ChinaAutoInfo

Recently, I had the privilege of test driving the XPeng MONA M03 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. As a leading new force in early vehicle manufacturing, XPeng is committed to the intelligent development of new energy vehicles and eco-friendly travel experiences. On August 27th, the XPeng MONA M03 was launched with prices ranging from 119,800 to 155,800 RMB. The new car is positioned as a "smart electric hatchback coupe." This pricing is expected to have a significant impact on the market. Let's remember this price and then evaluate whether it's worth buying based on the product power of the XPeng MONA M03.

Exterior Design

Before discussing the design, let's talk about the dimensions of the XPeng MONA M03, which are 4780mm in length, 1896mm in width, 1445mm in height, and a wheelbase of 2815mm. Although the M03 is classified as a compact car, these dimensions are particularly prominent among compact cars. The wheelbase is already very close to the standard 3 series, and the car length even exceeds the standard 3 series. As XPeng said at the launch, the MO3 aims to create a "new 3 series for the smart era."

The entire vehicle of the XPeng MONA M03 adopts Smart Design AI quantitative aesthetic design. At the front of the car, it combines an active closed front grille design with a "T-shaped" headlight group. The headlight group uses LED light sources and is paired with a concave front surround side design, giving the vehicle a futuristic and sporty feel. In addition, the new car comes standard with an AGS fully integrated active closed grille, which can intelligently adjust the opening and closing according to the vehicle speed, balancing and optimizing wind resistance and electric drive cooling requirements.

On the side of the body, the XPeng MONA M03 has a standard three-box car structure aesthetic, with a straight waistline extending from the front fender to the rear lights, making the side of the car look more slender and creating a broad visual impression. The whole vehicle posture is low, and the addition of 19-inch wheels further emphasizes the sense of power, showing a momentum ready to go. It is worth mentioning that the wind resistance coefficient of the M03 is only 0.194Cd. After reviewing a lot of data, this wind resistance data is very rare among the same level of models, and the company claims it can increase the endurance by 60km.

At the rear of the car, the MONA M03 uses a through-type taillight group design, with LED light sources inside, which looks very cool when lit and enhances the vehicle's recognition. The rear lines are simple and clear, without too much redundant design, simple and atmospheric beauty.

The new car offers five exterior colors, including the starry Hanmi that can change with the light, dark night black, as well as star shine blue, star cloud white, and star Que gray. The interior color matching provides three color options of morning fog gray, noon blue, and night curtain gray, giving the driving and riding space a fresh and quiet atmosphere.

Interior and Space

The interior design of the XPeng MONA M03 is mainly simple, focusing on practicality and technology, while incorporating some innovative elements. Unnecessary elements are removed, and important elements are carefully arranged to create a simple yet high-end atmosphere. This design also conforms to the modern young people's pursuit of simple and practical aesthetic trends.

The new car comes standard with a 15.6-inch floating touch control screen with a high screen occupancy rate of 88.5%. It uses an 8155 automotive-grade chip and comes standard with 16GB of large memory. There is no sense of any card or drag in the car machine experience. It is particularly important to note that this screen highly integrates all the functional operations and information display of the vehicle, canceling the traditional instrument screen and HUD design, but equipped with the function of flying finger control screen.

The steering wheel of the XPeng MONA M03 adopts a double-spoke design and uses a two-color combination of the inner and outer rings. There is a roller on the left and right sides of the steering wheel, with the left side used to control the intelligent driving function and the right side used to control multimedia, small components, and other information. The car comes standard with a 4-sound zone voice interaction function, which can be completed by mobile devices such as mobile phones to achieve keyless smart unlocking. The console uses a hidden air conditioning design with four modes: intelligent defogging mode, guard mode, air exchange mode, and sweeping wind mode.

M03 pays great attention to audio equipment, cooperates with PSS company for tuning and optimization, and is equipped with 18 PSS speakers throughout the vehicle, using the fourth-generation audio technology 7.1.4 sky channel layout. At the same time, it innovates the music atmosphere map and 1.35m wraparound 256-color full-color atmosphere lamp, which can also change according to the rhythm of the music.

The seats of M03 are made of imitation leather + punching material. The comfort and fit are good, but due to the thickness of the battery, the sitting posture is relatively high. The main and co-pilot are equipped with electric adjustment functions and are equipped with seat ventilation and heating functions.

It is worth mentioning that MO3 has set up a one-key switch between the co-pilot mode and the rear row mode, which can adjust the front and rear space in the car according to the needs of the passengers. The roof of the car comes standard with a heat-insulating panoramic skylight, with a visible area of 1.22 square meters, which has heat insulation and sun protection functions.

M03 is designed with multiple storage compartments and cup holders and other conventional storage areas, and a wireless charging board is provided under the center console for placing mobile phones and other electronic devices.

In addition, the rear seats can be folded, and the trunk space can be expanded from the basic 621L to 1603L when needed. Especially as a hatchback model, the opening of the trunk is a great advantage, with the car company data showing a spacious opening of 1136mm, making it easy to place luggage and take long umbrellas and other items.

Driving Experience

The XPeng MONA M03 is equipped with two types of motors, 140kW and 160kW, respectively, matched with 51.8kWh and 62.2kWh lithium iron phosphate batteries. The maximum power of the high-end model is 160kW, and the maximum torque is 250N·m. The official zero to hundred acceleration time is 7.4 seconds, and the maximum speed can reach 155km/h.

The car company's data shows that under the CLTC working condition, the range of MONA M03 is 515km (low-end version) and 620km (high-end version). In actual driving, even with a more aggressive driving style, the range achievement rate is still high, and the accurate test data needs to wait for us to go back to the venue to test the car.

During the test drive experience, the power output response of the XPeng MONA M03 is smooth and not aggressive. When driving in the city, the car starts cleanly and the power output is linear and easy to control. This car does not pursue intense driving, focusing more on urban transportation. Of course, after all, it is a pure electric car, and if there is a need for overtaking, it can still be completed easily.

The new car uses a front McPherson and rear torsion beam suspension structure. If the torsion beam suspension is well-tuned, it is not bad, but it is a test of the chassis tuning skills. It is said that XPeng found a professional chassis tuning team for repeated optimization, combined with a suspension system with ultra-low mass center, and after AI technology tuning, the handling of the whole vehicle has been improved.

I experienced that the tuning of the rear torsion beam suspension has a French car feel. When turning quickly, the followability of the rear wheel will be slightly affected compared with the independent suspension, but if it is not driven violently, it will not be muddy. And in the curve, the lateral support force of the vehicle's suspension is sufficient, and the body roll is small.

When the vehicle goes through a large undulating road surface, I deliberately felt the comfort of the rear torsion beam independent suspension. The bouncing of the rear suspension is effectively suppressed, and there is no unnecessary vibration. The comfort of MONA M03 during driving is still good, and the comfort and handling are well balanced.

The steering wheel has three adjustable strengths, and the lightest one is very friendly to female car owners, with light and flexible steering. The new car has a steering ratio of 14.2:1 and a turning radius of 5.3 meters. When I turned around on the road in the new district, the vehicle needed to occupy one and a half lanes of the opposite direction.

Before the test drive, XPeng explained the BOSCH IPB intelligent integrated braking system and CST comfortable braking function of MONA M03, and provided the official test data, with a zero to hundred braking distance of 35.63m. Of course, we did not have the equipment to test the accurate data during the test drive, but the feedback force of the brake pedal on the urban road is moderate, the braking response is very linear, and the operation is very easy to control the distance between the cars.

Intelligent Experience

In terms of smart driving, it is the strength of XPeng. The XPeng MONA M03 is equipped with 2 millimeter-wave radars, 12 ultrasonic radars, and 7 cameras. The whole system comes standard with urban and high-speed road LCC, ACC adaptive cruise, and 360 imaging systems.

XPeng also applies a full-stack self-developed full-domain lane-level 3D perception rendering map, and the whole system comes standard with full-scene car sense SR, combined with sensor data, with a full-domain real-time big data platform, which can render and feedback the surrounding traffic environment and road environment in real-time, positioning and guiding to deal with complex intersections, overpass bridges, and ramp entries and exits.

It is particularly important to note that the low and medium configuration models of XPeng MONA MO3 do not carry the full-scene intelligent auxiliary driving XNGP system. In addition, the vehicle comes standard with a full-scene intelligent parking system, according to the official data, the scene applicability is 100%, and the parking success rate is as high as 95%. I experienced both the ground and underground parking lots of the hotel and successfully parked.