Chinese EV maker Xpeng Motors' President Brian Gu (Gu Hongdi) said the company plans to launch the third model this year, with deliveries as early as the fourth quarter, according to Bloomberg.

The new model, due out in 2021, will use Xpeng's custom automotive-grade LiDAR, produced by DJI-incubated Livox, making self-driving technology a big selling point.

Can this new car challenge Tesla's Autopilot system?

Technically speaking, Autopilot can already provide a good driving experience for car owners with its strong data accumulation and algorithm optimization, but the vision solution used by Autopilot inevitably has limitations.

In contrast, Xpeng's Navigation Guided Pilot (NGP) is more comprehensive and has a more radical technology path.

NGP is not limited to vision, but also includes the application of technologies such as millimeter-wave radar, high precision maps, and real-time precise positioning.

Xpeng has officially opened the Beta version of NGP, which is specially developed for Chinese roads and application scenarios and has more localized advantages than Tesla's NOA (Navigate on Autopilot) function.

But to catch up with Tesla, Xpeng needs a model that not only has a competitive product, but also a price that will touch consumers.

The new product should be positioned similarly to the Tesla Model 3. According to Xpeng's positioning, perhaps it will be more cost-effective, with an expected price between RMB 150,000 and 200,000 yuan.

Earlier, at last year's "1024 Xpeng Smart Day", Xpeng announced the latest updates and technical details of XPILOT self-driving assistance system and Xmart OS intelligent cockpit system. A month later, Xpeng announced that it will be the first in the world to mass-produce an electric car with LIDAR technology, while the hardware of the "next-generation autonomous driving" system will be significantly upgraded.

Xpeng's third vehicle, internally codenamed D55, may be named Xpeng P5 after production, and judging from the naming convention and official renderings, it should be part of the same sedan series as Xpeng P7, but positioned lower than Xpeng P7, and may focus on the compact pure electric sedan market.

Xpeng chairman He Xiaopeng replied to users on Weibo, saying that the third model will feature "new design, technology, and practical innovation, and we hope you will like it.