Xpeng aims to sell 500,000 cars per year in Europe. That’s more than Ford does today.
Xpeng aims to sell one million cars worldwide annually by 2030, of which 500,000 would be in Europe. However, the plan presented by President He Xiaopeng at the auto show in Paris requires significantly higher production on our continent. The current capacity of Magna’s plant in Austria is considered insufficient.
For comparison, Ford sold around 426,000 cars in Europe in 2025, while Opel recorded around 400,000 registrations. Xpeng is thus targeting the scale of brands that have had factories, showrooms, and recognizable logos here for decades.
From 60,000 cars to a figure exceeding Ford’s
The Chinese brand entered Europe via Norway in 2020. Since then, it has delivered over 60,000 cars to the continent, with most of these coming in the last two years. Reaching an annual sales target of 500,000 cars would therefore require a huge leap in scale.
The expansion pace is indeed increasing. In September 2026, Xpeng’s overseas sales exceeded 10,000 units for the first time, reaching exactly 10,055 vehicles — a 100.94% increase from the previous year. From January to September, the company delivered 59,479 cars outside China, representing a 100.11% year-on-year rise.
Overseas sales accounted for 20.92% of the manufacturer’s total deliveries. The issue is that Xpeng’s overall output in the first nine months of 2026 declined by 9.2% to 284,367 vehicles. Therefore, while Europe and other export markets are growing rapidly, they are currently only partially offsetting the weaker overall performance of the company.
The plan presented in Paris also differs from the president’s earlier statement. In February 2026, He Xiaopeng wrote to employees about selling one million cars overseas by 2030, with overseas operations expected to generate over 70 percent of profits. Now the target is one million cars globally, half of which would come from Europe. It is unclear whether the company has lowered its ambitions or if the president described a different development scenario in February.
Magna produces four models, but Xpeng needs larger scale
Xpeng began European production in September 2025. The G6, G9, and sedan P7+ are manufactured at Magna International’s plant in Graz. On October 7, 2026, a test batch of the G9L rolled off the same production line, making this large SUV the brand’s fourth model aimed at local production.
The European debut of the G9L took place on October 12, the day the Paris auto show opened. However, the manufacturer has not specified when mass production of this model will begin in Austria.
Xpeng Vice President Yeqing Zheng previously told Reuters that Magna’s plant capacity is not sufficient to meet European production goals. The company is discussing increasing output in Graz while also evaluating other locations on the continent. It has not revealed the required production capacity, the countries under consideration, or whether discussions have already led to specific investment commitments.
Local assembly is intended to reduce dependence on imports from China and facilitate compliance with European requirements regarding the proportion of locally produced vehicles. It is also a way to mitigate the impact of EU tariffs on cars imported from China. Xpeng cites Volkswagen as an example of a company that has established a strong position through direct investments in its target market. The German automaker is both an investor and a technological partner for the Chinese brand.
The goal set for 2030 appears ambitious even at the current rate of growth. Xpeng has the technology, an expanding product range, and a manufacturing partner, but it still lacks the scale of factories as well as a European network comparable to those of Ford or Opel. Therefore, the next test will not be another car launch, but rather news on where and at what cost the company will build facilities capable of producing hundreds of thousands of vehicles per year.
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