On the evening of April 2, the 2026 XPeng MONA M03 was officially launched.

The new car is available in six versions, with a guide price ranging from 119,800 to 151,800 yuan. (Refreshed)The approach is very clear:Starting price unchanged, configuration unchangedcomprehensiveupgrade.

According to Wall Street News, within 37 minutes of the new car's launch, pre-orders exceeded 10,000 units, with the Max version accounting for over 85% of the orders.

As a key model that pulled XPeng Motors out of a sales slump, the MONA M03's latest facelift not only bears the heavy responsibility of boosting sales, but also...Related toXPeng's strategy after changing its name to "XPeng Group"Heading towards.

01  37 minutes, broke 10,000

The 2026 MONA M03 has undergone significant upgrades.

The exterior now features two new colors: Roland Purple and Avocado Green. The clear coat thickness is 20% thicker than the industry average, and the gloss is improved by 8%. The interior boasts over 70% soft-touch materials, upgraded front seats with 14-point massage, a 20-speaker Hi-Fi sound system, double-layered laminated soundproof glass, and RNC active noise cancellation technology—features previously found primarily in higher-priced models.

But the real highlight lies in the widespread adoption of intelligent driving systems.

The new car offers two computing power versions: Max and Ultra SE. The Max version is equipped with a single Turing AI chip with an effective computing power of 750 TOPS; the Ultra SE version is equipped with dual Turing AI chips with a computing power of up to 1500 TOPS. He Xiaopeng introduced that this is the first time in the world that this level of computing power has been brought to the $20,000 level. At the launch event, he said frankly: "This time, we have really put the intelligent driving of 500,000-level and the comfort of 200,000-level into a car of 110,000-level."

In terms of pricing, the 2026 MONA M03 offers six configurations, priced between 119,800 and 151,800 yuan. The starting price remains the same as the previous model. Four of these models offer more features without increasing the price, while two new high-end models raise the price range by 12,000 yuan.

He Xiaopeng revealed that the gross profit margin of the new MONA M03 is even higher than that of the old model..External doubts about whether "more for the same price" will affect profitability.There was a response..

He Xiaopeng further clarified: "I think it's not worthwhile to make cheap, low-profit cars. We don't touch cars priced under 100,000 RMB. Although we can achieve scale, I think the value is too small."

in other words,Xiaopeng does not intend torelying on low prices to increase sales volumeInstead, they hope to offer intelligent driving and features within the price range of 110,000 to 150,000 yuan.Create differentiation.

The market also gave positive feedback.Within 37 minutes of its launch, the number of pre-orders exceeded 10,000, with the Max version accounting for over 85% of the orders, meaning that more than 80% of users are willing to pay a premium for advanced intelligent driving features.

Looking back at 2024, the launch of the first-generation MONA M03 was a turning point for XPeng's sales growth.

According to Wall Street Insights, the MONA M03 achieved total sales of 197,500 units in 2025, accounting for 46% of XPeng's total annual sales, and ranked first in sales in the 100,000 to 200,000 yuan pure electric sedan segment for 18 consecutive months. This is a truly remarkable car in terms of both financials and market performance.

However, the competition in the new energy vehicle market shows no signs of abating in 2026, and XPeng's sales pressure is increasing. The timing of the 2026 MONA M03's launch is perfect.

As a pillar of XPeng's sales, the sales of MONA M03 dropped to 6,718 units in January and 4,373 units in February, with consumers holding off on purchases and waiting for a facelift being one of the main reasons.

The number of orders exceeded 10,000 in 37 minutes.Of course it's eye-catching,However, some of them were previously stockpiled.Waiting and see demandIn concentrated release.

However, the competitive landscape of the pure electric family car market priced between 100,000 and 150,000 yuan is changing rapidly. New models such as the Dongfeng Nissan N7 and Leapmotor B01 have entered the market one after another.

With intelligent features becoming increasingly common in lower-tier cities and a range of over 600 kilometers gradually becoming standard, it remains to be seen whether the 2026 MONA M03 can continue its record of being the best-selling model in its segment for 18 consecutive months.

02 I don't want to just be a car company

The facelift of the MONA M03 addresses the immediate sales issue. However, the company's name change a week ago points to something more far-reaching.

On March 27, XPeng Motors announced in Hong Kong that, effective April 1, 2026, the company's Chinese name will be changed from "小鹏汽车有限公司" to "小鹏集团", while the English name will remain unchanged as "XPeng Inc." The Hong Kong stock abbreviation will also be changed from "小鹏汽车–W" to "小鹏集团–W".

Remove the word "car"This meansHomeThe company doesn't want to be seen just as a car manufacturer anymore.

He XiaopengAlso reported to Wall Street InsightsIt responded to the background of the name change.

He explained that for the past ten years, the company has been called "XPeng Motors" because it initially focused on intelligent electric vehicles. However, a new decade has begun, and new energy vehicles need to incorporate AI to become AI + new energy vehicles.

“I think we will see tremendous changes in the next decade,” He Xiaopeng said. “If two or three years ago I thought the transformation of robots would be something that happened in the next decade, but in the past year I have seen changes in the big model of physical AI, to be honest, I am extremely surprised.”

He believes the age of robots is accelerating dramatically. He previously thought that Level 5 fully autonomous driving was impossible to achieve in ten years, but now he thinks it "is really possible to achieve it very soon," and the age of robots may even arrive faster than autonomous driving, because robots do not have the same high safety requirements as cars.

Based on thisjudge,XPeng Group's business scope is no longer limited to automobiles.

He Xiaopeng revealed that the company is using automobiles as its core business, and is expanding into multiple areas such as flying cars, humanoid robots, AI chips, and autonomous driving models. In fact, as early as last November's XPeng Technology Day, He Xiaopeng redefined the company's core positioning: a mobility explorer in the physical AI world and a globally-oriented embodied intelligence company.

Since the beginning of this year, the organizational structure has been adjusted accordingly, with the Autonomous Driving Center and the Intelligent Cockpit Center being merged to form the General Intelligence Center, in order to integrate AI capabilities and share a set of physical AI base models.

According to the plan, XPeng's four major physical AI applications—second-generation VLA, Robotaxi, humanoid robots, and flying cars—are all scheduled to enter mass production in 2026.

In March, XPeng announced the establishment of an independent Robotaxi business unit, with plans to launch three fully self-developed mass-produced Robotaxi models in 2026; the construction of a humanoid robot full-chain mass production base has also started, with a monthly production capacity target of over a thousand units by the end of the year.

butGrand NarrativebehindThis inevitably brings a real-world problem to the forefront.:How does XPeng balance its finances while continuing to invest heavily in AI?

According to publicly available information, XPeng plans to invest 7 billion yuan in AI research and development alone in 2026. While XPeng's net loss narrowed to 1.14 billion yuan in 2025, it is still far from achieving stable profitability.

He XiaopengThe attitude is clear:"Why are we so committed? We believe change will come soon... I am absolutely certain."landThey believe that technology is extremely effective after dramatic changes. "Not participating in price wars and continuing to leverage its strengths in intelligent driving is the differentiated path Xpeng has chosen. The higher gross profit margin of the new MONA M03 also provides support for this strategy."Confidence.

However, the market's patience for profitability is becoming increasingly limited, and XPeng still has a long way to go to find a balance between strategic expansion and financial stability.

He Xiaopeng believes that this is a brand new starting point for XPeng. What needs to be seen next is not only whether the orders for the MONA M03 can be converted into deliveries and whether the hype can be sustained, but also the AI card – how XPeng plays it, when it is launched, and whether it can achieve results that match the investment.

The following is an interview between Wall Street Insights and He Xiaopeng, Chairman and CEO of XPeng Group, and Yang Guang, Head of MONA Product at XPeng Group (edited without affecting the original meaning):

Q: What are your thoughts on the profit model for the new year?

He Xiaopeng:I believe that the past four or five years, starting last year, have been the most crucial turning point for the Chinese auto industry.periodScale is important. However, scale is not absolute; there are many instances where scale is not very valuable. In the past, from an internet perspective, high-quality scale was the most valuable, but a company may need to achieve scale before it can achieve high quality as it grows from small to large. On the other hand, some companies aim for high quality from the very beginning.

Since last year, as you've seen, XPeng Motors turned a profit in the fourth quarter, and while it didn't make a profit for the whole year, it only incurred a very small loss. Last year, our R&D expenses were approximately 10 billion yuan, and if you include flying cars, it exceeded 10 billion yuan. This year, our R&D expenses have increased significantly. So, from another perspective, if we don't count our investments in entirely new R&D, including chips, next-generation AI, robotics, and some other new areas that I can't yet disclose, we've already achieved considerable profitability in the automotive sector, and we expect to do so this year as well.

But why did I say these 4-5 years?BecauseWe are witnessing tremendous changes brought about by technology. To be honest, I wasn't sure about the effects, depth, pace, and timing of AI's transformation of the physical world before, but I saw this becoming increasingly clear in the second quarter of last year. Moreover, this change extends from the entire organization and R&D paradigm to the final user experience and results. I think what everyone is seeing this year is our second-generation VLA, which I believe is still the first step in VLA. I believe we will see huge and rapid changes in the market impact of XPeng's R&D investment every quarter going forward.

Previously, software development was linear, which was painful. A 5% improvement today might only result in a 5% improvement next quarter. But AI is not linear. I have great confidence in XPeng this year and in the next few years. You can see this with the MONA launch in April, representing the first new car of the second quarter. XPeng is not only at a very good turning point, transitioning from scale to high-quality development, but this year will also see a better start in balancing scale, quality, profit, globalization, and ecosystem.

Q: Why the name change to XPeng Group? What are your expectations for the market competition landscape?

He Xiaopeng:Over the past 10 years, XPeng started by making intelligent electric vehicles, so its core business is automobiles. I think this decade will see us move from the previous decade of new energy vehicles to a new decade of new energy vehicles combined with intelligent systems and new energy vehicles.

In the next decade, many will witness a revolution in robotics. Two or three years ago, I thought this revolution would occur in the next decade, or even the third decade. However, the changes I've seen in the large-scale physical AI models in the past year have frankly surprised me greatly. Therefore, from a different perspective, I believe the era of robotics will arrive more rapidly. Previously, I thought Level 5 AI was impossible even in 10 years; now I think it's truly possible to achieve Level 5 within 10 years, and it's even more likely for robots because the requirements for robots aren't as high as Level 5.

XPeng Motors has changed its name to XPeng Group. We are now facing a new global era of physical AI, where robots and cars are entering China and the world. This is a very important new decade for us. I believe that current car companies do not have a good business model; they are all operating under a highly competitive, involutionary model.

Everyone is pursuing high-quality development and doesn't want to engage in cutthroat competition, but the automotive industry, by its very nature, isn't a particularly good business model in terms of hardware. This is a fact I've witnessed in recent years. Therefore, we are doing a lot of rethinking and re-planning regarding how a new car company can transform into a technology company and a different kind of company in the future. You can see that "XPeng Motors" has been renamed "XPeng Group," which is part of our strategic planning in this regard.

The domestic market certainly presents challenges, but I believe it also offers opportunities for high-quality development. The overseas market, on the other hand, presents a huge opportunity. We've seen our competitors thrive in overseas markets. Among the new energy vehicle startups, XPeng's development over the past five years, coupled with its strategic moves this year, will lay a solid foundation for XPeng's global expansion in the second half of this year and next. Furthermore, we expect to not only take our cars global next year, but also our other product lines.

I've always believed that the final outcome will be a process of diverse development, high-quality growth, and the survival of the fittest. Ultimately, it will be difficult to retain so many companies. Several years ago, I often said that by 2030, China might only have five car companies, primarily Chinese-owned. I firmly believe this. I think having a certain scale is just the first hurdle, far from being a prerequisite for success.

Q: Why was an Ultra SE version added?

Yang Guang:Last year, when our project team was working on this, we felt that the MAX version was already very good and had a high cost-performance ratio. The SE version's chips are expensive this year, so we wondered if we should just skip it. Then one day, Tingting brought a test drive car for Lao Jiang and me to try out. We drove around that alley, and after the test drive, Lao Jiang quickly reported to Xiaopeng and added the SE version. I think this is a typical example of a huge change in user perception and product perception brought about by a major technological iteration.

Q: What are the sources of confidence in the pure electric vehicle market priced under 150,000 yuan? Are there any plans to expand overseas?

Yang Guang:It's not just the 150,000 RMB price range that's extremely competitive; the competition is fierce in every segment of the Chinese automotive market. Currently, there are roughly 180-190 new car models released each year, and if you include facelifts and model year updates, that brings the total to around 1200-1300. The M03's success must have some unique aspects.

Overseas young users also appreciate cars with a youthful appeal. Globally, young users generally prefer products that are attractive, intelligent, trendy, cutting-edge, and that they understand their product needs. Therefore, we are confident that if MONA goes global, overseas young users will also like it. We will share our overseas expansion plans with everyone later.

Q: Is the Model 3 the main competitor of the M03? How to win over young consumers?

Yang Guang:The M03 is a very special product; its overall design is quite differentiated within this price range. Its target audience is a typical budget-conscious consumer, many of whom are young people who appreciate high-quality products but have limited financial resources as they enter the workforce.

However, being young doesn't mean you have to use bad products. So we use a differentiated approach to provide them with a very good, high-quality, and youthful product. Of course, these users will also look at the Model 3. Everyone knows that Tesla is an excellent benchmark in the industry, so is there a competitive relationship between them? Definitely, they are our competitors. More importantly, we provide different services to users at different price points, with different products and different images.

Q: Why replace the cockpit chip? Is there a plan to launch the chip independently?

He Xiaopeng:XPeng currently uses chips from both MediaTek and Qualcomm in its cockpits. Both companies have a strong track record in the mobile phone market, so we combine them in different models to achieve excellent performance. My views on cockpit chips may not entirely align with those of many other companies.

I personally believe that as intelligent driver assistance systems become more powerful, car screens will gradually shift from click-based to primarily playback-based, the functionality of car instruments will decrease, and cars will become more computing-intensive rather than CPU or GPU-based, perhaps with NPU as the primary processing unit. Therefore, we will see intelligent driver assistance systems change the way cars are designed.

Secondly, once the full-fledged Ultra version is released in the second half of this year, you'll see some brand-new capabilities in the cockpit. At that time, you'll also see some changes in our thinking regarding chip positioning. There's no information to share yet. However, I still firmly believe that future strong AI companies must all develop their own chips; this is absolutely unwavering.

Q: Will the MONA series include SUVs, station wagons, and other models?

He Xiaopeng:MONA will definitely have more cars than the M03, and it will definitely go from China to the world. This is something we can share now.

Q: How do you balance AI R&D investment and output? What changes have occurred in the gross profit margin of the new model?

He Xiaopeng:I've looked at the trends in the absolute and relative proportions of R&D investment for many automakers last year. I think XPeng has followed a path of higher revenue, but also a relatively higher proportion of R&D investment. I believe this was wrong in most parts of the automotive industry, but today I firmly believe that technology is extremely effective during periods of rapid change. Our commercialization capabilities will soon be evident, which is why I say that, excluding other innovative businesses, XPeng's automotive business has already achieved very good profits last year and this year.

But why are we so committed to this investment? We believe change will come soon. So simply having scale in the automotive industry isn't enough today. Your second question also highlights the fact that the 2026 Xpeng MONA is significantly more profitable than the 2025 MONA. This demonstrates a crucial capability of Xpeng: continuously improving our vehicles and pursuing ever-increasing gross margins. Furthermore, we are increasingly convinced that Xpeng will be a technology company, not just a car company. I believe that making cheap, low-profit cars is worthless. Therefore, you'll see that Xpeng doesn't touch cars priced under 100,000 RMB. While there may be scale, we believe the value is too small.

Q: What are your thoughts on industry discussions regarding the number of car manufacturers and the relationship between established and emerging players?

He Xiaopeng:Two or three years ago, I said that I thought there would be five large-scale Chinese car companies still alive around 2030, while the others would be very small or unlikely to survive for long. At that time, many people did not believe it because there was no such problem in the past when there were 100 or 200 companies, and everyone was making a living. That was under the condition that the physical world had not yet combined with the AI world.

I believe that high computing power means that future cars will all have advanced levels of autonomous driving assistance, and even when the technology and regulations are ready, they will all be driverless cars. I think it's an inevitable process. In the past, in the software era, it was quite difficult to achieve this, but in the AI era, I think it's not far off.

Q: Has the annual sales target been adjusted? Are there any plans for new features related to the in-vehicle infotainment system?

He Xiaopeng:We never have annual plans. If what you're guessing is true, we certainly won't lower it; it will only be higher than you expect. That's why I said back in January that everyone would believe in XPeng's opportunities for continuous growth in the first, second, third, and fourth quarters, including next year.

Thanks to many capabilities, including today's launch of the MONA M03, I think the MONA is a car with excellent product strength, a comprehensive product strength. I believe the product is 1, and everything else is 0. If the product itself is weak, there's no way to succeed. At least from our perspective, we can gradually see the turning point in XPeng's overall product strength across multiple products.

Q: What is the price trend in the car market this year? What car buying advice do you have for consumers?

He Xiaopeng:I personally feel that since the 17 car companies joined forces in the second quarter of last year to pursue high-quality development, the possibility of the previous disorderly infighting should be basically zero. Everyone is now pursuing higher-quality development. Moreover, I especially want to say that if car companies only engage in disorderly infighting in the physical world, they will eventually not survive. It's just a matter of when they fail, sooner or later.

As you can see, over the past year or so, XPeng has been pursuing a combination of high aesthetics, high quality, and high intelligence to create high value for customers and the company. We've been progressing very steadily, unlike before when we changed rapidly with the environment. So, I personally believe that at least this year, the situation you described won't occur. However, in the next few years, when the AI era completely overwhelms the old car market, I think there will definitely be a significant shift in the market.labor painsTraditional car companies, in particular, are likely to undergo significant changes. There will likely be many new things at that time.

Q: Why not simplify the vehicle models and intelligent driving version SKUs?

He Xiaopeng:The automotive industry is a long-term marathon, a massive industry. Unlike many traditional manufacturing sectors where small-scale operations reach a certain scale and competitors have no reason to enter, the automotive business model doesn't work that way. Therefore, it's both a hardware business and not a typical traditional hardware business. So I believe that in this field, it's very difficult for most global car companies to succeed with just two or three models.

Ten years from now, because I used to think software only accounted for maybe 10% of the power or value in the automotive industry, in another three to five years, software might account for half, and perhaps even seventy percent. The higher the proportion of software, the more dramatic the shift in hardware from diversity to a few specific types will be. But today, the global market is changing dramatically. Different places, different scenarios, technologies, hardware, software, and data require different data capabilities. We, as automotive product managers, need a broader and longer-term perspective, not just a single angle.