SHANGHAI, Jun 24 (SMM) - Recently, according to media reports, due to the shortage in the supply chain, Xiaopeng Motors suspended the reservation of P5 models from four European countries (Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden), and the previous orders could not be delivered on time. The news has now been confirmed by Xiaopeng Motors.
According to a statement to the media issued by Xiaopeng Motors, the global supply chain shock have affected the auto industry for months, and many auto brands have had to adjust their production and delivery schedules, as well as pricing, to alleviate challenges and uncertainties. Xiaopeng Motors expects some of these challenges to continue for some time. Due to some of these challenges, the expected P5 delivery time in Europe may not be achieved. However, Xiaopeng Motors believes that the suspension of P5 deliveries will not affect its long-term strategy in Europe. Instead, it will encourage consumers to order P7 models instead. 
In March this year, XPeng P5 was officially open for reservations in Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. Xiaopeng Motors said that it will start from the four European countries to further open up the European market and accelerate the promotion of globalization.
In recent years, electric car start-ups have set off a wave of selling cars overseas. Xiaopeng Motors said that exports is a key milestone, and has chosen Europe, the world's second largest electric vehicle market, as its first export destination. 
Previously, Xiaopeng Motors announced that it has become a member of the three major European automobile associations, namely the European Association for Electromobility (AVERE), the RAI Vereniging and the BIL Sweden, once again demonstrating its efforts to develop the European market.  
In addition to Xiaopeng Motors, NIO, LiAuto and other electric car start-ups have started to export to Europe. As early as in 2020, Xiaopeng Motors shipped its G3 model to Norway. However, opening the European market is not as easy as imagined for the electric car start-ups. According to data from the eu-evs, in 2021, the deliveries of AIWAYS, XPeng and NIO in Europe were just 563 units, 486 units and 200 units respectively. The sales of electric car start-ups were poor in the fast-growing European electric vehicle market. Electric car start-ups not only face the fact that foreign car brands may not be immediately popular in Europe, but also the challenge of transporting cars overseas. The global pandemic has not only brought about supply chain shortages, but also severe port congestion. 
In May this year, Shanghai, an important automobile city, was still in COVID lockdown, with a large number of automobile supply chain enterprises being forced to stop production and work. Although the domestic pandemic situation has improved, the difficulties faced by the automobile industry are still huge. As far as exports are concerned, a more serious problem than the supply chain is transportation. 
The head of the freight department of DHL, one of the world's largest transportation companies, said that the logistics pressure on the global supply chain will ease next year, but it will not return to pre-pandemic level. Last year, the Covid-19 pandemic and related restrictions caused shortages of workers and truckers at several major ports around the world, slowing the flow of goods in and out of freight centers and pushing container shipping rates to record highs. 
SMM believes that auto makers who look to sell their cars overseas will continue to face challenges from supply chain and logistics transportation since the global epidemic is here to stay for an extended period of time.