Xpeng cuts price of popular G6 to maintain sales clip
Chinese electric-vehicle maker Xpeng has cut the price of its bestselling G6 sport utility vehicle (SUV) by about 5 per cent to sustain strong sales momentum, in the latest sign of intensifying competition in the mainland’s fast-growing but crowded car market.
The Guangzhou-based company said on Monday the starting price of the G6 would be lowered by 10,000 yuan (HK$11,000) to 199,900 yuan, and the discount would be effective until the end of this month.
Xpeng’s move follows a campaign launched by BYD, the world’s largest electric-vehicle maker, this month. Shenzhenbased BYD offered discounts of up to 20,000 yuan – or 8 per cent – on its Han-branded car on December 1. Buyers of its Dynasty series electric cars can avail discounts of at least 5,000 yuan.
“Top electric-vehicle makers have felt the pinch from an economic slowdown,” said Tian Maowei, a sales manager at Yiyou Auto Service in Shanghai. “A reduction in price is seen as the most effective way of attracting customers.”
China’s top electric-car makers including Xpeng and BYD are facing new competitors, such as smartphone vendor Xiaomi and search-engine giant Baidu, which are luring wealthy motorists away from established players with smart electric cars. Major electric-vehicle makers are under pressure to stem losses amid rising competition in the world’s largest market for the cars. Crowded with 200 players, concerns are mounting over severe overcapacity.
Xpeng, for instance, reported a net loss of 3.89 billion yuan for the third quarter, up 63.4 per cent on the year. Shanghai-based rival Nio posted a net loss of 4.56 billion yuan in the same period, 10.9 per cent wider than a year ago.
Xpeng began delivering the G6 in July before the SUV hugely bolstered the carmaker’s sales volume between August and November. Brian Gu, the carmaker’s president, told a media briefing in July the company expected to deliver at least 10,000 G6s a month, and planned to increase production of the new model.
Last month, its delivery volume hit 8,750 units, little changed from October. The G6 deliveries in November represented less than half of Xpeng’s sales, which stood at 20,041 units, a record high.
The G6 has limited autonomous driving capability and can navigate the streets of major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai using Xpeng’s Navigation Guided Pilot software, which is similar to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) system.
The FSD has not been approved by mainland authorities and is not available on Tesla vehicles sold in the country.
A reduction in price is seen as the most effective way of attracting customers
TIAN MAOWEI, YIYOU AUTO SERVICE
China’s electric-vehicle makers are on course to meeting an ambitious sales target, buoyed by mainland drivers’ rising penchant for battery-powered cars. Deliveries of electric vehicles hit a record 940,000 in November, up from 883,000 in October, according to data by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
That translates to a 35 per cent year-on-year increase in wholesale deliveries to 7.74 million units over the first 11 months of 2023.
The CPCA forecast that a total of 8.5 million pure electric and plug-in hybrid cars would be delivered to dealers between January and December, a 31 per cent increase over 2022.
Two out of every five cars sold on the mainland currently are powered by electricity.