Xpeng Enters 2021 Buoyed By Strong Sales, New Autonomous Tech

Despite a year filled with change and Covid-19, the Chinese electric vehicle industry continues to churn out advancements and new models. One prime example is what Xpeng has been up to recently, a list that includes robust 2019 sales and upcoming advancements for the brand’s self-driving technology as well as new Lidar sensors.

Xpeng unveiled the beta version of its Navigation Guided Pilot (NGP) technology this month. The final version of this “automatic navigation assisted driving” tech will be rolled out via an over-the-air update to Xpeng vehicles with the XPILOT 3.0 autonomous driving package some time in the next few weeks, the company said. To prove the technology’s capability, Xpeng invited over 100 journalists to participate in road tests in Guangzhou this month (and remember, if that sentence sounds strange to a home-bound audience, Covid-19 is more under control in China than the U.S. at the moment).

NGP isn’t a complete self-driving service, but it does allow the Xpeng P7 all-electric sedan to change lanes with a higher “success rate,” and with fewer driver interventions, than similar functions in competitor vehicles, Xpeng said.

Looking back, 2020 was a break-out year for Xpeng. The automaker delivered a total of 27,041 last year, an increase of 112 percent compared to 2019. As you can see in the chart below, each month was better than the one before. The numbers may be a bit difficult to read, but for scale, the December figure is 5,700 EVs, which represents a 326 percent year-over-year increase and included 3,691 P7s and 2,009 G3s, XPeng’s all-electric SUV.

Looking forward, Xpeng has announced it will partner with Livox to deploy Lidar technology in a new 2021 production model, which Xpeng says will make it the “world’s first mass-produced smart EVs equipped with Lidar.” The unit is a customized version of Livox’s Horiz sensor that offers an enhanced detection range of 150 meters as well as Livox’s new “ultra FPS” (Frames Per Second) Lidar technology. The current P7 comes equipped with 14 cameras, five millimeter-wave radars and 12 ultrasonic sensors. It is also the only mass production car in China that has a 360-degree dual camera and radar fusion perception system.

Finally, at CES last week, NVIDIA announced that Xpeng and other Chinese automakers (specifically NIO and Li Auto) will continue to use NVIDIA DRIVE to enhance their intelligent vehicles. Xpeng has been using NVIDIA technology in its autopilot system since 2018.