He Xiaopeng should change the habit of celebrating prematurely.
"The orders exceeded expectations."
This statement was made at least five times in 2025 by He Xiaopeng, the founder, chairman, and CEO of XPeng Motors. These occasions were the launch of the new XPeng G6 and G9 in March, the release of the Max intelligent driving version of the XPeng MONA M03 in May, the debut of the new model XPeng G7 in July, the replacement of the XPeng P7 in August, and the addition of the super extended - range version of the XPeng X9 in November.
Among them, the new XPeng P7, as the new car that best represents the brand, He Xiaopeng said that the pre - sale orders of this car reached a new high in the history of XPeng Motors' models, which excited all the followers of this new - force automaker.
However, among these new cars with "orders exceeding expectations", only the XPeng MONA M03 has been selling like hotcakes until now.
XPeng MONA M03 | Image source: Official website mall
Taking the new XPeng P7 as an example, after the delivery started on August 28th, according to third - party terminal retail data, the sales volume of this car "peaked at its debut". After reaching 8,104 units in September, the monthly sales declined rapidly. The sales volumes in October and November were 5,662 units and 2,882 units respectively.
Considering that He Xiaopeng said on September 25th that the production line of the new XPeng P7 had reached 40 JPH (40 units per hour), in other words, there was no problem with the production capacity. The current performance of this car deviated greatly from the previously hyped expectations.
If the act of "announcing good news" before the result is determined is called "popping champagne in the middle of the game", then He Xiaopeng really loves to "pop champagne". He not only does it with the new car orders but also with the service commitments to car owners.
01
Don't Give Short Sellers a Chance
Looking at the new cars launched by XPeng Motors during 2025 at the end of the year, except for the XPeng MONA M03, which brought XPeng's assisted driving to the market below 130,000 yuan, and the XPeng X9 super extended - range version, which was newly launched and had not entered the stable - sales period, all the other models showed a trend of high - opening and low - closing sales.
After the launch of the 2025 XPeng G6 and G9 in March, He Xiaopeng said in an earnings conference call: "The orders for the 2025 G6 have been continuously rising and exceeded expectations." As for the G9, He Xiaopeng also said after the launch conference that it had achieved "very impressive results".
According to the data released by XPeng Motors, the firm orders for the XPeng G6 exceeded 5,000 units in 7 minutes after its launch, and the firm orders for the G9 exceeded 3,000 units in 45 minutes after its launch. This made onlookers think that XPeng Motors would have two more hit models with monthly sales exceeding 10,000 units. However, the reality is that the monthly sales of the new XPeng G6 and G9 have not exceeded 6,000 units since their launch. Especially for the G9, the current monthly sales have dropped to three - digit numbers.
A similar situation also happened to the XPeng G7.
XPeng G7 launch conference | Photo by Yuanmeihui
In the media group interview session after the XPeng G7 launch conference, He Xiaopeng and his colleague staged a scene of "checking the order data on the spot". At that time, when a media asked about the data after the firm orders for the new car started, He Xiaopeng asked the team "how many orders were there in 3 minutes". After checking the data, his colleague said he was "shocked".
Finally, He Xiaopeng officially announced that the firm orders for the XPeng G7 exceeded 10,000 units in 9 minutes after its launch. However, since Xiaomi's YU7 set a record of "200,000 units in 3 minutes" during the same period, they "felt embarrassed to release the battle report".
So, has the XPeng G7 become a hit model with monthly sales of 10,000 units? At least not so far. Data shows that the 10,000 orders received by the XPeng G7 in 9 minutes after its launch were almost enough for the car's two - month delivery. The cumulative sales volume from July to August was 12,340 units, and the sales volume from September to November hovered between 2,500 units and 3,500 units.
For reference, the Tesla Model Y, which was repeatedly used as a benchmark in the PPT during the XPeng G7 launch conference, although it is tens of thousands of yuan more expensive, its sales volume has reached new highs after the launch of the XPeng G7. The average monthly sales volume from July to November was about 38,000 units.
The 2025 XPeng G6, G9, the XPeng G7, and the new XPeng P7 mentioned above, according to He Xiaopeng's description, all had "orders exceeding expectations", but the subsequent actual sales were disappointing. As the top person in the company, He Xiaopeng needs to be vigilant about this practice of "hyping up performance".
Li Auto, another new - force automaker, is a lesson from the past.
In May 2024, American investors filed a class - action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, accusing Li Auto of exaggerating the market demand for the MEGA and the effectiveness of its operating strategies, which led to the company's failure to meet the first - quarter delivery expectations and its failure to disclose this risk to investors in a timely manner.
It is reported that Li Auto announced in an earnings conference call on February 26, 2024, that the first - quarter delivery target was 100,000 - 103,000 new cars. Li Xiang, the founder, chairman, and CEO of the company, said that the MEGA would become the "best - selling product above 500,000 yuan", with a target monthly sales volume of 8,000 units.
There was an obvious deviation between such a target and the subsequent actual performance. Li Auto lowered the delivery target by 23% to 76,000 - 78,000 units 20 days later, and the stock price then fell by about 30% within three weeks. Although Li Auto responded that "the accusation was baseless", it still put investors and the brand itself in an unfavorable situation.
Of course, some people think that it was the "short sellers" who were causing trouble. However, if Li Auto and Li Xiang hadn't set such high - profile goals, the short sellers wouldn't have had the opportunity to do so. Later, Li Xiang became more conservative in his statements. He Xiaopeng may need to learn from this.
02
Speaking Faster Than Acting Is Not Advisable
The fundamental reason why He Xiaopeng and XPeng Motors are used to announcing good news as soon as a new car is launched is the intense competition in the industry. To some extent, it is understandable. In contrast, XPeng often speaks faster than it can act in terms of intelligent cockpits and assisted driving, which makes it easier to dig holes for itself.
In November 2025, a joint complaint letter signed by "more than 7,000 car owners who had replaced the 8295P chip" circulated on social media, directly pointing out that XPeng Motors had failed to fulfill its service commitment in the crowdfunding project to upgrade the intelligent cockpit chip.
Joint complaint letter on social media
It is reported that in November 2024, XPeng Motors launched a crowdfunding activity for the upgrade of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295P chip for owners of the 2020 XPeng P7 in the name of "improving the in - car system experience of the P7". Owners only needed to pay 4,999 yuan (XPeng points could be used to offset part of the cost, with a maximum of 20,000 points offsetting 2,000 yuan). After the crowdfunding was successful, the old - model chip in the original car could be upgraded to the 8295P, making the functionality and smoothness of the vehicle's intelligent cockpit comparable to those of new - model cars.
Only three days after the launch of the project, XPeng Motors announced that the crowdfunding target had been successfully achieved on November 14, 2024. By the end of September 2025, the XPeng P7 owners who participated in the crowdfunding began to receive invitations to go to the service outlets for installation and upgrade.
However, the first - batch owners who completed the upgrade found that the vehicle frequently encountered problems such as system freezes, function crashes, and voice - interaction failures. Some functions supported by the old chip were even missing. They repeatedly reported these problems to XPeng's 400 customer service and stores but got no results. That's why the joint complaint letter mentioned above appeared.
In this regard, on December 26, 2025, Yuanmeihui contacted XPeng Motors to find out whether the relevant complaints had been properly handled. As of the time of publication, no response was received.
In fact, this is not the first time that XPeng Motors has dug a hole for itself.
As early as when the XPeng P5, the world's first mass - produced car equipped with a lidar, was launched in 2022, He Xiaopeng promised that the City Navigation Guided Pilot (hereinafter referred to as "CNGP") would be launched in the same year and gradually expanded to other cities. So far, the XPeng P5 supports the use of the CNGP function in five cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Foshan.
XPeng P5 | Photo by Yuanmeihui
Although XPeng Motors has never clearly stated in how many cities the CNGP function of the XPeng P5 will eventually be available, the fact that it is only available in five cities across the country cannot satisfy the owners. You know, the XPeng P5 models equipped with lidar are at least 14,000 yuan more expensive than the ordinary versions, and in addition, at least 25,000 yuan of software fees need to be paid.
Like the XPeng P7 owners who participated in the chip - upgrade crowdfunding but were not satisfied, some XPeng P5 owners carried out a joint rights - protection action from October to November 2023.
To appease the old owners, XPeng Motors issued a "Statement on the Upgrade of the XPeng P5's City NGP Function" in November 2023, offering a 20,000 - yuan voucher to the XPeng P5 P - version owners who have the XPILOT3.5 intelligent assisted - driving software.
In the camp of Chinese - brand new - energy vehicles, XPeng Motors is an "excellent student" in the two intelligent fields of intelligent cockpits and assisted driving. Naturally, it is also one of the automakers that can best estimate the technological iteration speed and popularization difficulty in these two fields.
From this perspective, if XPeng Motors can better control the owners' expectations for new cars or new functions and strive for the "industry first" only when it has absolute confidence, it may have better results for both XPeng Motors itself and the owners.
Looking back at the present, XPeng Motors still has a series of grand plans to implement.
"We will fully push the second - generation VLA physical - world model - based assisted driving on the Ultra models in the first quarter of 2026. We are also evaluating how to migrate this model to Max - version users. Please be patient with us. We look forward to presenting you with a more amazing Max next year!" He Xiaopeng said at the XPeng Technology Day press conference on November 5, 2025.
This time, it is hoped that He Xiaopeng and XPeng Motors will not disappoint the old owners again.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Yuanmeihui". Author: Pan Zhuolun, Editor: Su Huai. Republished by 36Kr with permission.