Original link: https://www.latepost.com/news/dj_detail?id=1874
On September 19, Xpeng released the 2024 G9 in Dunhuang. He Xiaopeng emphasized that this was not an ordinary press conference, but represented Xiaopeng’s determination to “fight G9 again.”
In September last year, Xpeng G9 encountered Waterloo. After that, He Xiaopeng said that Xpeng conducted a “huge reflection” and launched reforms in organization, product planning, marketing and other aspects. After a series of adjustments, the Xpeng G6, which was launched in June this year, received a round of applause. He hopes that the 2024 G9 can also “gain lost ground.”
The 2024 G9 has a total of 5 versions, covering the market of 263,900-359,900 yuan. In terms of smart driving, the new G9 is divided into two versions: Pro and Max. The Pro version is equipped with a single NVIDIA Orin chip, which can realize high-speed NGP (Navigation Guided Pilot, navigation assisted driving) function; the Max version is equipped with dual Orin chips and dual lidar, which can realize urban NGP function.
The new G9 is based on an 800V high-voltage silicon carbide platform and comes standard with a 3C battery, which takes 20 minutes to charge from 10% to 80%. The battery packs are divided into two specifications: 78.4-degree and 98-degree. The corresponding driving ranges of the rear-wheel drive models are 570 kilometers and 702 kilometers respectively. The four-wheel drive long-range version is also equipped with a 98-degree battery pack, but due to faster power consumption, the battery life is longer. Mileage is 650 km.
He Xiaopeng said that thanks to the application of silicon carbide, heat pumps, 800V domain control algorithms and other technologies, the winter air conditioning energy consumption of the 2024 G9 has been reduced by 30%, resulting in an additional 15% increase in winter battery life. He emphasized that Xpeng’s battery life is solid and true to its standards, and the actual mileage is “10% longer than others, or even longer.” Xpeng is accelerating the construction of its charging network and aims to build 3,000 self-operated stations with ultra-fast charging capabilities by 2025.
Compared with other electric vehicles, the new G9 not only focuses on configurations, but also focuses on driving performance. He Xiaopeng mentioned several product points: the chassis is “the first hyper-threading intelligent chassis in China” and is jointly tuned with a top German team; the static interior of the car The noise is less than or equal to 35dB, which is quieter than the operation of the bedroom air conditioner at night. The noise is less than 53.9dB at a speed of 60 kilometers per hour, which is comparable to a million-dollar luxury car; in terms of safety, it has obtained E-NCAP and C-NCAP double five-star safety certification.
“Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division”
Compared with the old G9, He Xiaopeng said that the 2024 G9 communicated with more than 1,000 users during the product stage and improved nearly 100 hardware configurations. In terms of software, the software for smart driving, smart cockpit, and three power systems has been iterated by 7 version, hundreds of features have been optimized.
He summarized the main improvements as four items: “addition, subtraction, multiplication and division”: addition is equipped with the Fuyao architecture as standard. The old G9 also uses some “Fuyao architecture capabilities”, but they are not standard. For example, the battery pack is divided into several specifications, while the new G9 comes standard with a 3C battery.
Subtraction is to remove some functions that are not strictly needed for high frequency. For example, the external speakers of the old G9 were canceled and the expensive Dynaudio speakers were replaced with the self-developed XOpera2.0 sound system. It comes with 21 speakers as standard and can achieve 7.1.4 Dolby sound effects. He Xiaopeng said that it can be “close to Same quality, but lower cost.”
Multiplication, that is, “Xiaopeng × Dazhong”. In July this year, Volkswagen acquired approximately 4.99% of Xpeng’s equity for US$700 million. The two parties will jointly develop two Volkswagen brand electric vehicles based on the G9 platform and launch them in 2026. He Xiaopeng said that before the deal, Volkswagen conducted “long-term communication” with Xiaopeng and conducted a detailed analysis of the G9. The final feedback was “very solid technology, but not a particularly good cost.”
He said that in the future, the two companies will draw on their respective strengths and combine their supply chain, knowledge of global products, and manufacturing capabilities to improve the quality, quality, and cost of G9.
In April this year, the old model Xpeng G9 was launched in Europe, and sales were 10 times higher than internal expectations. This gave He Xiaopeng confidence. In October this year, the 2024 G9 will also begin delivery in many European countries and will go on sale in Germany next year. Xpeng currently has 10 stores in Europe and plans to increase the number to 17 and 15 after-sales service centers by the end of this year. He Xiaopeng said that if he competes in G9 again, he hopes to take Chinese products and technologies to the world.
The last division refers to Xiaopeng’s intelligent driving technology, which must go from “usable” to “easy to use” and “more than 10 times better than others.” He Xiaopeng said.
For autonomous driving, just look at Xpeng
Smart electric vehicle manufacturers are all “rolling out” smart driving. He Xiaopeng believes that the key should not be whether it is available, but whether it is easy to use.
He said that today, Xpeng has reached the level of 90% of human drivers. His driver no longer “drives”, “he just sits there and looks ahead.”
In October 2022, Xpeng City NGP first launched in Guangzhou, and later gradually opened up in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Foshan, and is expected to expand to 50 cities by the end of the year. Xiaopeng will continue to open cities in January, February, and March next year, with the goal of expanding to about 200 cities in the first half of 2024.
The urban road scenes are complex and the technical challenges are even greater. From usability to ease of use, He Xiaopeng believes that it is a “10-100 times improvement.”
He said that the current mileage penetration rate of Xpeng City NGP has reached 62%, the weekly usage rate has reached 82%, and an average takeover is required every 10 kilometers. The number of takeovers for passive safety is approximately 0.65 times per 100 kilometers, and the number of takeovers for active safety is approximately several times per 100 kilometers. High-speed NGP is an order of magnitude higher, with less than one takeover per 1000 kilometers.
From 2025 to 2026, Xiaopeng’s goal is to take over every 1,000 kilometers. “You will gradually forget about driving, and you will feel that you don’t need to drive most of the time.” He Xiaopeng said.
He objected to the over-promotion of some friendly companies, describing an “enhanced version of LCC (lane centering function)” as an urban NOA. Xiaopeng’s goal is to open up the entire closed-loop scenario from community parking spaces to company parking lots next year, and complete scenarios such as ETC charging and community speed bumps.
“I am very proud to say that if you want to see China’s intelligent assisted driving, look no further than the Xiaopeng family.” He Xiaopeng said.
RMB 250,000-300,000 SUV No. 1 in China
From January to August this year, Xpeng delivered a total of 66,000 vehicles, NIO delivered 95,000 vehicles, and Ideal delivered 208,000 vehicles. Xpeng’s vehicle gross profit margin has been negative for two consecutive quarters, -2.5% in the first quarter and -8.6% in the second quarter. During the same period, Weilai’s was 5.1% and 6.2%; Ideal was 19.8% and 21.8%.
He Xiaopeng described the past year as sluggish sales, depressed stock prices, and greatly affected morale.
After the G6 was launched, Xpeng’s sales reached an inflection point in July and August, with 11,008 units delivered in July and 13,690 units delivered in August.
In the fierce market competition, both Xpeng G6 and new G9 adopt a scale-first pricing approach. The price of the G6 has been pushed down to 200,000-250,000 yuan, and the G9 has dropped from the 300,000-350,000 yuan level to the 250,000-300,000 yuan range.
Under cost pressure, platformization is imperative. Xiaopeng began to promote its platform strategy last year. He Xiaopeng said that the development cycle of new models based on the Fuyao architecture will be shortened by 20%, the component commonality rate will reach up to 80%, and the cost commonality rate will exceed 80%.
In 2024, Xpeng’s cost goal is to reduce the BOM cost (Bill of Material) of autonomous driving by more than 50%, and to reduce the cost of the vehicle’s power and hardware systems by 25%.
Both the G6 and the new G9 are models under the platform strategy. This year, Xpeng has optimized the supply chain, which enabled the new G9 to quickly complete production capacity ramping after its launch. The production capacity of Xpeng G6 will reach 10,000 units starting next month. He Xiaopeng said that the production capacity of G9 will ramp up faster than that of G6. “We hope to achieve the fastest delivery speed in Xpeng’s history.”
The G6 aims to become the No. 1 SUV in the RMB 200,000-250,000 category. The current No. 1 monthly sales volume is 13,500 units. The goal of G9 is even higher, to be “China’s No. 1 high-end smart SUV between RMB 250,000 and RMB 300,000”.
The number one player in this market is currently the Tesla Model Y. According to the China Passenger Car Association, Tesla Model Y delivered 65,000 units in August. In addition, in the 250,000-300,000 yuan market, there are many competing models such as BYD Tang DM, Honda CR-V, Tiguan L, and Toyota Highlander.
Xiaopeng, who has been adjusting for a year, is in better shape to face the next test.
“In the past 12 months, we have encountered many, many challenges, but any great company has survived setbacks and magnificent changes.” He Xiaopeng said.
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