On the evening of June 11, following the global launch of the XPeng G7, He Xiaopeng, Chairman and CEO of XPeng (09868.HK), highlighted that the competition within the automotive industry is poised to become exceedingly fierce over the next five years. He emphasized that in order to thrive as an automaker, it is imperative to scale up operations and significantly boost investment in scientific research, which in turn necessitates robust profitability. Mr. He disclosed that XPeng plans to allocate approximately RMB 4.5 billion to AI-related research and development this year, bringing the company's total R&D expenditure close to RMB 10 billion. Despite the substantial investment, he remains confident in achieving profitability by the fourth quarter and affirmed that the company's financial performance in the second quarter was promising.
