How Xpeng Is Working Around Chip Shortage To Continue Delivering P5 Electric Vehicles

Chinese electric vehicle maker Xpeng Inc XPEV is offering users an option to get deliveries of several of its models without the radars and get them installed after March when a key chip is in stock again, cnEVpost reported, citing the company.

What Happened: The automaker is offering the buyers of P5, the recently launched affordable electric sedan, an option to receive the deliveries now with delayed radar installation and other software benefits, in a bid to tide over the shortage of millimeter-wave semiconductor supplies, as per cnEVpost.

Xpeng launched its third mass-produced electric vehicle, the P5 sedan, last month at a competitive starting price of about $25,000 that goes up to $34,717 for the top variant, after subsidies. The P5 sedans are expected to begin delivery by the end of October.

See Also: How Nio Rival Li Auto Is Working Around The Chip Shortage To Continue Delivering EVs

XPeng is offering the XPILOT 3.0 or XPILOT 3.5 software for free to users opting for delayed radar installation, depending on the specifications of their models, as per the report. The radars are priced in the $5,141 to $6,426 range.

Why It Matters: Xpeng is the second Chinese automaker to follow such a delivery model. Earlier this month, Li Auto LI offered customers to take deliveries of electric vehicles without two key radar chips that would be installed between December and February.

Automakers across the world have been hit struggling to navigate through a lingering chip shortage. Earlier this year, Ford Motor Co F explored plans to ship vehicles without chips to dealers as it looked to mitigate the inventory pileup of unfinished vehicles and keep the manufacturing plants running, as per an Automotive News report.