Xpeng Motors has officially started delivery across China of its new electric car, the P7. A high-performance, wide-ranging sedan that represents a new milestone for this young Asian startup which has become one of the most promising on the scene.
This announcement comes after receiving the definitive license from the Chinese government to start operations in its factory in the Zhaoqing Industrial Park, Guangdong province, where I t will manufacture first for the local market. Later it will also take advantage of these lines for expansion in the west.
A plant from which the P7 will come and will have an initial production capacity of 100,000 units per year. It will be the epicenter of an ambitious strategy that includes the creation of an end-to-end internal manufacturing ecosystem and a chain of value, from R&D to local production. Through design and development, to manufacturing and distribution, complemented by its sales and after-sales service network, also adding authorized centers, it will result in a mixed form between the closed Tesla and traditional dealerships.
The first proposal that will come out of this plant will be a P7, which has achieved the highest number of approved autonomy under the cycle used in China, the NEDC, with 438 miles on a single charge.
The vehicle got an attractive design and will also have a configurable propulsion system with high-performance versions. Probably the most powerful permanent magnet synchronous motor in the Chinese market, with maximum efficiency to the manufacturer it reaches 97.5%.
Of course, Xpeng collaborated with the Chinese CATL for the development of prismatic cells with NCM chemistry. Thus resulting in a pack of just 110mm in height, and an energy density of 170 Wh/kg allows storing 81 kWh in this space.
P7 is the first production model to be fitted with NVIDIA’s new DRIVE Xavier processor. A technology that will achieve a high level of autonomous driving thanks to its 30 billion operations per second, 12 times more powerful than chips in most competing brands, allowing the P7 to operate its XPILOT3.0 systems and XPILOT2.0 simultaneously to provide the necessary redundancy for the car to take control without the need for driver supervision, achieving Level 3 autonomous driving.
It also uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820A processor developed for the automotive sector, the most powerful one mounted on a production model. It is in charge of executing Android customization called Xpeng Xmart OS 2.0
A P7 that thanks to public aid have incredibly competitive prices in China, where the cheapest version will start from 29,990 dollars, reaching 44,200 dollars for the most variant sporty four-wheel drive.