The XPeng Mona M03 (Chinese: 小鹏MONA M03; pinyin: Xiǎopéng MONA M03) is a battery-poweredliftback manufactured by Chinese electric car company XPeng and originally developed by DiDi, a Chinese ride-hailing company. It is the first product under the Mona product line, which focuses on lower-priced vehicles in the mainstream segment as opposed to the premium positioning of previous XPeng vehicles. In China, it occupies the A-class segment, equivalent to the global C-segment.[1]
The vehicle was previewed with a set of images in June 2024, then introduced in July 2024 and went on sale in August 2024 ahead of the Chengdu Auto Show.[2] Deliveries began on August 30, 2024 and total deliveries reached 30,000 units in November 2024.[3]
According to XPeng, Mona stands for "Made Of New AI".[4] The company's CEO, He Xiaopeng, mentioned that the alphanumeric name "M03" was chosen as a tribute to the Tesla Model 3.
Development
Originally developed by DiDi's smart electric vehicle department called Da Vinci, the project was codenamed "Mona" during its development starting from 2021.[5] Original plans were to launch DiDi's own budget entry level EV brand, and the Mona would be the first product to be launched.[6] Plans started to change in late 2022 when the development of the Mona project was nearly complete, with camouflaged testing prototypes were seen driving around in March 2023.[7] At that time, most of the Da Vinci team was laid off, shortly before DiDi sold its EV development business along with the Mona project to XPeng in August 2023.[8][9]
Specifications
During launch, the Mona M03 is available in three variants called 515, 620 and 580 Max, denoting its CLTC ranges. The 515 version is powered by a 51.8 kWh battery, while the 620 and 580 Max uses a 62.2 kWh pack. Both are LFP batteries produced by FinDreams. It is powered by a front-mounted single motor with a 0–100 km/h (0–62 mph) acceleration figure of 7.8 seconds for the entry version and 7.4 seconds for the 620 and 580 Max.[1]
According to XPeng, the development of the vehicle was focused on reducing drag on the car. XPeng claims that the model has lowest drag coefficient among the world's mass-produced fully electric hatchbacks at Cd 0.194. The Mona M03 underwent 10 wind tunnel tests of more than 100 hours each, which shaved off Cd 0.085 from the wind resistance leading to a claimed 60 km (37 mi) range increase.[2]
The Mona M03 only has a large floating central infotainment screen with a size of 15.6 inches. The system is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 chip with 16 GB RAM. The car has no physical buttons except for two scroll wheels on the steering wheel. A pluggable instrument panel screen behind the steering wheel is optional. The model also has option of a rear entertainment screen. As standard, the Xpeng Mona M03 is equipped with 2 millimeter wavelength radars, 12 ultrasonic sensors and 7 cameras to support its L2 intelligent driving ability.[10]
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