Xpeng to develop its first extended range electric vehicle system – 430 km EV range, 1,400 km combined

At Xpeng’s AI Day event today, the company announced that it is developing a new extended range electric vehicle (EREV) system that will enter production in the future. This represents an interesting shift for the brand that has only produced pure electric vehicles (EVs) since its inception.

Called the Kunpeng Super Electric System, it is claimed to deliver an all-electric range of 430 km and a combined range of 1,400 km with the range extender in play. The company claims these figures are a significant improvement over existing EREV systems in the market today.

As reported by CarNewsChina, Xpeng CEO He Xiaopeng said that current EREV systems do not provide a good experience as they typically take around 30 minutes to charge from 30-80%. The Kunpeng system is said to use a 5C battery pack – the “C” indicates how many times a battery can be charged in one hour – that can get from a 10-80% state of charge in as little as 12 minutes.

This ties in with the rollout of the Xpeng S5 that can deliver up to 800 kW of charging power in China, with export markets set to receive the supercharger in 2025. Another issue with today’s EREV systems, as He explained, is range, which requires more frequent charging stops that the Kunpeng system aims to mitigate.

Additionally, the company also wants the engine, which acts as a generator for a battery, to operate in a silent manner, with just an increase of one decibel when operating. He mentioned that existing systems have a tough time dealing with mountainous roads, which is why the Kunpeng system will use artificial intelligence (AI) to warm up the engine earlier in anticipation of such roads.

He went on to say that there is a need for an EREV system because of the unreliability of power grids in many countries, including in areas where charging stations are far and few between.

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