Xpeng's Guangzhou plant was qualified in December to produce vehicles with a design capacity of 120,000 vehicles a year, a contractor for the company said.
(Xpeng's plant in Guangzhou. Image credit: Guangzhou Kaide)
Xpeng's (NYSE: XPEV) plant in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, where it is headquartered, has started production and will produce models including the company's flagship SUV, the G9.
The electric vehicle maker's contractor for the plant, Guangzhou Kaide Holdings Limited Company, revealed the development in a WeChat post yesterday, saying the plant is located in the Guangzhou Development Zone and is designed to have an annual capacity of 120,000 vehicles.
This is the second Xpeng plant after the one in Zhaoqing, Guangdong with stamping, welding, painting and final assembly workshops and with new model trial and vehicle production capabilities, the post said.
Guangzhou Kaide was established in 1998 as a state-owned company to accelerate the development of the Guangzhou Development Zone. Xpeng has not yet announced information on the plant's start-up.
Xpeng's Guangzhou plant started construction in September 2020 and took nine and a half months to complete the first prototype vehicle, Guangzhou Kaide said.
The plant was approved by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for vehicle production at the end of December 2022, and future models such as the Xpeng G9 will be produced at the plant, the article said.
Xpeng was founded in 2014 and released its first model, the G3 SUV, in September 2016.
The model was then OEM'd by Haima Motor in Zhengzhou, though Xpeng's OEM agreement with it expired at the end of 2021, after which Xpeng's models are all produced at its own plant.
Xpeng's first plant is located in Zhaoqing, where construction began in late 2017 and production began in May 2020. The company began construction of a second plant in Guangzhou in September 2020.
On February 10, local media outlet Jiemian cited a source familiar with the matter as saying that Xpeng's plant in Guangzhou was qualified to produce vehicles in January and currently only produces the flagship SUV G9.
The plant is expected to be ready to open for customers and partners in early March, according to the report.
Xpeng currently sells the G3i, P5, P7 and G9, with production of all models except the G9 in Zhaoqing.
The G9, which is based on a new platform and went on sale in September 2022, is produced in Guangzhou, a plant with an initial design capacity of 100,000 vehicles per year, Jiemian's previous report noted.
In China, qualifications for car production are strictly regulated. The production qualification obtained by Xpeng has been one of the few in the past five years, Jiemian cited a source as saying.
Xpeng delivered 5,218 vehicles in January, down 59.62 percent from 12,922 units in the same month last year and down 53.79 percent from 11,292 units in December. 2,249 units of the G9 were delivered in January.
The Xpeng G9 was officially launched in China on September 21, 2022, and deliveries began on October 27. As of the end of January, 8,622 G9 units were delivered in China, according to data monitored by CnEVPost.
Xpeng's Guangzhou plant qualified to produce vehicles, report says
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