Robert Llewellyn talks to Dr Brian Gu, President of Xpeng Motors, to get exclusive inside information on the Xpeng P7 smart electric sedan.
“Could this be the first Chinese electric car to truly rival the Tesla Model 3? With the Rear Wheel Drive model achieving an NEDC range of 706 km (439 miles) and the All Wheel Drive putting down 0-62 mph (0 -100 km/h) in just 4.28 seconds, this is a genuinely impressive long range electric vehicle. Prices range from 240k – 370k Chinese Yuan which is roughly equivalent to £27k – £42k or US $34k – $52k / €31k-€52k.”
The Xpeng P7 smart electric sports sedan officially rolls out in China today, April 27.
The Xpeng P7 features the NVIDIA DRIVE™ AGX Xavier platform for its XPILOT3.0. Signaling the EV maker’s confidence in NVIDIA’s AI compute platform, Xpeng also announced it will leverage the DRIVE platform for its next production model.
It is equipped with 12 ultrasonic sensors, five high-precision millimeter-wave radars, 13 autonomous driving cameras, plus one in-car camera with HD map and high-precision positioning. The smart electric sedan will bring several autonomous driving feature-firsts to Chinese customers, including Level 3-ready full-scenario autonomous driving functions for highways, urban roads and valet parking.
Last month, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China (MIIT) verified that the P7’s driving range reaches 706km (438.7 miles) NEDC, the longest range among EVs in China.
The P7 also completed its 120-day winter test in Feb this year under -35°C temperature conditions in Red River Valley Automotive Test Center, Heihe, Heilongjiang Province, China.
The EV maker announced in November 2019 its US $400 million Series C capital funding from a group of strategic and institutional investors. Alongside its leading strategic investor Alibaba Corporation, Xiaomi Corporation has joined as a new strategic investor.
