Xpeng Motors launched production at the Zhaoqing Xpeng Motors Intelligent Industrial Park, its new wholly owned factory in Zhaoqing, Guangdong province, China. The factory will manufacture the company’s super-long range, electric sports sedan Xpeng P7, which is constructed with a a steel-aluminum hybrid frame.
Electric Sports Sedan
The P7 is an electric sports sedan capable of providing high-performance, a super-long range, and fast-charging. It also features advanced smart technologies, such as an autonomous driving system (with 12 ultrasonic sensors, 5 millimeter-wave radars, and 14 cameras).
The vehicle features a durable design, with a high strength body constructed of steel and aluminum. The extensive use of self-piercing riveting (SPR) and a unique rubber body joint structure technology also reinforces the P7’s body strength.
The chassis was jointly developed and fine tuned by teams from both Porsche Engineering and Xpeng Motors to optimize the suspension and layout. Multiple rounds of professional chassis tests were conducted in eight places across four countries.
Equipped with the standard configurations of a super sports car, the suspension features a front double-wishbone that achieves superior performance. The suspension system also incorporates many aluminum alloy parts — including the upper and lower control arms, steering knuckles and damper forks — in order to reduce weight and ensure the suspension is adaptable to a variety of road conditions.
The high performance electric drive system includes a 80.87 kWh battery pack with an energy density of 170 Wh/kg. Combining the drive system with the car’s overall light weight, the P7 can achieve a range of 706 km (438.6 miles) — making it the electric vehicle with the longest driving range in China. By comparison, the the long-range Tesla Model 3 is officially rated at 668 km (414 miles).
New Manufacturing Site
Phase I of the Zhaoqing Xpeng Motors Intelligent Industrial Park includes 600,000 sq m of manufacturing. The vehicle production area features five cutting-edge workshops including stamping, welding, painting, final assembly, and battery pack production.
The welding workshop was specifically designed for the manufacture of the P7’s steel-aluminum hybrid body structure. The workshop is equipped with 210 ABB industrial robots, each meticulously performing multiple processes including gluing, welding, and riveting of aluminum plate. In addition, the factory’s self-adaptive medium frequency welding machine achieves a 30% energy saving, while the advanced visual gluing system yields gluing accuracy as fine as 0.5 mm.
When phase II of the new industrial park is completed it will reach its total planned area of 2 million sq m, with a 1 million sq m vehicle production area
