Xpeng will launch the first model of its Mona lineup, the M03, on August 27, after already starting to take pre-orders earlier this month.

Xpeng (NYSE: XPEV) will officially launch the first model of its Mona lineup, the M03, on August 27, after it began taking pre-orders for the model earlier this month.

He Xiaopeng, the chairman and CEO of the Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker, revealed the timing yesterday during a live video stream of a range change challenge for the Xpeng G6 SUV (sport utility vehicle), according to a replay seen by CnEVPost.

Mr. He didn't mention anything more about the Mona M03's launch, and CnEVPost had learnt that Xpeng will hold the launch event for the Mona M03 as well as a celebration of its 10th anniversary in China's capital city of Beijing.

Xpeng is one of the first new car-making forces in China, and information on its website indicates it was founded in August 2014, with no specific date mentioned.

Xpeng currently sells the X9 MPV (multi-purpose vehicle), the G9 SUV, the G6, the P7i sedan, and the P5 sedan, and it is expected to launch the new sedan P7+ in the fourth quarter.

The Mona lineup stems from Xpeng's acquisition of ride-hailing giant Didi Global's EV business in August 2023, and it said at the time that it planned to launch a new brand in 2024 under the code name Mona. But the company has now referred to Mona as a new lineup in its new wording.

The Mona M03 made its debut on July 3 and began accepting pre-orders on August 8. On August 9, Mr. He said the first production cars of M03 had rolled off the assembly line.

The Mona M03 will be priced under RMB 200,000 yuan ($27,900) and will have the strongest intelligent driving capabilities in its class, Xpeng has said several times before.

In their previous agreement, Didi would provide mobility ecosystem support for the Mona project and help the cars enter the shared mobility market.

The two have performance incentives based on Mona's mass production and sales targets accomplished by Didi, which will be entitled to equity incentives, according to the statement last year.

If Mona reaches 180,000 annual sales for two consecutive years, then Didi could earn the maximum incentive for a total of 5 percent of Xpeng's equity, the EV maker said last year.

In a Hong Kong stock exchange statement yesterday, Xpeng said it had begun mass production of Mona vehicles on July 30, so the SOP (start of production) milestone under the share purchase agreement had been met, with the corresponding SOP settlement having occurred on August 13.

Xpeng has issued 4,636,447 class A ordinary shares to Didi as SOP consideration shares, representing 0.24 percent of the company's total share capital, increasing Didi's ownership of Xpeng to 3.31 percent, according to the statement.

($1 = RMB 7.1505)

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