Tag: Xpeng

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Business

China’s Xpeng Motors’ EV deliveries speed up and Nio declines in Could

China's Xpeng Motors' EV deliveries accelerate and Nio declines in May

A Xpeng P7 electric car is on display during the 18th Guangzhou International Automobile Exhibition at China Import and Export Fair Complex on November 20, 2020 in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province of China.

VCG | Visual China Group | Getty Images

GUANGZHOU, China — Chinese electric car company Nio saw deliveries slide in May as the global chip shortage hit its business.

Meanwhile, rival Xpeng Motors saw vehicle deliveries accelerate in May as it managed to weather the same semiconductor shortage.

Xpeng was up around 5.5% in pre-market trade in the U.S. while Nio was 2.8% higher at 5:03 a.m. ET.

Global automotive players have also been dealing with a semiconductor shortage which has impacted their business.

Nio delivered 6,711 vehicles in May, a 95.3% year-on-year. However, that was a 5% decrease from April.

“In May, the Company’s vehicle delivery was adversely impacted for several days due to the volatility of semiconductor supply and certain logistical adjustments,” Nio said in a statement.

“Based on the current production and delivery plan, the Company will be able to accelerate the delivery in June to make up for the delays from May,” the statement said, adding that it reiterates its delivery guidance of 21,000 to 22,000 vehicles in the second quarter of the year.

As of May 31, cumulative deliveries of Nio’s three models — the ES8, ES6 and EC6 — reached 109,514 units.

Xpeng deliveries accelerate

The Chinese electric car maker delivered 1,889 of its G3 SUV in May.

Meanwhile, China had a five-day Labor holiday in May.

“May actually is a very challenging month for the industry, because obviously we mentioned there’s been a supply chain constraint on this chip shortage. There’s also the holidays, the May holidays imacted the delivery for the first half … of the month,” Brian Gu, president of Xpeng Motors, told CNBC in an interview that will air Tuesday.

Still, despite the challenges, May registered a very robust increase for the company, he said.

“And also, I think most exciting to see is that renewed growth of our P7 product,” Gu said. “We see actually a much stronger growth of that in our sales mix, so that gives us the confidence of really hitting our quarterly guidance and the numbers for this delivery … for the second half.”

Read more about electric vehicles from CNBC Pro

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World News

Xpeng Motors launches P5 Lidar electrical automotive to rival Tesla in China

Xpeng Motors launches P5 Lidar electric car to rival Tesla in China

GUANGZHOU, China – Chinese electric vehicle maker Xpeng Motors on Wednesday unveiled the P5, a sedan with new self-driving features that is set to lead the way in the highly competitive Chinese auto market.

The P5, Xpeng’s third production model and second sedan after the P7, adds another competitor to Tesla’s Model 3 in China’s increasingly crowded field of electric car manufacturers.

The Chinese company, a rival of local players Nio and Li Auto, announced that it will release its prices at the Shanghai Auto Show on April 19th.

In an interview with CNBC on Wednesday, Xinzhou Wu, vice president of autonomous driving at Xpeng, said the price of the P5 will be lower than the P7.

“In this price range with the functions that we have built into the car, it will be very convincing for our customers,” he said.

Xpeng Motors will unveil the P5 sedan on April 14, 2021 at an event in Guangzhou, China. The P5 is the third series model from Xpeng and has what is known as Lidar technology.

Arjun Kharpal | CNBC

The P7 starts at 229,900 yuan ($ 35,192) after subsidies. By comparison, Tesla’s Model 3 starts at 249,900 yuan in China.

Wu said the P5 will be rolled out to customers in China in the third or fourth quarter of this year. Xpeng has also expanded into Norway, its first international market. Wu said the company would expand its presence in Northern Europe and eventually the P5 would be rolled out there. He didn’t give any schedules when this might happen.

Driverless technology

Xpeng has tried to drive the advancement of its self-driving features to differentiate itself from its competitors.

The P5 is equipped with what is known as lidar or light detection and ranging technology. Lidar systems send out lasers that can bounce back and measure distances. These returning rays are processed by an algorithm to create a three-dimensional representation of the surrounding objects – a key technology for autonomous vehicles to understand their surroundings.

Xpeng claims that lidar can help the P5 differentiate between pedestrians, cyclists and scooters, as well as road works – even at night and in low light.

On Wednesday, the Chinese automaker also released a new version of XPILOT, its so-called advanced driver assistance System (ADAS). This refers to a system with some autonomous functions, but for which a driver is still required.

XPILOT 3.5 has an updated version of a feature called Navigation Guided Pilot or NGP that allows users to autonomously perform tasks such as changing lanes or overtaking cars. Some of these functions are working for the first time on city streets. Previously, NGP was designed for highways only.

Xpeng’s XPILOT is an attempt to compete with Tesla’s own ADAS system called Autopilot, as well as other competitors like Nio with its Nio Pilot.

“In P7 we introduced NGP … only on freeways. However, freeway driving is only about 10% of people’s driving time. Getting the technology and ability to cities to do the function is very important Chinese people to make more user-friendly and more convincing customers, “said Wu.

In the city, Wu said the situation is getting “exponentially” and cited challenges to ensure the car can accurately and reliably detect objects in its path. “We believe with Lidar … it will help us achieve our goal much faster and give us an edge over our competitors.”

The competition is heating up

China’s electric car market is expected to pick up this year. According to research firm Canalys, 1.9 million units are expected to be sold, an increase of 51% over the previous year.

Various government incentives such as subsidies have made China the largest electric car market in the world. With that, some startups like Xpeng, Nio and Li Auto have grown quickly.

However, these players are competing against traditional automakers who are honing their electric vehicle capabilities, as well as other tech companies entering the fray.

We’re definitely one step ahead, you know, compared to most of our competitors. So we’re pretty confident that we can win this race with more newbies in this area.

Xinzhou Wu

Vice President for Autonomous Driving, Xpeng

Chinese search giant Baidu has teamed up with Geely to create a standalone electric car company, while smartphone giant Xiaomi announced plans to start an electric car business.

Last year, Xpeng delivered 27,041 vehicles, more than double that in 2019. In comparison, the Tesla Model 3 alone sold more than 137,000 units in China in 2020.

Wu said Xpeng developed a lot of technology that he believes will give the company an edge.

“We’re definitely one step ahead, a few steps ahead, you know compared to most of our competitors. So we’re pretty confident that we can win this race with more newbies in the field,” Wu told CNBC.

“We believe that with this kind of focus on the Chinese market, the Chinese customers, the Chinese road conditions and also the various technologies that we are bringing together to better adapt the technology to the Chinese market, we have an advantage over Tesla the Chinese market. “

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Business

Xpeng predicts it’ll ship fewer electrical vehicles than Nio

Chinese electric car start-up Xpeng gets $2 billion in credit

Xpeng CEO He Xiaopeng stands next to the company’s P7 electric sedan speaking to the media at the 2020 Beijing Auto Show.

Evelyn Cheng | CNBC

BEIJING – Chinese electric car maker Xpeng predicts that it will deliver far fewer cars in the first three months of the year than competing start-up Nio.

Xpeng, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, announced overnight that it is expected to deliver around 12,500 vehicles in the first quarter. That implies deliveries of 4,250 cars for March, based on January’s 6,015, down to 2,223 in February.

Even with the weeklong New Year holidays in mid-February, these numbers lag behind Nio’s.

Last week, Nio forecast deliveries of 20,000-25,000 vehicles in the first quarter, implying deliveries of at least 7,197 cars in March. The company currently only ships SUVs and sells them in a higher price range than Xpeng’s cars.

While Nio plans to deliver a sedan to customers early next year, Xpeng launched its P7 sedan last year, which accounts for a growing proportion of deliveries compared to its G3 SUV. Xpeng plans to bring out another sedan later this year.

Li Auto, another US-listed Chinese electric car company, issued the lowest forecast of the three startups with 10,500 to 11,500 deliveries for the first quarter.

Despite the attention of startups like Nio and Xpeng, older automakers Tesla and BYD are already selling electric cars on a far larger scale in China. In January alone, Tesla sold more than 14,500 China-made Model 3s and BYD more than 7,200 of its Han model, according to the China Passenger Car Association released on Tuesday.

After rising in 2020, the stocks of US-listed electric car companies have fallen in the past two months due to the volatile start of the year in the US stock market.

  • Xpeng’s shares fell nearly 4% overnight and are down more than 35% year-to-date.
  • Nio fell 7.6% overnight and is down more than 25% since the start of the year.
  • Li Auto shares fell 5% earlier in the week and fell 26% year-to-date.
  • Tesla shares fell more than 5% on Monday and fell 20% year-to-date.

Autonomous driving software

As Nio, Tesla, and other automakers race to develop self-driving technologies, Xpeng started rolling out its autonomous driving software to some premium P7 sedan customers this year. With this technology, users can automate tasks such as changing lanes and entering and exiting highways.

Around a fifth of the more than 20,100 P7 sedans that were delivered from February onwards have activated the latest self-driving software, the management announced in a call for profits.

Xpeng reported that total revenue increased 43% from the third quarter to 2.85 billion yuan ($ 437 million) in the fourth quarter. The company expects first quarter sales to decrease slightly to 2.6 billion yuan.

Net losses decreased to 787.4 million yuan in the last three months of the year from 1.15 billion yuan in the previous quarter.

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Business

Chinese language electrical automotive start-up Xpeng will get $2 billion in credit score

Chinese electric car start-up Xpeng gets $2 billion in credit

He Xiaopeng, CEO of Xpeng, stands next to the company’s P7 electric sedan speaking to the media at the 2020 Beijing Auto Show.

Evelyn Cheng | CNBC

In July 2020, local branches of four of the “Big Five” banks granted Nio 10.4 billion yuan in loans for the startup’s China activities in Hefei near Shanghai. Participants in this deal included China Construction Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China and Agricultural Bank of China, according to an announcement by Nio.

In China’s state-dominated system, banks prefer to lend to state-owned companies. This makes it difficult for private companies to obtain funding unless they can convince state banks of their ability to repay loans.

Xpeng’s credit line announcement comes after the company raised more than $ 4 billion last year from its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange in August and a follow-up offering in December.

Shares have risen more than 195% since going public.

Where is the money going?

The start-up did not reveal details of the loan terms on Tuesday. The agreement will help the Guangzhou-based company expand its manufacturing, sales, service and other activities, according to a press release.

Xpeng said it started building a second factory in November. The company opened 116 retail stores and 50 service centers as of September 30. Xpeng announced in September that it was investing in the development of flying vehicles.

Deliveries totaled 27,041 last year, with more than half coming from a new P7 sedan that began mass deliveries in late June. The company added that it shipped 100 units of its G3 SUV to customers in Norway in December.

Although total deliveries have more than doubled compared to the previous year, Xpeng’s numbers fell short of Nio’s more than 43,700 deliveries. Nio’s vehicles have hit the high end of the market while Xpeng’s price range has been lower.

In the past two weeks, both companies have announced plans for new sedans. Nio’s is expected to arrive in the first quarter of next year. Xpeng claims its sedan will be delivered later this year.