end intelligent driving software systems as standard. This means that a series of intelligent driving functions under Xiaopeng that have formed enough differentiation to lead the industry, including high-speed pilot assist NGP, last-mile parking AVP and even Xiaopeng P5's P-series upcoming city NGP, will be fully standard.
Considering Xiaopeng's solid intelligent driving engineering capabilities and the resulting reputation in user experience in the past 3 years, this cannot but be said to be a key change.
From the user's point of view, if we re-examine Xiaopeng, in fact, the company has been continuing to make efforts to lower the threshold of high-level intelligent experience. This time the business plan is to update the newly launched Xiaopeng P5 460 P, the starting price is 209,900 yuan.
This is the lowest priced dual lidar you can buy in the world, and it will soon support smart driving in cities. During the 1024 Xiaopeng Intelligence Day in 2021, the stellar channel wrote an article analyzing that one of Xiaopeng's key value propositions is the democratization of science and technology.
The high-end intelligent driving software standard after May 9 is undoubtedly the latest practice of the democratization of Xiaopeng Technology.
From Xiaopeng's point of view, this actually shows from the side that Xiaopeng has made new progress in intelligent assisted driving technology. He Xiaopeng once publicly talked about Xiaopeng's promotion logic in hardware engineering:
The first rhythm is to first make things and make them safe and scalable; the second rhythm is to make things safe, to ensure that the scale is safe, and in the case of increased capabilities, greatly reduce costs.
And the second rhythm of this, He Xiaopeng has also discussed:
It's really hard to do a good job of autonomous driving in a relatively convergent cost. Spending 100 yuan to make a good thing, and spending 30 yuan to make the same good thing, 30 yuan is 10 times more difficult than 100 yuan, but this is very important, so that it can be popularized.
Combined with this business update with high-end intelligent driving as standard, a reasonable speculation is that after several years of R&D investment in the early stage of Xiaopeng G3 and even P7, Xiaopeng is entering the "second rhythm" that He Xiaopeng calls, that is, in addition to continuous iteration of intelligent driving capabilities, the cost is greatly diluted and reflected in the terminal price.
Settle the ledger
Different positions, different needs, new and old car owners of the same sales policy of the understanding of nature is naturally different. From 00:00 on May 9, Xiaopeng will no longer provide "Lifetime Free Charging Service" and "Free Home Charging Pile and Installation Benefit".
Let's talk about the "Lifetime Free Charging Service".
Xiaopeng's first owner's lifetime free charging rights were first announced at the 2020 Beijing Auto Show, each Xiaopeng owner can enjoy a free 3000 degrees / year policy, according to the relatively high energy consumption of 20 kWh / 100 km to calculate, 3000 kWh electricity can allow the owner to run at least 15000 km.
15,000 km / year can basically meet the daily travel of most people, not to mention the situation of home charging blessing and can not find a free charging pile. I believe that for many car owners, 3000 degrees / year is inexhaustible, of course, this is the benefit of early car owners.
After that, Xiaopeng made adjustments to the relevant rights and interests.
Starting from August 2021, the Xiaopeng G3 series and P7 no longer enjoy 3000 degrees / year, the benefit is changed to 1000 degrees / year, and in November, the benefit of the Xiaopeng P5 is also changed to 1000 degrees / year.
If you refer to Tesla, Tesla first canceled the lifetime free charging service in 2017, but it resumed in the promotion of some models in 2018 until it was completely removed from the shelves in 2020. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that lifetime free charging is not sustainable in mass production, and Tesla should have ended this incentive earlier.
I believe Tesla's logic here applies equally to Xiaopeng. As of March 23, the 100,000th Xiaopeng P7 has been mass-produced off the production line, while the demand for the entire new energy market is also continuing to undergo positive changes, for Xiaopeng, the cancellation of lifetime free charging service is only a matter of time, nothing more than Xiaopeng chose to freeze it on May 9.
The underlying logic here is that in the early stage of the development of the new energy vehicle industry, users who choose to buy new energy vehicles often need to bear higher car costs in terms of price, depreciation and other dimensions, in order to erase the gap between the development of mature fuel vehicles, whether it is the regulatory authorities or new energy vehicle companies will introduce different forms of incentives or subsidies.
However, from the perspective of long-term business logic, the gradual decline of such interests until the complete cancellation is expected.
Let's calculate carefully, how much does the new owner "lose"?
1000 kWh / year free benefit, calculated at the average price of 1.5 yuan / kWh of fast charging, worth 1500 yuan. We calculate according to the average domestic 6-year car replacement frequency, and the 6-year free charging benefit brings 9,000 yuan of revenue.
What about home piles? Tesla's third-generation home charging pile (including installation) costs 8,000 yuan, third-party home charging pile is relatively cheap, 7 kW - 11 kW home charging pile in the price of 2000 - 4000 yuan can basically choose freely. Xiaopeng will definitely launch a brand exclusive home pile in the later stage, and I believe the price will not be too high.
Based on the calculation of 6,000 yuan of home charging piles, the total value of the benefits provided by Xiaopeng's "lifetime free charging service" and "free home charging pile and installation rights" is 15,000 yuan.
But in fact, for users who have installed home charging piles, the "lifetime free charging service" is likely to be a lackluster existence. It is difficult for a car owner to completely use up the "lifetime free charging service" of 1000 degrees / year while using the home pile to replenish energy on a daily basis.
For owners of P and E versions, the XPILOT 3.0 / 3.5 software paid price is 20,000 yuan and 25,000 yuan, which is naturally more cost-effective.
But for owners of the G and N versions, this is a clear reduction in entitlements. But fortunately, the above policy is not updated immediately, pinch your fingers, you still have more than 30 hours to decide, before 00:00 on May 9, you can choose the sales strategy you want.
To a conclusion: if you are not interested in intelligent driving, G and N versions are worth placing orders before May 9th, still enjoy free charging rights and home charging pile services, want to configure intelligent driving, after May 9 NGP will become standard, compared to free charging rights is naturally cost-effective.
For me, compared with the "lifetime free charging service" and "free home charging pile and installation rights" these two expected adjustments, Xiaopeng intelligent driving system software and upgrade services adjusted to standard is obviously more exciting, considering that the intelligent driving software and hardware platform fully upgraded Xiaopeng G9 is ready to go, Xiaopeng intelligent driving new journey has begun.
We look forward to the arrival of the "third rhythm" of Xiaopeng intelligent driving in He Xiaopeng's mouth.