Xpeng Cuts by Over 10% as Tesla Intensifies Price War

　　BEIJING, January 18  (TMTPOST)— More and more Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers joined in the price war that Tesla intensified at the start of the year.

　　Source: Visual China

　　Xpeng Inc. announced on Tuesday to offer a new round of price cuts between RMB20,000 (US$2,952.5)to RMB36,000 (US$5,314.5) for three EV models including P5, P7 and G3i. Effective on that day, the price adjustment suggests a slash range between about 10% to nearly 13%. Following the cuts prior to the seven-day national holiday Chinese New Year starting from January 21, Xpeng’s G3i, an electric SUV model, was started lower at RMB148,900, and prices of the P5 sedan and its best selling P7 sedan were started to the lowest of RMB156,900 and RMB209,900 respectively. Xpeng also gave compensations for new buyers who ordered any of the three models within a year before the price cuts, including to extend vehicle warranties to ten years or the warranty length to 200,000 kilometers, and to offer four-year basic maintenance service for free.

　　Xpeng is the latest EV company that responded to Tesla’s new price cuts earlier this month. Tesla slashed price by up to 13% in China on January 6, its second promotion through direct cuts in more than two months. Following a range of the starting price of Model Y and Model 3 sold in China were down to new low and about 43% and 30% cheaper than those on sale in U.S.

　　Less than a week later, Tesla lowered prices across the U.S. Europe, the Middle East and Africa by as much as 20% on January 12, expanding its price war globally. A day after Tesla’s new move, Chinese automaker Seres Group announced to trim prices by RMB 30,000 for two SUV EV models co-developed with Huawei. The starting price of Aito M5 and Aito M7 was downed to RMB259,800 and RMB289,800 respectively.  

　　Tesla’s more massive price cuts increased pressure on its rivals and potentially forced other auto companies to alter their pricing strategy, expected Wu Kaixiang, analyst at Guotai Junan Securities.