Ute racing at DieselNats<\/a><\/p>\nIt\u2019s a wonderful promise.<\/p>\n
One a long way removed from the reality of XPeng customers in Australia so far.<\/p>\n
Take a peek at social media pages for the brand and you\u2019ll find people owned thousands in buyer incentives who are \u201cstill waiting on our cashback to come through\u201d.<\/p>\n
When local importer TrueEV and global manufacturer XPeng took their disagreement to court, frustrated customers let fly with talk of a seven-month-long wait for spare parts, and 10-year warranties that may never be honoured.<\/p>\n
Brenton Dalton is the national service development manager of XPeng\u2019s new era.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s tasked with making things right for early adopters who gambled on the brand\u2019s first iteration, lured by the promise of $5000 cashback incentives that were never paid.<\/p>\n
While there are more than a few hoops to jump through, Dalton says that \u201cabsolutely, we\u2019re paying for those\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re certainly supporting those \u2026 we\u2019re stepping in on a case-by-case basis,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we are actively paying for those now, so we\u2019re not going to talk volumes or anything like that, but we are regularly supporting customers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which is good news.<\/p>\n
![\"Waymo](\"https:\/\/content.api.news\/v3\/images\/bin\/7d65fa57cb799865a74daa0d95a98ee5\")
<\/p>\n
XPeng is much smaller than many rivals \u2013 it sells as many cars around the world in a year as BYD does in a month \u2013 but maintains significant ambition.<\/p>\n
Including self-driving cars to rival Tesla\u2019s \u201cFull Self-Driving\u201d set up.<\/p>\n
Damian Royce, the new head of marketing and creativity for XPeng in Australia, says the brand\u2019s autonomous vehicle abilities are \u201csomething that we definitely want\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cTiming wise, that will come down to model cadence, obviously working with and the Australian infrastructure and government, then ultimately what customers want,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Autonomous vehicles seem more likely to happen than vehicles that soar skyward.<\/p>\n
Both feel like a flight of fancy today.<\/p>\n
But the world of XPeng is all about the promise of tomorrow.<\/p>\n
And the brand\u2019s representatives are adamant the next chapter will be a successful one.<\/p>\n
It might be the Queenslander who ordered a flying car from a company that crashed in its first year in Australia.<\/p>\n
But XPeng says its next chapter will be different.<\/p>\n
The brand\u2019s first importer, TrueEV, promised the earth. <\/p>\n
It crowed of 10-year warranties, $5000 cashbacks and years of free servicing, before crashing in a cloud of legal action, frustration, and claims of broken promises.<\/p>\n
XPeng says things will be better the second time around, as its Chinese headquarters has stepped in take over from a smaller locally-run operation to make sure the brand takes flight.<\/p>\n
That includes flying cars.<\/p>\n
![\"How](\"https:\/\/content.api.news\/v3\/images\/bin\/ef425a47eb4a112cd220e7804c9ba36d\")
<\/p>\n
Terry Zhang, senior marketing and communications manager for XPeng Australia and New Zealand, said the company has developed seven generations of flying cars, and that it will begin mass-producing them this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are already opening orders globally for the flying cars and actually we have 11,000 orders worldwide,\u201d he said.
\u201cThere is someone living in Australia buying one already.
\u201cHe\u2019s an Australian, he lives in Australia, but he will purchase [the flying car] overseas.
\u201cAnd I think he\u2019s still finding ways to bring it to here and get it on road.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clearly, XPeng\u2019s ambition stretches beyond regular vehicles.<\/p>\n
The company has taken orders for a $500,000 \u201cLand Aircraft Carrier\u201d, a six-wheeled behemoth that looks as though it rolled off the set for Star Wars.
And that\u2019s before the rear deck opens to reveal a massive drone capable of carrying two people on short joy flights.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a wonderful promise.<\/p>\n
One a long way removed from the reality of XPeng customers in Australia so far.<\/p>\n
Take a peek at social media pages for the brand and you\u2019ll find people owned thousands in buyer incentives who are \u201cstill waiting on our cashback to come through\u201d.<\/p>\n
When local importer TrueEV and global manufacturer XPeng took their disagreement to court, frustrated customers let fly with talk of a seven-month-long wait for spare parts, and 10-year warranties that may never be honoured.<\/p>\n
Brenton Dalton is the national service development manager of XPeng\u2019s new era.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s tasked with making things right for early adopters who gambled on the brand\u2019s first iteration, lured by the promise of $5000 cashback incentives that were never paid.<\/p>\n
While there are more than a few hoops to jump through, Dalton says that \u201cabsolutely, we\u2019re paying for those\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re certainly supporting those \u2026 we\u2019re stepping in on a case-by-case basis,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we are actively paying for those now, so we\u2019re not going to talk volumes or anything like that, but we are regularly supporting customers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which is good news.<\/p>\n
XPeng is much smaller than many rivals \u2013 it sells as many cars around the world in a year as BYD does in a month \u2013 but maintains significant ambition.<\/p>\n
Including self-driving cars to rival Tesla\u2019s \u201cFull Self-Driving\u201d set up.<\/p>\n
Damian Royce, the new head of marketing and creativity for XPeng in Australia, says the brand\u2019s autonomous vehicle abilities are \u201csomething that we definitely want\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cTiming wise, that will come down to model cadence, obviously working with and the Australian infrastructure and government, then ultimately what customers want,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Autonomous vehicles seem more likely to happen than vehicles that soar skyward.<\/p>\n
Both feel like a flight of fancy today.<\/p>\n
But the world of XPeng is all about the promise of tomorrow.<\/p>\n
And the brand\u2019s representatives are adamant the next chapter will be a successful one for those brave enough to take the plunge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANALYSIS The bravest person in Australia might not be a crocodile hunter, a soldier, or a struggling parent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[377786,377857,377782,377815,377771,377837,377772,377848,377810,377853,72756,377830,377793,377787,26137,339579,377829,377821,377851,377766,377844,377798,377796,377841,377807,377825,377813,377545,377847,377808,377797,377784,377849,377855,377826,377863,376925,377860,13449,377840,64,43336,63,377785,76344,377839,377781,99,377859,27308,485,5865,843,377767,377862,377788,5794,1108,106858,51521,138935,377819,377817,377856,377842,48974,377858,377768,377811,35545,131794,377777,4837,377812,377773,377765,377806,377820,377833,377861,377854,45450,82466,377814,377824,377802,377845,377865,377769,1736,13476,377822,377836,252716,377804,1861,377783,377843,9493,377800,71539,377790,377775,377835,377850,192626,377823,377816,377774,37806,377827,377846,377831,377778,44731,107338,377818,377776,377791,377864,377834,377779,377794,228533,377832,377801,377770,377805,54798,377809,377795,25230,377792,94143,276803,22638,377799,377838,377789,18028,377780,377852,377803,93597,181897,367056,377828,32388],"class_list":["post-804631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-s-full-self-driving","tag-s-act-shocksit","tag-s-ambition","tag-s-autonomous-vehicle-abilities","tag-s-first-importer","tag-s-first-iteration","tag-s-new-era-he","tag-s-representatives","tag-5000-cashback-incentives","tag-5000-cashbacks","tag-72756","tag-000-land-aircraft-carrier","tag-000-orders","tag-10-year-warranties","tag-26137","tag-339579","tag-a-500","tag-a-case-by-case-basis","tag-a-cloud","tag-a-company","tag-a-crocodile-hunter","tag-a-driverless-car","tag-a-flight","tag-a-flying-car","tag-a-local-driver","tag-a-long-way","tag-a-massive-drone","tag-a-month","tag-a-peek","tag-a-seven-month-long-wait","tag-a-six-wheeled-behemoth","tag-a-smaller-locally-run-operation","tag-a-soldier","tag-a-struggling-parent","tag-a-successful-one-it","tag-a-wonderful-promise-one","tag-a-year","tag-an-australian","tag-analysis","tag-another-week","tag-au","tag-aussie","tag-australia","tag-australia-but","tag-brand","tag-bravest","tag-broken-promises-xpeng","tag-business","tag-buyer-incentives","tag-byd","tag-california","tag-car","tag-cars","tag-cars-terry-zhang","tag-cars-viral-clip","tag-chinese-flying-car","tag-claims","tag-court","tag-critical","tag-customers","tag-dalton","tag-dieselnatsit","tag-different-ways","tag-different-the-brand","tag-dodgy-customers","tag-drivers","tag-early-adopters","tag-fancy-today-but","tag-flight-that","tag-fly","tag-free-servicing","tag-frustrated-customers","tag-frustration","tag-global-manufacturer-xpeng","tag-good-news-police","tag-its-boldest-model","tag-its-chinese-headquarters","tag-its-first-year","tag-its-new-road-rage-reliever-feature","tag-its-next-chapter","tag-james-chung-the-company","tag-job-cuts","tag-legal-action","tag-local-importer-trueev","tag-many-cars","tag-many-rivals","tag-marketing-and-creativity","tag-model-cadence","tag-more-than-a-few-hoops","tag-new-zealand","tag-orders","tag-other-cars","tag-our-cashback","tag-parking-inspector","tag-parking-trouble","tag-people","tag-regular-vehicles-chinese-car-company-xpeng","tag-rival-tesla","tag-road","tag-rome-and-australia","tag-self-driving-cars","tag-senior-marketing-and-communications-manager","tag-seven-generations","tag-short-joy-flights-more","tag-significant-ambition-including","tag-social-media-pages","tag-spare-parts","tag-star-wars-and","tag-stephanie-coombes-reports-xpeng","tag-talk","tag-the-australian-ev-market","tag-the-australian-infrastructure-and-government","tag-the-brand","tag-the-bravest-person","tag-the-company","tag-the-earth","tag-the-earth-more","tag-the-flying-car","tag-the-flying-cars","tag-the-national-service-development-manager","tag-the-new-head","tag-the-next-chapter","tag-the-promise","tag-the-queenslander","tag-the-reality","tag-the-rear-deck","tag-the-second-time","tag-the-set","tag-the-world","tag-their-disagreement","tag-this-year-more","tag-thousands","tag-tomorrow-and","tag-traction","tag-trueev","tag-two-people","tag-up-damian-royce","tag-urgent-warning","tag-ute-racing","tag-vehicles","tag-virtual-emojis","tag-volumes-or-anything","tag-vw-boss-warns","tag-ways","tag-xpeng","tag-xpeng-australia","tag-xpeng-customers","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}