XPeng Co-President: China's EV Race, Flying Cars and Humanoid Robots

Nicolai Tangen (0:00)

How far ahead of Europe and the US do you think Chinese producers are now?

Brian Gu (0:05)

Well, I think we are leading a few areas. I think in electrification, Chinese players obviously has advantage of having strong battery technology, capacity, cost advantages in the automotive side, because China is the largest automotive market in the world. But what's really driving the, I would say, competitiveness in China is also the fast evolution of technology.

Nicolai Tangen (0:42)

Hi, everybody. I'm Nicolai Tangen, the CEO of the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund. And I'm really excited about this podcast. XPeng is one of China's fastest growing EV makers, but it doesn't call itself a car company. It calls itself a physical AI company, betting that the same technology that can drive a car, pilot a flying car, and power a humanoid robot. My guest today is Brian Gu, Vice Chairman and President of XPeng. Brian, warm welcome.

Brian Gu (1:07)

Thank you, Nicolai. Very happy to be on the podcast.

Nicolai Tangen (1:09)

Brian, what is XPeng?

Brian Gu (1:11)

Well, I would say XPeng, first of all, is a technology company.

But as we now dive into the depths of all things physical AI, I think we're considering ourselves really on the forefront of this physical AI movement. We're building EVs, as you mentioned, it's one of the leading brands in China as well as globally. But increasingly, we have brought in our products group to be including more areas and directions, including robots, flying cars, and other modalities as well, by using the same core.

Nicolai Tangen (1:44)

A lot of people think that electrical vehicle is a car with a battery, but you say it's about the intelligence that's to differentiate and not the electrification. What do you mean by that?

Brian Gu (1:52)

Well, that actually is what we actually have done differently over the years. Even when we were a very, very small startup, let's say about nine years ago when I first joined XPeng, at that time, I think everyone is looking at starting an EV company.

So the big pitch was electrified energy transition for automobiles. But even at the end, we have told investors as well as our partners that we believe the long-term differentiation is not with electrification only. It's actually in the intelligence. That's why I think for us, we have consistently focused on building a full stack approach on the intelligence areas that includes hardware, software, and now increasingly moving to the era of AI.

Nicolai Tangen (2:37)

So when you enter a car as a professional, how do you judge whether this is a great car from an intelligence point of view?

Brian Gu (2:44)

Well, first of all, I think when you get into a car, you have to really understand whether the car can understand you. There is obviously various degrees of understanding. First of all, it has to understand you personally, your behavior, your preferences, where you want to go to, the way you interact with the car, you feel like at ease. So that's the first thing you actually understand. The second thing is when the car starts moving. I think an intelligent car can handle a lot of these driving conditions on its own.

Obviously, I'm not talking about level 4 yet, but even at a level 2 plus, I would say, regime, you can feel the difference. The more intelligent, the better trained models will handle the roads smoothly, handle very tricky situations very nicely without causing any concerns or anxiety. So all of that actually translating to the intelligence aspect of it. And ultimately, I think, is how do we unify the experiences. So what we are working on right now is to unify the autonomous driving intelligence and the smart cabin intelligence and merge them. I was actually just in the car this morning. We are going to launch our latest, I would say, the intelligent driving, the VL 2 editions.

One of the features is actually using the smart cockpit interaction to command driving. They say, I want to pull over a little bit. The car knows what to do. I want to actually make a quick stop. They can actually do that for you along the planning as well as delivering you there. All of that, I think, combined together would deliver an intelligent mobility experience.

Nicolai Tangen (4:19)

What is this going to look like in 10 years' time, you think?

Brian Gu (4:21)

Well, I think with advancement in technology, I would say the level 4 capability will just matter of time. It's going to happen. It's going to happen in our lifetimes. It's going to happen in a lot of ubiquitous scenarios that you encounter.