- The EV story in China is getting
really interesting right now.
The Tesla model three is now being made there.
They just announced some updates to it.
We'll cover those and also, there's a company
that's a startup called Xpeng that
just launched a new Sedan called the P7
with some really impressive specs.
So, today what I wanna do is just dive in
and see how these two cars stack up against each other
and see if we can pick a winner or not.
Let's free the data.
(upbeat tech music)
I hate to be the guy that always compares everything
to a Tesla, but they in many ways, have earned that right
because they are the gold standard
for electric vehicles out there.
Now, they're not for everyone.
There are lots of use cases and lots of room
for other companies to come in, but here's one.
A company in China that is coming in directly into the space
that Tesla is occupying.
So yeah, they're kind of asking for this comparison.
So let's dive in and see how these numbers
actually shake out for them.
Let's first just have a bit of context for the Xpeng P7
since it is so new.
Xpeng is an EV startup in China.
They recently raised four hundred million dollars in funding
and now with their sedan, this adds to their lineup,
which already includes an electric SUV,
which for some reason, has an IP water rating.
And both vehicles have impressive specs,
but Tesla has some tricks up their sleeve as well.
Recently Tesla lowered the price
of their standard Range model three in China
to take advantage of the national subsidy.
These incentives were recently cut by 10%,
which are to be followed by further reductions later
this year and are only available to cars costing less
than three hundred thousand Yuan
or forty two thousand four hundred US dollars.
This gives the standard range plus model three
in China a price tag of 38,450 US dollars
or 271,550 yeon at the time of this recording.
For the P7, there are lots of trim levels here.
But the one that appears to be the closest
to those standard range plus model three
is what they are calling the rear wheel drive,
long-range premium version.
This comes in at 250,900 yeon after the subsidy
or 36,627 US dollars.
So given there's a substantial price difference here
between these two, I think it makes sense to give the point
on price to the P7.
So that's price and of course, the other factor we like
to look at is range.
According to the Xpeng website, the P7 rear-wheel-drive,
long-range Premium Edition has a range of 568 kilometers
or 353 miles.
This is impressive and it
is using the new European driving cycle or NEDC standard,
which has shifted more towards the European WLTP standard,
which you may have heard of in the past.
Now, both of these emphasize more city and suburban driving
versus the EPA here in the United States,
which emphasizes more highway driving.
This is why you see kind of vast differences
in the ranger's reported by these standards is
because they're trying to localize for the community
or the population using that
and given the different driving habits of people
in different countries in different parts of the world.
That is why this discrepancy exists.
And the guys at inside EV did some math on this
and they found that you can basically
divide the NEDC numbers by 1.43
to get a really close EPA estimated range.
So, for the P7, that comes out to 405 kilometers
or 252 miles of EPA estimated range.
Now, for the model three, Tesla is reporting 445 kilometers
or 276 miles using what they're listing
as the GB driving cycle.
I couldn't find anything about this online
nor anyone I know in the space had ever heard of it.
So I'm gonna assume that this is the NEDC rating,
since that would make sense to be the one to use here.
Not sure why they're calling it something different,
but nevertheless, we do know the EPA range of the US version
of this car, which is 402 kilometers or 250 miles.
So given that the P7 doesn't actually exist yet
and the only verification of the range that it can pull
was from another Chinese government agency.
I'm gonna say this one is a wash.
Two miles between the P7 and the model three
just isn't enough for me to call it for one considering
it's not on the road and you know, tens of thousands
of people aren't driving it yet
versus Tesla, where that is the case, where we have lots
of data to back up their claims of range.
Now when it comes to the tech,
this is one of the more interesting bits to talk
about when it comes to the P7.
Now Xpeng seems to have taken a lot of the best things
that we love about Tesla with their minimalist interior
and putting everything on a screen
and just beautiful displays and not a ton of buttons
and overly complex things that you see
in the portrait icon.
In the demo video here,
they show off a couple really cool things.
First, they show a tap to open with your phone.
This would require NFC and that's something
that most phones have, so it's makes sense.
Don't know why they wouldn't go with Bluetooth there,
but okay, cool.
When you get in the car, they have facial recognition,
which greets you and kind of customizes everything
in the car, presumably if you and your spouse
or someone else has shared the same car.
They would get in and it would kind
of change the whole display for them.
Cool, definitely like that.
It has voice commands, which Tesla just recently updated,
so kind of on par with that,
but I do love the voice command.
You don't have to take your eyes off the road
or anything like that.
It has built in navigation, some streaming music
and seemingly a carbon copy of the air flow controls
that you find in the model three.
And then of course, you have a driver assist warning,
if you're not paying attention when driving
using their version of autopilot.
The P7 is built on their smart,
electric platform architecture or SEPA,
which is basically a Tesla skateboard design
and has a pretty impressive tech packed in there.
Including a hundred megabits ethernet connection
that enables their self driving system called ex-pilot.
According to their website,
the ex-pilot advanced driver assist system
has been upgraded to enable autonomous driving tailored
for China's road conditions.
On city roads, the cut in prevention function helps
you navigate better.
On highways, it delivers level three
autonomous driving assistance.
In cruise mode, it will identify the best lane.
Your P7 remembers your most used parking spaces
and is able to conduct up to one kilometer,
hands-free driving and park automatically at the end
of your journey.
Stating that it can do level three is pretty impressive.
I don't know of any other automaker
that has officially stated that.
This means that as a driver,
you can kind of not pay attention anymore
and you only have to intervene at the last second
and the fact that it will take control and actually drive
to your parking space and park for you, I love that.
Of course, they haven't released it yet.
I haven't seen demos of this.
But I am dying to see this work in the real world.
Now inside of the car,
I think they have something that's brilliant.
I love the screen in the middle here.
But the operating system, they call Xmart or smart OS,
I'm not quite sure how to pronounce it.
It includes an app store, which is fantastic.
I've been itching for Tesla to do this forever.
This is something that I think we're gonna see
in a lot of cars in the future and what that means,
the reason why you would even want that
is that your experience in the car can be enhanced
and continually improve.
Not by the manufacture of themselves who are you know,
busy working on things like better batteries
and all the other bits of an electric car,
but by app developers, by companies.
So imagine your favorite music streaming service
or navigation system or even something kind of fun like,
having Starbucks, you know, pre-order your drink
as you've now entered navigation, while on the way there.
There are so many kind of neat and unique things
you can do in this platform that you couldn't do
with just a regular smartphone.
So, I really love this idea and I think it will give them
an edge over basically anyone else that doesn't have
this in the near future.
But of course, we'll see if they end up with fart mode.
(laughing)
So with all that tech, it really does look amazing
and I would give them the edge over what Tesla
is offering today.
However, it's not real yet.
We don't have 500,000 people on the road with these cars,
so to you know, give them the edge over Tesla,
which does have that, I think just isn't fair.
And of course, when you look on the website the amount
of asterix at the bottom, about all these features
is almost a mile long.
So it's one of those things that is very exciting.
I think all the stuff they're talking about is great
and Tesla should be doing a lot of these things as well
and when if and when they can implement them,
I think they'll be ahead in that regard for sure.
But for now, let's call it a wash, since we don't know
what is actually going to come to market
when they actually start delivering these.
Now, performance is something that EVs are uniquely good at.
I mean, excluding 5 million dollar supercars.
So let's see how these two stack up on the performance side.
The P7 has two options, an all wheel drive version,
which claims to go zero to a hundred kilometers
or 62 miles per hour in 4.3 seconds.
And a rear wheel drive version,
the one we're comparing here,
can go zero to 62 miles per hour
or zero to a hundred kilometers in 6.7 seconds.
Comparing that to a Tesla Model three,
we're looking at zero to a hundred kilometers in 5.6 seconds
for the same version that we're looking at here,
the rear wheel drive standard range edition.
Now, that is over one full second quicker
and in a drag race, that may as well be an infinite gap.
You're never gonna catch up from that.
And so, this one the point clearly goes to Tesla
on the performance side of things for that one way
of measuring it.
Of course, we can get this onto track
and do those kind of things, but then you're looking at
how good is the driver, all those kind of stuff.
So for now, Tesla definitely gets a point here.
It seems that off the line, they are much quicker.
Okay, last and always last is styling
because of course, it is the most subjective way
to measure a vehicle, but is super important
to our irrational human brains that use it
when we buy things.
The P7 to me looks incredibly sleek, modern.
Very similar to the Sony Vision S, if you guys remember that
from CES earlier in 2020.
Now, the door handles suck in.
It has these clean lines in the back.
I think it all actually looks great.
Definitely gets a high score on the styling points for me.
And of course, the Tesla Model three is kind of the icon
in this space that defined what a modern,
sexy electric vehicle can look like with again,
the smooth door handles that don't stick out at all.
Kind of a snubnose, they did that intentionally
because they didn't want it to kind of look
like a regular car.
They wanted to show that you didn't need to have
this big, elongated front, you know,
but it definitely kind of changed the shape
of the overall car.
And with that really kind of sharp back end,
I think the model three is stunning as well.
So I can't call it on that one either.
I haven't seen the P7 in real life and I have a model three
just in the garage there.
So we'll see when it comes and I get to actually see it
in real life, but for now,
we'll just say they each get a point
for doing a great job on styling.
Adding it all up, we end up with a tie.
Tesla objectively went on performance
and the P7 wins on price.
Not by a little, but by a significant enough margin
for me as someone that's been looking at this stuff
for a while to confidently give them the point on that.
But wait, judges?
What is that?
Oh, it looks like our judges just called in
and they're actually going to give the win here to Tesla
and I agree with them because here's the deal.
Today, Tesla's making thousands of these cars in China
from their brand new factory and they're selling tens
of thousands per month all over the world of this car.
It is a huge hit and it is taken the EV world by storm.
So they have kind of proof of what they're able to do.
Whereas the P7 on paper competes very well
with the Tesla Model three, but until it's actually
in the hands of owners and it's on the road driving,
I don't think it's fair to even call it a tie.
I think they need to kind of earn that validation
and having another Chinese government agency validate
these numbers to me is just not credible enough.
So I'll withhold judgment on the P7
until I get a chance, when and if it's ever possible,
to see it in real life, to do some range test
and kind of see what they've made
because it is impressive, but they do need to deliver
before they really kind of want to dethrone Tesla
from this space.
And as someone that is really rooting
for a more sustainable future,
which I hope you are as well, I think this is really great
that you have a company coming out
with a very compelling product.
Yes, they appear to copy Tesla in a lot of ways,
but that's good because they've learned
from what Tesla's done and they've kind of elevated it
and taking it to the next level and all of that means
that there is competition in a space where Tesla
for every other comparison is far and away,
the leader and that competition leads to cheaper
and better products for us consumers.
So I really, you know, tip of the hat to Xpeng here
for what they've been able to do
and I'm really looking forward
to when they can deliver these and when I can get my hands
on, I want to see what it's all about.
So if you like that video,
please give it a thumbs up down below
and if you didn't, go ahead and click that thumb twice.
Other than that, if you're interested in more
of these comparisons, I have a playlist over here
you can go look at, to see all the ones I've done
in the past.
There's some really fun ones over there,
so go give it a look if you have a few more minutes here.
Other than that, thanks for watching.
And don't forget, when you free the data,
your mind will fall off.
I'll see you back here in the next one.