XPeng fought a turnaround battle

Author | Wang Xiaojuan

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

Since joining XPeng for more than a year, the iron lady Wang Fengying has rarely appeared, keeping a low profile. On September 5th, at the celebration of XPeng MONA M03, Wang Fengying raised her first glass of wine in life and drank it boldly.

Within 48 hours of the listing of MONA M03, over 30,000 units were pre-ordered, and then it continued to grow at a rate of 2,000 units per day, becoming another explosive model after Xiaomi SU7. Wang Fengying's credit was at its peak, naturally unable to contain her excitement.

A few days later, XPeng CEO He Xiaopeng also took MONA M03 onto the track to "experience the passion of competitive sports," adding another spark to this car.

As a new force standing shoulder to shoulder with Nio and Li Auto, XPeng has been lagging in sales for the past two years. Now, with MONA M03, they have finally had a moment of glory.

However, how long the popularity of this explosive model can last will determine whether XPeng can completely turn the tide.

On the road to becoming one of the top seven automakers in the future, He Xiaopeng needs to create more explosive models and continuously strengthen the moat to possibly secure the final ticket.

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MONA M03 has given XPeng a rare moment of glory.

Within 52 minutes after the press conference on August 27th, pre-orders for this car exceeded 10,000 units; three days later at the Chengdu Auto Show, pre-orders exceeded 30,000 units; recently, internal messages sent by XPeng to suppliers show that orders for this car are climbing at a rate of 2,000 units per day.

In the past two weeks, XPeng MONA M03 successfully took over from Xiaomi SU7, becoming a phenomenal product in the second half of the year for the automotive market.

A week after the press conference, He Xiaopeng distributed afternoon tea to employees to express his happiness and encourage everyone to continue facing challenges. He said, "In the next five quarters, there will be a new car every quarter, which poses a greater challenge to the company's marketing services."

Once again, the market has proven that for a car to succeed at the lowest possible cost, it still needs to choose a path that has been validated by the market - decent appearance and high cost performance.

At the press conference, He Xiaopeng compared the side views of several cars with similar positioning, including the Xiaomi SU7, which has already been recognized for its appearance. Upon comparison, the differences between the cars are not significant, and XPeng MONA M03 has been marketing its appearance for a while, with many consumers approving of its actual appearance.

In terms of price, there were rumors that it would be around 150,000 yuan, but the actual starting price is less than 120,000 yuan, with the top configuration reaching 150,000 yuan. It is evident that XPeng managed expectations well this time.

Furthermore, this car is targeted at young people who are more interested in intelligence. The intelligent cockpit is a direct blow compared to other models in the same class.

He Xiaopeng also revealed that many of the current buyers of this car are post-95s or even post-00s, as well as many female users.

If Xiaomi SU7 aims to attract young people with consumption power, then XPeng MONA M03 goes further to expand the user base and convert a larger range of young users.

To some extent, the current price of XPeng MONA M03 meets the expectations of netizens for Xiaomi cars. After the launch of XPeng MONA M03, some netizens joked, "Tell Lei Jun, there's no need to make Redmi cars, I have another choice now."

Later on, the XPeng X9, despite achieving good results in the niche market, is still not a high-volume model.

In addition, now that it has entered the mainstream market, it will face competitors such as BYD, Aiways, etc., whose sales have been stable at tens of thousands of units for a long time. Many models have already established a foothold in the B-end market, posing a challenge to the continued growth of XPeng's MONA M03.

In previous plans, MONA was intended to be XPeng's second brand. However, considering factors such as cost and distribution channels, XPeng decided to position MONA as a product series, strengthening its overall connection with XPeng.

This means that the pricing of XPeng's MONA M03 will also affect the pricing of the upcoming models from XPeng. Moving the brand downward and then trying to move upward again is not an easy task. However, He Xiaopeng firmly stated that they will continue to produce more expensive cars in the future.

In the future, on the road to becoming one-seventh, XPeng, like its industry counterparts, will have to work hard to navigate through the changing tides