Electric sedans win the Shanghai Auto Show

Sales of sedans may be collapsing in the United States, but some of China's most prominent automakers have announced all-electric cars – not SUVs – at the Salon of the United States. 39, Shanghai auto this week. At least three were unveiled Tuesday, including two by startups EV, NIO and XPeng, and one by Geely, owner of Volvo.

Add to that Aston Martin's first 100% electric car, the Fast E, and Lotus return as a manufacturer of 100% electric hypercars (which were also announced Tuesday), and it's clear that sedans are becoming the show trend. While Ford and General Motors have recently eliminated almost all US sedans because of the declining sales trend, it seems that development is almost unfathomable to watch from halfway around the world.

Image: Geely

The Geely and NIO sedans are just concepts for the moment. As such, companies have not revealed too much specs about their cars. No prices have been published for any of the cars.

Geely's concept (called the Preface) is not his first sedan, or even his first 100% electric car, but the first to rely on the "compact modular architecture" that Geely co-developed with Volvo. This means that the production version of the Geely sedan will be built on the same architecture as the popular entry-level compact XC40 SUV. The Polestar 2 sedan, from Volvo's performance subsidiary Polestar, and all Geely Lynk & Co cars are also built on the same platform. This cross-branding allows Geely, China's largest private car manufacturer, to reduce costs and better compete with state-owned giants.

The concept of NIO is called ET Preview because it is designed to tease the first of a range of potential sedans. Production is expected to reach 510 km (317 miles), although this estimate is based on the outdated United Nations standard known as the "New European Driving Cycle" (NEDC). (A more realistic standard proposed last year by the European Union is more widely used nowadays.)

Until now, NIO is mainly focused on electric SUVs. The company's seven-seat ES8 went into production last summer, shortly before its US IPO, and more than 15,000 of them have been delivered since. NIO also introduced a smaller five-seater SUV called the ES6 in December, and the startup plans to start production of this vehicle later this year. (But she no longer plans to build the cars herself.) However, her first vehicle was the EP9, a limited-range hypercar that is one of the fastest electric vehicles in the world.

Image: XPeng

EV start-up XPeng may have offered the most comprehensive announcement with the P7 sedan. The car is expected to run about 600 kilometers with a full battery, although this estimate is also based on the NEDC standard. XPeng says the P7 will be able to go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in less than 4 seconds. It will be equipped with an advanced driver assistance system, called by XPilot, which uses the Nvidia Drive Xavier, a chip specifically designed to power semi-autonomous and autonomous cars. One expects it to be more premium than the first vehicle of the start-up, the G3 electric SUV, but it still remains more affordable than the high-end cars of NIO. Deliveries will begin in the second quarter of 2020.

Initially, XPeng gained notoriety outside China because of the G3's resemblance to the Tesla X model, both inside and out. (The P7 also has some Model S vibrations, especially in the rear.) The company's founder said he was inspired by the manufacture of electric cars after Tesla opened his patents. He hired employees working on Autopilot and XPeng even destroyed cars from Silicon Valley's automaker to see how they were built. The shape of the G3 is very similar to that of the X model and the interior presents essentially the same presentation, with a portrait-oriented touch screen serving as a centerpiece.

XPeng is also at the center of two major legal battles involving Tesla, Apple and the US government.

Brian Gu, vice president of XPeng and president of XPeng, may have seemed counter-intuitive to focus on sedans nowadays. The edge that there are several reasons why the start-up uses a sedan as a second model.

"If you look at auto sales in China, the two biggest categories are sedans and SUVs," Gu said by telephone Tuesday morning. Bearing this in mind, he said, "I do not think auto manufacturers in this country are too worried about being exposed to" fluctuations in sedan sales.

(Izzy Zhu, Vice President of NIO User Development), echoed a statement sent to The edge. "The market share of sedans is still very important in China, with around 51% in 2018. This is reflected by the high sales volumes of high-end or high-end luxury brands such as Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Cadillac. and Lexus. We wanted to explore something new with the ET preview. ")

According to Gu, offering a second car in a completely different category will help XPeng "spread the appeal" of its offers. He also said that the start-up did not want to immediately create a second premium SUV, for fear of cannibalizing G3 sales.

In addition, says Gu Gu, XPeng targets a slice of the market cheaper than other Chinese startups such as NIO or Byton. The company wants to sell cars in the price range of 150,000 to 300,000 yuan (about $ 22,000 to $ 45,000), which represents 50 percent of China's new car market. Not only are these numbers more favorable, but according to Gueng, XPeng's technology approach is more attractive in this segment than at higher prices, where it is more standard.

None of this means that no electric SUVs have been announced at the Shanghai Motor Show. In fact, there is a lot. But there is not much that distinguishes them from each other, and many come from hundreds of companies that may suffer, consolidate or collapse when China unveils its generous government grants this year.

It's not just startups who are exhibiting electric sedans this week in Shanghai. Aston Martin introduced the Rapide E, an all-electric version of its fast high-performance sedan. Lotus (who, wait for it, is now the majority property of Geely) announced its return with a high-performance electric car supposed to lead to a more accessible sports car in the coming years. California-based Karma Automotive (backed by China) has also announced a high-performance all-electric luxury car.

Sports cars, supercars, hypercars are still the domain of carsthese ads are not so surprising. In addition, each of these cars is destined for more than China. But with Lamborghini and Ferrari finally acquiescing and making SUVs, it's always remarkable when automakers turn the tide and stick to sedans and coupes.

A last sign that sedans are stealing the show in Shanghai this week? Tesla – who is generally allergic to most major auto shows – has set up a booth, but only brought the Model 3 sedan. The future Model Y compact SUV did not make its appearance at the show . Tesla has recently started model 3 shipments to China and the automaker plans to build the car in a new Gigafactory plant being built just outside of Shanghai. If he wants to succeed before the Y model goes into production by the end of next year, he will also be able to rely on sedan sales in China in the near term.