XPeng Motors is off to a hot start with the first BEV in its new AI-centric MONA line. After garnering tens of thousands of MONA M03 orders in its first couple of days, XPeng is now asking its component suppliers to bolster their capacity so the Chinese automaker can try and keep up with demand.
Plans for what would become known as MONA were initially announced in April before the new XPeng BEV line’s flagship model, the M03, officially debuted in early July.
XPeng initially promised a starting price below RMB 200,000 ($27,500). Still, shortly after XPeng founder, chairman, and CEO He Xiaopeng shared that the M03 had begun mass production in China, a product poster revealed that the MONA M03 would debut at a starting price significantly lower than initially promised – RMB 135,900 ($19,040).
However, when the MONA M03 officially launched in China in late August, XPeng surprised the public again, opening pre-orders at an even lower starting price of RMB 119,800 ($16,815). As a result, the new EV garnered over 10,000 orders in its first two minutes on sale, which rose to over 30,000 MONA M03 pre-orders in the first 48 hours.
Now, XPeng is reporting continued interest in the M03 and is looking to step up its supply chain to get the new models delivered to Chinese customers as quickly as possible.
XPeng says MONA M03 is averaging 2K new orders a day
As reported by Chinese media outlet 21Jingji, XPeng has adjusted its MONA M03 production schedule to keep up with its growing number of orders, asking its suppliers to quickly bolster their efforts so it can boost production capacity and delivery efficiency.
The Chinese automaker also reported that MONA M03 orders had exceeded 2,000 orders a day after nabbing over 30K in the first 48 hours. By our math, that should be XPeng’s order book somewhere between 54,000 and 60,000 orders in a mere two weeks time.
Other details remain light, but according to a letter sent by XPeng to suppliers circulating online, the Chinese automaker relayed that its most significant challenge surrounding M03 orders is growing wait times for deliveries at a time when the first MONA BEV is such a hot seller.
Such demand makes sense given that the M03 is hands down the most affordable XPeng EV currently on sale and has the makings to help the automaker have an excellent sales year. We are looking forward to getting behind the wheel of this one and will report back.