We thought that the Xpeng Mona M03 was going to be unveiled last week, it wasn’t. Instead, Xpeng seems to be intent on teasing us with information bit by bit. Last week it was the low drag coefficient. This week it’s that the trunk space is 621 liters.

What’s more news to us, though, is the picture that accompanies the announcement. We had assumed the Xpeng Mona M03 was a regular sedan, especially given the Didi involvement and our current understanding that the car will at least partially be aimed as a ride-hailing model. Certainly, from previous pictures it looked as if it was just a regular sedan. We can now see, that the car is actually a hatchback with a fastback design.

This seems to be a design trend with EVs and notable examples include the Mercedes-Benz EQS and the Volkswagen ID.7. From Xpeng’s announcement we now know that all versions of the Mona M03 will come with an electric tailgate as standard. The opening width is 1136 mm. Xpeng is claiming that with 621 liters it is first in its class for storage space.

Last week when Xpeng announced the Mona M03 was the “the world’s lowest drag production pure electric hatchback sedan” we were confused and thought it was just something lost in translation. Now it seems that it was actually accurate although fastback would probably be a better description. The drag coefficient for the car is Cd 0.194. This was achieved by various aerodynamic tweaks which shaved Cd 0.085 off the figure.

Xpeng says that these changes add 60 km to the range. We know from the MIIT listings that there are three different weights for the car, according to specifications, coming in at 1631, 1661 and 1739 kg respectively. These are relatively light and so this leads us to believe there may yet be a surprise when it comes to the M03’s range – we have been led to believe that it is around 550 km.

The Mona M03 measures in at 4780, 1896 and 1445 mm (l/w/h) and had a wheelbase of 2815 mm. Xpeng claims the dimensions are very close to the golden ratio.

Battery power comes from BYD subsidiary FinDreams supplied blade batteries; capacities of the packs are currently unknown but there should be two different sizes. Lower powered cars use a 140 kW electric motor while more powerful versions have a 160 kW motor.

Sales are likely to begin around the end of the third quarter. He Xiaopeng, Xpeng’s CEO, said in the 2024 earnings call that they expect the Mona M03 will become a superstar product in the A-class pure electric market. Prices are expected to top out around 150,000 yuan (20,650 USD).

Sources: Fast Technology, Autohome,