Recently, Xpeng's Chairman He Xiaopeng's video of experiencing Tesla's FSD in the United States has garnered significant attention. After experiencing FSD Beta V12.3.6, He Xiaopeng stated, "FSD performs very smoothly, and most road conditions make me feel at ease, but Chinese road conditions are more complex than those in the United States, and I look forward to FSD's performance in China."

From He Xiaopeng's official statement, it can be felt that Xpeng, as one of the leading intelligent driving companies in the domestic automotive industry, is eager and confident to compete with Tesla in China. Riding on this wave of popularity, Li Liyun, the head of Xpeng's autonomous driving, posted on social media that the "heavyweight version" of XNGP intelligent driving will soon be launched, allowing for truly nationwide driving.

The "weekly sales report" for June in China's increasingly competitive new energy vehicle market has also been released. Xpeng not only fell out of the top ten new energy brands in sales, but also was surpassed by Xiaomi Automobile, which has only one model, among the sales of emerging brands. The gap with NIO and Li Auto, which were once "on equal footing," is growing wider and wider.

The embarrassment of an "intelligent driving powerhouse"

In terms of intelligent driving investment and technology, Xpeng is definitely at the international forefront. Tesla launched its first end-to-end FSD v12 version in April, which has been tested on real roads abroad. Xpeng's end-to-end technology is only slightly slower than Tesla's FSD v12.

According to the plan, Xpeng's intelligent driving system will be available nationwide by the third quarter of this year, and can be used on every road in the country. Next year, urban intelligent driving will rival highway experiences, achieving a quasi-L4 level intelligent driving experience in China, and intelligent driving technology will begin to expand globally.

It is understood that Xpeng will soon push out the OTA upgrade for the XOS 5.2.0 version. The content of this OTA upgrade includes XNGP city navigation assisted driving available nationwide, instrument support for large maps, Siri voice control, and more. The new version has entered the internal testing phase, and users can sign up to experience the new version first. The official version is expected to be pushed out in early July.

Xpeng has spared no effort in investing in intelligent driving. To some extent, it seems that Xpeng is betting that consumer demand for "intelligent driving" will increase significantly. He Xiaopeng stated, "In the past 10 years, user demand for intelligence ranked 10th, 9th, and 8th, but now it may be 5th or 4th. In the near future, it will definitely be in the top 3."

However, what is somewhat embarrassing for Xpeng is that other brands in the first tier of intelligent driving, such as Huawei and Tesla, are also leading in sales. Tesla's FSD will soon be launched in China, and Huawei's Kunlun ADS 3.0 will also be gradually integrated into new Huawei vehicles. Therefore, Xpeng does not have much of a lead in intelligent driving.

It seems that even with the advent of the "intelligent driving trend," it is still unclear how much Xpeng's intelligent driving can drive sales.

The MONA series is crucial

In interviews, He Xiaopeng almost always addresses the issue of sluggish sales. On the one hand, he said, "I always want to emphasize that short-term sales are not valuable, but research and development must be very firm." On the other hand, in an internal letter at the beginning of the year, he proposed that "this year's performance should double or more, the organization should supplement all shortcomings, and the business should begin to move towards high-quality operations."

However, more than half of this year has passed, and not only have the latest weekly sales figures performed poorly, but Xpeng's performance this year can be described as a comprehensive decline. Xpeng delivered a total of 141,600 vehicles in 2023. However, the continuous growth momentum in the second half of last year came to an abrupt halt in 2024. Xpeng's cumulative sales in the first five months of 2024 were only over 41,000 vehicles, while the sales target set for this year is 280,000 vehicles, with a completion rate of less than 15%.

Obviously, after fully summing up the encountered problems and successively replacing the supply chain team, marketing team, and design team, Xpeng still cannot solve the issue of sluggish sales despite its high-profile performance in intelligent driving.

This year, Xpeng is pinning its hopes for growth on the all-new MONA series. The first model, M03, will be globally launched on the 3rd and is expected to hit the market in the third quarter. Various indications suggest that Xpeng intends to use M03 to open the path to popularizing high-level intelligent driving. This new car, priced between 100,000 and 150,000 yuan, will truly explore the potential demand for intelligent driving in the market.

However, it remains to be seen whether this price point can compete with established automakers such as BYD, Changan Qiyuan, and Geely Galaxy based solely on intelligent driving capabilities.