XPENG secures L3 road test license in Guangzhou, accelerates push toward higher autonomy

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On December 16, XPENG confirmed that it has been granted an L3 autonomous driving road test license in Guangzhou and has begun routine on-road testing at the Level 3 autonomous driving capabilities.

The permit allows the company to conduct conditional automated driving tests on designated highways and expressways within Guangzhou's intelligent connected vehicle test network.

The development comes shortly after China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) released the country's first batch of market access approvals for L3 vehicles, widely seen as a turning point signaling the transition from pilot testing toward early commercialization.

XPENG founder and CEO He Xiaopeng has previously made clear that the company's long-term roadmap extends beyond L3, with L4 autonomous driving firmly in sight. XPENG aims to roll out mass-produced vehicles equipped with both hardware and software capable of L4 autonomy by 2026. As advanced driver assistance and autonomy move closer to commercial reality, competition between XPENG and Tesla in this field is expected to intensify.

The newly granted license enables XPENG to test conditional autonomous driving on approved expressways in Guangzhou. Unlike L2 systems, which require drivers to continuously supervise vehicle behavior, L3 allows the car to take full control in defined scenarios. Drivers are no longer required to keep their hands or feet ready at all times, though they must still be prepared to intervene if the system encounters situations it cannot handle reliably.

Under MIIT's official classification of driving automation, L3 represents a critical bridge between driver assistance and true autonomous driving, relying on more advanced and structured decision-making by onboard computing systems. Prior to XPENG, Changan Automobile and BYD had already secured similar testing approvals, making XPENG the third automaker in China to reach this milestone.

XPENG has laid out a detailed timeline for the evolution of its autonomous driving technology.

As early as February this year, He Xiaopeng revealed that a new V6 version of XPENG's advanced driving system—described as "near-L3"—is scheduled for launch in mid-2025. He characterized it as the first iteration designed to surpass Tesla's FSD V13 in overall capability. By the end of 2025, XPENG plans to roll out what it calls "true L3" software, a step that will require significantly higher onboard computing power, expanded storage capacity, and enhanced hardware redundancy.

Even as it begins L3 testing, XPENG's sights remain firmly set on L4 autonomy. At its 2025 Technology Day, the company officially unveiled its second-generation VLA software, designed with L4 capabilities. XPENG expects this system to enter mass production and be deployed in vehicles in the first quarter of 2026.

Unlike conventional "vision–language–action" architectures, XPENG's second-generation VLA eliminates the intermediate language translation layer, enabling direct end-to-end generation of driving actions from visual inputs. This approach is intended to improve performance in complex environments such as narrow roads and campus-style settings. The system also debuts a navigation-free assisted driving function, allowing autonomous features to be activated globally without reliance on predefined navigation routes.

On the hardware side, starting in the third quarter of 2025, XPENG's Ultra variants across its lineup will be equipped with three in-house developed Turing AI chips, delivering a combined computing power of up to 2,250 TOPS. He Xiaopeng has projected that future automakers may spend as much as 50 billion yuan annually on R&D, with roughly 30 billion yuan allocated to AI alone. Against this backdrop, XPENG's annual investment of tens of billions of yuan in computing infrastructure has become a standard practice rather than an exception.

Looking further ahead, XPENG plans to introduce three Robotaxi models in 2026 and begin pilot operations. Unlike Tesla, however, XPENG intends to focus solely on vehicle and technology development rather than fleet operations. Mapping and mobility platform Amap has already been named as the company's first global ecosystem partner, underscoring XPENG's platform-oriented approach to autonomous mobility.