It had widely been believed that the only new XPeng coming this year was actually the Mona brand, but it seems there is another new sedan this year. Along with news about a new model the XPeng CEO, He Xiaopeng, recently outlined the company’s plans for the year in an earnings call. Also newly published is a teaser picture of the Mona car.
XPeng’s new Mona brand will unveil next month and there is now a new teaser picture of the first car showing it has really distinctive light clusters. We can also see hidden door handles and side cameras. After unveiling next month the launch is due in the third quarter followed by deliveries in the fourth quarter.
Mona though is not all that is new on the car front with XPeng this year. It seems there will be another EV, a mid-sized sedan as part of the main XPeng brand. Based on XPeng’s latest technology it will reduce manufacturing costs and come with the XNGP intelligent driving system. XPeng believes it will have a significant year-on-year increase in monthly deliveries in the third quarter of this year thanks to both the new sedan and the Mona car. Possibly the new sedan will be a replacement for either the P5 or the P7i.
Hi Xiaopeng is quoted as saying “From the third quarter, we will start a cycle of launching a number of new products with strong styling within the next three years, which will cover the main market segments of the 100,000-400,000 yuan price band, which includes a number of new types of products like the X9 that focus on category innovation.”
October seems to be the key month for XPeng this year with pretty much everything happening around then. He Xiaopeng said in the earnings call that he was looking forward to seeing changes in the second half of the year, especially from October. This seems to be where big changes should start taking place in terms of development, sales, profit margins, cash flow and AI intelligent driving.
The third quarter should see XPeng’s XNGP intelligent driving system extend from being available in all cities across the country to being available on every road. XPeng also aims by 2025 to cut the intervention rate to a similar level to that currently enjoyed by high-speed NGP.
It seems that XPeng is partly pinning its sales growth aspirations on expanding sales overseas. Plans call for sales in 20 countries including right-hand drive markets. This month XPeng is publishing prices and accepting pre-orders for the G6 in the European market. A right-hand drive version of the G6 should launch in the third quarter with sales in certain right-hand drive markets such as Hong Kong and Australia beginning soon after.
Editor’s note:
Given that XPeng is currently only predicting second quarter sales in 2024 of 29,000 to 32,000 let’s hope sales really start picking up from October. XPeng has failed to deliver much progress with sales and the product mix doesn’t seem to be delivering the excitement factor that other brands currently are.
Sources: Autohome, Fast Technology
