XPeng China Day 4: Workshops & Can AI Drive Better?

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]My name is Hugo, I'm owner, also, from Portugal, Europe. And I'm really a bit scared.

[00:00:08]Uh because I will explain.

[00:00:11]Because the evolution is huge. I was with you in Munich not a year ago.

[00:00:18]And the flagship at that time was the the next P7.

[00:00:27]Hi guys, good morning. It's another day here in China, in this case in Beijing.

[00:00:32]And today is dedicated to a bunch of workshops and where we will probably have the opportunity to ask questions to the presenters. So, we will have a couple of presentations like powertrain, self-driving, and also the design team. And then there there are some other workshops for the Iron Robot and also the flying car.

[00:00:58]I will participate in just a couple of them that is related to the automotive and I will have also, I don't know if it is today or tomorrow, the VLA tests and the Turing test.

[00:01:10]So, I will tell you everything, of course, and I will keep you updated on what is happening.

[00:01:16]So, we are about to have our first workshop. Really welcome under director of our creative design center. Thank you, Frank.

[00:01:28]>> [applause] [music] >> Hi guys.

[00:01:34]A pleasure from our side to welcome you and host you here.

[00:01:38]It's a great opportunity for us to give you a real bit of a hint of where who we are, how we work.

[00:01:44]And if you are here, it's not because we are I am a specialist, because you are in the midst of the the big trends, in the midst of What's going on. It's the place to be, right?

[00:01:57]China now is where everything happens, where everything's moving fast.

[00:02:00]And we want to take this opportunity to show you a little bit how we work in design uh and which are our plans for the future.

[00:02:08]Um Yes, Xpeng is is a company that is not only a car designer, it has other other, you know, working axes.

[00:02:18]But before to start, let's have a look at a little bit of the topics that we're going to tackle today.

[00:02:23]You know, uh recreating big products. Before to start, here I'm not here to talk about me, myself, and I, but I just put this uh because I set myself as an example of a, you know, the typical designer that's been many years abroad working with many different companies, many different contexts. And then a little bit here now what we are We are We have a design two design centers, uh one in Guangzhou, the other one is in Shanghai.

[00:02:50]And we are a team of 400 people. At Xpeng, the future of mobility isn't just imagined, it's designed.

[00:02:57]Across the dynamic creative hubs in Guangzhou and Shanghai, a powerhouse team of 400 talents representing 20 different nationalities comes together. This is where global perspective is channeled into a meticulously crafted design philosophy.

[00:03:14]Under the visionary leadership of Juan Ma López, we embrace the full digital design process. By integrating AI and the latest technologies, we haven't just increased efficiency, we've set a new benchmark for speed and precision, empowering our team to push creative boundaries further than ever before. At Xpeng, we take the leading role in defining the next era of transportation. [clears throat] Our philosophy is clear, the perfect balance between human intuition and technological power. This is the principle that drives every curve, every line, and every innovation, the very essence the expert design philosophy.

[00:03:54]And the same company by good contribution you have to create a very strong brand identity. I believe that X brand and X design will become number one.

[00:04:06]This question from Jack. What are the top priorities for car owners? My name is Dick Halvorsen. I'm not from the media. I'm a user. I'm representing a quite a lot big group of users. And I have a question about the usability. How important is your usability and the practical use in your designs? And I have I have an example. I tried to fit in the Mona. I'm 1.95 m and I don't fit in it. So, how important is it for X brand to develop design cars that are also have practical use?

[00:04:42]Yeah, I see our tall >> [laughter] >> Like the buyer can make No, listen.

[00:04:48]Well, then then of course uh And depending on a on a project is to design the priorities. Of course uh comfort, accessibility, ergonomics, visual feeling, such feeling of roominess is important.

[00:05:06]Yes, you are one of the guys that are setting the limit of the of the calculations, right? The person who is 1.95 m actually you are one. You are the one who defines the limit. So, you are you are you are in the limit.

[00:05:16]So, maybe you are But yes, overall no, we always try to take into account and we are going to improve our best.

[00:05:24]There is models where we prioritize exterior appearance that we can go into a limit. That's why I mentioned that I always mentioned that car design is a compromise of priorities.

[00:05:38]You cannot design a sporty car looking like that has the best roominess inside. So, therefore that's why you need different Yeah, that's why you need different product development cycle in this But in any case, we will take into account your your your point.

[00:05:57]We'll do our best to keep improving our models. So, that Okay. Thank you.

[00:06:01]Hi there.

[00:06:02]My name is Hugo. I'm also a owner of an X bank, proud owner. And I also represent community of owners via YouTube channel.

[00:06:12]And you talked about tastes that it's currently very common and this facilitates your job as a designer. But is there still compromises because of different markets regulations and legislations that you need to take into account when designing a car?

[00:06:33]And also how much is engineering impacting design? That's a very good question. And actually it turns out turns out very good because lately there's there's new regulations in the local local market.

[00:06:46]That make the cars that has an impact on the how the model car looks, right?

[00:06:53]And the way you design it. So, meaning that all the regulations regarding safety and protection and you know, things that would impact the cost of insurance are being taken into account here as well as in the rest of the world.

[00:07:06]Which are the points that really mainly affected the the way you design the cars. It's like crash test, safety and safety.

[00:07:14]That's why lately in the last recent years, all front ends have a little bit some common solutions and it's not easy to to get out of this.

[00:07:25]But if I'm trying to respond to your question and how much you know, the restrictions affect to our designs here in China compared to the rest of the world, they're about to be the same.

[00:07:36]Okay. And I I hope I answered your question.

[00:07:44]All right, so I'm the last one for this morning you know session working on. Okay, so uh welcome to you know the Xiaopeng uh so-called new uh vehicle model release and workshop.

[00:07:58]Okay, I think this session will give you some brief introduction of our vehicle architecture and some of you know the key technology for the new vehicle. Okay. All right, my name is Jackie Gu. I'm the uh vice president of the power team and uh ATC chairman. ATC is kind of you know the uh automotive uh committee uh chairman. Okay, so all right.

[00:08:23]For this vehicle and also capable to deliver you know the the critical uh we call the so physical or super intelligent you know the functions.

[00:08:36]Like uh to to make this car work like the a human being uh to think something which kind of you know the intelligent brain and also all those you know the you know performance um can be um enabled based on this what we're calling a VLA plus VLN plus you know the super high uh power um computing power capabilities of 1,000 tops and also the very high performance you know the uh the bandwidth. presentation. My name is Dick Albers. I'm not from the media. I'm an owner. I was one of the first owners of a G9 in the Netherlands. I'm from the Netherlands and we're we're representing quite a large group of mainly European owners.

[00:09:23]I was very glad you compared FSD from Tesla with VLA 2.0 because since a couple of weeks uh Tesla has the legislation for FSD in the Netherlands and soon for the rest of Europe. So, my question is, what will be the answer of Xpeng to be complete Tesla on this level? Because at this moment uh Xpeng still delivers G9s, G6s with the R&X uh chip, and uh P7 plus with one uh touring. So, how will you compete with Tesla on this issue?

[00:10:10]Uh I think that, you know, uh mm I cannot [laughter] answer you a lot for this competition because, to be honest, what is I'm not, you know, a top of guy, right? So, but I think the from from technical, you know, comparison perspective, you know, uh uh different time will have a different compare comparison results, right? So, uh spoke that the G9 also I uh the the the customer of the G9 also me, too.

[00:10:39][clears throat] So, uh I I have a very, you know, direct drive feeling uh one hour Xpeng's autonomous driving ability uh uh through the iteration, right? From the 2022 to now. So, previous, you know, the autonomous driving performance is not so good. And all those, you know, different uh feeling uh was uh you know, uh impact based on the what I mentioned also the company power ability, right? Data, and also the model, right? So, I I believe also the previous vehicle maybe the performance of the total AI ability is much lower than now. That that's true.

[00:11:21]But I think the our autonomous drive team is doing a lot of, you know, the work, right? So, this is our so-called flagship, you know, the vehicle and our based on of architecture. I think all those technology architecture support all of the vehicle models that we see in the future based on this architecture.

[00:11:37]The G9 and the G6, this is the Gen 2 architecture, right? I think the capabilities is lower than that one.

[00:11:46]So, I cannot give you direct answer so how much of the the the battery Gen 3 is better than Gen 2, right? For the autonomous driving.

[00:11:58]But I think the comparison you with with the the Tesla.

[00:12:02]So, Tesla coming the first first FSD 4.0 14 you know the revision with 14.0 14.0 whatever, right? So, our autonomous driving team is doing some some test comparison. So, maybe you can have a talk with them directly and >> [laughter] >> have the the the I think the better answer.

[00:12:23]So, I'm sorry. Yeah.

[00:12:25]Okay, Jackie.

[00:12:27]My name is Hugo. I'm owner also. Uh from Portugal, Europe.

[00:12:32]And um I am really a bit scared.

[00:12:35]Uh because I will explain.

[00:12:38]Because the evolution is huge. I was with you in Munich not a year ago.

[00:12:46]And the flagship at that time was the the next P7.

[00:12:50]And we were talking about 5C. We were talking about the evolution. Uh it was a huge leap already in technology.

[00:13:00]And as Dick already mentioned in Europe, the cars that are being sold currently there are still a couple of steps behind.

[00:13:10]And now we are already talking about SEP 3.0. I know that some of these um functionalities or characteristics are already present in 5C and stuff like that already present in the actual cars.

[00:13:24]But I see um a huge amount of evolution that it's good, but it's also scary as a point of view as a owner because we buy a car now and it's like a cell phone.

[00:13:41]Uh in in 6 months it's complete obsolete or almost obsolete in terms of uh technology. So, what do you expect the the market to have uh uh uh uh uh to evolve and if this will stop in a point in time? I think your your question also her question also [laughter] her also question, right? So, yeah, that's true. I think uh uh iteration of you know the generation is uh as a quicker uh than before. Before means you know 10 years ago, right? So, that's kind of you know you know the competition driving uh reaction, right?

[00:14:23]Somehow you have to do some you know upgrade, right? To meet the customer requirement. Also to fighting with your players.

[00:14:32]Do you have choice? May not. Uh some we have some you know some choice, right?

[00:14:39]For example, just like you mentioned so when we need to you know upgrade from China performance [clears throat] from 5G to 6G to 8G to 10G in 7 years in just a few 7 years, right? No.

[00:14:53]For example, 5G I think that's the same class we utilize 5G as well, right? We update something, but we don't update everything.

[00:15:00]That means we have everything, but we will do something step by step.

[00:15:04]Then we also need to consider our customer you know the concern about how can you uh how do you do upgrade something so quicker, right?

[00:15:13]When I buy this sorry, this one the 100 liters so it's it's it's not it's not the latest one, right?

[00:15:20]So, but I think you know from from architecture perspective, every three or four years we are doing one of the you know, iteration. And also all those things the architecture iteration is not a fully upgrade. It's not fully new one.

[00:15:40]We will leverage previous you know, direction maybe 6% or 7% uh how do you call carry over from the last direction to the new to new one. Maybe the other 30% or 40% we are doing the new one.

[00:15:53]To to to how do you do to fight with our players, right? To meet the customer requirement. So, but I don't worry about it. I think the I I still driving my car, you know, from 2022. I think the my feeling for this this one this this the product is I have very good feeling about how our top drive.

[00:16:16]The first year what what I drive the top drive system, right? So, the feeling is not so good, to be honest. That's true.

[00:16:22]Yeah. Tell the truth, right? But three years later, it's getting better and better and better.

[00:16:29]Maybe not good at this real 1.0, but I think that maybe sometime later the our uh top drive model team will do some you know, uh uh uh upgrade, right? Maybe deploy this system for for the other vehicles.

[00:16:45]Uh I will say something about the something, okay? But I cannot tell you so, yeah. It's a fully same you know, the feeling of fully same the function like this the how do you uh a flagship of the vehicle models. I cannot tell you. That's That's That's not right, you know.

[00:17:02]I'm Allison the senior global PR manager at Xpeng.

[00:17:06]Um so, for the headset, please turn it into the channel two for English translator. After the workshop, please keep back your headset are to our staff over there though. Thank you and as you might already know this workshop is about autonomous driving and we are happy to have Richard here who is the expert in the AI and large language models and also the senior manager of autonomous driving center. Welcome.

[00:17:41]>> [applause and music] >> I'm from Auto China and the VELA 2.0 maybe some of you have already seen me in the morning after the test drive. I believe you have a better understanding of the VELA 2.0 and for this session I will further elaborate elaborate on technology as well as the infrastructure. I believe you're really wondering behind this kind of a test drive. How do we realize that? And in today's workshop I will elaborate on that and at the end of the workshop there will be a Q&A session. I'm happy to receive your questions.

[00:18:34]Uh hi there. My name is Ugo and I'm a owner of an X bank and I represent a community of owners via YouTube. And going together with that colleague from Spain just to clarify you mean that um how many Turing chips are required to run VELA 2.0? And the second question is if there is any plan of have more advanced self-driving capabilities on the current existing cars that are being sold in Europe because they are all with one or in X chip.

[00:19:14]Uh I want to see the first day market launch and I'm not quite sure about that. I hope they share information.

[00:19:22]In Chinese market, I think they're quite similar in terms of the technology roadmap, but we need to be adapted to local regulations and adaptation.

[00:19:31]Um In China for the P7 Alpha, I trim the ultra mix.

[00:19:38]We have three touring chips. Ultra XEED has two touring chips and they can support the VO2.0 new try today with one touring chips and two R&D apps chips means max.

[00:19:55]And there will be equipped with the VO2.0 this year for future local tax.

[00:20:04]Sorry, I don't have information regarding that, but I You can do research.

[00:20:11]I don't have to add that.

[00:20:15]Even though it's a touring We do not support about VO2.0.

[00:20:22]It still can navigate meaning road conditions at foreign similar reassuring and also narrow capability.

[00:20:33]There is There is a gap between that, but at the current autonomous driving version is really excellent in China.

[00:20:41]Hi guys, I'm back in the hotel room and I have ended the workshops and also I did the touring exercise. I will explain in a few minutes what that was. This is a media international and European event. So, it's not about owners. It's not about the situations that we expect as owners to be solved or knowing what will come in the future for us. So, it's more media presentations. And most of the questions that we asked about stuff happening in Europe, about the touring ships and the previous car configurations, the answer was not concrete. Most of the times they say that they don't know what will happen to those cars because they are for who are on just the evolution of the VLA for the Chinese market and then in the future for overseas markets. So, again guys, I did these workshops and I did also the touring tour, let's call it like that. That basically this is what you probably already saw in a couple of videos of Xpeng. So, myself and Dick Helders, we entered inside P7, new P7 or next P7, call it again whatever you want. And they were blocking the view to the screen and to the driver, okay? And then we had three blocks where the car was driven or by VLA or by the driver. And at the end of each block, I had and Dick also to make our to reply if it was VLA or if it was manual human driving. And it is really impressive because sometimes you feel that the reaction of the car is more human related and some other times you feel that it's machine.

[00:22:48]And at the end, if you consider the full experience, you really don't know because you will end up looking at things that you would say that a human more aggressive would do. And then at the end was VLA and also you will understand because as a owner and I believe that this was again more intended to media that didn't have any contact with Xpeng cars. We know that sometimes when we are self-driving the distance to the car in front will be more consistent. It's not human way of driving and that's why we were able to identify a couple of situations where the car was in fact being driven by VLA. And but this it is really impressive because it does very good job. It's very similar to a human driving even considering that it does not mistakes okay because it's not considered a mistakes but sometimes it's very cautious and sometimes needs to be a little bit more aggressive and it works. So the guys are driving the car in self-drive with the VLA 2.0 and you are in the doubt if it is someone making the decisions or if it is the machine. So I think the test is a good way to show media that sometimes we feel that the car is in fact evolving to self-driving but as a human okay. So it was a nice experience and I am really excited for tomorrow well where I will have the VLA 2.0 experience to full experience where I will be in front on the driver position and see what the car does and I will try to record everything and make of course the video for that. So guys again thank you very much and I will see you in the next one.

[00:24:46]Bye-bye guys.