The Chinese Billionaire Whose Robots and Cars Should Worry Detroit—and Silicon Valley

For years, Chinese billionaire He Xiaopeng has been pegged as an Elon Musk wannabe, and his electric vehicle company, XPeng, as a mere Tesla copycat. And until recently the company seemed laggardly, raising questions about whether it would survive.

All of that is changing quickly. In other words, XPeng has moved up a stair from the realm of mere novelty to unignorable player with intimidating products and shrewd commercial instincts. He may soon be a force that Silicon Valley and Detroit alike must reckon with.

The 12-year-old company is on a roll: Its car sales are on track to more than double year on year in 2025 to more than 400,000 units, driven by demand for the Mona M03, a $17,000 EV; its share price has more than doubled year to date; and it seems to be on track to notch its first profitable quarter. XPeng has just released a knock-your-socks-off $30,700 luxury sedan, and it could end the year as the world’s sixth or seventh largest EV seller, neck and neck with Hyundai Motor, regarded as one of the industry’s best EV makers.