XPeng's Amsterdam Win Over Tesla Meets a Stock at Rock Bottom
Published on 09/29/2026 at 06:40 | Editorial boerse-global.de
XPeng picked an unlikely proving ground for its self-driving ambitions. Rather than the wide-open highways of California, the Chinese automaker sent its NGP 6.3.0 driver-assistance system into the historic heart of Amsterdam, where canal-side tram tracks, unpredictable cyclists and cramped construction zones make up the real obstacle course for any autonomous algorithm. There, in a head-to-head test organized by the Xinhua news agency, it went up against Tesla's FSD V14 over an identical urban route — a matchup that would have seemed far-fetched just a few years ago.
The result offered XPeng a genuine talking point. Through one particularly tangled construction passage, its system cleared the bottleneck in a single pass, while the American benchmark needed two corrections and a reset. André Scheidler, a German Tesla driver who took part, summed up the experience by saying Tesla and XPeng were "very comparable." XPeng's second-generation VLA model also showed a notable ability to adapt to local rules and road conditions in Amsterdam's mixed traffic.
A Software Edge That Still Needs a Permit
That display marks a broader shift in the global race for intelligent driving. Chinese manufacturers are no longer content to compete purely on price; they are now challenging the established pioneers on their home turf — the artificial intelligence behind the steering wheel.
Closing the technology gap, however, is not the same as commercial deployment. Tesla already holds approval in the Netherlands, where the vehicle authority RDW green-lit its system after more than 3,000 hours of testing. XPeng remains in the trial phase locally. Until regulators sign off, technical parity amounts to a showcase with no immediate payoff.
For investors, the question is blunt: can a technological morale victory halt the share-price slide when skepticism dominates the financial markets?
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying XPeng?
Deliveries, Robots and a Paris Stage
XPeng is hardly standing still on the operational front. First customer deliveries of its G9L SUV begin in China on September 23, and the model is slated to roll off the line not only in its home base of Guangzhou but also at contract manufacturer Magna in Graz, Austria — which would make it the fourth vehicle Magna builds for XPeng on site. A global reveal is set for the Paris Motor Show on October 12, where the model will be presented for 64 markets.
At the same time, the company is pushing prestige technology projects, including the commissioning of an automated production line for its humanoid robot, IRON. Chairman He Xiaopeng has highlighted the feat of robots building robots as evidence of XPeng's advanced automation capabilities.
Perhaps the smartest strategic move, according to media reports, is the company's search for partners beyond Volkswagen to license its software, cockpit systems, Turing chips and driver-assistance technology. Monetizing its own software platforms could create high-margin revenue streams to stabilize the capital-intensive carmaking business.
The Market Wants Proof, Not Promises
Investors, though, remain unconvinced by the array of parallel projects. The stock has lost 52% since the start of the year and closed yesterday at EUR 8.75, marking a fresh 52-week low. That valuation lays bare how little credit shareholders are willing to extend for distant future visions.
Management is targeting 115,000 to 121,000 deliveries in the third quarter and monthly sales above 60,000 units in the fourth. Hitting those marks will likely determine whether the market's skepticism fades. Until volume growth takes hold sustainably, milestones like humanoid robots will do little to move the needle on the exchange.
The gap between how XPeng performs on the road and how it is judged on the trading floor could hardly be wider. Investors are currently focused less on the capabilities of neural networks than on thin-margin sales markets and brutal price competition. XPeng continues to expand internationally and already sells the X9 and G6 in Indonesia, where marketing vice president Hari Arifianto has promised another vehicle by the end of the year. Yet overseas operational progress has so far failed to register with the markets.
The Amsterdam test proves XPeng has caught up with the world's best on the software side. As long as that development lead does not translate into broad fleet sales and high-margin software revenue, the stock remains in the grip of the bears. For now, the only thing that matters for the share price is whether the technological step forward is soon followed by an economic turnaround.
Ad
XPeng Stock: New Analysis - 29 September
Fresh XPeng information released. What's the impact for investors? Our latest independent report examines recent figures and market trends.
