Xpeng Motors will release two new electric vehicles in 2023 and one of them is tipped to rival the Tesla Model Y.
While few details about the new models are known, Xpeng president Brian Gu has confirmed that one will be positioned as a B-class vehicle while the other will be a C-class vehicle.
Xpeng’s only current B-class vehicle is the P7 sedan but Gu said this second model is “actually going to target [an] even larger market segment” than the P7 sedan, noting that it will be a “strong competitor” to the Tesla Model Y, which means that it should be an SUV.
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The company’s new C-class vehicle will also not be a sedan and compete in the same segment as the existing G9 SUV. While it will compete in the same class, Gu told CNBC that there will be “minimal cannibalization” from its model line-up.
“Given the premium and large format positioning, the number may be limited in terms of contribution,” Gu said of the new C-class model. “But again, it’s still going to be targeting a brand-new segment that we did not cover before.”
Xpeng is proving itself to be one of the few electric vehicle startups from China that is delivering vehicles at scale. In June, it confirmed that it had produced its 200,000th vehicle, just eight months after it crossed the 100,000 vehicle mark, a feat which itself took almost three years after its first production vehicle was built in December 2018.
The newly-launched Xpeng P5 also represents a significant moment in the history of the company. Sales of it recently kicked off in Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden, where it rocks a 66 kWh battery pack powered by a single electric motor with 211 hp and 228 lb-ft (310 Nm) of torque.
