Chinese electric cars Nio, Xpeng turn to mass market for growth | Wilnesh News

BEIJING—Chinese electric vehicle startups Nioh and Xpeng It is moving to the low-price market and plans to launch a new brand of cars this year.

NIO’s first mass-market car will be an SUV with a lower price than TeslaModel Y CEO William Li told CNBC’s Eunice Yoon on Thursday. Prices for this Tesla SUV in China start at 249,900 yuan ($35,197).

Like many early entrants to China’s electric vehicle market, U.S.-listed Nio targeted the high-end market when it launched about a decade ago. Its vehicles, which sell for about $50,000 or more, offer buyers additional services such as the Nio Clubhouse and a network of battery charging and swapping stations.

Nio and Xpeng Motors plan to launch mass-market brands, putting the companies into more direct competition with local rivals BYD and german automakers Volkswagen.

The new vehicles were launched amid a fierce price war in China’s new energy vehicle market, which includes pure battery and hybrid vehicles. Such vehicles currently account for more than 40% of new passenger car sales in the country.

Li said that although he expects market price fluctuations to continue for some time, he does not expect major brands to adjust prices significantly.

NIO plans to launch a new brand in mid-May, called Onvo, with the Chinese name “Le Dao”. The company said the name is intended to reflect the happy time families (target consumer groups) spend together.

Brian Gu, vice chairman and co-president of Xpeng Motors, told CNBC on Thursday that Xpeng Motors, which sells at a slightly lower price than NIO, plans to launch a new sub-brand Mona in the next two to three months. .

Gu said the new car will be priced below 150,000 yuan ($20,700), below NIO’s target price range. Last summer, Xpeng Motors said it would develop a new mass-market brand for this price range through a strategic partnership with ride-hailing app Didi Chuxing.

“The reason we are ready to enter this market segment is that we believe that through scale, technology and cost control, we can bring differentiated technology to the mass market,” Gu said. He pointed out that in the past, only the high-end market could enjoy it. Higher end technology.

Xpeng Motors has made its driving assistance software one of its selling points in China. Tesla’s equivalent fully self-driving software has not yet been launched in the country.

In an interview with reporters, Gu said that Xpeng Motors will differentiate technology for mass-market brands from existing technologies.

He also pointed out that there are at least a dozen brands competing in the high-end market, but currently only two or three brands account for about 80% of China’s mass market.

According to data from Autohome in the first quarter of this year, Tesla’s Model Y is China’s best-selling pure electric SUV under 250,000 yuan.

Despite lowering the price of the Model Y, Li said the new brand’s first car will cost about $30,000 (213,000 yuan), which is not as low as BYD’s.

Much of Chinese battery and electric vehicle giant BYD’s success has come from the lower end of the mass market. Last year, the company launched new brands of high-end and luxury cars, taking the company’s product range from under 100,000 yuan to over 1 million yuan.

Among several new cars planned to be launched this year, BYD said on Thursday that it will launch a new hybrid car in the second quarter with a price range of 120,000 yuan to 150,000 yuan.