XPeng reported to set up new autonomous driving company for robotaxi service

Beijing (Gasgoo)- China’s uprising EV startup, XPeng, recently established an autonomous driving subsidiary, Guangzhou Pengxu Autonomous Driving Technology Co., Ltd., according to the corporate database Qichacha.

Photo credit: XPeng

The new company is registered on February 14th, with Xia Heng, founder and president of XPeng as the company’s legal representative. With a registered capital of RMB10 million and is wholly owned by XPeng. The new company is considered to be related robotaxi service.  

In fact, XPeng has already expressed its desire for the autonomous driving field at the company’s Q3 financial report conference in 2021. The chairman and CEO of XPeng, He Xiaopeng, said that the company plans to launch its own Robotaxi service in the second half of 2022, piloting in Guangzhou. The first batch of pilot operation vehicles will be powered by XPeng’s signature XPILOT 3.5 system and gradually work its way up to the 4.0 version.

XPeng expects its Robotaxi service fleet to complete an average of 8,000 to 10,000 kilometers of monthly testing mileage per vehicle, the CEO added.

Robotaxi service is not impractical for XPeng. As an intelligent EV manufacturer, XPeng’s existing L2 ADAS technologies are able to gather enough data for its Robotaxi algorithm iteration. The future Robotaxi algorithms can, in turn, help improve its current L2 mass-produced autonomous driving functions.

Moreover, as an independent carmaker, XPeng holds production lines, ADAS R&D abilities, and data accumulation, making autonomous driving a sustainable choice for the company’s development.