Despite the initial abundance of optimism seen in the 2010s, the electric vehicle (EV) industry has struggled as it has matured — and is increasingly looking like a ‘winner takes all’ scenario. Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) is dominant in the United States and Europe — in China, BYD (SHE: 002594) plays a similar role.
As a result, most smaller carmakers struggle to succeed and even carve out a niche for themselves. Those that do, however, tend to deliver outsized returns. XPeng (NYSE: XPEV) belongs to the second category — at least for now.
Over the course of the first half of 2024, XPEV stock traded sideways — however, it mounted a rally in the second half of the year which brought yearly gains up to 51.28%. Since the start of 2025, the price of an XPeng share has increased by 19.54%.
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At press time, shares of the EV business were changing hands at a price of $14.13. The recent surge was spurred on by a wave of optimism following several bullish developments and strategic partnerships — however, the real payoff could still be some time away.
Ambitious plans ignite XPeng stock rally
The company’s chairman and CEO, He Xiaopeng, revealed that the company is planning to launch four new models in 2025. Even more notably, the CEO outlined that XPeng intends to expand into 60 markets and hire approximately 6,000 workers over the course of 2025.
Per an internal company letter, Xiaopeng expects a price war to kick off in January, as well as increased market competition in 2025. On January 6, the carmaker also announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Volkswagen, a company that had previously invested $700 million in XPeng.
Going forward, the chargers operated by both companies will become cross-compatible — thus forming a single unified network that will include some 20,000 chargers in approximately 420 cities.
More recently, XPeng also announced a similar partnership with British Petroleum (NYSE: BP) on January 14. Per the deal, both businesses will open up their charging stations to the other. Lastly, over the course of 2025, the Chinese EV maker will gradually explore overseas network expansion through a series of pilot projects.
While lofty, XPeng’s goals seem to have inspired investor confidence — but readers should note that, in an industry that is rife with production and delivery delays, recalls, and missed internal targets, simply setting an ambitious goal is simple — and meeting it is far more difficult.
Featured image via Shutterstock
