Chinese automakers have long dreamed of the day they would start exporting vehicles to Europe (and North America) in volume. Thanks to the Continent’s burgeoning interest in EVs, that day may be at hand. As Tom Moloughney reports in InsideEVs, the first 100 Xpeng G3s are now aboard a ship, en route to Norway, the world’s EV capital (where plug-in vehicle market share reached 82% in September).

“Norway’s advanced EV infrastructure and consumer awareness makes it an ideal first market outside China to receive the G3 and its onboarding smart technologies,” said Henry Xia, President and co-founder of Xpeng Motors.

Xpeng’s G3, a compact electric SUV, has sold over 22,000 units since going on sale in China in December 2018. Xpeng told InsideEVs that over 3,000 potential Norwegian buyers have “shown interest” in Xpeng’s vehicles.

The new G3 sports a battery pack from CATL with an energy density of 180 Wh/kg. It’s available in two versions: the base G3 400 has a 50.5 kWh battery pack and a range of 249 miles on the NEDC cycle (equivalent to about 180 miles the way the EPA figures it); the fancier G3 520 has a 66.5 kWh pack and an NEDC range of 323 miles (about 230 EPA-style). Both feature a front-wheel drive powertrain with a permanent magnet synchronous motor delivering 145 kW of power and 300 Nm of torque.

The G3 features Xpeng’s Xmart OS, an in-house-developed operating system that allows over-the-air firmware updates, as well as the XPILOT autonomous driving system.

Xpeng President Brian Gu has been making the rounds of the automotive media, including a recent interview on Bloomberg:

Source: InsideEVs