This year’s Spring Festival, I chose a “lost” good car

At the beginning of 2023, Xiaopeng took the lead in following up Tesla's price reduction strategy; on the third day of the Spring Festival, Xiaopeng appointed Wang Fengying, the former general manager of Great Wall Motors, as the president; then, Xiaopeng Motors announced its total sales in January: 5,218 vehicles .

The official attributed the reason to the delay in delivery during the Spring Festival, but Ideal next door delivered 15,141 vehicles in January, and it achieved this result with three models with an average price of more than 300,000. Although the year-on-year delivery volume also declined, it was small. Peng's reasons are also difficult to hold.

Xiaopeng has encountered some problems. Instead of blaming the newly launched G9, I think the Xiaopeng P5 (hereinafter referred to as P5) is to blame.

It will be launched in the third quarter of 2021, and the price will be between 160,000 and 230,000 (now reduced to 156,900 to 202,900). Xiaopeng's flagship model P7, the highest monthly delivery number appeared in December 2021 (5030 units), and then fell all the way.

There must be something wrong with the P5, I have to test the car first.

So before the Spring Festival, I borrowed a P5 550P from Xiaopeng. Only after I have tried it myself can I judge whether it is good or bad.

There is no congestion during the Spring Festival, and the trams are also happy

Before commenting on its driving experience, let me make a digression. Every Spring Festival is a big test for new energy vehicles, especially pure electric vehicles. Factors such as weather, driving habits, and traffic conditions will affect the final battery life.

So after I got the P5, I was looking forward to its battery life. This trip back during the Spring Festival is a challenge for it, and it is no different for me.

The 550 written in its model suffix refers to the cruising range of 550 kilometers under NEDC conditions, but when you choose 18-inch Michelin 215/50R18 tires, the cruising range will drop by about 2.7%.

However, as we all know, NEDC data does not have much reference value in China, and the standard that is more suitable for domestic road conditions should be WLTC. In WLTC mode, the full battery life of this P5 is 427 kilometers.

And the total distance I traveled from Guangzhou to Meizhou was 431 kilometers. After a simple comparison of the two figures, I realized that this P5 could not take me directly to the destination. A slight recharge was needed on the way to ensure that I was not outside for 15 minutes. "Lying down" on the road during the Guangdong Spring Festival.

From Guangzhou to Meizhou, including the urban road section, if you take the "Guanghe Expressway" and transfer to "Jiguang Expressway", you can get there in 5 hours at the fastest. The unbearable experience of spending 12 hours made me feel a little in awe of the way home during the Spring Festival.

In short, it is necessary to make a charging plan in advance.

So before the official departure, I went to the nearby supercharger station to charge the P5 to 100%, and made two-handed preparations on the road: if there is a traffic jam on the expressway, or there is a queue at the charging pile at the service station, I will be in the car When the battery life is less than 100 hours, find a charging station at high speed, and find a charging station in Huizhou City and Heyuan City respectively, in case of emergency.

Fortunately enough, on the day of my departure on the 27th of the year, the sky was clear and the air was clear, and the journey was smooth.

• Depart from Yuying Xiaopeng Supercharger Station at 8:46 in the morning, the meter is fully charged, and the remaining WLTC cruising range is 437 kilometers;
• Passing through Waxi and entering the station to charge, the remaining battery life is 162 kilometers. There are still several vehicles waiting in line to insert guns. Give up, go through the tunnel and run to the opposite service area. There is just an idle electric pile. In less than half an hour, the battery life will be replenished. To 275 kilometers, continue on the road;
• At 14:03 in the afternoon, I got off the highway and arrived home, and the display showed that the battery life was 99 kilometers.

Maybe I am more courageous, and it is possible to get home at two o'clock and one line. This is done under the premise that the air conditioner is turned on all the time.

I drove the car to the Xiaopeng supercharger station near my home, and made a summary along the way.

It took more than 5 hours for the whole journey, and there was no battery life anxiety, and I was not very tired.

If the traffic and road conditions are not just right, I may spend an extra hour or two on the road, but overall there will be no major problems.

On the one hand, thanks to the weather advantages brought by the southern region, and on the other hand, thanks to the collective encouragement of the media, the charging network has spread rapidly in the past few years, giving the "electric dad" more confidence to deal with possible road accidents. various abnormal situations.

In addition, I also observed that on this trip home, while the overall traffic flow has decreased, the probability of green cards has also increased. In addition to the usual Tesla, there are more figures such as BYD, Weilai, and Deep Blue. .

I vaguely remember that since Tesla entered the country, there have been car owners using trams to challenge long-distance mileage. In recent years, the Spring Festival travel has become a "standard event" for the tram's annual challenge. The participating warriors will broadcast live on Weibo and Moments "Race Progression".

At the beginning, most of the live broadcast content was tragic. They dared not turn on the air conditioner, the battery decayed, and broke down halfway. After the birth of new car manufacturers, the situation improved a little. More and more people joined the ranks of challengers, and more and more completed the challenge. These people later became preachers of new energy.

With the further expansion of the car charging network in the future and the upgrading of battery technology, there will only be more and more pure electric vehicles on the road. I believe that within a few years, at least in terms of battery life, the gap between electric vehicles and gasoline vehicles will be completely erased flat.

After writing this, a driver knocked on the car window. He saw that my battery had been charged to 99%, and wanted to discuss with me about filling it up and let him fill it up. At this time, I looked at the dashboard, and the battery had reached 100%. , just drew his gun and left.

Take a look at the power consumption before leaving. It can run up to 16 degrees per 100 kilometers at high speed, and 13.8 degrees per 100 kilometers in urban areas. This has been further verified in the following days of use.

Open it up, it's good

It's time to talk about the actual driving experience of the P5.

The length/width/height of the P5 is 4808mm/1840mm/1520mm, and the wheelbase is 2768mm. The front and rear passengers have ample space. The only drawback is that the trunk volume is only 450L.

The depth is short, and the official claims that five 20-inch suitcases can be put down. However, in most cases, users have to leave space for the hinge of the trunk, otherwise the things are too full and the back cover cannot be closed.

The trunk is so compact, in order to leave enough space for the car to facilitate the paving of the car space.

how to say? Xiaopeng designed a concept called "Various Smart Space" for the P5. The front row can be completely flat and seamlessly connected with the rear row to form a big bed, and then you can use the optional smart living space kit of 20,000 yuan. A sleeping space and a movie-watching and entertainment space are built inside.

Of course, the Nappa leather seats of the whole car, the hidden refrigerator in the rear seat, the liftable speakers, the intelligent aromatherapy system, and the projection equipment are all included in this optional kit, highlighting a large volume and fullness.

I personally think that this set of "Various Smart Spaces" is not as realistic as installing a large screen in the back row as ideal.

After talking about "ride", it's time to talk about "drive".

On the contrary, this aspect is the part that I am quite satisfied with the P5. First of all, the driving part should be divided into two parts, namely control and smart driving .

In terms of power specifications, Xiaopeng chose the front-wheel drive design, with a maximum power and torque of 155kW and 310 Nm, respectively. When the driving mode is switched to sports, it can output zero-to-hundred acceleration in 7.5 seconds, with a feeling of pushing back. But not many, and it is concentrated in the early stage, while the acceleration in the middle and rear stages has a clear downward trend.

The suspension adopts a very traditional front McPherson independent suspension/rear torsion beam semi-independent suspension structure, which is a proven and practical chassis suspension system.

In most urban road conditions, its performance is satisfactory, but when driving through the speed bump at low speed, you can obviously feel the floating feeling of the vehicle, not to mention the frustration when driving quickly through some potholes .

This is also in line with its positioning as a family sedan.

Just imagine, for a driver of a family car, the first task is to ensure the comfort of the family members during the journey, so he must be cautious, accelerate and turn with a degree of relaxation, and face some big pits and hurdles. It will speed up and run over. This kind of driving habit just "obeys" the P5 tuning plan.

When passing through fine roads, the P5 will transmit both noise and road feel to the driving position through the tires. The steering wheel has no feedback, but the feet have perception.

However, in terms of the level of noise control in the car, the performance of the P5 is quite satisfactory.

When the speed is less than 80 per hour, the decibel in the car does not exceed 57dB. At this time, the wind noise is obviously greater than the road noise; when the speed is higher than 80 per hour, the decibel rises to 62dB. At this time, the road noise is more obvious than the wind noise, but the overall is not It is noisy, but it is not worth adjusting the volume of the car audio to more than 50% to cover the noise.

But the most disturbing thing is the low-frequency resonance "hum" transmitted by the tires when passing the concrete road with anti-skid carvings. The decibels are not loud, but it pours directly into the ears, and I can't hear it for a moment, and it's blocked.

There is a delay of less than half a second in the response of the switch, which gives the driver a little time to "repent". Even if the acceleration is mistaken for the accelerator, as long as you react quickly enough, you still have relatively enough time to switch to the brake and step on it. Down.

After all, P5 is not a sports car, so what's the use of being fast, it's better to be stable.

Soft power is the most obvious advantage of Xiaopeng

Stability is what the P5 is best at. There are two lidars on the front bumper near the sides of the top-equipped 550P model, and there are 5 millimeter-wave radars, 12 ultrasonic sensors, 4 surround-view cameras and 9 high-sensitivity cameras. Covering every corner of the body, everything is for the XPilot intelligent driving system.

The sensor specifications and quantity are above the same level of models, and even the "lower offense" is stronger than P7, so it has become synonymous with Xiaopeng's highest level of intelligent driving for a long time, until the launch of G9.

It is also the first model to launch the Xpeng City NGP (Intelligent Navigation Assisted Driving) function. We have experienced this part of the function experience earlier: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/fnnaVlGGiY16jzpGXtkWlA (P5 NGP experience WeChat article, typesetting insertion).

Let me talk about the conclusion first: I am satisfied with the performance of P5 smart driving. In the short term, it is still at the level of the first echelon of domestic assisted driving, but it is still difficult to replace human drivers.

First of all, I experienced Xiaopeng's ACC and LCC functions successively on the highway. I dialed down the gear on the right hand once to enter the ACC adaptive cruise, and dialed twice to enter the LCC lane centering assist. I will focus on the latter.

The LCC function of the P5 performs quite well when driving in a clearly marked area such as high speed.

It can linearly decelerate in advance when encountering a sharp bend or a vehicle changing lanes in front of the side, and can easily handle it. The distance to the vehicle in front and the speed limit (up to 120 km/h) can be set through the buttons on the left and the scroll wheel.

After turning on this function, I basically only need to pay attention to the road conditions and navigation information ahead to ensure that there are no mistakes in driving and that I don’t miss the ramp, which is very trouble-free.

In fact, it has accomplished this task quite well. If ACC frees the driver's right foot, then LCC frees the driver's hands (of course Xiaopeng requires the driver to keep his hands on the steering wheel, otherwise he will issue a reminder and exit LCC mode) .

Going one step further, Xiaopeng's NGP, ideal NOA, and Tesla's FSD are all about liberating the driver's brain and eyes.

With the help of LCC, I don't need to be tense all the time on the high speed, I don't have to worry about it, and the journey is much easier.

After getting off the expressway, I also tried LCC in the urban area of ​​Meizhou.

Simply put, its working logic is "Look at the line + follow". When driving on a normal line section, it adjusts the speed according to the vehicle in front and keeps it in the center of the lane.

In the unmarked area, P5 can only follow the vehicle in front, walk when people walk, and stop when people stop. This is very passive, and it is easy to be led astray by people. LCC will start "serpentine running" with P5, but it will soon remind the driver to take over.

Whether it is ACC or LCC, at the second-level computing speed of the machine, the acceleration and deceleration actions of P5 are more linear and gentle than that of human drivers: acceleration does not rush, deceleration does not push the head, unless there is a sudden stop at close range, when necessary It will only become "impatient" when it slows down for a short time to avoid catching up with the rear of the car in front, but overall its smart driving experience is pleasant.

The last is the software strength of P5. The smart driving system is part of the software strength, and the other part is reflected in the instrumentation, central control and mobile app.

The P5 follows the G3i's interior style, the main driver is a standard three-spoke steering wheel, the power steering is adjustable, there is a vacancy, but the steering response is sensitive.

Looking up is a 12.3-inch LCD instrument panel. The left/middle/right displays power consumption, road information and navigation maps, respectively, and the top displays necessary information such as speed and driving mode.

In the middle is a large 15.6-inch touch screen with clear layers. Although it cannot be operated blindly, it has full information and large icons. It has a good balance between UI aesthetics and practicality. Even if it is inconvenient to operate while driving, you can call " Hello, "Little P" will help you operate, it is easy to adjust the temperature/air volume of the air conditioner, and you can even use it to control the size of the window.

A cold knowledge: drive Xiaopeng to a supercharge station with a ground lock, and you can also use voice remote control to lower the ground lock. It can be seen how meticulous Xiaopeng has done in these software details.

In addition, with the blessing of Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 chip, the corresponding speed and sliding smoothness of the two screens are guaranteed. Although there is a super large sunroof on the top, you don’t have to worry about getting too sun, because it is equipped with a screen that makes P7 owners envious. Electric sunshade, this can also be controlled through the voice system.

On the "Xpeng Motors" mobile terminal, car owners can view information such as remaining power, or remotely control car locks, windows, trunks, air conditioners, preheat batteries, and turn on sentry mode.

Everything in the car is connected to the Internet, and you don’t need to bring a key when you go out, which is another advantage of new energy vehicles.

I hope the new P5 can bring Xiaopeng out of the predicament

Seeing this, do you think P5 is pretty good.

A down-to-earth grocery shopping cart has the potential to fight in the future.

The above is the evaluation I gave when I chatted with my friends about P5. To this day, I still feel the same way about the P5.

Xiaopeng needs a "vegetable shopping cart". To be honest, the P5 has indeed fulfilled this mission very well, but when buying things, I am afraid of comparing goods. The P5 is still a little far from the standard that potential users want.

In the range of 150,000 to 200,000 yuan, Chinese people now have too many choices. Leaving aside the joint venture car, in the domestic camp alone, there are Changan Deep Blue SL03, BYD Qin EV, Zero Run C11… They all have an obvious long board, Even if not as balanced as the P5, it has more personality.

The P5 is good, but needs to be better.

In other words, it needs to improve its cost performance, and it is not practical to increase the volume, so let’s lower the price.

Another problem arises in its shape. The picture below is a side view of the front faces of four models of the Xiaopeng family that are on sale.

It can be seen that except for Xiaopeng P5, other models follow a set of design language:

The overall roundness has obvious brand recognition.

Only P5 is free from the family, and it seems difficult to integrate into this family.

Even though it has a good product strength, but the appearance is outstanding and the price has no advantage, so that the P5, which can be sold in volume, has entered a road that deviates from its positioning. I hope that the new head of Xiaopeng can drive the P5 around and get it back on track.

This year, Xiaopeng has set an annual delivery target of 200,000 vehicles, and will remodel three models, one is the P7 that has been exposed overseas, and the other two are P5 and G3i.

If Xiaopeng wants to change, the P5 needs to be changed, and it has to be changed drastically.

Just don't repeat the mistakes of the G9's initial launch.

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