Xpeng Confirms It's Exploring Making Self-Driving Chips In-House

Chinese electric vehicle maker XPeng Inc. XPEV has confirmed it is exploring making its own dedicated chips for autonomous driving, CNBC reported Wednesday.

What Happened: Xinzhou Wu, vice president in charge of autonomous driving at Xpeng, said his company is exploring developing in-house chipsets among other options to stay ahead of the fierce competition in the Chinese market, according to the report.

The confirmation by Wu comes after it was reported by technology news website 36Kr last week that Xpeng is working simultaneously in China as well as the U.S. on the chip development project and could launch the chips by the end of this year or early next year.

See Also: XPeng Proposes EV Manufacturing Plant In Wuhan

Why It Matters: Xpeng, which has an SUV named G3 and a sedan named P7, unveiled its third mass-produced electric sedan model called the P5 on Wednesday. The P5 will be the world's first production smart EV equipped with automotive-grade LiDAR technology.

However, the P5 will deploy Qualcomm Inc. QCOM Snapdragon flagship SA8155P auto-grade computing platform that is three times more powerful than the previous generation. Developing its own chips will enable Xpeng to gain more control over the hardware and software integration of its vehicles.

Chinese EV automakers, including Xpeng, Nio Inc. NIO and Li Auto Inc. LI are working on developing new electric vehicle technologies, including ultra-fast charging, next-generation computing platforms and autonomous driving technologies.

Xpeng will likely see volume sales grow thanks to its advanced autonomous driving technology and product competitiveness, according to Bofa Securities analyst Ming Hsun Lee.

Price Action: XPeng shares closed 7.3% lower on Wednesday at $32.89.

Photo: Courtesy of Xpeng

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