How automation and AI are powering Xpeng's EV production

Xpeng is one of China’s youngest car makers, one that its founders like to compare to some of the big Silicon Valley tech companies. Just as Apple and Google were created in a domestic garage, Xpeng was founded in a garage at the back of a centre for higher education in Guangzhou. Its executives portray the same youthful exuberance as those California tech giants, keen to make a big impression on the world through technology. It’s a strategy showcased by its divisions working on AI, humanoid robots and personal air transport, but at the centre of it is a company that makes cars, and production numbers for its expanding model range have increased rapidly in recent years.

Its first manufacturing plant in Zhaoqing was inaugurated in 2017, with stamping, welding, painting and final assembly workshops. Fully automated, this National Green Factory-certified plant features 389 ABB robots and can produce one vehicle every 90 seconds. Until recently it has been the main production base, producing 10,000 vehicles by 2019 with overall production reaching the 300,000-unit milestone in June 2023.

Then in 2023, a new fully integrated smart plant in the Guangzhou Knowledge City in Huangpu came online, adding further momentum to the production volume. Covering 126 acres, it supports production of three platforms and various vehicle models, including saloons, SUVs and MPVs. Combined, these two facilities have seen production rise quickly, reaching 600,000 in January 2025 and 800,000 six months later. Then in November 2025, Xpeng celebrated its one millionth vehicle off the line.

That vehicle was the new Xpeng X9, a luxury seven-seater MPV and AMS was there to witness the journey of the X9 and other models through this impressive facility.

Inside the bodyshop

We are all used to automation, but entering the bodyshop was a somewhat eerie experience. We saw only four people in the entire facility, which is 100% automated and managed by what Xpeng engineers call the “smart brain”. Developed in-house it operates every aspect of production, including the five processes on a continuous production line in the bodyshop. Here the stamping line allows for one part to be produced every five seconds, with a quick switch function that can change to a different part in just 160 seconds.

The 4,000 sq. m stamped part warehouse operates on a four hour just-in-time basis, with real time demand response, before production moves into the welding workshop. Covering 37,824 sqm, there are 396 robots and here again, everything is 100% automated. That includes a station with a 60,000 tonne die casting machine, the first to be used in a mass-produced car. In total, 167 components from the front engine bay to the rear floor are directly cast into two sections before the crucial step of marrying the chassis and inner and outer side panels. This operation is conducted by twelve robots simultaneously, with high precision radar monitoring the whole process with a margin of error of 0.05mm. Steel and aluminium panels and components are then affixed using self-piercing rivets and flow drill screws, as well as 2,801 weld points, all of which is achieved not just with accuracy, but with minimal noise and a noticeably minimal amount of sparks.

Assembling an Xpeng

Naturally the next stage would be the paintshop, but unfortunately, we weren’t provided access to it on this occasion, with very little detail being provided by Xpeng plant executives. Disappointed to have to skip that fascinating step, it was into the main assembly facility, where 400 stations on the production lines receive their parts from a smart logistics packing area.

Operation of those stations is being left to robots, instead employees operate at almost every station, receiving 80 percent of parts from a fleet of AGVs and having progress monitored by the plant’s smart brain. On that note, a total of 27 stations on the assembly line are used for installing the smart brain of each car. The Xpeng G9 SUV for example, has a total of 34 ECU modules, with each having to be updated from the Cloud as soon as it is installed at the various points along this phase of assembly.

Along the way, each of the four doors are removed by robots in order for items such as mirrors and electronics to be fitted, before the doors are reunited with the vehicle further down the line. Typical of most vehicle assembly lines, the other reason is that it allows the interiors to be fitted, everything from the wiring to the instrument panel. Next up are other chassis items, including the suspension, lights and wheels before each car receives its powertrain.

A heavy-duty AGV is used to lift the 5C ultra-fast charging battery into place, before assembly line operatives tighten it in place. Data relating to the installation of the battery is automatically linked to the vehicle identification and uploaded to Xpeng’s central system to ensure it can be traced at any point during a vehicle’s lifetime.

The final assembly step is one Xpeng is most proud of, when two ABB robots install the vast panoramic roof. The first uses laser vision to scan the roof and position it with 0.1mm accuracy before a second robot precisely applies the adhesive and installs it with a potential assembly error of under 0.5mm.

Putting every model to the test

End of line inspection consists of three main quality check areas. The first involves checking 587 items across the exterior, interior and dimensions before every vehicle heads to the rain test line to be subjected to a high-pressure spray, equivalent to 100 times that of an extreme downpour.

A final static check of 572 items then takes place before each vehicle drives out of the factory door. Each car is then put through its paces on 19 different types of road surface along the 2.7km of test roads that surround the site.

A new Xpeng rolls off the line every 102 seconds, with each car being as efficient, clean and full of technology as the production line itself. It all looks and feels very much like what Xpeng claims to be, a tech company that makes cars. A few years ago, it might have been described as the car plant of the future, but without the constraints of legacy production lines and systems, Xpeng has been able to implement the future today.

Xpeng partners with magna for europe

Xpeng is accelerating its commitment to its Go-Global 2.0 strategy, one that focuses on expanding its presence in international markets. To facilitate that, it is looking at additional manufacturing in Europe, although for now it isn’t making any major investments, instead choosing to partner with Magna to produce its G6 and G9 models at the contractor’s Graz facility.

“We started production in the third quarter of 2025 and the aim is to have a steady ramp-up in terms of capacity and volume,” says Brian Gu, vice chairman and president of Xpeng. “In 2026 we hope to produce numbers in the tens of thousands, because right now we are only planning on making the G6 and G9, but as we introduce new models in Europe, we’re looking at potentially being able to produce them in the Austrian factory.”

Xpeng is the first Chinese OEM to contract Magna to undertake complete vehicle assembly at the Graz manufacturing facility. It’s a move that allows Xpeng to avoid some of the tariffs being placed on imported Chinese vehicles by the European Union, but Gu says his company also plans to widen the scope of localised production in the region.

“We’re also actively looking to build our supply chain to support more localised production for the Austrian operation,” he says. “That is a long-term commitment for us and one that requires a lot of local commitment and investment, which we are willing to make. In 2026 you will start to see us hopefully creating these capabilities, with more partners and more plans to introduce additional models into the local production facilities and build out the ecosystem around the area.”