XPeng’s MONA line has quietly become the brand’s volume engine, and on October 15 it gained a bigger, more versatile sibling. The MONA L05 — a large five-seat SUV — opened for pre-sale starting at RMB 169,800 (about USD 25,100), and for the first time the MONA badge is offered with a choice of powertrains: a BEV and a range-extended EREV.
That dual-powertrain move is the real headline. The original MONA M03 was a BEV commuter at a sharp price; the L05 hedges the bet, letting buyers who still flinch at charger anxiety take the range-extender while keeping the same body, the same cabin and a genuinely huge 702-litre boot. A 702L trunk in a five-seat SUV is class-leading usable space — enough to swallow a weekend’s gear without folding a single seat.
The launch itself, though, is where things got loud — and not in the way XPeng might have hoped.
Editor's Note: XPeng’s Gen-Z product manager Etta took the stage to tear into traditional car design, quipping that “old folks ( I THINK BEST TRANSLATION WOULE BE OLD PERVERT BOOMERS )wouldn’t get what young people want,” with wood trim and chrome filed under what he called “boomer-tier aesthetics.” The clip went viral — some said it was the first launch in ages with a pulse. Plenty of us, myself included, found it off-key: a car brand mocking a whole aesthetic is one thing; mocking an entire age group along with it is another. Very unprofessional.
— need a chat about China NEV market? mail me @ sheng.ye@ipsos.com