After NIO announced its second brand "Le Dao", He Xiaopeng, the chairman and CEO of Xiaopeng Motors, who has a close personal relationship with NIO Chairman Li Bin, is also unwilling to fall behind.
On March 16th, at the China Electric Vehicle Hundred People Forum (2024), He Xiaopeng revealed that he will launch a new brand A-level product worth 100000 to 150000 yuan globally within a month, which will be equipped with Xiaopeng's advanced intelligent driving system, and even unmanned driving system, and can achieve profitability.
It is reported that this new brand originated from the strategic cooperation between Xiaopeng Automobile and Didi Chuxing. Last August, Xiaopeng and Didi announced an agreement to acquire Didi's intelligent car development business assets for a maximum total consideration of HKD 5.835 billion. Based on this cooperation, Xiaopeng Motors will create an A-level intelligent electric vehicle with the project code "MONA", which is expected to be mass-produced and launched on the market by Xiaopeng Motors in 2024.
"MONA is the project name, and we will also introduce a new brand name," explained the person in charge of Xiaopeng Motors.
Throughout the entire automotive market, models priced at 100000 to 150000 yuan are the mainstream choice for consumers, with a large market capacity and annual sales of nearly 8 million vehicles, and the market share continues to increase every year. But there are few products in this market that support intelligent driving functions. Xiaopeng Motors, which has always been labeled as "intelligent", will further deepen its advantages in intelligent driving capabilities, and advanced intelligent driving is also an important selling point of the new brand.
"After delving deeper into car manufacturing, it will be discovered that there is huge market potential in the price range of 100000 to 150000 yuan. However, it is extremely difficult to truly create a good car in this range that is excellent in all aspects and equipped with our best intelligent driving abilities, and also has appropriate profits. This requires enterprises to have strong scale and systematic capabilities, and many friends are exploring this price range. However, brands that can achieve the ultimate intelligent driving experience here have not yet emerged. To this day, we are finally ready." He Xiaopeng said that Xiaopeng Automobile is the first car in China to bring advanced intelligent driving capabilities to the A-class car of 100000 to 150000 yuan. Car companies in the market.
According to Xiaopeng's plan, the new brand will provide important support for Xiaopeng Motors in the commercialization of autonomous driving and Robotaxi. Xiaopeng Motors stated that in the development of its new brand and products, it will fully leverage its leading advantages in intelligent driving technology accumulation and cost control, quickly decentralize the mainstream functions of advanced intelligent driving, and accelerate the commercialization and popularization of intelligent driving vehicles; On the other hand, the new brand will also accumulate a larger amount of data for Xiaopeng Automobile's intelligent driving research and development, which will be beneficial for Xiaopeng Intelligent Driving's rapid iteration and continuous cost reduction in the long run.
Not only for profit, but also for sales expectations, He Xiaopeng once expected "MONA" to sell 100000 units annually during the Xiaopeng Automobile financial report conference call. Compared to last year, Xiaopeng Motors ranked bottom in the delivery ranking of new car manufacturing forces for two consecutive months from January to February this year, with a cumulative delivery volume of only 12795 vehicles. Therefore, it is particularly important for Xiaopeng Motors to rapidly expand sales and change the current sluggish market performance.
"Our future goal is to bring Xiaopeng's advanced intelligent driving, and even to bring unmanned driving into the future and achieve profitability," said He Xiaopeng.