As driver assist systems gain traction in China, one of the local startups that invested in technology a few years ago is finally seeing results. Xpeng, listed in the US and Hong Kong, has delivered more than 30,000 vehicles a month since November. The company said last week it expects sales to continue twice as fast as 2024 and 2024, and to achieve profitability in the fourth quarter. Sales are the company’s low-priced Mona M03 and its XPENG brand P7+ CAR. This includes advanced driver assist software at no additional charge. With the automaker’s plans to upgrade the P7 and release other new cars this year, Bank of America analysts said on March 18th that “we hope for a strong model pipeline that will support XPENG’s strong volume growth from 2025 to 26.” Analysts have raised their stock price target to $27 from the previous $18.60. This is an advantage of over 20% since the end of Thursday. Bank of America Fees xpeng a buy. The electric vehicle company’s shares were pulled back slightly earlier this month after temporarily doubling its prices from the beginning of the year. Xpeng has “revolved sales momentum” over the past 12 months thanks to the low-cost Mona brand M03 and XPENG brand P7+ launches, Barclays analysts said in a report Thursday. “The product pipeline looks impressive, but needless to say, the ultimate customer acceptance of these new models depends on many factors in the highly competitive China EV market,” analysts said. They raised their price target to $20 from their previous $7, but maintained a low weight rating. The rising price target was announced for a variety of cars in addition to the launch of the driver-assisted system in February, as industry giant BYD unveiled ultra-fast charging technology last week. BYD’s shares have risen about 45% since the start of the year in Hong Kong. “The Chinese market is [at] Shay Natarajan, a partner at Mobility Impact Partners, said Shay Natarajan, a private equity fund investing in transportation. She noted that Chinese electric car companies are moving towards more autonomous functions known as the L3, not just basic driver assistance known as the L2. They most often start offering L2 autonomy for free, and start releasing and billing features for L3 autonomy features [near] Xpeng said in the future. Naviging City Streets is also announced as the high-end “Max” version of the M03. JP Morgan Asia Autos analyst said in a report Wednesday. They reduced their price target to $31 per share from the previous $35. – CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.
