Xpeng, which I wrote an in-depth piece on just a couple of days ago, has just filed for an initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Its SEC Form F-1, filed today, is more than 200 pages long and we’ll be diving into it to see what we can learn. But the short story is that Xpeng has filed for IPO to trade under the symbol “XPEV.” In the meantime….
Xpeng, or Xiaopeng Motors, was founded in 2014 — two years after the Tesla Model S came out — in Guangzhou, China. Without a doubt, it took the idea of “copying what Tesla did” to a potentially obsessive level (I’ll come back to that later on).
Xpeng Motors, a popular electric vehicle startup in China that has unabashedly followed Tesla’s lead, that used patents that Tesla opened up for anyone to use, and that designed and developed cars that clearly resemble Teslas (yet do have their own design language) is readying for an IPO in the United States.
I recently met with Dr. Xinzhou Wu, Vice President of Autonomous Driving at Xpeng Motors, to learn more about the company’s autonomous vehicle (AV) bottom-up approach, part of its long-term strategic plan. Dr. Wu is in charge of overall strategy and technical planning of the business and team management for Xpeng’s global autonomous driving R&D center in Silicon Valley, California.
When you find yourself in times of trouble, Model 3 comes to thee
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
And in this hour of darkness, it is standing right in front of thee
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
CleanTechnica was invited to the Guangzhou Auto Show by Xpeng Motors to see the official unveiling of its sleek P7. If you haven’t heard about the P7 yet, see our previous article on it. The electric vehicle (EV) is Xpeng’s second car and resoundingly focuses on an intelligent, smart platform. The car is chock full of goodies, and the interior feels spacious, roomy, and very comfortable.
There seems to be no end to the incentives blues, with the Chinese plug-in market plunging 46% year over year (YoY), and this time both powertrain technologies crashed at the same speed (-47% for BEVs, -46% for PHEVs), a worrying drop, considering the overall market was down just 6% YoY.
The first time I saw the Xpeng Motors P7 at the 2019 Shanghai Auto Show, I knew it would rank high on my list. I recently spoke with the designers of the electric vehicle (EV) to find out their motivation and inspiration for the car’s design. What they told me was different and surprising. I was even more surprised by the way the conversation took a different direction than expected. I will be at the Guangzhou Auto Show in a few days to see the official unveiling and write more about it on CleanTechnica, but this piece covers that initial interview with the designers.
Xpeng Motors continues its strategic growth this week with the signing of a Series C capital funding round of $400 million from a group of strategic and institutional investors. At the same time, Xpeng announced that Xiaomi Corporation is joining as a strategic investor.
There seem to be no end to the end-of-incentives hangover in China, with the Chinese plug-in market dropping a steep 27% year over year (YoY), and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) crashing 45% YoY last month. Additionally, BEVs finally got dragged into the red ink, dropping a harsh 20% in September. The overall auto market was not so catastrophic, sliding down just 6% YoY.
