Chinese Tesla challenger’s new car costs a third of the price of a Model S

Xpeng’s P7 is now available to pre-order as the company aims to take on Tesla, which Xpeng’s founder called overestimated in China

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The P7, which started pre-orders on Sunday at Auto Guangzhou 2019, takes cues from the streamlined, futuristic design of Tesla’s Model S. (Picture: Xpeng)

Published: 9:18pm, 26 Nov 2019Updated: 8:12pm, 28 Nov 2019

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

Can’t afford a Tesla and not willing to drive around in the company’s new eccentrically futuristic Cybertruck? Well, China has another option for you at a much cheaper price.

Guangzhou-based Xpeng is one of the country’s EV startups hoping to become the “Chinese Tesla,” and it has just started pre-orders of its newest model, the P7. The sport sedan is selling for prices ranging from 270,000 yuan to 370,000 yuan (US$38,400 to US$52,600).

That makes the P7 nearly a third of the price of a Tesla Model S in China. And it already has more than 15,000 pre-orders, according to Xpeng.

The timing is interesting. Just 10 days earlier, Tesla flaunted its first vehicle made in China -- a more affordable Model 3 priced at 355,800 yuan (US$50,500). Tesla has been building its first Gigafactory outside of the US in Shanghai, where it just recently started producing its first vehicles.

“We believe China could become the biggest market for Model 3,” the company said in its third-quarter earnings report.