Xpeng finally ushered in an important new model in 2024 - MONA M03.
A-class family sedan, sports coupe, 10-150,000 level, extremely low wind resistance, and new series, these are all adjectives that Xpeng previously gave to MONA M03.
A few days ago, He Xiaopeng revealed a few more figures-
Less than 200,000 yuan, 4 years of research and development time, and nearly 4 billion yuan of investment.
This pricing expectation has doubled from the previous maximum.
Is this a false shot, or is it another arrangement?
MONA M03 intends to leave the suspense until after its launch in August.
"Today, we are finally ready to believe that this brand will be a new species of disruptive innovation."
As early as a few months ago, He Xiaopeng wrote such a paragraph to warm up for MONA.
At that time, MONA also planned to become an independent brand.
However, after that, MONA chose to return to the parent brand of Xpeng and take the sub-series as its positioning.
But one thing that hasn't changed is the "subversive innovation" requirement mentioned by He Xiaopeng.
Compared with making money, He Xiaopeng attaches more importance to technological innovation.
"I've been in the automotive industry for 10 years, and I found that there is a problem here, I think cars are a very hard business."
"But a lot of people just want to make money, and very few people really do technology seriously."
"We've seen that a lot of people don't put technological innovation first, but product and marketing, to integrate technology more quickly and succeed more easily."
"Honestly, it's no fun, it's just a business."
It is said that Xpeng has a rule for making cars - "every product must have innovation."
For example, Xpeng P5 brought LiDAR to the Chinese auto market for the first time, and brought urban NGP.
Xpeng G9 mass-produced 800V high-voltage silicon carbide for the first time.
Xpeng G6 brings the world's largest integrated die-casting to reality for the first time.
Xpeng X9 is the first to create a magic change seat, which achieves automatic deformation of 7 and 4 seats, as well as standard rear-wheel steering.
The above are all brilliant performances by He Xiaopeng himself.
So, what will the MONA M03 come up with?
In terms of compact positioning, the MONA M03 is not difficult to remind people of the Xpeng P5 in the same class.
In the past, He Xiaopeng had a lot of regrets about the research and development of P5.
"There are some changes in the P5 later, and the core reason is that everyone has no money in 2019, so we made a "discounted" version of the P5."
"The appearance has not changed much, and many technologies have not been used, which should have been more capable and less costly."
"Actually, it shouldn't be discounted, and if it weren't, P5 would still be very competitive."
After such an experience, Xiaopeng should be said to know how to build a compact car.
First of all, compared to the shyness of P5 back then, this time MONA M03 must at least be developed at home.
"We expect to use technology to change, and we hope to spend a little more, and this cost is not a little, but almost 4 billion yuan."
"It took about 4 billion dollars to make a new MONA M03 in nearly 4 years."
"Especially in the past year or so, we have worked with Didi to make this car more beautiful and interesting, and put more good equipment into it, so that everyone can afford it and be very cool."
He Xiaopeng pointed out that the MONA M03 comes standard with an electric liftgate tailgate.
With this configuration alone, it adds 20% to the cost of the entire body-in-white.
In addition, the new car is also equipped with the AGS fully integrated active air intake grille as standard, which can add an additional 16km of range.
Even as an A-class family sedan, MONA M03 is willing to give a higher-end configuration.
This orientation is exactly the same as that of the Xpeng X9 with standard rear-wheel steering.
In addition to enhancing the range with an active grille, the MONA M03 is also equipped with an extremely low drag coefficient of Cd 0.194.
To this end, Xpeng also deliberately did 10 wind tunnel tests with a total of 100+ hours.
Such a cost-sparing result has earned the selling point of "the world's No.1 low-drag mass-produced pure electric hatchback sedan".
By polishing the details that affect the wind resistance, the MONA M03 was able to choose a smaller battery to better control the cost.
And the purpose of these combinations has to go back to what He Xiaopeng said - "to give users a better cost."
It is reported that the new car will use lithium iron phosphate batteries, and the CLTC range starts at 500km, which is indeed a good performance.
With its extremely low drag coefficient, the MONA M03 has not given up on the pursuit of cabin space.
4780x1896x1445mm, wheelbase 2815mm, of which the wheelbase length of the MONA M03 is 65mm longer than that of the Aion S.
In addition, the 140kW/160kW power performance of the MONA M03 is also on par with the higher-positioned Aion S Plus.
This time, Xiaopeng really has the power to pile up products for MONA M03.
Such a large investment is only to achieve one goal - at least 100,000 units per year.
MONA canceled the independent brand program and launched it as a sub-collection.
This was abrupt, but not entirely surprising.
Before Xiaopeng's parent brand breaks through the market, the significance and persuasiveness of launching a new brand are indeed lacking.
And since it chose to return to its parent brand, why did Xiaopeng retain the title of MONA?
Referring to the MONA M03's 10-150,000 level positioning and compact body setting, Xpeng can actually name it "P3".
However, Xpeng did not do this.
In addition, although the code name "03" seems to be lower than "P5".
However, the width and wheelbase of MONA M03 are much higher than those of P5.
In addition, the MONA M03 offers a 621-litre tailgate volume comparable to that of a mid-size SUV.
Obviously, the MONA M03 actually performed no worse than the P5.
In a way, the MONA M03 can be said to be the successor model of the Xpeng P5.
In particular, the current configuration of the Xpeng P5 available for order on the official website is limited to the Pro version, which seems to have revealed a signal that it will be discontinued.
Combined with He Xiaopeng's previous statement, "After the launch of MONA, the lower price limit of the P series will be raised."
In addition, this time he also emphasized, "MONA is positioned below 200,000 yuan."
It is not difficult to imagine that in the future, the three models of the MONA series will focus on the market below 200,000 yuan.
As for the P series, it may stop at more than 200,000 units.
Different models correspond to different price segments, and the reshaping of Xpeng's price system will probably start with the MONA M03.
The MONA series, which is positioned below 200,000 yuan, will surely become the main force of Xiaopeng's basic disk.
"MONA's annual sales target is at least 100,000 units, and my expectation is to be much higher than that."
He Xiaopeng has long put forward requirements for MONA M03.
He knows that if MONA M03 wants to successfully impress young users, the key lies in "appearance".
"I'm sure no one is going to buy a car that doesn't look good now, so looking good is the foundation."
To this end, the MONA M03 presents an aspect ratio of 1.31, trying to capture the hearts of young people with a sports coupe attitude.
In addition, the new car also adopts a new front face design, which changes the through-light strip shape of the previous Xpeng.
MONA M03, it looks different.
Design innovation, MONA M03 once again highlights the "innovation" gene emphasized by Xpeng.
The hammer-shaped headlight cluster is its main recognizability.
If the headlights can be designed to be thinner strips, this may make the whole vehicle more aggressive.
It's just that after doing so, it may be a bit of a collision with Polestar's design.
In the face of this dilemma, MONA M03 presents this slightly controversial appearance at the moment.
In addition, the sky blue and pink body that MONA M03 is currently pushing is more or less on par with NIO ET5.
However, in terms of appearance, these two car colors do not match the shape of the whole vehicle very well, and do not show the temperament of a sports coupe very well.
The reason why we insist on choosing these two as the main colors is that Xpeng does not want MONA M03 to be limited to the field of sports models.
It also wants to be the first choice for female users, so it doesn't use a more aggressive body color.
Based on the "both wants", it is up to the market to judge whether MONA M03 has shown its perfect side.
In addition to appearance, if you want to knock on the user's wallet, MONA M03 is inseparable from the use of cost-effective means.
10-150,000 level, this is the price positioning proposed by He Xiaopeng before.
However, a few days ago, he changed his tune and said that the new car will be priced at "less than 200,000 yuan".
This change is also at odds with the "costs that young people can pay" that he has repeatedly mentioned.
Of course, it cannot be ruled out that this is just a false shot, Xiaopeng first pulls up user expectations, and then lets MONA M03 give a people-friendly price.
This is also the usual means of car companies.
In addition, He Xiaopeng's "less than 200,000 yuan", there are 2 possibilities here -
1. Less than 200,000 yuan, it does not specifically refer to the single model of MONA M03, but the entire MONA series;
2. The main model is positioned at 10-150,000 yuan MONA M03, or will be launched with a high-end version with a price close to 200,000 yuan.
He Xiaopeng pointed out that MONA M03 will provide different intelligent driving solutions, but they will all be the best intelligent driving solutions in the same gear.
As far as the current Xpeng product series is concerned, the MONA M03 is the only model that is not equipped with LiDAR.
But whether there will be one after that, the suspense is preserved here.
Previously, Suteng Juchuang released a new generation of medium and long-range lidar MX with "less than 200 US dollars", which has been designated by Xpeng.
Even the MONA M03, which will be launched in August, may not be able to catch up with the application of this new set of lidars.
But if the new MONA M03 is launched next year, can you look forward to it?
With Xpeng's ultimate pursuit of intelligent driving, MONA M03 will most likely not become a disappointed one.
Moreover, if the positioning of MONA M03 is to replace Xpeng P5.
Xpeng is even more unlikely to take the initiative to lose this tradition of being equipped with lidar.
It is worth mentioning that He Xiaopeng also took the initiative to respond to the question of "whether MONA M03 pushes the taxi version".
His answer was, "No."
However, according to the cooperation agreement between Xpeng and Didi, a large part of the MONA M03 will be sold back to Didi.
Therefore, He Xiaopeng only confidently said that he was not worried about the sales of MONA M03.
In addition, the official has also said that the first model of MONA will be launched on the C-end, and it will be for the B-end in a few months.
Now, this inconsistent statement may only show that the Xpeng brand will not release a taxi version of the MONA M03.
However, it cannot be ruled out that Xpeng will launch a new online car-hailing product through other brands.
It is reported that the previously exposed "want to" brand is the B-end sub-brand of Xiaopeng and Didi's cooperation, which is planned to be launched in the first half of 2025.
From this point of view, the relationship between MONA and Xiangxiang will be separated.
In other words, the sales statistics of MONA M03 may not include the desired brand.
If this is the case, the MONA M03 may have to work hard to achieve annual sales of 100,000 units.
Xpeng is clear that the entry-level MONA M03 will return to the parent brand, which will lower the overall price of the brand.
Combined with the 300,000-level X9, which has delivered more than 13,000 units so far, MONA M03 will have an impact on the Xpeng brand.
Therefore, at present, Xpeng prefers to use "less than 200,000 yuan" to describe MONA M03.
In addition, Xpeng also took the initiative to divest its online car-hailing version.
For this brand that uses the name of the top leader, Xiaopeng does not want to make the positioning too low.
But at the same time, we have to face that Xiaopeng's market performance has been ranked at the bottom of the new forces.
It needs to use MONA M03 to reactivate the spirit of the entire brand.
Under such a dilemma, what kind of results MONA M03 will bring to Xiaopeng, we will see as we go.