XPeng has sounded the horn for a counterattack.

"2022 will be the first year of explosive growth in XPeng's products and technology platform accumulation." On the first day back to work after the Spring Festival, XPeng's Chairman, He XPENG-W, sounded the charge in a company-wide message.

With the hot sales of new flagship models like G9 and X9, XPeng has gradually emerged from the trough of a year ago. In January, the MPV model X9, which has just been listed for a month, has delivered 2,478 units, together with the new G9, supporting half of XPENG-W's sales for the month.

From a structural perspective, high-end models in the range of 300,000 to 400,000 yuan have once again become the vanguard of XPENG-W's sales, driven by XPENG-W's intelligent driving technology. He XPENG-W revealed that the MAX version with XNGP intelligent driving function currently accounts for as high as 70-80% of purchases in the X9 and G9\G6 series.

This means that after seven years of heavy investment in intelligent driving, XPENG-W has finally reaped the rewards. By examining XPENG-W's stock price and sales over the past two years, it can be seen that they are highly correlated with the ups and downs of the intelligent driving industry.

In the past year, many places have introduced policies to support autonomous driving and have begun issuing test licenses for L3 advanced intelligent driving. Institutions have regained confidence in this sector, and brands such as XPENG-W, Aito, and Avita that focus on intelligent driving have seen a surge in popularity.

A year ago, Wang Chuanfu, who held the "autonomous driving scam theory," has now made a big U-turn. At the BYD Dream Day in January, he admitted that the era of autonomous driving has arrived and announced a trillion-dollar investment to lead BYD into this fierce competition in intelligent driving. The "new force king" Li Auto also regards autonomous driving as a top priority project and has adopted Huawei's aggressive strategy to focus resources on intelligent driving.

In the current highly competitive automotive market, reaching a breakthrough point is indeed fortunate, but this is not without the years of hard work by XPENG-W and the almost "paranoid" accumulation of wealth.

In He XPENG-W's view, the most challenging aspect of autonomous driving is choosing the technological route, and there are many uncertainties in the practical application of intelligent driving technology. However, since its establishment, XPENG-W has been closely linked with autonomous driving, backed by hardcore technology. He XPENG-W stated that even in the darkest moments, the company's investment in intelligent driving has never wavered, with an annual AI research and development investment centered on autonomous driving reaching as high as 3.5 billion yuan.

Since the establishment of the intelligent driving team in 2017, XPENG-W achieved the world's first visual parking function on the G3 two years later, gradually opened up high-speed NCA, onboard LiDAR, unlocked urban NCA, introduced the integrated XNGP intelligent driving system for all scenarios, and launched a map-free strategy.

Initially unable to even make a left turn without protection when attempting intelligent driving, XPENG-W has now expanded the map-free XNGP to cover 243 cities as of January this year, becoming the industry leader in terms of the number of cities covered and mileage. The intelligent driving team has also grown from a few dozen people seven years ago to a four-digit number.XPENG-W's success in seizing this wave of opportunity is also attributed to President Wang Fengying's refinement of XPENG-W's marketing strategy.

Despite continuous investment in the past, XPENG-W, which experienced a "cold winter period" in autonomous driving in the previous two years, has also been at a loss and taken detours. Investors who are bullish on XPENG-W have more than once worried about it, saying, "XPENG-W's autonomous driving technology is very strong, but potential users find it hard to appreciate."

As early as the launch of the P5 in 2021, XPENG-W had the ability to mass-produce NGP in urban areas; the flagship SUV G9 in 2022 has gradually formed full-scenario point-to-point autonomous driving capabilities, but they have failed to tell a compelling story.

The arrival of the "Iron Lady" at the beginning of last year changed this situation, setting a strong promotion of autonomous driving as XPENG-W's marketing strategy. With adjustments made, starting from the G6 and the new G9, autonomous driving became standard across the board, enhancing consumers' perception of XPENG-W. On the distribution and marketing end, the promotion and experience of autonomous driving features were strengthened.

As the first domestic BEV+Transformer AI architecture-equipped new G9, with the rapid coverage of the urban road network without maps, the MAX version with dual ORIN chips and LiDAR pre-installed has become the benchmark model that best represents XPENG-W's autonomous driving capabilities and allows for the first full-scenario commuting experience.

Filling the gap in intelligent positioning, the price threshold has also been lowered to the range of 260,000 to 300,000 yuan, allowing the new G9 to reclaim its position as the leader in XPENG-W's lineup. After the MAX version of the new G9 far exceeded the PRO version in orders, the autonomous driving department sighed, "XPENG-W's autonomous driving capabilities are truly being recognized by consumers."

Entering the gate of a positive cycle, XPENG-W is even more confident that this year will be the year of autonomous driving, and the past logic of travel will be completely overturned in the next decade.

XPENG-W mentioned that in terms of safety, the accident rate of autonomous driving is only 1/10 of that of manual driving; in terms of convenience, the takeover rate in medium and large cities and highway scenarios will decrease to once every 1,000 kilometers and 0.5 times, meaning that for the vast majority of daily commuting time, there is no need to drive personally.

Furthermore, with XPENG-W's announcement of the on-board AI end-to-end large model, future cars will be able to understand various road signs, text prompts, and align with human cognition; the speed of urbanization and cost reduction will also be greatly improved.

Open Source Securities predicts that with the transition from conventional architecture to end-to-end technology, competition in the autonomous driving field will become more intense. Once the model matures, vehicle sales and the corresponding data volume will become new barriers between car companies.

This is an opportunity presented by the market, as well as the beginning of a reshuffle elimination game. Wang Fengying has set the goal for XPENG-W to compete for the top 1-2 positions in the autonomous driving race; XPENG-W will also push all its chips onto the table.

The prelude to a counterattack drama has begun.

In the New Year's letter, XPENG-W mentioned that in the face of the unfavorable macroeconomic situation, many competitors are contracting and hesitant to invest, which is actually an opportunity for XPENG-W's development. He promised that by 2024, the company will expand by about 4,000 people and increase R&D budget by over 40% YoY, aiming to enter a high-speed positive cycle as early as Q4 or even earlier.Through continuous strong efforts, XPeng-W's autonomous driving capabilities have made a leap forward. Currently, it can build a city in just 1 or 2 days. XPeng-W has also announced plans to cut the BOM cost of autonomous driving in half this year, reducing the overall vehicle hardware costs by around 25%.

As the new G9 model, XPeng-W is leading the charge with the flagship X9, supporting models like G6 and P7, carving out a path in the fierce competition. In the second half of the year, XPeng-W will continue to launch new models in the 150,000 and 300,000 yuan price range, aiming to capture the market share in autonomous driving while expanding its product lineup in the 100,000 to 400,000 yuan range to rapidly increase its market share.

Supply chain sources have revealed to Wall Street News that XPeng-W has instructed suppliers to prepare for production starting in the second half of the year to meet the target of 30,000 to 40,000 units per month. New platforms and models will be intensively released starting from Q3, with at least two popular models set for delivery in the second half of the year.

Over the next 3 years, XPeng-W has planned approximately 30 new models and facelifts. Starting next year, XPeng-W will expand into overseas markets, developing high-speed NGP and XNGP functions globally to capitalize on the autonomous driving boom worldwide. Its previous collaboration with Volkswagen was just the beginning.

Having survived the fierce competition of the past year and now facing the reshuffling of the autonomous driving industry, XPeng-W dreams of soaring to new heights. Whether its experience and accumulation will lead to a successful transformation and secure the coveted leading position remains to be seen. Perhaps this year will provide the answers.