Here’s your first look at Xpeng’s shiny new, second-gen P7

Chinese carmaker Xpeng is launching the next generation of its all-electric, five-seat P7 sports saloon, and the very first images have just dropped. It’s been progressively worked on over the last five years and refined through ‘countless’ iterations, says lead designer Rafik Ferrag.

And in fairness, the Mk2 looks like a pretty bold leap forward from the car it replaces. Key traits include Polestar 3-like headlamp clusters and a thick panel gap which stretches from the aggressive nose right back to the A-pillar. Good luck cleaning autumn leaves and general detritus out of those.

There's a similar set of lights out back, joined by a sweeping fastback roofline and an active rear wing that extends outwards from within the tailgate.

It’s certainly handsome. And safe, too, because it’s passed both the Chinese and European NCAP safety tests with five-star ratings, so it should be as stern as a centre-back pairing of Ryan Shawcross and Robert Huth. And according to Xpeng CEO He Xiaopeng, the P7 is the company’s “answer for the AI era in form and function". Right.

Xpeng only brought the first-gen P7+ to Europe earlier this year, and its tech caused quite the stir. Partly thanks to its Level-Two (so semi-autonomous) driver assist, and partly because of its ‘AI Hawkeye Visual Solution’, which is a set of guided cameras and radars that sniff out danger.

The Plus also gets 800-volt architecture and computing power from the likes of Qualcomm and Nvidia. Safe to assume this new car will also get these and more, since Xiaopeng also confirmed it’ll be a ‘major’ technological upgrade over the previous car, and pave the way for the company’s future products.

We’re yet to receive any word on outputs, but as a yardstick, consider that the Mk1's biggest battery (86.2kWh) serves up to 358 miles of range between charges. And since Mk2 wants to be a proper sports saloon and all, one would imagine it will better the previous all-wheel-drive range-topper’s 0-62mph time of 4.3s.

No confirmation on when - or if - it’s coming to the UK, but we’re expecting it to given Xpeng’s G6 SUV has just gone on sale here and will shortly be followed by the seven-seat X9. That thing even gets a karaoke machine, and we feel it’s of the utmost importance that the new P7 does too. More details when we get it...