Xpeng Thinks It Can Outsell Ford In Europe

Ford sold 430,000 cars in Europe last year. Chinese automaker Xpeng wants to sell 500,000.

Photo by: Xpeng

By: Rob Stumpf

Oct 14, at 7:28pm ET

Comment

Chinese automaker Xpeng wants to more than double its sales by 2030.
The company sees the key to its success as Europe.
It believes that Europe will make up around half of all global sales: 500,000 cars.

If you live in the U.S., you've probably never seen a car wearing an Xpeng badge. But if you live in Europe, Xpeng is one of the many Chinese automakers eating into the market share of domestic automakers. And much like other Eastern car companies, Xpeng is still hungry.

The company's CEO, He Xiaopeng, says that Xpeng wants to more than double its sales figures by the top of the decade—and its secret to success might be Europe.

Photo by: Xpeng

Last year, Xpeng delivered just under 430,000 cars globally. Xiaopeng is aiming for 1 million deliveries by 2030, he told Bloomberg this week, with half of those coming from the European market.

A half-million cars in Europe isn't just some small feat. As a frame of reference, Ford sold 426,000 cars in Europe last year while Xpeng has delivered just 60,000 cars in the region since 2020. That means Xpeng believes it can outsell the Blue Oval—which opened its first European manufacturing plant over 115 years ago—after just a decade. To be sure, Ford's Europe sales are on the decline; about a decade ago, it was doing 1 million units annually.

The local manufacturing bit is becoming increasingly important to Chinese automakers looking to set up shop in Europe.

Xpeng, like many foreign automakers, doesn't yet have its own European factory to build cars or parts in. New EU regulations mandate a minimum local content in EVs sold across the bloc, something which all Chinese automakers are rushing to meet and one of the reasons why Xpeng is contracting with Magna to build several of its models in Austria.

What do you think?

View

Comments

The automaker's vice president, Yeqing Zheng, recently told Reuters that it plans to increase its manufacturing presence in Europe—partly to meet that content mandate, and partly because the output of vehicles at Magna "is not even sufficient" to meet its sales goal.

If Xpeng can pull it off, it's looking at a massive success. After all, Chinese EVs have quickly taken off in Europe thanks to gobs of tech and affordable prices. If the brands continue to collectively penetrate the market as they have in recent months, maybe Xpeng's target isn't so out of reach.