The 17th Guangzhou International Automotive Exhibition saw some major players in the automobile industry unveil their new products, including Xpeng, Tesla, and WM Motors.
Guangzhou-based automobile manufacturer Xpeng Motors officially unveiled its next-generation smart vehicle, the Xiaopeng P7 (小鹏P7), at the 17th Guangzhou International Automotive Exhibition (Auto Guangzhou 2019).
The vehicle, built on the Smart Electric Architecture platform (SEPA), possesses advanced autonomous driving capabilities and powerful performance, optimizing the driving experience with faster response times, sharper perception and greater comfort. The retail pre-sale price of the P7 ranges from CNY 270,000 to 370,000 (USD 38,400 to 52,600), according to XPeng news.
Different from the traditional cars, the Xiaopeng P7 offers a smart ‘music’ cockpit which contains 47 sensing devices and nearly 50 human-car interaction devices, backed by more than 30 teraflops of computing power. The cockpit is also equipped with an 18-speaker top-tier Dynaudio Confidence sound system.
The P7’s advanced features include:
Smart Electric Platform Architecture with NVIDIA DRIVE Xavier™, NVIDIA’s most advanced autonomous vehicle chip, and QUALCOMM’s top-line vehicle processor
XPILOT 3.0 advanced driver assist system, upgradable to XPILOT 4.0
Recently, the company raised USD 400 million in its Series C funding round with Xiaomi Corporation as a new strategic investor.
The Guangzhou Auto Exhibition also brought another two major automobile manufacturers, the America-based automotive maker Tesla and the Shanghai-based automotive manufacturer WM Motor, who unveiled their new electric cars.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed a new generation of electric pickup trucks baptized with the name of ‘Cybertruck.’
Cybertruck comes at different versions and prices. The cheapest starts at USD 39,900, while the most advanced (expensive) version, the Tri-Motor WD, will begin at USD 69,900. It also comes with Tesla’s ‘self-driving’ option for an additional USD 7,000.
Elon claims that Cybertruck is more capable in terms of towing and hauling, than a Ford F-150 and perform as a better sports car than a Porsche 911.
WM Motors (威马汽车), which recently raised CNY 3 billion (USD 430 million) in its Series C funding round led by Tencent (0700:HK), released its new electric car, ‘WM EX6 Plus.’
The EX6 Plus is an upgrade of EX 5, which comes with five seats and can achieve 500 km when it is fully charged. The car is equipped with an intelligent voice assistant capable of mix commands and mixed Chinese and English recognition powered by AI.
Wei Hui (沈晖), the founder and CEO of WM Motors, said in an interview after the press conference that the WM EX5 and EX6 Plus are two complementary products.
Now the A-level, A+-level and B-level functions are relatively complete. The EX6Plus is a perfect product. The key to competitive products is that the products are made to make users feel safe and reliable, stable in quality, excellent in experience and reasonable in cost,” said Wei Hui at the press conference.
The first line of EX 6 Plus cars will be limited to 600 units, and the official price is at CNY 289,900 (USD 41,185).
China has become the home of the most advanced electric car producers. It’s believed it will lead the world in automotive production and make up the main chain of auto parts suppliers in the future. Further steps have been made in this direction with the opening of Tesla’s ‘Gigafactory’ in Shanghai and the start of the mass production of electric cars.