XPeng Offers Autonomous Test Paint for GX SUV Buyers
A new paint option for the GX SUV is actually a test bed for the future of self-driving, and now you can buy it.
XPeng has opened the color on its GX SUV to buyers, a shade previously reserved for its L4 self-driving test vehicles. The car is selling at a steady 7,000 units a month in China.
The move is a marketing play on autonomy. The color is a nod to the car's self-driving hardware, which is the most advanced on any production vehicle in China.
A Test Color for the Mass Market
The new paint, called Crescent Silver, is the same color used on XPeng's L4 autonomous driving validation vehicles. The company says the color has witnessed every step of its journey toward the future of mobility.
This is a marketing move, not a functional one. The GX SUV ships with a driver-assistance system, not a true L4 self-driving system. Neither China nor any other market allows a private owner to operate a vehicle at that level. The catch is that you're buying the look of a test car, not the capability.
The Hardware Behind the Hype
The GX is built around a powerful self-driving hardware stack. It has four of XPeng's own Turing chips, three main and one redundant, for a claimed 3,000 TOPS of computing power.
The company describes the car as the first model in China developed to L4 standards and put into series production. Founder and CEO He Xiaopeng said at presale that the company was skipping L3 entirely, a level that would allow limited self-driving in certain conditions.
A Steady Sales Curve
The GX is XPeng's first full-size SUV. It launched in May with a limited-time price of 40,200 dollars, and has since settled at 399,800 yuan, or about 59,600 dollars.
Sales have been steady. The car registered 6,737 units in June, then 7,016 in July and 7,002 in August. That's a plateau, not a curve. At about 7,000 a month, the GX accounts for about 18% of the company's total volume.
