Finance

Xpeng releases mass-market EV with basic driver-assist for less than $20,000

Published

9 months ago

August 27, 2024

Chinese electric car company Xpeng displays its mass-market Mona M03 coupe inside a headquarters’ showroom in Guangzhou, China, on Aug. 26, 2024.

CNBC | Evelyn Cheng

BEIJING — Chinese electric car company Xpeng on Tuesday announced that its mass-market brand Mona will start selling some models for less than $17,000.

The basic version of the Mona M03 electric coupe will be listed at 119,800 yuan ($16,812), with a driving range of 515 kilometers (320 miles) and some parking assist features.

A version of the Mona M03 with the more advanced “Max” driver assist features and a driving range of 580 kilometers will sell for 155,800 yuan.

In comparison, Tesla’s cheapest car — the Model 3 — costs 231,900 yuan in China, after a price cut in April.

Xpeng CEO He Xiaopeng did not specify a launch date for the standard version of the car in his presentation on Tuesday. The company told investors last week on an earnings call that mass deliveries would begin shortly after Tuesday’s announcement.

Presales of the Mona M03 began on Aug. 8.

XPeng earnings: 'Still a good result to have for the quarter,' KraneShares says

The Mona M03 standard driver-assist supports parking, including parallel parking. The company says it uses a range of automatic sensors, cameras and light detection and ranging sensors.

The Max version of driver assist includes features such as automatically backing up a car to a designated position in a dead-end street with the push of a button. Xpeng also plans for it to support the remote control of entering and exiting a narrow parking spot.

That Max version is set to begin deliveries after the Lunar New Year holiday in 2025, CEO He said. The Chinese holiday runs from late January to early February next year.

Xpeng’s driver-assist technology is widely considered one of the best currently available in China. Tesla‘s version, marketed as “full self-driving,” isn’t fully accessible in China, although it is widely expected to be released in the coming months.

The Xpeng CEO’s presentation on Tuesday also commemorated the 10th anniversary of Xpeng’s founding. Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi’s founder Lei Jun was among those in attendance

CEO He said the brand name Mona stands for “Made of new AI.” He emphasized that over the next decade, Xpeng would focus on developing artificial intelligence for cars.

The company also said Tuesday that it plans to reveal its second-generation humanoid robot in October. It also revealed its own chip, but did not specify what nanometer process — or level of production technology — is used in its manufacturing.

Premium Chinese electric car startup Nio in late July said it had finished designing a five nanometer automotive-grade chip, the NX9031. The company had teased the chip in December, and plans to use it in its high-end ET9 sedan, set for delivery in 2025.

Collaboration with Didi

Xpeng built Mona using tech it acquired from ride-hailing company Didi in August 2023.

Wu Zhefeng, a Mona project manager, told reporters Monday that the basic version of driver-assist technology in the M03 comes from Didi, while the more advanced version was made by Xpeng.

Since the battery is the priciest component of an electric car, he said Xpeng was able to bring the cost down for Mona thanks in part to efforts to boost energy efficiency. The coupe uses BYD‘s popular “blade battery,” Wu said.

He said the brand is focused on young people, two or three years after graduation.

Nearly half of similar cars available in China within this price range are used for ride-hailing, according to Wu. While electric car companies such as BYD have worked with Didi to promote their cars among drivers on the ride-hailing platform, he said Mona would remain focused on consumer drivers.

BYD, which has quickly become a giant in China’s electric car industry, sells cars across a range of prices and models, including many hybrid-powered versions. Consumers in China have increasingly preferred hybrids to battery-only cars as anxiety persists over how far they can drive on a single charge.

Geely-owned electric car company Zeekr announced earlier this month that it would launch its first hybrid car next year.

Other Chinese companies have launched cars this year in direct competition with Tesla.

Nio, which has focused on premium electric cars, in May announced a lower-priced brand Onvo. Its first car, the L60 SUV, is set to begin deliveries in September. The L60 starts at 219,900 yuan (US$30,439) versus the Model Y’s 249,900 yuan (US$34,617), according to prices shared in May.

Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi, meanwhile, in March released its first electric car, the SU7 sedan for 215,900 yuan.

— CNBC’s Sonia Heng contributed to this report.

Finance

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Published

2 days ago

June 6, 2025

Business Finance News

Finance

Swiss government proposes tough new capital rules in major blow to UBS

Published

2 days ago

June 6, 2025

Business Finance News

A sign in German that reads “part of the UBS group” in Basel on May 5, 2025.

Fabrice Coffrini | AFP | Getty Images

The Swiss government on Friday proposed strict new capital rules that would require banking giant UBS to hold an additional $26 billion in core capital, following its 2023 takeover of stricken rival Credit Suisse.

The measures would also mean that UBS will need to fully capitalize its foreign units and carry out fewer share buybacks.

“The rise in the going-concern requirement needs to be met with up to USD 26 billion of CET1 capital, to allow the AT1 bond holdings to be reduced by around USD 8 billion,” the government said in a Friday statement, referring to UBS’ holding of Additional Tier 1 (AT1) bonds.

The Swiss National Bank said it supported the measures from the government as they will “significantly strengthen” UBS’ resilience.

“As well as reducing the likelihood of a large systemically important bank such as UBS getting into financial distress, this measure also increases a bank’s room for manoeuvre to stabilise itself in a crisis through its own efforts. This makes it less likely that UBS has to be bailed out by the government in the event of a crisis,” SNB said in a Friday statement.

‘Too big to fail’

UBS has been battling the specter of tighter capital rules since acquiring the country’s second-largest bank at a cut-price following years of strategic errors, mismanagement and scandals at Credit Suisse.

The shock demise of the banking giant also brought Swiss financial regulator FINMA under fire for its perceived scarce supervision of the bank and the ultimate timing of its intervention.

Swiss regulators argue that UBS must have stronger capital requirements to safeguard the national economy and financial system, given the bank’s balance topped $1.7 trillion in 2023, roughly double the projected Swiss economic output of last year. UBS insists it is not “too big to fail” and that the additional capital requirements — set to drain its cash liquidity — will impact the bank’s competitiveness.

At the heart of the standoff are pressing concerns over UBS’ ability to buffer any prospective losses at its foreign units, where it has, until now, had the duty to back 60% of capital with capital at the parent bank.

Higher capital requirements can whittle down a bank’s balance sheet and credit supply by bolstering a lender’s funding costs and choking off their willingness to lend — as well as waning their appetite for risk. For shareholders, of note will be the potential impact on discretionary funds available for distribution, including dividends, share buybacks and bonus payments.

“While winding down Credit Suisse’s legacy businesses should free up capital and reduce costs for UBS, much of these gains could be absorbed by stricter regulatory demands,” Johann Scholtz, senior equity analyst at Morningstar, said in a note preceding the FINMA announcement.

“Such measures may place UBS’s capital requirements well above those faced by rivals in the United States, putting pressure on returns and reducing prospects for narrowing its long-term valuation gap. Even its long-standing premium rating relative to the European banking sector has recently evaporated.”