Xpeng pulls lidar from G9 to keep costs down

The new G9 from Chinese Tesla challenger Xpeng comes with an impressive 29 sensors around the car. That is just two fewer than the version of the midsize SUV that went on sale last October in the brand's home market.

However, one of those two sensors dropped from the European launch model this month was the G9's 3D sensor lidar.

"Lidar is extremely cost intensive," Martin Stegelmeier, head of product planning for Europe, told Automotive News Europe. "We want to be at the forefront of ADAS [advanced driver assistance systems] for European carmakers, but we also have to offer a competitive price. With lidar we wouldn't be able to do that."

Xpeng, which is limiting its initial roll out to Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark, will sell the new SUV in the Dutch market starting at 57,990 euros ($62,000). That undercuts by more than 20 percent premium rivals such as the BMW i3X, which starts from 71,488 euros in the Netherlands.

The G9, however, is more expensive than electric SUVs from volume brand such as the Hyundai Ioniq 5 (48,295 euros) and Tesla Model Y (47,970 euros after its recent price reduction).

Despite being more expensive than its Hyundai and Tesla rivals, Xpeng is confident it will win customers with its more premium interior, fast-charging electric architecture, and spaciousness.

The G9 is 4891 mm long, compared to 4750 mm for the Model Y.

Like the Ioniq 5 and its sibling model, the Kia EV6, the G9 uses an 800-volt electric architecture that increases charging speed to a maximum 300 kilowatts, which is faster than the Porsche Taycan.

Xpeng claims that, at the right rapid charge station, it takes 20 minutes to boost the G9's battery from 10 percent to 80 percent.

In China, Xpeng positions itself as a "smart" EV company, underlining its focus on technology.

The most visible sign of that is in the cabin. While most premium cars offer two infotainment screens -- the G9 has three. The third screen, which is for the passenger, is identical in size to the centrally located 15-inch screen.

Powering the triple-screen infotainment system is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 chip, which will also be used by Volvo's new EX90 electric SUV when it goes into production later this year.

The G9 might not have lidar but the rest of its 29 sensors inform the company's Xpilot suite of assisted driving, including adaptive cruise control, lane centering, lane keeping assistance, and active lane-change. The software controlling the drive assistance technology runs on Nvidia's Orin-X chip, which also will be used in the used by Volvo for EX90.

Xpeng includes Xpilot as standard, bringing down the price differential with Tesla, which charges 3,800 euros for its Enhanced Autopilot package.

The G9's standard battery is rated at 78 kilowatt hours for a range measured at 460 km (286 miles) on the WLTP cycle, and uses the less energy dense but cheaper LFP (lithium iron phosphate) chemistry.

The SUV's long-range version switches to a 98-kWh pack with a NCM (nickel, cobalt and manganese) cell chemistry that provide up to 570 km (354 miles) of range and the fastest charging capability at 300 kW.

The top-of-the-line, long-range, all-wheel-drive version of the G9 adds a second motor to increase the power output to 543 hp from 308 hp on the standard rear-wheel-drive version.

That extra power reduces the SUV's 0 to 100 kph (62 mph) time to 3.9 seconds from 6.4 seconds for its rwd sibling. That performance makes the G9 a rival to the dual-motor Tesla Model Y Performance, which Tesla says can go 0 to 100 kph in 3.7 seconds.

Like Tesla, Xpeng does not provide Apple CarPlay or Android Auto phone mirroring functions for its dashboard screens. That omission hasn't hurt it in China, the company said.

"We see that in China if you can provide a better experience of software, the customer is OK," Elvis Cheng, Xpeng's managing director for the Netherlands and Sweden, told Automotive News Europe.

Xpeng is readying content to rival smartphone-provided media, but won't say whether customers will have to pay extra for the service.

To develop the fastest charging version of the G9, Xpeng switched from regular battery partner CATL to China's Sunwoda. Xpeng President Brian Gu told reporters of at the launch of the G9 in China last October that CATL was no longer the brand's biggest battery supplier, adding that the company now uses "several" cell makers.