Tesla’s Chinese challenger Xpeng rolls out 10,000th SUV as electric vehicles chip away at China’s car market
- The G3 is an all-electric sports-utility vehicle with a range of 365 kilometres on a single charge, with a sticker price starting from 199,800 yuan after a 22 per cent subsidy
- Xpeng is due to launch its P7 all-electric coupe in December, designed to go as far as 600 kilometres on a single charge
The 10,000th electric vehicle bearing the stylised X logo of Xpeng Motors rolled off the production line in Zhengzhou city today, a major milestone for the start-up that began deliveries in December.
The white Xpeng G3 that emerged from the finishing shop at the Guangzhou-based carmaker’s contract manufacturer Haima Automobile Group – code-named “David” – is an all-electric sports-utility vehicle slightly smaller than Tesla’s Model X midsize SUV, with a certified range of 365 kilometres on a single charge.
“The 10,000th vehicle is an important milestone for us because it validates the management of our direct-to-customer sales and distribution strategy in more than 200 Chinese cities, as well as our ability to manage our supply chain and our manufacturing,” said the carmaker’s chairman and chief executive officer He Xiaopeng, during an interview in Hong Kong.
The roll-out also puts the five-year-old company ahead of its start-up competitors in the past two months in delivering vehicles to China’s growing legion of EV customers. So-called new energy vehicles were the standouts amid a slumping Chinese car market.
Sales of EVs and petroleum-electric hybrids grew 60 per cent in the first four months of 2019 to about 360,000 units, even as the entire car market shrank for the 12th consecutive month in May, with sales falling 12.5 per cent to 1.61 million units.
