XPeng returns to the top of the new forces

Author | Wang Xiaojuan

Editor | Chai Xuchen

The new year begins, and XPeng opens its doors.

On the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, on the first day of work, XPeng launched a "5 years 0 interest 0 down payment" car purchase policy, ready to take advantage of the momentum after a strong sales start in January and accelerate its rebirth. Among them, XPeng has introduced a 0 down payment + 5 years 0 interest car purchase policy for the X9, saving up to 57,000 yuan.

This move by XPeng can be described as seizing the opportunity. In January, XPeng delivered a performance that exceeded industry expectations. During the month, XPeng delivered a total of 30,350 new cars, a year-on-year increase of 268%, achieving a strong start in delivery volume. This marks the third consecutive month that XPeng has delivered over 30,000 vehicles.

The main contributors to the sales were the XPeng MONA M03 and XPeng P7+. The XPeng MONA M03 delivered over 15,000 units for two consecutive months, while the XPeng P7+, which has been on the market for two months, quickly surpassed 20,000 cumulative deliveries. In addition, the XPeng X9, which has been released for a year, also performed well, ranking first in sales in the pure electric MPV market for most months last year.

In January, a traditional off-peak sales month, competitors experienced significant month-on-month declines in sales, while XPeng maintained relatively strong delivery volumes due to a backlog of orders, preserving its sales base and becoming the new force sales champion for the month, regardless of energy type.

As a result of XPeng's continuous increase in delivery volumes over the past few months, its stock price has also risen steadily. In the month since 2025 began, XPeng's stock price has increased by about 40%. As of the close on February 5, XPeng's stock price on the Hong Kong stock market was HKD 64.85 per share, with a total market capitalization of HKD 123.2 billion.

Additionally, XPeng's chairman He Xiaopeng released a New Year work letter titled "Steady Progress, Moving Towards Blue Oceans in 2025," encouraging employees to quickly return to work and kick off a more competitive year, leveraging the strong momentum at the start of the year.

In the letter, He Xiaopeng discussed the opportunities brought by AI across various industries, emphasizing that XPeng is leading the industry by embracing artificial intelligence and is committed to becoming a global AI automotive company through the integration of cars and AI.

XPeng is entering its favorable period.

However, competition in the automotive industry continues. There are always many temporary winners, but the industry has not yet reached its conclusion, and it is not yet time to pop the champagne. He Xiaopeng predicts that 2025-2027 will be the most competitive three years for the Chinese automotive industry, which will be crucial for XPeng and also the most opportunistic three years.

In the past few years, XPeng has always seen a surge in sales after launching new cars. However, many models have had short lifecycles due to production capacity and other reasons. These issues have been alleviated with the XPeng MONA M03 and XPeng P7+ last year, but there is still a need to accelerate the launch of new models and enhance overall operational capabilities to ensure the success of popular models at every stage, allowing the market to see XPeng's iterations Facing the future, XPeng still has many chips and is planning numerous reforms.

In terms of new vehicles, XPeng plans to launch multiple new models and annual facelifts, including the debut of a super electric version of a new model, with significant new products and facelifts expected almost every quarter. These new products are anticipated to become strong "killer products" in their respective market segments.

At last year's XPeng AI Technology Day, XPeng officially released the Kunpeng Super Electric Technology. This technology is based on an all-domain 800V high-voltage silicon carbide platform, equipped with a 5C ultra-fast charging AI battery, hybrid silicon carbide coaxial electric drive, and a silent range extender, achieving a comprehensive range of over 1400 km and a pure electric range of 430 km. The support of this new technology is expected to allow XPeng to replicate last year's blockbuster success.

Additionally, XPeng places special emphasis on organizational reform. He Xiaopeng stated that this year, there will be a strong focus on building a talent pipeline, with the "Thousand Generals Plan" aimed at preparing reserves and operations for core key positions; the "Explorer Plan" will continue to cultivate the endogenous strength of the XPeng system, forming a new force, with the proportion of explorers expected to increase year by year starting this year. There are also plans to recruit over 6,000 employees globally.

In the new year, He Xiaopeng has also set new goals. At the Guangdong Province High-Quality Development Conference, He Xiaopeng disclosed the progress of various businesses involved in the company.

He stated that over the past decade, the company has invested more than 50 billion yuan in research and development and manufacturing, with an estimated total R&D investment of about 9.5 billion yuan for XPeng Motors and XPeng Huitian by 2025, including about 4.5 billion yuan in AI. He is confident that the delivery volume will double year-on-year by 2025; the world's first split-type flying car "Land Carrier" launched by XPeng Huitian has received nearly 4,000 orders since its maiden flight last November; the fully self-developed humanoid robot IRON is also planned to be deployed in more positions at XPeng's factory this year, starting preliminary trials.

As for going overseas, as early as October 2024, at the Paris Auto Show, XPeng Motors announced its "Going Overseas 2.0" plan, expecting to enter markets in over 60 countries and regions by the end of 2025, and become the leading Chinese mid-to-high-end new energy brand overseas.

In the past year, XPeng's cumulative sales reached 190,068 units, achieving a target completion rate of 68%. This means that the goal of doubling this year is also highly challenging.

However, challenges are inevitable, and this is also the necessary path for XPeng to successfully advance and realize the survival of the fittest.

The following is the Chinese portion of He Xiaopeng's letter titled "Steady Progress, Heading for Blue Ocean 2025":

Happy New Year, students! Today is the eighth day of the Chinese lunar calendar, and also our first working day. With the snake dance welcoming the new spring, I wish everyone a vigorous and enterprising new year, striving for excellence and achieving great results!

Before this year's Spring Festival, our manufacturing team was fully operational, accelerating deliveries and continuously setting new records. The delivery volume of MONA M03 soared from 50,000 to 60,000 units in just 15 days, and before the Spring Festival, an additional 10,000 units were delivered, allowing more friends to drive XPeng home for the New Year. In addition, the full rollout of XOS 5.5.0 before the Spring Festival brought a significant OTA update for the intelligent driving experience, allowing old car owners to enjoy a new car for the New Year. To fully protect the homecoming journey of our car owners and friends, we also provided 24-hour online service, free roadside assistance, and free vehicle inspections at charging stations

The surprises and great experiences that our friends at XPeng have received are certainly the result of extraordinary efforts from the production, store, service, and 400 teams, as well as a large number of frontline colleagues and those who have remained on duty during the Spring Festival holiday to ensure operations. Thank you all for your hard work!

Riding the momentum, moving steadily and far

Last year was a year of "swimming in a sea of blood" for us, but we achieved counter-cyclical growth in the fourth quarter. In January of this year, XPeng delivered 30,350 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 268%, becoming the top new force car company in monthly deliveries, celebrating a strong start to the year! XPeng has maintained over 30,000 deliveries for three consecutive months, with the XPeng MONA M03 delivering over 15,000 units for two consecutive months, and the XPeng P7+ surpassing 20,000 cumulative deliveries in just two months since its launch. We, the XPeng team, have taken the first step in our comeback through our efforts.

On the surface, we have overcome external distrust and turned the tide; in reality, we have conquered ourselves and undergone self-renewal.

I have previously stated that the years 2025-2027 will be the most competitive three years for the Chinese automotive industry, which are crucial for us and will also be the most opportunistic three years.

To embrace greater opportunities, XPeng in 2023-2024 will move forward against the wind, and after weathering the storm, we will welcome a stable and far-reaching 2025. We must cherish the hard-won upward momentum, which is essentially confidence—the confidence of investors, suppliers, partners, prospective car owners, and current XPeng friends in us. Earning this confidence is not easy; it requires a combination of efforts, and the most important logic for moving steadily and far is to maintain stable upward momentum. Once the momentum builds, everything will become much easier.

In the next three years, our core product strategy is to refine, differentiate, and globalize on a clear product map, combined with XPeng's systematic operational capabilities, which will be our strong support to break through the elimination rounds and enter the advancement rounds.

In 2025, we plan to launch multiple new models and annual facelifts, including the debut of a super electric version of a new model, with significant new products and facelifts almost every quarter. These new products will be powerful "big killers" in their respective market segments.

Reiterating our organizational mission: to become a globally beloved intelligent technology company

Around the New Year's Eve, I believe everyone has been inundated with news about the DS large language model, which has shocked the global tech community. It not only achieved a product experience comparable to OpenAI's large model but also compressed costs to an extremely low level. Clearly, AI is bringing tremendous opportunities to all industries. In the last decade, XPeng was the first to embrace artificial intelligence, continuously leading the industry in the application of automotive + AI. In the next decade, I believe AI will drive significant transformations in the automotive sector and will also lead to major changes in hardware and software globally.

Riding the momentum, in the next decade, we aim to build XPeng into a "global AI automotive company," achieving comprehensive leadership in products (technology), business, organization, and globalization

Standing before a new historical opportunity, I would like to reiterate our mission: to become a smart technology company favored by global users.

Currently, we are experiencing a transition from "available nationwide" to "easy to drive nationwide." During the Spring Festival, more and more XPeng friends are driving home with XPeng's intelligent driving, and the public's understanding of intelligent driving is being refreshed. I believe that AI, primarily based on large models, will accelerate the advancement towards high-level autonomous driving. Excitingly, the penetration rate of high-level intelligent driving in China has already surpassed 10% in 2024! Intelligent driving has also become the primary reason for many car owners to choose the XPeng P7+. Currently, global autonomous driving is reaching a new turning point. To this end, we have already made cutting-edge layouts in hardware, chips, software, large models, and products. In the second half of this year, XPeng will be the first to achieve L3-level full-scene autonomous driving, bringing users an unprecedented intelligent driving experience. I believe that L3-level autonomous driving will drive AI cars into the "iPhone 4 era."

In terms of globalization, we have also achieved very good results. Just last year, XPeng became the first Chinese new force brand to deliver over 10,000 units in the European market. During the Spring Festival, the G6 and G9 were launched in Dublin and Helsinki, and the XPeng community is rapidly expanding. We hope that by 2025, our overseas business will expand to over 60 countries and regions worldwide, with the goal of becoming the number one Chinese new energy brand in export sales. However, we also see many issues, such as poor global NPS performance, which we need to take seriously and address starting in 2025.

Looking back at the ten years of XPeng's entrepreneurship, it has been a decade of continuously embracing great opportunities, during which we have faced numerous significant challenges. Today, we are competing alongside the most renowned companies in the world. In the overseas market, we should rely on high technology and high quality to pursue a high-quality development path. Each of us must therefore raise our standards tenfold or even a hundredfold. If we achieve this, we will undoubtedly become world-class talents, and our team will also be a world-class excellent team.

First stabilize, then accelerate, to go further and more confidently

Starting in 2025, market competition will only become more intense. To break through the elimination rounds, we must play our cards well. The delivery capabilities forged during last year's series of blockbuster campaigns have laid a solid foundation for significant sales growth this year.

In the face of opportunities and challenges, I have great confidence in everyone because we have experienced tempering together, rising from the lows. We, who have weathered storms, have the ability to walk more steadily and further, and we also have the ability to do so more confidently.

1. Steady and far-reaching implementation:

This year, our core focus is on steady and far-reaching actions to respond to rapid external changes. Strategic planning meetings will be held multiple times, with short-cycle agile adjustments to ensure implementation and inspection, safeguarding stable development.

The implementation of strategies must be coordinated with the interlocking of OKRs, with each department and team truly aligning and promoting their goals and key results. On this basis, the PDCA of OKRs must also be well executed. In the new year, I hope every colleague learns to continuously align their goals with their superiors, consistently thinking about using systematic combat capabilities to achieve goals faster and better

1. Talent Strategy:

Talent is the primary productive force of technological innovation. This year, we will vigorously strengthen the construction of our talent pipeline. The "Thousand Generals Plan" will focus on preparing and operating cadres for core key positions; the "Explorer Plan" will continue to cultivate the endogenous strength of the XPeng system and form a new force. Starting this year, the proportion of explorers will increase year by year.

At the same time, we plan to recruit over 6,000 employees globally and sincerely invite outstanding former colleagues who left XPeng for various reasons to rejoin us, to fight side by side in welcoming the new era of AI vehicles.

1. Self-Rebirth:

To compete with top opponents, we must constantly think deeply and compare our gaps, continuously improve ourselves, and enhance the cost, quality, and technical details of our products to stabilize the lower limit and continuously raise the upper limit. Although this requirement is high, by persisting in learning, continuously benchmarking against industry leaders, seeking advice from experts, and vigorously practicing PDCA, we can achieve self-rebirth and continue to create the next miracle.

Classmates, the brand new 2025-2027 is right in front of us. Steady and far-reaching, let's head towards the blue ocean! I firmly believe that focus, persistence, and dedication, along with believing in "the power of belief," can lead to greater success.

In 2025, I hope everyone can love more wholeheartedly, live more happily, and create more passionately. Let's all embark on the next wave together!

Finally, I look forward to everyone quickly entering work mode in the new year. Let's power up together in the new year!

He Xiaopeng

February 5, 2025

Year of the Snake, Day 8