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Xpeng, BYD executives say Greater Bay Area firms’ expertise in smart tech, superfast battery charging will drive EV growth in China
- In five years, EVs and smart-driving tech will be prevalent just like ‘iPhones and smartphone technologies nowadays’, Xpeng’s Brian Gu tells Milken Institute symposium
- China’s policy support for EV adoption and charging infrastructure is ‘a very good example for every country to learn from’: BYD’s Stella Li
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Smart technology such as autonomous parking systems and the wide availability of superfast battery charging infrastructure will drive a boom in electric vehicle (EV) sales in China over the next five years, according to two of the segment’s leading manufacturers.
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Xpeng’s Brian Gu told a panel on “The Innovation Boom Coming from China’s Greater Bay Area” at the Milken Institute’s inaugural Global Investors’ Symposium in Hong Kong on Tuesday that smart driving technology will become as “prevalent” as smartphones are today. Meanwhile, BYD’s Stella Li pointed out that even traditional energy firms were investing in battery charging infrastructure. Both firms are based in the Greater Bay Area development zone.
“In five years, EVs and these [smart-driving] technologies will be just like [how] iPhones and smartphone technologies are prevalent nowadays,” said Gu, vice-chairman and president of Guangzhou-based Chinese smart EV maker Xpeng.
Almost all EVs will be equipped with smart driving technologies such as autonomous parking and navigation systems by 2029, he said. And by that time, battery-powered vehicles will dominate car sales and superfast charging technology will have greatly shortened the time required for charging EVs, on par with gas stations.
Gu’s comments came after Guangzhou-based Xpeng last week reported a 153 per cent increase in its revenue for last year’s fourth quarter, narrowing its net loss by 40 per cent year on year.
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Moreover, He Xiaopeng, Xpeng’s founder, was bullish about the company’s strategy of developing autonomous driving technology and making it affordable and accessible for “a much broader customer base”.
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