The company says this new system, named Kunpeng Super Electric, will let cars go much further and charge faster. Cars with this system will be able to drive up to 430km on just electricity. When you add in the range from the gas engine, they could go over 1400km.
XPeng also says these cars will charge really quickly. They'll be able to go from 10% to 80% battery in just 12 minutes. And when the gas engine kicks in, it'll only make the car about 1 decibel louder.
Here's how it works: electric motors still drive the wheels, but there's also a gas engine that acts like a generator for the battery.
The company is still working on it, so we don't know all the details yet. They haven't said how big the battery will be exactly, what kind of gas engine it'll use, or which car model will get this system first. The battery is probably around 65-75kWh and can charge really fast. The gas engine is likely a small one with three or four cylinders.
XPeng's boss, He Xiaopeng, says this setup will be "extraordinary." They want to sell these cars all over the world.
This idea of using a gas engine to charge an electric car's battery isn't new. We've seen it before in cars like the Chevrolet Volt and BMW i3 REx. Nissan does something similar with their e-Power hybrid system in models like the X-Trail and Qashqai.
XPeng's system has one cool extra feature: it uses AI to figure out the best way to use the battery and engine. It looks at things like the road, hills, and what's coming up to decide when to turn on the gas engine.
Source: Carnewschina
