Xiaopeng P7i Early Access: This new car heals all the pain of P7 owners
In November 2021, foreign media Carscoops released a set of spy photos of the road test of BMW's pure electric flagship sedan i7 , which was not yet on the market at the time. In the test fleet, in addition to Mercedes-Benz EQS and Tesla Model Y, many people were surprised. Xiaopeng P7.
The Mercedes-Benz EQS is a pure electric flagship sedan positioned similarly to the BMW i7, the Tesla Model Y is the top electric car sales in the world, and the appearance of the Xiaopeng P7 is seen as a signal that the first-tier German luxury brands attach importance to Chinese electric cars.
Coincidentally, Xiaopeng announced that it will release two new cars in Europe on February 3, 2023, and one of them is the Xiaopeng P7i. Dong Chehui, the automotive media under Aifaner, recently experienced the Xpeng P7i in advance. Next, I would like to introduce the product strength of the Xpeng P7i in an all-round way from the aspects of appearance, interior, software, and hardware.
Let me talk about the conclusion first, except for the lack of 800V platform and HUD, the upgrade of hardware configuration is basically full. The appearance of the new car has not changed much, but the product strength is still strong. If the price and SKU are reasonable, it has the potential to create explosive models. At present, the P7 has delivered more than 13W+. The content this time is a static experience, and the driving experience needs to be evaluated in the actual measurement link.
Appearance: Old-fashioned design, still good-looking
Xiaopeng conducted an internal survey. Among the users of Xiaopeng P7, the top three purchase points are good-looking appearance (71%), easy-to-use smart cockpit (52%), and strong driving assistance ability (47%). The top three satisfaction points are appearance design (72%), intelligent assisted driving (55%), and intelligent cockpit (53%).
To put it simply, the most satisfying point of most users before and after purchasing the P7 is concentrated on the appearance, and the first place is not the "smart" that Xiaopeng has always emphasized.
For the exterior design that users were satisfied with before, Xiaopeng P7i has not made major changes, and it is difficult for you to tell whether it is a new model from a distance. Xiaopeng P7i continues the classic coupe shape of the old model, and its height-to-length ratio of 0.297 makes its body look slender.
The body size of Xiaopeng P7i is 4888x1896x1450mm, and the wheelbase is 2998mm. Except that the length of the car is increased by 8mm, the other dimensions remain the same as the old model.
There are two places where Xiaopeng P7i can be identified at a glance. The first is the new 19-inch sports wheels, and the other is the laser radar integrated with the headlights. In addition, the models for this static experience use the newly added interstellar green color scheme, and there is also an upgraded crescent silver color scheme, but I personally prefer the white model.
The old car owners called for the electric tailgate with a high voice before, and this time it finally joined the Xiaopeng P7i, and the green external button is set above the license plate.
Here is a small detail. In order to avoid misunderstandings by users, the two ultrasonic radars at the rear are designed in black to distinguish them from the electric tailgate buttons.
Cockpit: New air gray color scheme, Qualcomm 8155 is coming
The interior of Xiaopeng P7i has many shadows of G9, but the style is younger.
The brand-new steering wheel is electroplated in piano black and matte silver, while the interior is newly added with air gray, and the door panel decorations and central control armrests are all in the same color, with a unified style. The central armrest can be turned left and right, which is convenient for the main driver and co-driver to pick up objects, and is equipped with a vertical wireless charging stand.
The long-distance riding experience of the P7 before has many areas that need to be improved, especially the rear row is easy to get tired after a long-term ride, and this time the P7i seat has been optimized. First of all, the height of the shoulders of the front row has been optimized, the cushions of the rear row have been lengthened, and the inclination angle of the rear row has been optimized to 28°.
Secondly, the seat uses multi-layer composite slow-rebound sponge to enhance the sense of wrapping. The actual ride effect is worse than the old P7, but not as comfortable as the G9.
As everyone expected, the car-machine chip of Xiaopeng P7i is upgraded to Qualcomm 8155, and it is equipped with Xmart OS 4.0. Better hardware + software, let the smart cockpit experience of Xiaopeng P7i continue to rank in the first echelon recognized in China.
The new car has full-scene voice 2.0, supports four-tone area, and utilizes the computing power of Qualcomm 8155 chip. It still supports voice control and navigation functions in weak or no network. The most interesting thing is that it supports full-time dialogue. From getting in the car to leaving the car, you can directly talk to Little P all the time without a wake-up word.
This time, the Xpeng P7i supports 7.1.4 panoramic sound concert hall, but it is not equipped with the 5D theater function on the G9. Personally, I don't think it's a big problem. After all, the function of this 5D theater is a bit tasteless, and there are not many car resources for the time being.
This time, the HUD function that many people are looking forward to has not been added, which is a pity. But I don't think it's surprising, after all, the G9 with a higher positioning is not equipped.
It is worth mentioning that regarding the built-in driving recorder function (called ADAS camera processing) that many users have reported, the relevant staff of Xpeng told us that it is currently being promoted and will be pushed to users in the OTA in the future.
Intelligent assisted driving: the hardware is full, but the function delivery has to wait
Among the upgrades of Xiaopeng P7i from inside to outside this time, what I am most looking forward to is the "second-generation intelligent driving assistance system XNGP" , which is also the biggest upgrade compared to the old P7 in my opinion.
At the hardware level, taking the MAX version as an example, the Xpeng P7i is equipped with two Orin-X chips, with a total computing power of 508TOPS. The front face is equipped with a 182° ultra-wide-angle dual 126-line lidar, a front 800W pixel binocular camera, plus a side front and side rear ADAS camera, a surround-view camera, and a millimeter-wave radar. A total of 31 sensing elements.
In addition to the forward-facing millimeter-wave radar, Xiaopeng P7i still retains four angular millimeter-wave radars. The strategy is more conservative than the ideal L series that more fully embraces pure visual perception.
Xiaopeng said that the P7i supports the only second mass production in the world, and the "XNet perception algorithm architecture" that generates high-precision maps in real time will be able to realize high-level driving assistance functions in scenarios without high-precision maps in the future. According to public information, we can know that the other company is Tesla, and FSD supports HydraNet.
Regarding the delivery progress of XNGP, it is understood that urban NGP will support Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Shanghai in 2023; the ability to recognize traffic lights and go straight through intersections will be opened nationwide (all unmapped cities); most unmapped cities will open lane changes, overtaking, and turn left and right In 2024, the connection between driving and parking will be gradually completed. As for the high-speed NGP function, Xiaopeng staff said that the P7i can be used when it is delivered.
To put it simply, if the progress is smooth, Xiaopeng P7i can start from one parking space to another in 2024, and high-level intelligent assisted driving can be used from P to P.
At present, the intelligent assisted driving hardware of Wei Lipeng's three flagship models is basically full, but in terms of software capabilities, Xiaopeng still has a strong advantage, providing important support for subsequent iterative updates. Just as Xiaopeng has built China's largest autonomous driving intelligent computing center "Fuyao" in Wulanchabu, which is used for autonomous driving model training, with a computing power of 600PFLOPS, and the training speed of the autonomous driving core model has increased by nearly 170 times.
Tesla’s FSD in China lacks a clear time rhythm. Xpeng Motors still has a domestically leading intelligent assistance experience. strong competitor.
Driving performance: the heart of the hurricane, benchmarking Tesla Model 3P
In terms of performance, the Xpeng P7i high-end version has a class-leading 757Nm torque, achieves 3.9s 100km/h acceleration, and a maximum speed of 200km/h. It is equipped with an intelligent four-wheel drive torque distribution system, equipped with front four-piston Brembo calipers + four-wheel Brembo high-performance The brake disc can stop at 33.3m per 100 kilometers.
The chassis is tuned by the German engineering team and optimized for the road conditions in China to improve the driving quality. The structure adopts the front virtual kingpin double wishbone rear five-link + front steering gear (the strongest in its class), with SACHS shock absorbers.
What is expected is that Xiaopeng P7i provides "driver mode". ESP does not interfere excessively during intense driving, and the response of brakes and switches is more linear. What kind of experience is it? For example, when exiting a corner, the ESP intervention time is delayed, and the priority of intelligent four-wheel drive torque distribution is higher.
Xiaopeng officially revealed that the track performance of the Xiaopeng P7i in the "driver mode" against the Tesla Model 3P is very exciting.
Thanks to the ultra-thin battery application and the 460mm low center of gravity design, the Xpeng P7i has an anti-rollover coefficient of 1.76, which improves the sense of control, compared with 1.7 for the Weilai ET5, which many people say is easy to drive. The low-lying posture and optimized body design bring a low drag coefficient of 0.236Cd, which is also slightly better than the 0.24Cd of NIO ET5.
The above description of the driving part is based on the theoretical analysis of official data. The real experience still needs to be tested. You can look forward to it.
Xiaopeng P7i is a good car that is not amazing enough
From the above official statistical data, we can know that the most satisfactory point of most P7 users before and after buying a car is concentrated on the exterior design, and the P7i inherits the most competitive advantages of its predecessors. However, precisely because the appearance has not changed much, and the configuration upgrades are basically as everyone expected, the P7i lacks the amazing feeling that everyone saw in the P7 back then.
High EQ statement, inheritance of classics, low EQ statement, design depends on money. There is no doubt that in addition to the exterior design, the Xpeng P7i has a major upgrade compared to the P7, especially the smart cockpit and smart assisted driving hardware are in line with the mainstream models in 2023.
If I were to choose a regret, I think it is the lack of 800V high-voltage platform and HUD function, but from the perspective of product strength, P7i can still be played at the moment. Most importantly, Xiaopeng P7i is still "good looking".
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