XPeng L03 Review & VLA 2.0 First Test — The World-Exclusive European Drive

[00:00:00]This is the brand new next generation of  AI SUV coupe shaped from Xpeng and this is the global release event of this exact  car. Today we're going to walk through details that you haven't heard of before,  but also test drive the new VLA 2.0 system, one of the first exclusive test drives here in  Munich with this exact car. So stay tuned for that and welcome to It's Only Electric. Let's start. It's only electric. It's designed by the former Ferrari design chief. And you can see some  elements from that, I guess. And as you see, it's a coupe shaped and a midsize SUV measuring  4.65 m with a wheelbase of 2.85. If you compare that to the Xpeng G6, it's actually 10 cm shorter  in total, but the wheelbase is only 4 cm shorter.

[00:01:04]So, it still promises really good interior  space. So, the design is kind of a vital flow, and that means that it's both practical, sporty,  and a good-looking car all in one package. It comes in five different color options where this  one is called Phantom Purple. A bit specific and unique. I like it. It looks even more purple here  in this lighting. If you see it in the daylight, it looks more to the gray side. A nice  different choice if you want to go for that one. Kerbrit is different because it comes  in four different trim levels. Starting from rear wheel drive standard range, rear wheel  drive long range and with the same battery, long range all-wheel drive performance. And  then you have the performance ultra version.

[00:01:50]And the basics of that is that it comes with  two different battery packs. Both are LFP packs, 400 volt with the first one delivering a gross  capacity of 51.8 kw hours and the net capacity 0.5 under that. So 51.3 kw hours net capacity.  Then you have the long range battery packs for all the rest of the lineup that has a battery capacity  of 71.2 kilwatt hours. The net capacity is 70.4, something like that. So a very small  margin between gross and net but both LFP and good charging capabilities we will talk  about those very soon. The range is spanning from 440 km up all the way to 520. And I think the  biggest contenders to this specific car is cars like the BYD Atto 3 and Elroq the Skoda Elroq. But  I also think they are aiming for the Tesla Model Y cuz honestly I think this will be a car that  will eat up some market shares from Tesla. The different trim levels starting from the standard  range version does have a rear wheel drive motor permanent magnet motor at the back putting  out 180 kW or 268 Newton meters of torque.

[00:03:12]It does 0 to 100 in 7.5 seconds with a top  speed that goes for all the cars or the models, the different trim levels, 180 km/h. When  it comes to the all-wheel drive version, the big matter pack, it's a dual motor setup with  285 kW, 431 Newton meters of torque. The quickest one does 0 to 100 in 4.5 seconds. If you want  to have the selfdriving capabilities, VLA 2.0 all you need to go for the ultra version. That's  the only version that comes with three touring ships. Three touring ships means that you  have three ships for two for the self-driving capabilities, one for the media system, and that's  the only possibility to get these 2,250 TOPS, which means that it's approximately four times  more capable than Tesla's current hardware 4. And that's really important for getting a selfdriving  car. When it comes to charging, as I said, this is a 400vt system. Both battery packs charges in  under 20 minutes. When it comes for fast charging, 10 to 80%. The smaller battery pack does have a  top speed of 193 kW, whilst the bigger battery pack has 238 kW. So you probably need to visit a  Tesla supercharger for the faster battery pack to achieve this fastest possible charging. Charge  port placed here at the right rear fender. When it comes to home charging or AC charging, 11 kW  three-phase support also vehicle to load support.

[00:04:59]So we can pull out 6 kW from the battery pack.  The vital flow design shows really specifically here at front with the bulging soft corners. You  have the really strong and muscular front fenders helping you to position the car because you  see them from the inside whilst driving it. You have the closed sloping grill here with the big  Xpeng logo on top. You have the 360 camera that's standard here at the front supporting the park  assist functionality. The closed active ventilated grill here so they open when the car gets hot  and needs some cold air and the starship lights here at the front. Really gives this kind of a  unique frontal design. And underneath the hood, we have a frunk. Two different options. 89  L. That's V8 liters for the rear wheel drive version. 43 liters if you go all-wheel drive.  You see the coupe shape here really makes the car look strong and sporty combined with the  strong shoulder design with this lip going up here on top of the roof. You can actually mount  a roof rack with the load capacity of 75 kg. Here at the back you see the full width star wing LED  lights really incorporated into the rear design.

[00:06:26]This makes the car look really sporty I would say.  Here you have some air vents going from the rear wheel arches creating some better air flow. When  it comes to air flow the aerodynamics of the car the CD value is 0.228. So, it's fairly slippery,  promising us a good efficiency. When it comes to the practical aspects, powered lift gate with the  storage capacity of 539 L. When it comes to VDA, that's 367. You have some extra storage underneath  here for organizing cables, but also a manual tow hitch with a tow capacity of 1.5 tons. First  time from Xpang. Three split folders. So 40, 20, 40 for some extra pack practicality when it  comes to loading skis and long things. This has been a thing that I have talked about in every  Xpang review. Now finally they listened and they made a car for Europe. So it's finally time to  check out the interior. And this time we start with the back seat. Front seat adjusted after my  driver position. And this is incredible. I mean, I'm 6'4 or 193 cm tall. And as you see, I have  almost one fist of knee room. The seat is in its lowest position. I still can squeeze my feet  underneath the front seat, which gives me a really comfortable seating position. Another  good thing, as you see, is the thigh support.

[00:08:05]I mean, one of the better five supports in a  electric vehicle and very plush seats, super soft, perforated leatherrett, so not real leather,  but with a really nice feel. And the interior comes in two different editions, light and black.  And obviously, this is the light version of it.

[00:08:30]This is mountings, powered mountings for  accessories like screens. Here in the middle, you have two manual air ventilations, one USBC  port, but as I said, these two are also powered.

[00:08:51]Comfortwise, you have a central armrest, also very  well cushioned with two adaptive cup holders and three individual headrests here at the back. And  while I was talking about those, you see headroom.

[00:09:05]Now I'm leaning backwards stretching out. I have  one fist before touching the panoramic glass rope, which also is standard in this car. You  can manually adjust the back rest position.

[00:09:18]Five different positions actually which gives you  the choice between cargo space or rear back seat space to some of the practical aspects inside the  cabin. That's storage. Xpeng is talking about 34 or something like that when it comes to different  storage capabilities or storage positions. I mean, you have those classic uh space for storing  cables and phones, but you also have drawers. So, you have one fairly big drawer actually where you  can put a lot of stuff. This is really practical uh and gives you the possibility to organize  things inside the cabin. You also have other things like X mounts, that's magnetic mounts  for mounting different accessories. You have grabb handles on three positions. Of course,  not the dial position. So, microphones. This is perfect areas for the active voice control.  Ammit lighting. If I close the door here, the ammet lighting goes through the whole cabin.  You have the choice of 256 different colors. And you have the same luxury features as in the  front. I mean, all the soft touch materials even here on top. all the way down. The speaker  grills feels nice. The manual door latches, it's more to the basic side, but more to a classic  car for being able to push the prices down to make more affordable cars for us. The design overall  does continue on the inside. I mean, it matches the outside with soft and flowing shapes. I  mean, if you look here, the soft shapes at the front continues into the door panels and ends in  a really natural way here with the hidden ambient lighting crossing the whole dashboard. Soft touch  materials almost wherever you touch. It's really nice. And have this nice, not speakers, this looks  like tweeters, but it's not. It's actually mounts, camera mounts or accessory mounts. You can use  it for whatever you want. Premium grills in brushed metal for the speaker covers. And whilst  talking about the speakers, it's packed with a premium sound system delivering a 7.1.4 audio  system, 20 speaker setup with over 1,000 watts of output power, promising a good sound profile  in the cabin. If you look at the air vents here, they are almost seamless with ambient lighting  inside. They are digital and AI control. So it adapts depending on the situation, but of  course you can also control it fully manually uh on the screen for instance. So so you have the  flexibility as usual. If you continue downwards, we have a central cluster here with one chi  charger. It's actually ventilated. And next to that, uh, phone holder, also some extra storage  here in front with a 12vt outlet. It's rubberized, so it's not that slippery. That's good. Underneath  that, we have another bigger storage compartment and actually a deep pocket. Just underneath here,  it's companioned by two cup holders, adaptive, and a central armrest with storage. One USBA and  one USBC port. There's no integrated light into this compartment. The immediate thing I see is  the steering wheel. It's a updated steering wheel, if you ask me, to the better. This one  looks really good with the the controls, the rocket to the left and to the right. It's very  simply made, easy to understand. On the left side, you control the driving dynamics or the  self-driving assist functions. You have the 360 camera or or park assist activation. You have the  dry mode selector to the right, very conveniently placed. It's a small steering wheel. It's to the  like more square sized with a flat bottom and a flat top. So, so it's it's a narrow steering  wheel, almost a yoke feeling, but but in a better way. The screens central instrument cluster  resolution 2.5K 15.6 in powered by the new XOS 6.0 also tightly integrated with Google Maps and  that's for the first time very convenient is it is not running Android OS or something like  that. It's just very tightly coupled. So the native navigation is based on Google Maps. Super  nice. You have a central instrument cluster of 8.9 in and companioned by a head-up display of  26 in. Very high resolution and high nets. So the brightness is really nice on all screens.  Actually, when it comes to the seats, they are really plush and soft, kind of supportive, a  bit to the shorter side, but normal for this uh size of a car, this class. They are ventilated,  heated, and comes with massage. If you go for the ultra version, you will not only get this cushion  lumbar support massage, you will get a 14point real shiatsu massage. So, it's a bit more premium.  calling for the ultra trim. Other than that, uh a comfortable driving position. You have  powered seats, of course, both on both sides and lumbar support with a dual axis control. So,  both X and Y-axis adjustments. Headrests also very plush and cushioned. You can adjust it heightwise  to get the support you need. But all in all, I actually like the seats. They are feel really  nice. I haven't tried them for a long run, of course, but I do sit for a bit longer in the  VLA test I'm doing in the end of this video. So, stay tuned for that one. So, I'm just outside the  Munich R&D center of Xpang, and this is the car, the L03 Ultra, and I'm going to test drive  it with VLA2 live here in Munich. So, this is one of the few videos you actually  will see, one of the first ones actually with this car with VLA2 in Europe. And so, I'm really  excited to show you guys and share the photos, the videos, some talking inside the car to  show you the driving scenarios. Let's start.

[00:16:21]Okay. So, now it's activated. You saw that. Yeah.  The wave. Yeah. It's driving itself. Yes. So now it's driving itself. Yes. And you see the graphics  is different. Yeah. It's using the cameras in a different way. Generating the world. Mhm. Uh a  bit differently. But you see all the objects.

[00:16:43]Not very obvious. No. No. But  it it's Yeah. Just took a left.

[00:16:54]This is a challenge point because this is a  challenge cuz coming cars from the left maybe.

[00:16:59]Yeah, no cars. It decelerates a loop and have a  little uh not so full stop. This is interesting.

[00:17:07]Yeah, this is interesting. We have a truck in  front of us in the wrong lane. We're passing it. Yeah. And going back into the right. No drama  at all. Yeah, that's nice. As a normal used Yeah.

[00:17:18]would do. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So now  a big intersection uh with red lights. We are in the left lane out of three lanes. We're going  to turn left now. So one one question. Um you are detecting here the red lines. I know that in China  there is a communication protocol, right? But here you don't have that. So it's only camera based,  right? Only camera. Only camera based because in China it will give you also the time that will  take to be green. I mean in this case you don't have it. So this is a tough one. This is a really  challenging situation as well. And we're meeting cars here and this is hard. Cuz the the cars  that we meet here does need to go first. Yeah.

[00:18:05]Yeah. Correct. Yes. Now it continues. Yeah. Yes.  Continue. So you did just press the brake at that point? No. No. No. Yeah. I pressed the brake. Oh,  you did? Yeah, I did. because the the the space for oncoming cars is not enough I think. So I help  a little bit. So so VA stands for video language action. Yes. And that's the the basic model of of  how works actually. So it uses eight different 8 megapixel cameras for streaming continuously video  data to the computer and it interpretates that data and is vision based only. You can also have  a text based input too. But what we see here now is uh it's acting on on on camera solely. You  see it see on the screen that it's it's green light. Uh so everything is is live. Um AI. Oh, we  have interesting scene. Never here. Oh, okay. Road work. Switch lane. You didn't do anything.  There is that uh a yellow line there. Yeah.

[00:19:13]Showing this temporary um work. So, so they told  us that the toughest work right now is for the R&D center here in in Munich to adapt all the the the  European behaviors uh the driving manners that you have in Europe. That's a bit different from what  you see in China for instance. That's the hard things to adapt the system to. Uh and that's the  complicating things. It's not complicated to read science. Even if the science looks different, you  can you can learn that. But some habits you need to uh to teach the the system or how to behave.  For instance, parking uh spaces is used a bit differently here in Europe than in China. Uh but  also uh maybe construction works uh and things like uh who needs to go first in certain scenarios  etc. Uh that's the tough things uh and that's what what what the R&D center is working on uh to get  this system ready uh by 2027. So what we see here now is a really early version of it but is it is  really smooth human driving the Yeah, exactly.

[00:20:25]You don't have this uh uh stop and accelerate  situation. It's it's it's really comfortable. Um, regarding the the ride quality, the ride comfort,  it's very, at least according to my experience, it's very closely matched to the G6. You have  this uh more comfort focusing suspension setup.

[00:20:48]It's it's it's a pleasant drive and goes well uh  together with the the plushed seats uh and the calm interior of the car. It's it's really uh a  calm experience that I feel here now even if you you have the VA too active. So he detected that  the um left lane was to turn left and he made the change to the middle lane to keep going from Yeah.  Yeah. And now he slowed down because he saw the the the speed limit 30. So we train our model uh  according to the the row limit sign. So we don't we don't let the the model to decide uh whether  it's go over. So if if I want to drive faster, I can scroll up the but you can you can  override. Okay. So you can adjust it. Okay, that's nice. Okay. And what I like there was a man  passing over the road. There was no uh road pass.

[00:21:46]It still passed and but the car did see it. I saw  the man on the screen, but it was so far away. So it didn't break that much. Mhm. That's really  nice. That's just kind of proactive and and not too jiggly in the brakes. More as you said, more  more like how a human should should like act on that situation. The the maps will uh the map data  will help the the model to know the direction which way is going into and but that but the the  model will keep the decision making by itself.

[00:22:22]Yeah, it depends on because sometimes there's a  contemporary ro. Yeah. So you couldn't turn No, you need you need to have both of course. Yeah.  So so uh when they say that the input is video but also text uh the text we're talking about here is  actually the inputs or the coordinates from from the from maps in this case I guess. Mhm. And and  what we see here is also what I mentioned in the earlier part of the video is that we have we see  it clearly here. It's the integrated Google Maps uh as as the L023 uses as its main uh navigation  system. Yeah. So it's deeply integrated into the car. Yes. So you are training the model here in  Munich? Yes. Are you considering on expanding that to other cities in Europe? Yeah, of course.  Because because there are many changes in the ways in the habits of people driving. So in Portugal  you will not see people drive like this. No no no not in not in Spain or in Italy. They don't they  drive drive a bit more crazy. I mean I mean if if you drive in Rome for instance you won't you  will have these three lanes but will be probably four cars. Oh okay. They not using the lanes. Oh  really? No. Uh yeah. Yeah. So it's it's it's a bit different. You need to uh in those countries and  and uh and cities, you need to act as the other.

[00:23:47]Yeah. But yeah, street wise, but as the other  drivers do. But I guess Yeah. But you will have some of the same problems in China. I mean, if you  go to rural rural areas, uh it's a big difference compared to driving in Shangdu for instance. Here  we have a car. They unloading uh some stuff here.

[00:24:06]So the right lane is occupied. He's occupied.  And did you notice this is what made me um love VA when I test it because it is aggressive. I  was expecting him to be more cautious because the the green light for for the pedestrian. Did  you see it or did you you did break? No, I didn't do anything. You didn't do anything for this  intersection is quite quite a challenging. Yeah, it's challenging. Yeah, I understand that. I was a  lot of things happened. I was a little bit nervous because the cyclist they just keep coming and  never stop. But it did see both cyclists coming.

[00:24:42]Yeah. We uh the model tried to move a little bit  and another one comes. Yeah. Try to move a little bit. Another one came. So now we have a bicycle  in front of us. Yeah. She's taking up the whole lane. So we can't pass her. We cannot pass. And we  have a car in front of that anyway. You can only drive very slowly. Yeah. Yeah. following the  Yeah. Can it honk automatically like now you need to move? No, we don't we don't train our  model because that's the how the model should work in Italy for instance. I was I was trying  to avoid to talk about Italy, you know. Yeah.

[00:25:20]I mean in in Sweden and and this the Scandinavian  countries and Germany, it's the traffic is pretty calm. Okay. You never honk cuz cuz it's forbidden  to do that. They can actually give you a fine for honking in the wrong situation. You can only use  the honk in in critical situations. Uh in Italy, in Spain, they use it uh another way. It's more  or less a way of communicating. Okay. It's good to know. That's a big difference. Yeah. It's good  to know because something maybe not so good here, maybe it's good thing in the other country.  Yes. Okay. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Very interesting.

[00:25:55]Yes. Don't take for granted what you test here.  That will work in every single European country.

[00:26:02]That's the the important thing that's for the  transport. It's a little bit confusing actually.

[00:26:07]Yeah. I think I think in the future you need to  have kind of like a parameter uh where you can toggle uh which behavior that's the strongest  or needs to be the strongest at the moment.

[00:26:21]For instance, as as you just said, uh you need to  follow the rules, but you still can't follow the rules in many situations cuz the the the other  cars is ruling the situation. Then you maybe need to follow uh the other cars instead. So that  balance is really hard. It's a matter of following rules, of course, because the car needs to follow  rules. But then if you want usage of the system, then you need to be compliant to what the users  expect uh the car to to drive with because if the car drives like 30 km per hour in uh Lisbon for  instance, no one will activate um the the the self drive because they will want the the car to drive  as fast as the car in front of you is is driving, you know. Exactly. Um but we can use the course  scroll to that is an override option that you can do here. You can screw up or screw down.  Yeah. Yeah. You should have like a function called follow the flow and but that it's up to the  driver. I mean it's still the driver that gets the uh the decision. Yeah. Yeah. The decision to to  override it. And we are actually looking to uh develop the mode for for the drivers. Okay. Okay.  Yeah. for the for the software. So, it's kind of different uh profiles. Yeah. Driving profiles.  It makes sense. It makes sense. Yeah. We we detected this need for uh global markets actually  because in China we don't have uh such requirement yet. But in in the global markets, people the  drivers keen to have more options. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:28:04]More driving style or depends on different roads  or or or timing. After work, I'm tired, right? I I just want to be safe. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe in the  morning, I just want to be earlier to to get to the office. So, I want it to be more efficiency.  Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. It's a balance of uh safety, efficiency, and user behavior because people  inside the car cannot be scared, but they cannot be stressed also, right? So, that's my video  of the brand new upcoming L03. I mean, this is a amazing package with a starting price of 35,000  or €399,000 Swedish crowns. I mean, I have a hard time finding a package that's better than this.  If you go for ultra version, you will get the VA 2.0 in 2027, as I just showed you. Amazing deal.  I would probably go for that one actually. The, ultra trim, you'll get AWD, etc. And things like  active noise cancelling for 35,000 EUR. That's really impressive. I hope you enjoy this video.  If you did, please give it a thumbs up and share your thoughts. Ask me questions in the comment  section. Hype the video, subscribe to the channel, and as I always say, stay electric. Thank  you for watching. Speak to you soon.