After the hot sales of MONA M03 drove monthly sales to quickly return to high levels, Xiaopeng took over with another new car and chased after the victory.
The Xiaopeng P7+, which will be officially launched in early November, received over 30000 orders at the Paris Motor Show within less than two hours, once again breaking the record for Xiaopeng's car order growth rate. The previously undecided pre-sale price has been officially announced - starting from 209800 yuan.
The results during the pre-sale period represent the initial market recognition of this product and its price. After the "hit" MONA M03 pulled Xiaopeng back from the "life and death line", Xiaopeng P7+closely followed in the short term, carrying the expectation of another "hit" while shouldering the heavy responsibility:
Make the long board of Xiaopeng longer, claiming to endow the new car P7+with the "highest level of Xiaopeng intelligent driving", and vigorously promote AI cars to defend their position in the "super red sea" of the 200000 yuan pure electric sedan market;
The comprehensive application of end-to-end big models and the implementation of AI Eagle Eye pure visual intelligent driving solutions are the most intimate moments between Xiaopeng and Tesla. Before Tesla's FSD enters China in the first quarter of next year, it will seize the discourse power in the field of intelligent driving;
After winning in the market below 150000 yuan with a low price strategy, MONA M03 immediately launched P7+, returning to the comfort zone of Xiaopeng's original 200000 yuan level, refusing to let the Xiaopeng brand be represented only by the low price MONA series, and returning to the brand tone.
Long board, long board, defend the 200000 yuan market
The "world's first AI car" is the positioning given by Xiaopeng to P7+, serving Xiaopeng's vision of becoming a global AI car company in the next decade. The official statement states that this car will deeply change the automotive industry and intelligent driving.
Such a high starting point and tone also filled the market with expectations on the eve of its release.
Xiaopeng P7+fully applies end-to-end big model, and is equipped with AI Dimensity XOS 5.4.0 system for the first time. It is reported that it can achieve the level of "door-to-door" intelligent driving.
It's easy to go in the wrong direction when it comes to end-to-end development. "Dr. Li Liyun, Vice President and Head of Autonomous Driving at Xiaopeng Motors, stated that the three mainstream end-to-end development paths in the industry require a large number of excellent rule engineers to build" big models "by stacking a large number of rule small models; Although the "big car model" has a fast effect, it is limited by the computing power of the car and is prone to bottlenecks as the amount of training data increases in the later stage; The foundation model in the cloud has dozens or even hundreds of times more parameters than the in vehicle model.
From the perspective of the ultimate competition in intelligent driving, the key to winning lies in the layout of cloud based large models. According to its introduction, the parameter quantity of Xiaopeng's cloud based large model will be up to 80 times that of the vehicle side parameter quantity. Through training with a large parameter quantity, it can solve the long tail problem in intelligent driving as much as possible and cover more driving scenarios.
At present, the training efficiency of Xiaopeng Cloud's large model has increased by 2.6 times, and by 2025, the computing power of Xiaopeng Cloud will reach over 10 EFlops.
The iterated version of XNGP is claimed to be able to achieve "veteran driver like" operations for complex scenarios such as small lane detours, lane changes, and merging and merging exits. It can switch navigation, change destinations, and other characteristic scenarios without breakpoints. After a test drive by a reporter from 21st Century Business Herald, it was found that with end-to-end support, Xiaopeng Intelligent Driving has higher flexibility. It is more accurate and smooth in following traffic lights, starting and stopping, overtaking and changing lanes, and recognizing road conditions. Moreover, its operation is relatively decisive.
Abandoning LiDAR, Xiaopeng's pure visual intelligent driving function has been implemented on the P7+, and the AI Eagle Eye visual intelligent driving solution adopted throughout the series. Compared with traditional LiDAR solutions, the biggest change lies in the improvement of perception and recognition speed.
The bicycle does not require the cost of about 2000 yuan for a single LiDAR, and the implementation of a pure visual solution also brings lower costs to the Xiaopeng P7+, allowing for a certain buffer space in the price of the model and seeking a balance between quantity and profit as much as possible.
Regarding the pricing of the Xiaopeng P7+, He Xiaopeng, Chairman and CEO of Xiaopeng Motors, stated that investors expect a gross profit margin of over 20% for the P7+, and its final selling price is still under discussion.
Investors' expectations imply that the price of P7+needs to be within a reasonable and healthy range. But in the market's view, in order to continue the hot sales of MONA M03, P7+may still adopt an aggressive pricing strategy.
In the "super red ocean" of the 200000 yuan pure electric sedan market, there are many popular models such as Xiaomi SU7, Tesla Model 3, Zhijie S7, Jike 007, etc., all of which regard intelligence as their main advantage. There are wolves in front and tigers behind. There are many products in the market with uneven heating and cooling. To break through the encirclement, in addition to winning in product strength, whether the starting price can break through the "life and death line" of 200000 yuan and highlight the price advantage is particularly crucial.
According to the price fluctuation pattern between the pre-sale and official listing of Xiaopeng in the past, in the market's view, the starting price of Xiaopeng P7+209800 yuan is likely to drop to the range of less than 200000 yuan after the official listing, and even reach 180000 yuan.
When Xiaopeng's absolute strengths are once again emphasized in the Xiaopeng P7+, the entire series comes standard with advanced intelligent driving, and the software is free of charge or subscription, lifetime free, making the long board even longer. Following MONA's rapid increase in volume in the 150000 yuan market with its "intelligent driving ratio", Xiaopeng is eager to strengthen its advantages in the 200000 yuan market and continue to increase volume.
After achieving phased results during the pre-sale period, can the P7+once again validate MONA's explosive logic in the market? After highlighting the long board of intelligent driving to establish the product benchmark, how to stabilize the price balance has become the second breakthrough point.
Under the standards of investors, the expectations of the market, and the encirclement of competitors around the 200000 yuan "life and death line", whether to seek profit or sales volume is another decision that Xiaopeng needs to make on P7+.
At the same time, end-to-end and purely visual, this is also the most intimate moment for Xiaopeng and Tesla's intelligent driving.
Tesla previously stated that FSD is accelerating its entry into China and is expected to launch a fully autonomous driving FSD system in China and Europe in the first quarter of 2025. As an outstanding student in the first tier, the answer to whether they can defend their advantageous position is still unknown.
Pull back the tone and walk with 'legs'
In the fourth quarter of last year, Xiaopeng's sales continued to rise, ushering in a peak moment, with monthly sales exceeding 20000 units at one point. However, after entering 2024, sales have been consistently declining, falling into a state of sustained sluggishness, until MONA M03 was launched, finally bringing "blood back" to Xiaopeng.
In September, the sales volume of Xiaopeng once again exceeded 20000 units, setting a new historical high. Among them, the sales volume of MONA M03 exceeded 10000 units, reaching 10023 units, accounting for 54% of the total sales volume of Xiaopeng that month, becoming the backbone of sales.
By single handedly pulling Xiaopeng back from the brink of life and death, with its ultra-high intelligent driving ratio, it has become a hot selling model in the A-class pure electric sedan market. It cannot be denied that the breakthrough in imagined affordable prices is one of the most important factors in MONA's hot selling logic.
At a price of less than 120000 yuan, it has penetrated into the hinterland of traditional car companies such as BYD, Geely, and GAC, but can empower industry-leading intelligence levels for its products, undoubtedly enjoying an absolute leading advantage in this price range.
But at the same time, by winning with the ultimate cost-effectiveness and doing better in the sinking market, the positioning of Xiaopeng brand is dragged to the edge of the mid to low end. It is easy from top to bottom, but difficult from bottom to top. Rapidly increasing volume in the 150000 yuan market is also a consumption of the price range of its original models. Once users label it with their main models, it is difficult to establish its brand power in the original 200000 yuan and above market.
The Xiaopeng P7+, which debuted after MONA M03, shoulders a heavy responsibility as its flagship product, endowing it with the most cutting-edge intelligent driving technology of Xiaopeng. It speaks out in the original market and emphasizes its name. The P7+carries a continuous upward responsibility, bringing back the brand tone and refusing to let the Xiaopeng brand be represented solely by MONA.
The P7+, which has high expectations, is eager to replicate MONA's "hot" status quo, but its product logic is different, one upward and one downward. It does not want to be represented by the "low price" and the only model of the Xiaopeng MONA M03, Xiaopeng, and needs to use P7+to justify itself.
At present, Xiaopeng Motors' annual sales completion rate is still in a downstream position, with 98561 vehicles delivered in the first three quarters, only 35.2% of the annual sales target of 280000 vehicles. To achieve the severe challenge of meeting the annual sales target, Xiaopeng needs to do its best to deliver over 60000 vehicles every month, and this arduous task undoubtedly falls on MONA M03 and P7+.
P7+will definitely be another hit, the earlier you place an order, the earlier you can pick up the car. "He Xiaopeng said that P7+has learned from MONA M03 and has completed the production ramp up stage. In order to allow everyone to pick up the car earlier, the factory has been preparing production capacity in advance.
The so-called 'lesson of MONA M03' is undoubtedly another delivery challenge for Xiaopeng. After going public, sales have been booming and orders have far exceeded expectations. Recently, there have been reports of delivery difficulties for the Xiaopeng MONA M03, and some consumers have reported that delivery may be delayed until January 2025 at the latest. As a result of the delayed delivery, Xiaopeng will provide point compensation to affected users to demonstrate the company's attention and care for users.
The delivery cycle has been extended, and a notice signed by "Xiaopeng Motors/Supply Chain Management Center" to "partners" has been leaked online, calling on partners to accelerate production capacity improvement and quality assurance, and deliver vehicles to customers as soon as possible.
When MONA M03 was launched, He Xiaopeng expressed optimism that "Xiaopeng will enter a strong product cycle and a favorable period of rapid development." However, whether it was the former G6 or the current MONA M03, He Xiaopeng had promised to expand production and ensure delivery in the early stages of its launch, but delivery difficulties still followed. Under the explosive trend, delivery has always been a hurdle that Xiaopeng finds difficult to overcome.
With the hot selling status of Xiaopeng P7+in the pre-sale stage, the delivery challenges that come with it are gradually emerging. Before replicating the "hot" trend of MONA M03 and legitimizing itself, crossing the delivery hurdle is not only Xiaopeng's "sweet trouble" at this moment, but also a prerequisite test for creating representative products again after MONA M03.