XPeng’s new budget electric car looks like a Ferrari Los

As you walk At the XPeng showcase event in Munich, you were greeted with, no kidding, a giant wooden Trojan horse. Not exactly a subtle message from a Chinese brand announcing its first global launch of an electric car, in the German automaker’s backyard.

It’s hard to believe that XPeng was founded only 12 years ago. However, by 2020, it had already shipped Electric vehicles To Norway, marking the start of the Chinese company’s European journey.

look at me Top 10 China’s largest electric vehicle manufacturers in terms of volume, you won’t find XPeng, but it is growing and has gained a greater reputation outside its home country. Now it wants to go global with its latest model, the… L03the brand’s first new car will be launched in 60 countries across Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region.

The L03 is a big play for XPeng because this is their “budget” model, starting at €35,600 (about $40,000), at a lower price point. G6 Competitor to the Tesla Model Y, and sold in large quantities.

Yes, L03 is the company’s mass market play. Despite the aggressive pricing, XPeng sought to make the specs attractive: 320 miles WLTP range; Fast charging from 10 to 80 percent in 20 minutes; panoramic glass roof; heated and cooled massage seats; 256 ambient lighting colors; An impressive drag coefficient of 0.228 for greater compression; Smart parking; A 15.6-inch central screen with a resolution of 2.5K; 27-inch display; AI voice control; And even built-in Google Maps.

All of this and more comes standard, whether you choose the vanilla model, Long Range model, all-wheel drive, or the Premium model. The phrase XPeng keeps using to describe this embarrassment of riches is “out of class.” It wants the L03 to compete with electric cars in the segment above it, such as the Volkswagen ID.4.

performance? Well, the 4650mm five-seat L03 can do 0-60mph in just 4.5 seconds in top trims, but that drops to 7.5 seconds in the base, standard-range version.

Photo: Courtesy of XPeng

While other L03 models are Level 2 for Autonomous drivingthe Ultra is turning to L2++ for the next generation of hands-free point-to-point navigation that should be coming to Europe in 2027 (thanks to a trio of Turing’s 7nm AI chips). An over-the-air update will be all that is required to activate this visibility/non-interference system.

This is all, on paper, great value for money. L03 owners will get a lot of EV for their money. But it’s not all upside down. In China, the L03 is called Mona L03 because it is part of XPeng’s budget Mona sub-brand. XPeng doesn’t want to highlight this fact, and I’m told that the specifications have been modified for this “non-Mona” L03 global model, which I believe is meant to justify the name change.

As for future L4 autonomy, although the Ultra L03 has the brains to operate at that level, Xianming Liu, senior engineering director at XPeng, told me the vehicle lacks the hardware to meet the required six levels of redundancy. This ‘budget’ EV will never be allowed beyond L2++ skills.