Xpeng P7 Performance: Chinese electric sedan put to the test

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What good is the Model 3 competitor with a range of 700 kilometers?

Xpeng P7 Performance: Chinese electric sedan put to the test-performance

InsideEVs was lucky enough to be the first western medium to test the Xpeng P7 – at the same time as the Xpeng IPO in New York in August 2020. We gladly took the opportunity, as the P7 met with great interest worldwide, although the car is currently only in China is available.

The P7 is considered a direct competitor of Tesla's Model 3, although its size is between Model 3 and Model S. However, the price is similar to the Model 3 and is even a little lower. That makes the Xpeng P7 an attractive offer. If it doesn't go wrong in practice, which is what we wanted to find out with our test.

At 706 kilometers according to the NEDC, the P7 is the electric car with the longest range currently in China will be produced. This means that the P7 is 38 kilometers ahead of the Tesla Model 3 Long Range, for which the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) specifies an official range of 668 kilometers.

Xpeng rented a large portion of the parking lot at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, just a few miles west of Wall Street, where the IPO took place, for us. My friend, the electric car fan Chris Neff, helped us with the video recordings and also took the photos in the picture gallery that show me driving the P7 on the racetrack.

On the racetrack

Xpeng had prepared a nice course with areas for sprints to 70 mph (113 km / h) and braking tests, plus a slalom, a quick lane change. There were also a fair number of tight corners. The P7 did an admirable job of that. It's not quite up to the standards of the world's best sports sedans, but it has held up well.

It definitely became clear that the suspension is designed more for comfort than for sporty cornering at 50 km / h. But as noted in the video, the P7 is probably more of a car that is supposed to satisfy the typical Chinese customer. After learning about the vehicle's limits, the P7 was really fun to drive and it turned out to be well predictable.

Xpeng P7 Performance: Chinese electric sedan put to the test-sedan

On the straight, the P7 with its Brembo brakes decelerated exceptionally well, but on the racetrack I was able to lock the wheels briefly in very tough conditions despite ABS. Presumably this could be fixed with a software update; it is somewhat surprising that this has not already happened. Speaking of which, the P7 is an extremely well connected vehicle and receives over-the-air updates for many of its systems.

As far as recuperation is concerned, there are two modes: one with strong and one with weak braking energy recovery. But even with strong recuperation you can drive the car with a pedal. I couldn't stop it by releasing the gas. I was unable to deactivate the crawler gear.

But the biggest disadvantage of the P7 for me is the slight delay with which it reacts to gas commands. It's not much, just a fraction of a second. But I've gotten so used to the fact that electric cars start racing as soon as I tap the accelerator that such waiting times bother me.

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According to Xpeng, the all-wheel drive P7 performance model that I drove has 430 hp (316 kW) and accelerates from zero to 100 km / h in 4.3 seconds. It felt something like that too. I think if they manage to eliminate the slight delay they can push the time down to under 4 seconds.

Image gallery: Xpeng P7 Performance (2021)

Xpeng P7 Performance: Chinese electric sedan put to the test-xpeng

Xpeng P7 Performance: Chinese electric sedan put to the test-xpeng Xpeng P7 Performance: Chinese electric sedan put to the test-performance Xpeng P7 Performance: Chinese electric sedan put to the test-sedan Xpeng P7 Performance: Chinese electric sedan put to the test-chinese Xpeng P7 Performance: Chinese electric sedan put to the test-electric Xpeng P7 Performance: Chinese electric sedan put to the test-performance

Conclusion

The Xpeng P7 has its weaknesses, but they wouldn't stop us from buying it. For the price it has a lot to offer, including an 81 kWh battery with thermal management, which makes the rear-wheel drive P7 version the longest-range electric car from Chinese production. The all-wheel drive performance version that I drove had about 130 kilometers less range according to the NEDC.

The P7 has a number of modern driver assistance systems, including Xpengs XPilot, and currently drives autonomously on level 2. According to Xpeng, the P7 has the hardware for autonomous driving on level 3 and the vehicles are to be activated via OTA update in 2021 as soon as China officially supports autonomous driving Driving at level 3 is allowed.

The P7 can be charged from 30 to 80 percent in 28 minutes, but we could not determine the maximum charging power with direct current. According to Xpeng, you can recharge the electricity for a further 120 kilometers in ten minutes. The P7 has two charging ports, one on the left and one on the right front fender. One is for DC fast charging, the other for AC charging.

Deliveries of the P7 to customers began at the end of June 2020, and prices in China are between 229,900 and 349,900 yuan (currently around 29,000 to 45,000 euros) if the subsidy is included. The Xpeng representative at the driving event told us that by the end of July, the brand had already shipped 18,700 units of the P7 to buyers in China.

Xpeng P7 performance

engine Electric motors on the front and rear axles

power 316 kW (430 hp)

Acceleration 0-100 km / h 4.3 sec.

Top speed 170 km / h

length 4.88 meters

broad 1.90 meters

height 1.45 meters

battery 81 kWh

Electric range 630 km (NEDC)

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