For some automotive industry stakeholders, the future of R&D depends on new manufacturing technology or data analysis and machine learning. However, Chinese automaker Xpeng favours an approach that combines customer-centricity, premium product design, and resource management.
Speaking at an online press roundtable on 8 June 2023, Xpeng Product Planning Director Meng Wu offered the company’s G9 as a paradigmatic example of its R&D process. Launched in China at the end of 2022 and introduced to select European markets in February 2023, he states that the luxury SUV’s mid-sized dimensions take account of customers’ modern desire for functionality, spaciousness, and comfort.
