Electric cars: Xpeng aims to launch its first right-hand drive model in Hong Kong, Southeast Asia this year amid global push

He Xiaopeng, co-founder and CEO of the Guangzhou-based carmaker, said Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia would be targeted as Xpeng, part-owned by Volkswagen Group, looks to hone its international image as a leading builder of intelligent EVs.

“In tandem with Xpeng’s go-global 2.0 strategy, we have formed partnerships with an increasing number of capable dealers abroad, with an ultimate goal of making best-in-class smart electric cars accessible to customers around the world,” he said in a written reply to questions from the Post.

The CEO said Xpeng would also be looking to make inroads into key European markets like Germany and France with its left-hand drive models. A delegate to the National People’s Congress, He made the remarks during the annual session of the top legislature, which ended in Beijing on Monday.

Xpeng currently assembles only left-hand drive vehicles, most of which are sold on the mainland.

Gu said in June that it would probably hit Hong Kong in late 2024, marking the first move by one of China’s major EV makers to tap the city’s market with a right-hand drive model.

On the mainland, the G6, which is capable of navigating its way automatically along city streets using the company’s Navigation Guided Pilot (X NGP), is priced from 209,900 yuan (US$29,212) to 276,900 yuan.

The three companies are viewed as China’s best response to US carmaker Tesla. They all assemble electric cars equipped with preliminary autonomous driving technology, sophisticated in-car entertainment systems and high-performance batteries.

Xpeng handed 141,601 vehicles to mainland customers in 2023, up 17 per cent on the year.

In the first two months of 2024, the carmaker reported 12,795 deliveries, up 14 per cent from the same period last year.

At the beginning of March, Xpeng announced it was extending a 20,000-yuan discount on its bestselling G6 until the end of the month amid the escalating price war in the domestic market.

Xpeng’s discount followed a move by BYD on February 18 to price its revamped Qin Plus DM-i plug-in hybrid 20 per cent below the ­previous edition at 79,800 yuan.

The new electric cars, bearing the VW badge, will be designed and built based on joint purchasing activities and sharing of technologies that will reduce the development time by more than 30 per cent, the German carmaker said in a statement.