Amid the slew of Chinese electric car start-ups that have launched in recent years, Xpeng has undeniably emerged as one of the most interesting.
The company, based in the southern megacity of Guangzhou, has caused quite a stir with bullish sales predictions, some genuinely interesting breakthrough tech on the road and, in the air, the evolution of its frankly remarkable 'flying cars'.
It’s an obvious characterisation to paint it as 'China’s Tesla' but Elon Musk must surely admire Xpeng’s ability to capture headlines in its domestic market, and it certainly made many in the West sit up and take notice when vice chairman and president Brian Gu said in early September: “Most of our future sales will come from international markets, maybe half.”
At the same time, the company has been undergoing something of a bumpy period, with sales in China declining by almost 50% year on year in October to 5101 – the third consecutive month it had registered a tally of under 10,000.
