New competition for electric car manufacturers

First Norway, then the whole of Europe: the electric car start-up Xpeng is testing the European market with the first 100 cars in Norway. Other countries are to follow.

The Chinese start-up Xpeng is launching in Europe, but with a test phase: it is only offering a small number of electric cars in Norway. So far, 100 vehicles have already been delivered to 28 Norwegian cities. The G3 electric car is available there for a list price of 358,000 Norwegian kroner, or around 34,000 euros. "This week's customer deliveries in Norway are an important milestone in Xpeng's ambition to establish itself as a truly international, intelligent electric car brand," said CEO He Xiaopeng.

It was only in September that rival electric car manufacturer Aiways from Shanghai expanded into Europe. Xpeng also wants to penetrate other European markets, with political support and the infrastructure for e-mobility within the countries playing a particularly important role.

Xpeng was founded in 2015 and has sold over 21,000 cars on the domestic market this year up to November, which represents an increase of 87 percent. Xpeng has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange NYSE since this year, which brought the start-up 1.7 billion dollars in capital.