Xpeng P7 electric sedan now in China – 706 km range!

Chinese electric carmaker Xpeng’s followup to the G3 SUV is the new P7, a sedan that went on sale in its home market this week with what is said to be the longest range in the Middle Kingdom.

Key to this are the prismatic lithium-ion battery cells. The P7 is available with two battery capacities, 70.8 kWh and 80.9 kWh – the former delivers a range of 568 km on the NEDC cycle, but it’s the latter that achieves the headline figure of a whopping 706 km, verified by the country’s ministry of industry and information technology. That’s a significant increase over the Tesla Model 3‘s maximum range of 668 km.

This number is for the base rear-wheel drive configuration in entry-level trim; on higher-end models with all the bells and whistles, including a full complement of driver assistance systems, the range drops to a still impressive 656 km. Here, power comes from a single electric motor producing 196 kW (263 hp) and 390 Nm of torque, capable of a zero-to-100 km/h acceleration time of 6.7 seconds.

Xpeng also offers the P7 in all-wheel drive form, adding a motor on the front axle that produces 120 kW (161 hp) and 265 Nm; total output is rated at 316 kW (424 hp) and 655 Nm. Available only with the 80.9 kWh battery, it has a range of 552 km and sprints to 100 km/h in 4.3 seconds.

Charging the larger battery from 30% to 80% takes 6.5 hours with a conventional socket, 4.2 hours using a three-phase, 380-volt AC charger and 31 minutes using DC fast charging. The 70.8 kWh unit cuts those times down to 5.7 hours, 3.6 hours and 28 minutes respectively.

Beyond the eyebrow-raising range, the P7 is a fairly conventional fastback-esque sedan, with a handsome if rather nondescript design – there’s no front grille after all. One unique styling cue is the headlight arrangement, which consists of a single strip up top and larger lamp units lower down; this graphic is repeated at the rear. Buyers get a choice of 18- and 19-inch wheel options.

It’s a bit more daring on the inside, where the P7 sports a large display panel with a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster and a massive 14.96-inch centre touchscreen. The latter is linked to the company’s Xmart OS infotainment system with over-the-air updates and an app store.

Xpeng also has partnerships with other Chinese tech companies, so the car will feature Alipay’s in-car payment (for charging and other services) and a digital key that works with Xiaomi smartphones, smartwatches and bracelets. The car is also available with a Dynaudio sound system with 18 speakers.

The P7 rides on Xpeng’s Smart Electric Platform Architecture (SEPA), equipped with an Nvidia Xavier processor for autonomous driving. This processes data coming from 12 ultrasonic sensors, five millimetre-wave radar sensors, 13 cameras and one in-car camera with HD mapping and high-precision positioning. The open-source Nvidia Drive OS also allows Xpeng to run its proprietary Xpilot 3.0 autonomous driving software.

This is claimed to provide up to Level 3 semi-autonomous driving in China, with features such as adaptive cruise control, lane centring assist, automatic lane change and adaptive turning control. The P7 is also offered with parking assist as well as the usual driver assists such as autonomous emergency braking, lane departure warning and blind spot monitoring.

Lastly, the car is available with adaptive damping, as well as a Brembo braking system. Pricing for the X7 ranges from 229,900 yuan (RM140,400) for the base standard-range rear-wheel drive model to 349,900 yuan (RM213,700) for the fully-loaded all-wheel drive model, after government subsidies.

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