​US-listed shares of Xpeng Motors climbed 6.5% after the Chinese electric vehicle maker received more than 10,000 non-reservation orders for the first model under its new budget brand MONA in the first hour after it was unveiled on Tuesday. 

The company’s cheapest model, featuring an assisted driving system similar to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) software at a price that’s half that of the popular Model 3, is expected to capture market share from top-selling offerings including the BYD Qin and Nissan’s Sylphy.

Camera-based vision: Xpeng eliminated laser sensor units from the MONA M03 in a move to accelerate the adoption of a camera-only approach to vehicle autonomy. Lidar is more often used to capture three-dimensional information for autonomous navigation on more luxurious Chinese EV models priced mostly from RMB 200,000 ($28,060) and above. 

• Instead, the entry-level M03, with a price tag of RMB 119,800 ($16,808), integrates 20 or so more affordable sensors, including a dozen ultrasonic sensors and seven exterior cameras, to enable safety-based driver assistance functions such as lane keeping assist, which enables the EV to follow the preceding vehicle. Xpeng’s Xpilot system would also maneuver the car in and out of challenging situations such as dead-end roads.
• The top-end version of the MONA M03, priced at RMB 155,800 ($21,859), will be able to function by itself on all Chinese roadways using the same hardware stack as well as more complex algorithms next spring when delivery is set to begin. This makes the car the only model available to the market that offers advanced driver assistance capabilities within the RMB 200,000 price range, said chief executive He Xiaopeng. 
• Xpeng also provided more details about its plan to make EVs with highly autonomous capabilities as part of the launch. The XNGP advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), an FSD-style technology, should require drivers to take over the wheel and steer manually less than once per 100 kilometers (62 miles) by the end of next year. The company added its cars could be completely driverless in low-speed traffic scenarios in 2026. 

READ MORE: Chinese companies take on Tesla’s Full Self-Driving with non-lidar approach, end-to-end AI 

Aiming for the youth market: Xpeng on Tuesday reported a better performance than some rivals’ offerings in terms of order intake for the MONA M03, saying the car racked up more than 10,000 pre-orders with non-refundable deposits of RMB 5,000 in roughly the first hour after it was released. 

• Positioned to be “the first car for China’s young generation,” the all-electric compact sedan boasts a large interior space, efficient energy consumption, and yet a relatively simple interior in order to attract the country’s tech-savvy but budget-conscious customers, such as fresh graduates.
• Measuring 4.8 meters in length and spanning a 2,815-millimeter-long wheelbase, the car was designed based on aerodynamic principles with sleek coupe-style body lines. This contributes to a drag coefficient of 0.194 and energy consumption of 11.5 kilowatt-hours per 100 kilometers (7.15 kWh per mile). 
• The single-motor M03 offers a decent range of up to 620 km (385 miles) on a single charge, powered by an affordable lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery pack from BYD, and can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 7.4 seconds. It also gives an additional 200 km of range after 15 minutes of charge. 
• Still, the car’s well-built but simple interior features may leave some drivers wanting more. An M03 buyer would have to pay an additional RMB 599 to equip their car with a conventional dashboard screen as an add-on component, for example. Xpeng stated that the car would function properly with a 15.6-inch centre screen. 

Context: Xpeng is expecting a strong sales recovery with the launch of the MONA M03 at a lower-than-expected price tag, as CEO He in April said he hoped that the car would sell better than the Xiaomi SU7 in the second half of this year, Reuters reported. The smartphone maker has been delivering more than 10,000 units per month of the $30,000 sports sedan since June. 

• He also anticipated annual sales of the car could reach 100,000 units when Xpeng revealed last year that it would acquire the EV business of ride-hailing giant Didi, including the MONA project, which stands for “Made of New AI.” He added on Tuesday that the two companies spent RMB 4 billion on the project over four years. 
• The gross margin of the M03 could be at a low single-digit level initially, however, as the Volkswagen-backed EV maker ramps up production and looks to keep its price as low as possible, Jefferies analysts wrote in a note on Aug. 20. 
• BYD’s Qin Plus was the top-selling model in the price segment of between RMB 120,000 and RMB 180,000 in China over the past six months with roughly 154,000 units sold, figures compiled by Chinese auto service platform Dongchedi showed.