XPeng. Nothing to do with The X-Files. Nor the (Nissan) X-Trail. Nor, even, X Æ A-12 Musk (his son, via the musician Grimes) – and nothing else spawned by the erstwhile head of Doge (which is just as well). The X in XPeng – and I did have to look this up – derives from the name of the co-founder of the company, He Xiaopeng. As unfamiliar as it might be to the British, it’s the equivalent of Ford, Peugeot or Austin.
Yes, it is yet another new entrant to the car market from a Chinese brand you have probably never heard of, and the influx is quite difficult to keep up with. It reminds me a bit of the steady incursion of Japanese marques that accelerated in the 1970s until almost all of them, from Toyota to Nissan to Honda to Daihatsu to Isuzu, offered their own challenges in the marketplace.
