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.
What XPeng is really doing is widening the funnel. The MONA name now spans the affordable city EV (M03) and this roomier family SUV (L05), and by adding EREV it captures the large slice of Chinese buyers who want an EV’s smoothness but can’t — or won’t — rely on a home charger. At RMB 169,800 to start, the L05 lands square in the meat of the market where BYD’s Song family and a crowd of rivals already fight for every sale.
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 EnTa took the stage to tear into traditional car design, quipping that “old folks 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.
— need a chat about China NEV market? mail me @ sheng.ye@ipsos.com