Xpeng Motors Starts R&D for City NGP, Plans to Mass-Produce Flying Cars in 2024

Chinese electric vehicle firm Xpeng Motors held its annual 1024 Tech Day on October 24 in Zhaoqing, Guangdong province, focusing on the firm’s latest progress in super charging, intelligent assisted driving and flying cars.

He Xiaopeng, CEO of Xpeng Motors, reviewed the company’s achievements this year at the event, including their selling a total of 56,404 vehicles during the period. In terms of autonomous driving, XPILOT 2.5 and above accounted for 89.74% of all driver-assistance systems it launched, and the activation rate of XPILOT3.0 has reached 59.29%. In terms of intelligent voice assistance, the average monthly penetration rate has reached 99.76%.

Xpeng will introduce China’s first 800V high-voltage mass-production SiC platform, with new-generation “X-Power” superchargers able for a range of up to 200 km in just five minutes. To maximize the utility of the 800V SiC platform, Xpeng will also roll out lightweight 480 kW high-voltage supercharging piles with IP67 protection and safety monitoring. At the same time, it is developing energy storage charging technology to provide convenience for some underdeveloped areas.

In terms of flying cars, after the launch of Traveler X2, Xpeng is researching a vehicle that can drive on land and fly safely at a low altitude. Planned for roll-out in 2024, the flying car, with a price tag of no more than 1 million yuan ($156,592), will feature a lightweight design, and a foldable rotor mechanism for seamless fly-drive conversion.

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The navigation guided pilot (NGP) was the highlight of this science and technology themed day. Wu Xinzhou, Vice President of Autonomous Driving at Xpeng, said that the accumulated mileage of high-speed NGP has reached 11,980 kilometers. In the third quarter of this year, the penetration rate of high-speed NGP by Xpeng Motors has reached 60%.

In H1 2022, Xpeng will be rolling out XPILOT 3.5 and extending XPILOT’s driver assistance system to support China’s complex driving scenarios in major urban roads. By the second half of 2022, Xpeng will also launch autonomous driving services in China.

Wu Xinzhou also revealed that Xpeng will soon launch a new car, which will be equipped with an 8 megapixel binocular camera, 508TOPS computing power and highly integrated domain controller, and will be equipped with XPILOT4.0. Planned for roll-out in the first half of 2023, XPILOT 4.0 is designed to deliver full-scenario driver assistance which can support point-to-point driving for customers.