China’s Xpeng prices its first budget EV from $16,813

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

China’s Xpeng prices its first budget EV from $16,813

BEIJING (Reuters) -******** electric vehicle maker Xpeng priced the first model of its budget sub-brand ***** from $16,813 on Tuesday, wedging into the mainstream but highly competitive segment of the world’s largest auto market.

The ***** M03 electric hatchback coupe is Xpeng’s most affordable model and will compete with other EVs priced in the 100,000-150,000 yuan ($14,035-$21,052) range, which accounts for a third of total car sales in China.

There will be two versions of the ***** M03: an entry-level one without advanced autonomous driving technology available from $16,813, and the M03 Max that uses Tesla-like technology and is priced from $21,866. Both are cheaper than the lowest priced Xpeng-branded EV, the P5 sedan, which is priced from $22,000.

Deliveries of the M03 Max, “the only car with advanced autonomous driving at less than 200,000 yuan ($28,068)”, will start early next year, said He Xiaopeng, co-founder and CEO of XPeng Motors. He was speaking at a launch gala in Beijing that also celebrated the Guangzhou-based carmaker’s 10th anniversary.

Xpeng developed the ***** brand after it acquired the EV development unit from Didi Global, the ******** ride-hailing company that has pulled back significantly from the ultra-competitive electric vehicle market.

With *****, loss-making Xpeng expects to achieve a better economy of scale to break even. The company said previously that it expected annual sales of at least 100,000 ***** cars.

Xpeng’s ****** profit margin has improved this year thanks to a 20% increase in the number of EVs sold in the first seven months from a year earlier and a revenue boost from offering technology services to Volkswagen.

Xpeng’s ******** rival Nio also launched a lower-priced brand, Onvo, in April.

The Onvo L60, which will start selling in September, is expected to take on Tesla’s best-selling Model Y in China.

Both Onvo and ***** EVs do not use lidar sensors in their advanced autonomous driving technologies, a strategy similar to Tesla’s camera-only Full-Self Driving that lowers hardware costs for EVs.

A lidar sensor costs several thousand yuan although the price has fallen sharply in the past two years as ******** lidar makers such as Hesai Technology have increased production.

Xpeng launched the P5, the world’s first mass-produced car with optionally equipped lidar sensors, in 2021. However, last September it removed the lidar sensor from the P5 to reduce the lowest price to $22,000 and target price-sensitive consumers. Xpeng cars that have lidar sensors retail from $31,450 currently.

Story continues

($1 = 7.1256 ******** yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Qiaoyi Li, Zhang Yan and Kevin KrolickiEditing by Tomasz Janowski and Susan Fenton)

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Chinas #Xpeng #prices #budget

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up