Xpeng presents the G9 electric SUV
With the G9, the Chinese electric car manufacturer Xpeng has presented its fourth model after the G3, P7 and P5. Promoted as a “smart SUV flagship”, the station wagon-like electric car is the first Xpeng model designed from the outset for international markets.
The Xpeng G9 uses the manufacturer’s recently announced 800-volt e-car platform with silicon carbide technology. Xpeng is not yet giving detailed information on the drive system or when it will be launched on the market.
The system that the company calls ‘XPower 3.0’, is designed for very high charging powers of up to 480 kW (600 amps at 800 volts). This should make it possible to recharge up to 200 kilometres in just five minutes. Xpeng had already mentioned this statement at the presentation of the 800-volt platform in October and has now repeated it in the announcement for the G9.
In order to be able to exploit the properties of the 800-volt SiC platform, Xpeng also wants to bring corresponding fast-charging columns onto the market. These will be able to deliver up to 670 amps and meet the IP67 protection class.
Instead of revealing technical data on the drive, Xpeng has focused on software and driving assistance for the G9. With regard to the latter, for the first time, the company is talking about ‘Xpilot 4.0’, which is the fourth generation of its semi-autonomous driving assistant. The P5, which was presented in April, is the first series model with lidar sensors and has Xpilot version 2.5 or 3.0, depending on the equipment.
The Xpilot 4.0 is to be the first system “to enable intelligent driving in all scenarios from vehicle start to parking”. The hardware comes with 508 TOPS of processing power, a front camera with eight million pixels and four cameras with 2.9 million pixels. Xpeng has not yet made mention of the kind of array of lidar sensors that have been installed in the P5.
As with the previous models, the software is supposed to be one of the points that sets the G9 apart from the competition. To do this, it uses the X-EEA 3.0 electronics and electrical architecture, which deeply integrates hardware, software and communication architecture. Xpeng itself speaks of a centralised supercomputing platform and local control modules. At the software level, the vehicle software suite has been structured into layers – system software platform, basic software platform and intelligent application platform. This is to enable faster development and iteration of the software – i.e. regular software updates with improvements and new features.
In terms of design, the G9 follows the relatively simple look of the previous Xpeng models. There are continuous light bands at the front and rear. The front bonnet looks quite long for an all-electric platform, while the overhangs are kept short in typical electric fashion.
“Our G9 flagship smart SUV represents a new level of sophistication with a global perspective, and is an essential part of our exploration of smarter, safer, greener and sustainable mobility,” said He Xiaopeng, CEO and chairman of Xpeng. However, Xiaopeng did not specify when the G9 will be launched and which international markets are envisaged at the presentation.
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