XPeng Plans to Release Two New EVs and Deliver 200K Units in 2023

On January 28, the first official working day following China’s Spring Festival period, He Xiaopeng, Chairman and CEO of electric vehicle firm XPeng, issued an internal letter to all employees in which he briefly reviewed the previous year and put forward new plans for 2023, as reported by domestic media outlet LatePost.

2022 was defined by He Xiaopeng as “a difficult year, a challenging year and a connecting year.” Last year, XPeng‘s sales fell short of expectations, and its share price fell by 81.34%. Although many of the firm’s products have now been laid out in China’s rapidly growing mid-market, only 120,800 vehicles were sold in the whole year – lower than NIO (122,000 vehicles) and Li Auto (133,200 vehicles).

In the letter, He Xiaopeng wrote, “The vast majority of current automakers will be eliminated in this knockout. XPeng has no retreat, so we must go forward bravely.”

The navigation guided pilot (NGP) of XPeng will be delivered in the third quarter of this year. He Xiaopeng said that autonomous driving should be regarded as the core label of XPeng. According to his plan, in 2023, the NGP of XPeng will abandon high-precision maps and cover 50 to 100 cities across China. In 2024, XPeng will provide NGP in more than 100 cities, and reduce smart features to about one third of current costs.

In 2023, XPeng plans to launch two new cars and upgrade three existing models. Both new cars are based on an 800V high-voltage platform. One of them is the XPeng G7, a five-seat slip-back SUV that is expected to be unveiled at this year’s Shanghai Auto Show. The other new car is an MPV with internal code H93, which is planned to start mass production in September this year.

By the end of 2022, XPeng had delivered a total of 258,710 vehicles. In the letter to staff, He Xiaopeng said that the goal for 2023 is to deliver 450,000 vehicles in total, that is, to deliver nearly 200,000 vehicles in 2023.

NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto are collectively marching towards higher annual delivery. Qin Lihong, the co-founder of NIO, said that the company aims to surpass Lexus in 2023, and that its annual sales volume will reach 200,000 vehicles. The sales target of Li Auto in 2023 is 350,000 vehicles.

SEE ALSO: Following Tesla, XPeng Reduces EV Prices by up to $5,312

In 2023, there will be six products on sale for XPeng and eight products for NIO. In addition to the existing ES8, ES7, ES6, ET7, ET5, EC7 and EC6, NIO‘s ET5 “hunting” version will be launched. Li Auto will have three extended-range models – the L9, L8 and L7 – as well as a pure electric vehicle based on an 800V high-voltage platform.

In 2023, many car models of China’s three leading EV makers will compete in the same market segment. In the five-seat SUV market, XPeng‘s G9 and G7 rival NIO‘s ES6 and ES7 and Li Auto‘s L7. XPeng‘s MPV H93 will compete with Li Auto‘s new pure electric vehicle. He Xiaopeng has previously predicted that in 2025, the penetration rate of new energy passenger cars in China will reach 45%.