During the 2025 Guangdong Province Development Conference, He Xiaopeng, Chairman and CEO of Xpeng stated that Xpeng plans to invest 9.5 billion yuan (1.3 billion USD) into R&D. Of that 9.5 billion yuan, AI investments will total around 4.5 billion yuan (600 million USD).

Xpeng has already invested over 50 billion yuan (6.8 billion USD) into R&D and manufacturing, most of it being in the Guangdong Province where it’s headquartered.

He Xiaopeng went on to state that he believes autonomous driving will transform the Chinese automotive industry in the next five years. He compares this transformation akin to how electric vehicles have changed the Chinese auto industry in the last five years. Users are increasingly considering autonomous driving as one of the top three factors when purchasing NEVs. 

He Xiaopeng believes Xpeng’s core advantage lies in autonomous driving and they need to continue to invest and develop their in-house autonomous driving capabilities. Xpeng was an early adopter of autonomous driving capabilities and supports L2 intelligent driving ability across its entire line-up with XPILOT.

He revealed by the second half of 2025, Xpeng aims to achieve L3 autonomous driving and expand its availability globally. With L3 autonomous driving, the vehicle can handle all aspects of driving conditions and does not require constant driver supervision – though drivers must be ready to take over at any time. With L2, drivers have to constantly monitor the vehicle and its environment and cannot handle all driving scenarios. 

Additionally, in 2025, Xpeng plans to begin mass production of an in-house high-performance Turing chip, which can be applied to cars, flying vehicles, and robots.

The company sold a total of 190,068 vehicles in 2024 and has entered several new markets, with the most recent being Finland. In 2025, the company plans to enter over a total of 60 countries. He Xiaopeng said. “In the next 10 years, XPeng Motors aims to achieve 50% of its sales from overseas markets.”

Sources: ITHome