5 Minutes
Xpeng did not just launch a new SUV. It kicked the door open.
In only 12 hours, the Chinese EV maker says its new flagship GX pulled in 24,863 firm orders, an eye-catching debut that instantly turns this model into one of the brand’s most important bets of the year. For a company looking to regain momentum, that number matters. A lot.
The headline is not only about demand. It is also about pricing. Xpeng appears to have judged the market with remarkable precision, bringing the GX in at a limited-time starting price of about €34,700, far below the earlier pre-sale figure of 399,800 yuan, or roughly €51,400. That earlier number placed it close to the Nio ES8, a much more premium-positioned rival. The final sticker changes the conversation completely.
Instead of fighting only at the top end, Xpeng has dropped the GX into a far more dangerous and far more promising part of the market: the upper-family SUV space, where buyers want size, tech, and flexibility but still watch the numbers carefully. In that context, the GX lands almost side by side with the Onvo L90, which starts at around €34,200.
And buyers did not seem to hesitate. According to Xpeng chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng, more than 80 percent of those first orders were for the Ultra Flagship versions. That is a striking detail. It suggests early customers are not merely shopping for a large six-seat SUV. They are buying into the full technology pitch.
Where the real fight begins
The GX comes in both battery electric and extended-range electric forms, giving Xpeng a broader reach than a single-powertrain strategy would allow. That matters in China’s increasingly fragmented EV market, where some families are ready to go fully electric, while others still prefer the reassurance of extended range for long trips.
Size is part of the appeal, of course. So is the cabin format. Three-row SUVs have become a key battleground as automakers chase affluent family buyers who want space without stepping into minivan territory. But what really sets the GX apart is how heavily Xpeng leans into software and autonomous driving hardware.
The company says the SUV is built to L4 autonomous driving standards and uses a flexible computing setup based on Xpeng’s in-house Turing AI chips. Depending on the version, the GX can be equipped with one, two, or three of those processors. At the top of the range, computing power reaches 2,250 TOPS, an enormous figure that underlines how serious Xpeng is about turning the vehicle into a rolling software platform, not just a family hauler.
There is another twist. The highest-spec GX relies on a pure-vision, LiDAR-free smart driving system. That decision puts Xpeng in a fascinating position within the wider autonomous driving race, where the industry still disagrees on how much hardware is truly necessary. Some brands continue to insist LiDAR is essential. Others are betting that cameras, AI, and raw computing power will do the job. Xpeng is clearly pushing hard toward the second camp.
The GX also carries strategic weight beyond China. Xpeng plans to bring the model to the Middle East soon, another sign that the company sees this SUV as an export-friendly flagship rather than a domestic-only volume play.
Analysts are already running the numbers. A Deutsche Bank team led by Wang Bin said the GX could reach monthly sales of 5,000 units, helped by its competitive dimensions, pricing, and technology package. That would give Xpeng a meaningful lift at a time when it needs one. From January to April, the company delivered 93,693 vehicles, down 27.4 percent from the same period last year.
So yes, the GX has started fast. But the more telling point is this: Xpeng has not simply launched another large SUV into an overcrowded market. It has gone after one of the most valuable customer groups in the business with a product that looks deliberately underpriced, heavily digitized, and carefully positioned to steal attention from both premium and mass-market rivals.
If those first 12 hours are any indication, the GX may end up being far more than a strong launch. It could become Xpeng’s reset button.
Comments
turbo_mk
Feels a bit overhyped tbh. tech flex is cool, but that low intro price smells like a loss leader. service and quality gotta prove it, i'll wait
mechbyte
24k orders in 12 hrs? sounds wild... but is that real paid orders or just deposits/reservations? pricing cut smart, curious about margins
Leave a Comment