Xiaopeng's product manager does not understand users

Text/Chen Qiuxiao

Editor/Zhou Xiongfei 

Xpeng Motors, which aspires to be a "smart car that understands China better", was once again scolded for "not understanding car owners" on the hot search.

Recently, according to media reports such as China Economic Network, some Xpeng owners publicly complained that in order to update a certain car app, they need to go outside the car and half-squat in front of the camera mounted on the body to complete face verification.

This news quickly sparked heated discussions on the Internet, some people thought that Xpeng had not fulfilled its third-party app review responsibilities, and some voices thought that Xpeng's product manager probably did not think much about user experience.

The fire of complaining stems from Xiaopeng's long-term neglect of the car owner's experience.

From the depreciation of the vehicle due to too fast iteration to the unsubscription of the owner due to the complex configuration, Xpeng failed to satisfy users from the first model G3 to the latest model G9. Although P7 and P5 briefly evoke the freshness of consumers by relying on intelligence, they highlight the lack of cost performance in the fiercer competition of the track.

Xpeng Motors' full product line, source Xpeng Motors' official website 

In the process of chasing intelligent driving, intelligent cockpit, and even flying cars, Xiaopeng has gradually lost the basic pursuit of creating a good electric car - to let consumers experience an excellent product experience, so that more users can recognize and support their own brand.

So that at present, Xiaopeng has to eat the bitter fruit of "high R&D investment and sales growth difficulties". Judging from the data in February this year, Xpeng's sales have declined year-on-year for six consecutive months, and it has reached a crisis moment that urgently needs to be saved.

Xpeng is not without awakening and transformation, including beginning to emphasize customer orientation, adjusting the organizational structure, and hiring Wang Fengying, former vice chairman and general manager of Great Wall Motor, as president, which can be seen as an attempt by the brand to change the predicament. So, can these attempts produce good results? When can Xpeng's user experience become a new label to attract consumers?

1. Face recognition needs to be half squatted, what happened to Xiaopeng's products?

Recently, the news that a car owner needs to squat in the front of Xpeng's vehicle for face verification has sparked heated discussions among the public.

Earlier this month, a blogger posted a video on his Weibo about Xpeng's face recognition. The video shows that the owner needs to undergo face authentication after updating the Xpeng car app.

Although Xpeng is equipped with a camera to monitor the driver's driving posture, it cannot be used for face recognition in the vehicle system. As a result, the user had to get out of the car and crouch in front of the car face to perform face verification using the camera installed outside the vehicle.

In this regard, although Xpeng official response quickly responded that individual users will trigger risk control strategies when logging in to third-party apps on large screens, face recognition is required. Considering the poor user experience, the app was taken down and began optimizing immediately. But some users aren't buying a response, because something like this has happened before.

Xiaopeng responded to related incidents, the source of the surging news

As early as two years ago, car owners reported in the Xpeng community, saying that face recognition was required when updating another app, and it could not be carried out without a camera in the car. At that time, Xpeng also pushed the responsibility to a third-party application that was not compatible with the vehicle system, and suggested that users uninstall and reinstall the application.

It is worth noting that not only face recognition, but many Xpeng owners have complained that although they bought a smart car, they can't even have the most basic dashcam function, which also involves the problem that the camera in the Xpeng car cannot be called. In response to this problem, the product manager of Xpeng Motors once publicly said, "Xpeng does ignore the user's demand for driving recorders, and lacks corresponding arrangements in the hardware architecture and is not well considered." ”

From the inability of the in-car camera to face recognition to the failure of the dashcam function to land in time, it reflects the disconnect between Xpeng's product design and consumers' actual perception and needs. And such a disconnect has actually appeared since the launch of Xpeng's first model.

As early as the end of 2018, after Xpeng launched the first smart car G3, car owners were dissatisfied. Due to the lack of Xpeng's initial production capacity, it took at least 4 months for the G3 to be delivered from its release, and some owners even waited until the launch of the G3 facelift model G3i before mentioning the old G3.

By the time of the G3 replacement in 2019, the contradiction between Xpeng and users has further worsened. When Xpeng sales faced the question of "whether the G3 model will be replaced" thrown by some car owners, it made a false promise to these owners that "it will not be replaced in the short term", and soon, G3i was launched by Xpeng with a high profile.

Compared with the old G3, the G3i has made great improvements in cruising range (the maximum has been increased from 365km to 520km), automatic assisted driving, etc., and the price has decreased: at that time, the 365km premium version of the G3 was 199,800 yuan, while the price of the 520km premium version of the G3i was only 196,800 yuan.

This means that some car owners have not yet mentioned/just bought the new car has depreciated rapidly, and the long-accumulated resentment of the owners has further erupted, and even some car owners think that they are "leeks cut by Xiaopeng", and unite to ask Xiaopeng for explanations.

What's more deadly is that Xpeng G3 was first exposed on the Internet one after another due to the crazy pursuit of production capacity and too fast iteration, and many owners of Xpeng G3 suddenly lost power during driving; Later, Xpeng officially issued a recall statement, acknowledging the existence of inverter failure, which may cause the vehicle to fail to restart in the parking state or lose power in the driving state, and has to be recalled on a large scale.

In terms of the number of recalls, a total of 13,399 G3 units were manufactured between March 29, 2019 and September 27, 2020. According to 2019Q2 to 2020Q3, the total sales of Xpeng G3 reached 19,828 units during this period, and the recalled vehicles accounted for 67.6%.

The latest G9 created by Xpeng lost the favor of users and the opportunity to become a popular model at the beginning because of its prominent problems such as high price and low configuration, and confusing SKUs.

On the occasion of the listing, Xpeng G9 turned all the highlight configurations promoted at the conference into optional equipment (the cheapest version cannot even be equipped with dual-chamber air suspension, lidar, and XNGP full-scene assisted driving and other highlight functions), and the configuration is too much (a total of 6 models, 3 endurance versions, 3 optional packages, which need to be combined and matched by consumers), making it difficult for users to judge, and many blind booking intentional owners chose to unsubscribe.

Xpeng originally wanted to exchange more SKUs for more sales, but the final result was to release a "difficult college entrance examination" model configuration for consumers to choose. Although within 24 hours after the incident, Xpeng quickly launched a list of new versions, configurations, sales policies and other aspects of the G9, and reduced the price of all models by 20,000-30,000 yuan, but Xpeng's image of being too self-centered when formulating market strategies has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

The updated Xpeng G9 configuration, source Xpeng Motors official website

Xiaopeng seems to have fallen into a situation where the more new, the more favorable he is. Behind this, it may highlight Xiaopeng's embarrassing situation of "picking up sesame, but losing watermelon".

2. Just telling the story of science and technology, Xiaopeng lost the most important things

On October 24, 2015, after a year of low-key car building, Xpeng disclosed its initial positioning at the first small exchange meeting: "three electric and one screen", benchmarking "white-collar workers who have worked in the city for 3 to 5 years and have the ability to buy", with a cruising range of about 300 kilometers, meeting the three major needs of transportation tools, weekend outings, and occasional long-distance travel.

At that time, NIO, which was also a new force in car manufacturing, and the ideal positioning were more clear, the former spent a lot of money to support user operations and services, attracting high-end users; The latter focused on range extender technology from the beginning and created a brand positioning of "daddy car" for itself.

Although Xpeng began to have the idea of building a brand after its establishment, it was not until 2017 that Xpeng Motors gradually clarified its brand positioning - to be an intelligent car company.

In order to make intelligent positioning perceivable to consumers and the industry as soon as possible, He Xiaopeng even personally went to Stanford and Silicon Valley to recruit talents in autonomous driving and intelligent networking. Taking this as a starting point, He Xiaopeng began to verify his vision of "only doing electric vehicles without a future", and set up three teams within the company: Internet Center, Autonomous Driving Center and AI Center, taking electrification and intelligence as the two main lines to promote at the same time.

The next two years of 2019 and 2020 are two years for Xpeng Motors to focus on promoting its "intelligent" positioning. At the first and second 1024 Xpeng Motors Science and Technology Day, Xpeng released the first intelligent operation report and the declaration that "intelligence is the core source of driving the transformation of automobiles"; The NGP navigation assistance function based on map navigation, parking memory parking, and full-scene voice function were released, all of which were stacked by Xpeng into new mass-produced models such as the P7.

By the third Science and Technology Day in 2021, in addition to updating the progress of intelligent driving (from high-speed to higher-level assisted driving in cities) and launching a super energy replenishment system, Xpeng shifted its focus to the release of intelligent robots and flying cars, which once attracted widespread attention inside and outside the industry.

Xpeng flying car X2 real flight screen, picture source Xpeng Motors official website

At last year's fourth Science and Technology Day event, robots and flying cars also occupied most of the space, and He Xiaopeng spoke about the progress of these two major businesses at the event. In addition, at the event at that time, Xpeng also learned Tesla's progress in intelligent driving to the table, showing the outside world its ability to try to achieve assisted driving without relying on high-definition maps.

As the only car company among the new forces in car manufacturing to create a "Science and Technology Day" event, after four consecutive years, the intelligent brand positioning that Xpeng wants to establish has gradually been accepted and recognized inside and outside the industry. In order to achieve this goal, Xiaopeng did not hesitate to spend real money to invest in this.

Judging from the performance in recent years, Xpeng's R&D investment has remained high, and the cumulative R&D expenditure has exceeded 15 billion yuan. As of Q3 2022, Xpeng's R&D expenses accounted for 21.97% of revenue, while the ideal ratio was 19.31%.

From this point of view, in order to establish its own intelligent positioning, Xiaopeng has frequently told its own scientific and technological stories to the outside world in recent years, and is even obsessed with the label of technology and intelligence. But in this process, Xiaopeng also gradually ignored consumers' feelings and experiences for products, and lost the perception and empathy for its own users.

As mentioned above, starting from the G3 model, Xpeng's users have been subjected to delays in delivering models, concealing the existence of facelifted models, and large-scale recalls due to product quality problems; On the G9 model, there are problems with complicated product configurations that consumers cannot decide.

In the eyes of the industry, these incidents reflect Xpeng's neglect of user feelings. In fact, news about the poor user experience of Xpeng Motors is endless, and the models P7 and P5, which are regarded as explosive models, have also been repeatedly complained by car owners.

Xpeng's main model P7, which is more than 200,000 cars, briefly won the favor of car owners with its Navigation Guided Pilot (NGP), selling about 15,000 units within six months of its release. The good news is that with the emergence of competing models such as BYD Seal, Extreme Krypton 001, and Changan Deep Blue SL03, the P7 began to lose its advantages in comparison, and sales have plummeted from August 2022 and have not improved.

From the perspective of user experience, the word-of-mouth community of Autohome is full of complaints about the P7's small rear space, poor sound insulation in the car, large interior odor, thin car paint, narrow rear seats, etc. related to the basic riding experience. In addition, with a number of accidents involving "car accidents by car owners in the state of assisted driving" have been publicly reported, their intelligent ability has also been questioned by many users.

Xpeng users' feedback on P7, source Autohome

Under the crowded track, the more Xpeng pays attention to intelligence, the more prominent its product power defects and ignorance of consumer feelings become. The family-level smart car P5 launched by Xpeng to stabilize the market below 200,000 yuan is expected to sell more than 10,000 yuan a month because it is full of intelligent functions such as L2 level assisted driving, automatic lane change and automatic parking.

The reality is that the P5 was complained by many owners as soon as it was launched last year, due to the shortage of the supply chain, the model could not be delivered in time, so that when the car was really delivered, it continued the decline of the P7, and in the past year, P5 sales hovered at the 5,000 mark for a long time and could not break through, only in June and January exceeded 5,600 units.

In recent years, Xpeng has continued to invest in technology, but neglected the more important user experience. If you want to satisfy the old car owners and attract new owners, the product manager of Xpeng Motors, you need to work harder.

3. Can Xiaopeng still attract loyal fans?

Since entering 2023, as Tesla carries the "sickle" of price reduction, Xiaopeng is close behind.

According to Xpeng's official news, it started the price reduction adjustment of G3i, P5 and P7 models on January 17, with a price reduction of up to more than 13%. The purpose of this price cut is the same as Tesla's - to further increase its own sales.

However, judging from the sales volume in January and February this year, the owner of the price reduction strategy did not buy it. In the past two months, Xpeng's sales volume reached 5,218 and 6,010 units, respectively, which did not increase significantly month-on-month.

Xpeng's sales have been declining year-on-year for six consecutive months. Sales directly affect revenue, and in the three quarters ended September 30, 2022, the company's revenue and revenue growth rate fell all the way from the previous quarter, and compared with the beginning of 2022, Xpeng's share price fell by nearly 90%, and its market value lost more than HK$320 billion. Xiaopeng has fallen into a long bottleneck.

Xpeng February sales announced, source Xpeng Motors official micro

Three feet of ice is not a day's cold. It is not so much that new and old owners are too strict with Xiaopeng, but that Xiaopeng has never won enough "loyal fans" for himself. Comparing with NIO and Ideal, it is easy to find that at the beginning of the establishment of these brands, NIO positioned luxury and service, ideally positioning "no mileage anxiety" and "daddy" groups, both of which reflect the consideration and care of the needs of car owners.

The sense of technology and intelligence chosen by Xiaopeng is more inclined to the promise of the future, which has distanced itself from consumers, and at the same time has tasted the bitter water such as declining sales and frequent complaints from consumers.

In order to improve this dilemma, Xiaopeng has made a change in its position and taken a series of measures. Since October last year, Xpeng has carried out a series of organizational structure adjustments in history, including He Xiaopeng himself is directly responsible for the company's brand strategy, product planning and technical route formulation and other decision-making workIn addition, He Xiaopeng has repeatedly stressed in many public places such as financial reports and annual summary meetings that in the next five years, Xpeng will be "customer-centric" to build product competitiveness, and the ultimate goal is to achieve positive operating profits in 2025.

Behind the slogan of "customer-centric" is the evaluation of internal employees that "this structural adjustment did not touch the core". According to the power plant, many employees at Xpeng's user development and service center believe that Xpeng has "taken care of all businesses, but has ignored what the real needs of users are." ”

In other words, Xpeng's products rely only on functional stacking and do not have the support of loyal users, so they slowly lose their dominant position in the market.

This "core" problem may also have been seen by He Xiaopeng, so that the heavy responsibility of solving this problem was handed over to Wang Fengying, who was once in charge of Great Wall Motor brand marketing. At the beginning of 2023, Xpeng added Wang Fengying, former vice chairman of Great Wall Motor, and appointed him as president. The collision between traditional car companies and new forces in car manufacturing has made the market expect more fundamental changes.

Xpeng's new president Wang Fengying, source Xpeng Motors' official website

However, from the perspective of Wang Fengying's first new car, the P7 facelift "P7i", her previous reflection on "Xiaopeng's lack of clear trunk categories, unable to answer 'who am I'; lack of focused intelligent features", has not been deeply promoted to the reform of production.

On March 6, before the weekend camera turmoil subsided, Xpeng released the P7i, one of the five new models this year, as planned. The new car is a facelift of the old P7, in terms of basic configuration, it retains the appearance that the old users are more satisfied with, adds the electric tailgate with a high voice from the old owner, and also adjusts the long-distance riding experience, such as optimizing the height of the front shoulders, lengthening the rear seat cushion, optimizing the rear inclination, and adopting a multi-layer slow rebound sponge with a stronger sense of wrapping.

Xpeng facelifted model P7i, picture source Xpeng Motors official micro

In terms of intelligent experience, P7i has upgraded the vehicle chip and system. However, Xpeng did not add the much-anticipated HUD (head-up-display) head-up display function for it; From P7 to G9, owners are calling for the demand of "calling ADAS cameras for driving recorders", and have not yet been realized through OTA push.

Although the new car has upgraded the second-generation intelligent assisted driving system XNGP, stacked with chips, cameras, millimeter-wave radar and other related hardware and architecture, it still needs to wait until the future to slowly achieve the ability to recognize traffic lights and go straight through intersections, change lanes, overtake, turn left and right, etc.

From the above details, it can be seen that although Xiaopeng began to seriously consider user needs, it has only made a little change so far.

Compared with the new model, the facelifted model does not seem to bear too much product power renewal, otherwise it is easy to be regarded as a betrayal of the old owner, but Xpeng does have high hopes for the P7i to reverse the decline in sales, and from this point of view, greater product reform sincerity needs to be taken out.

In terms of key drive configuration, due to architectural limitations, P7i cannot impact the 800V platform, and although the acceleration time of 100 kilometers has been increased to 3.9 seconds, which is not outstanding in the pure electric car competition area of the 200,000-300,000 level (such as Tesla Model 3's 100 kilometers acceleration in only 3.4 seconds), here reproduces the problem that Xpeng's product strength is not outstanding enough.

To sum up, Xpeng may need to make more efforts to realize the slogan of "customer-oriented". After all, in the new round of elimination of the new energy automobile industry, Xiaopeng wants to regain its former dominant position and cannot lose the trust of any user.