Xpeng closing in on halfway to global footprint target

Chinese OEM Xpeng is set to add three new countries to the growing roster of places where its vehicles are sold by early next year. And that will take the firm to a total of 28 markets, almost halfway to the 60 it is targeting by end-2025.

Xpeng has signed an agreement with UK distributor International Motors Ltd (IML) which will see deliveries of its G6 a mid-size e-SUV start in the UK early next year. The firm had said in July that it was aiming to start taking UK orders for the G6 before the end of 2024.

IML has an existing relation with Chinese automaker GWM, as well as with Japan’s Subaru, Mitsubishi and Isuzu. Interestingly, the firm’s continental European reach includes Finland and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which are markets into which Xpeng has yet to launch.

The Chinese EV maker is also planning to launch the G6 in Australia in Q4 and the G6, the larger G9 e-SUV and P7 electric sedan in Qatar by year end, having partnered with distributors TrueEV and Almana Group respectively.

Its recent rate of global expansion has been breakneck. As recently as the end of the third quarter last year, Xpeng was present in just five national markets — its Chinese home, and Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark in Europe (see Fig.1).

Fig.1: Xpeng's internationalisation has gathered pace in the last 12 months

In Q4’23, it increased its Asian presence with launches in Israel and Azerbaijan. But this year has seen material acceleration in its footprint with a series of debuts in European, Mena region and Asia-Pacific markets. So far this quarter alone, it added the UAE, Ireland and Iceland last month and Nepal earlier this month.

Fig.2: Two consecutive months of record deliveries in September and October

The firm set new records for monthly sales volumes in both September and October, as its shifted first over 21,000 units and then almost 24,000 units in the two months, beating sales of just over 20,000 units seen in each of the Q4 months last year (see Fig.2). This puts it on track to deliver a best-ever year in 2024 as a whole (see Fig.3).

Fig.3: Xpeng set for a record year in 2024

But Xpeng is mainly attributing the increase to sales of 10,000+ units/month of its new Mona M03 all-electric hatchback coupe, which is available only in China, rather than from any jump in international sales as its worldwide presence expands. Indeed, since its official launch in Germany in March, it had sold only 133 BEVs in total by the end of September.

Even in more established European markets, Xpeng volumes remain modest. In Norway, where it first ventured abroad in 2020, sales across the first ten month of this year were a relatively small 1,474 in total, but up strongly from 267 last year (see Fig.4).

Fig.4: Xpeng's sales in its established European markets are growing, albeit from modest beginnings and with Swedish headwinds

Similarly in Denmark and the Netherlands, where it launched in Q1’22, the firm has sold 2,022 and 889 units in the January-October period, material jumps from just 182 and 140 in the same timeframe last year. But it is less good news in Sweden, where Xpeng’s year-to-date sales are down by 36pc to 429 units by the end of October, in a markets where BEVs have struggled this year.