Chinese electric vehicle (EV) company XPENG have announced that it has reached strategic partnerships in the Netherlands and Sweden. It will open its self-operated experience stores in Europe to expand sales of its electric vehicles (EV).
XPENG reached a strategic Agency Retail collaboration agreement with Emil Frey Nederland NV in the Netherlands, who will develop XPENG’s sales and service network throughout the country.
XPENG’s Agency Retail agreement with Emil Frey Netherlands marks a major breakthrough for its European expansion. The tie-up is the first Agency Retail collaboration for XPENG in Europe and is one of the first within the automotive industry.
The agency retail collaboration with Emil Frey, one of Europe’s largest automotive retail organisations, will deliver a huge potential for XPENG’s retail expansion in the Netherlands and beyond. In addition, XPENG plans to open its retail experience store, located in the Westfield Mall of the Netherlands near The Hague, in March 2022.
XPENG has also reached an Agency Retail collaboration agreement in Sweden with Bilia, the largest automobile dealer and distributor in the country. Bilia’s comprehensive network consisting of 58 dealers and 66 service centres in Sweden, fit well with XPENG’s ambitions to offer localised products and differentiated services to customers internationally.
XPENG products will be available through Bilia stores, and serviced at its service centres, initially at locations in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. This week, XPENG will officially open its retail experience store in Sweden, marking its first self-operated retail store in the international market.
He Xiaopeng, XPENG chairman and CEO, said: “Our global journey starts from Europe, propelled by our commitment to increase smart EV penetration.
“We strongly support the EV development strategy in Europe and are forging partnerships with top-tier local players to accelerate energy conservation, emission reduction and electrification in Europe.”
XPENG’s G3 compact electric vehicle has already arrived in Europe and the company is already taking orders for its P5 EV, which could be a rival to the mighty Tesla Model 3 with it offering a similar spec vehicle but costing around 25 percent less. The Chinese carmaker also launched its high-end XPENG P7 and P7 Wing models in Norway at the end of last year.
While many might not have heard of XPENG in the UK, the company was awarded the Most Known Newcomer of the Year in Kantar’s Car Index survey, one of the most prestigious annual automobile surveys in Norway at the end of last year. We think they are going to be a big player over the coming years.
XPENG plans to build its European presence with a combination of self-operated retail stores, alongside the comprehensive retail and service network of its local agency partners.
This approach will optimise XPENG’s strength in digitalisation, fast iteration of product features, quality control, operational efficiency while at the same time maximising its partners’ deep local knowledge, well-established networks and customer know-how.
In addition to Norway where XPENG first launched its products in 2020, significant progress has been made in the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark in building its marketing, sales, delivery and service framework.
