He Xiaopeng: The Future of Electric Cars with XPeng Motors

He Xiaopeng might not be a household name in the West yet, but he’s making waves in the global car industry. Known as the “Chinese Elon Musk,” he founded XPeng Motors, a high-tech electric vehicle (EV) company that’s helping China lead in electric cars.

Electric Cars in China
China’s electric car market is growing really fast! Right now, 50% of all cars sold in China are electric or new energy vehicles (NEVs). Last year, 55.7% of these had special features that allow some hands-free driving, kind of like Tesla’s self-driving cars. Just in 2014, these numbers were below 1%. He said in an interview, “China has made huge progress in the last ten years.”

In comparison, only about 11% of cars sold in the United States are electric, and Europe is doing a bit better at 23%.

His Story is Similar to Musk’s
He Xiaopeng’s journey to success is a lot like Elon Musk’s. After selling his mobile browser company, UCWeb, to Alibaba, he used his money to start XPeng Motors in 2014. Just like Musk, who invested in Tesla after selling PayPal, He is also working on smart technology. He created special chips for self-driving cars, built a humanoid robot called “Iron,” and even wants to develop flying cars!

However, XPeng is not as big as Tesla yet. Tesla has been well-known around the world for a long time. XPeng faces tough competition in China from other companies like BYD. But He is hopeful about the future and wants more than half of XPeng’s sales to come from other countries in the next ten years, aiming to be China’s top brand for mid to high-end electric cars.