When “electric” is normal, EV brands can’t stand out on range and emissions. Here’s how XPENG, BYD, and others compete on intelligence, experience, and ecosystems.
Most Chinese car buyers now treat "electric" the way they treat "automatic transmission"—it’s just assumed. That’s what struck Larry Evans when he attended XPENG presentations in China: almost no time was spent hyping the fact that the cars were electric. Electrification was the baseline, not the headline.
This shift is exactly where Western markets are heading over the next few years. As EV adoption climbs and more governments push clean transport, being electric won’t be a differentiator. It’ll be the price of entry. For anyone working in automotive, mobility, or green technology more broadly, that creates a hard question: what actually makes an electric vehicle brand stand out once electrification is the expectation?
This matters because the next wave of growth in green technology won’t come from convincing people that EVs or clean transport are “real options.” It’ll come from winning in a market where sustainability is table stakes and buyers judge you on everything else: software, user experience, intelligence, and how seamlessly your products fit into a clean-energy lifestyle.
In this post, I’ll break down how brands like XPENG and BYD are already competing in this new reality—and what companies in Europe, North America, and beyond can learn if they want to stay relevant in a world where electric is just… normal.
When EV Is Standard, the Story Has to Change
The core shift is simple: once EVs are mainstream, marketing “we’re electric too” is a waste of oxygen.
That’s what XPENG is demonstrating in China. They still talk about battery tech and charging, but not as the main story. Instead, they emphasize:
- Assisted and automated driving
- Smart cabin experiences
- Over-the-air (OTA) software updates
- Integration with smart homes and smart cities
Having an electric powertrain is treated like a given, the same way nobody stands on stage and sells “we have four wheels” anymore.
The reality? The customer’s decision hierarchy is changing:
- Is it electric or at least low-emission? → increasingly assumed
- Is it smart, connected, and easy to live with?
- Does it fit my lifestyle and identity?
- Is the total cost of ownership reasonable?
Most legacy automakers still spend marketing budget on explaining the benefits of EVs—range, emissions, fuel savings. That messaging still matters in early-stage markets. But in urban China, and soon in places like Norway, the Netherlands, and parts of California, that pitch is already stale.
If you’re planning for 2025–2030, you should be planning for post-evangelism: a world where customers don’t want to be educated about EVs; they want to compare electric products.
What Chinese EV Leaders Are Really Selling
Chinese automakers like BYD and XPENG give a preview of this future. They’re winning not because they build “electric cars” but because they build high-tech, software-led products that happen to be electric.
1. Software-first driving experience
XPENG and other Chinese EV brands talk obsessively about intelligent driving features:
- Adaptive cruise and lane centering tuned for messy urban traffic
- Automated parking in tight spaces
- Continuous improvements via OTA updates
The pitch isn’t "zero tailpipe emissions". It’s "the car keeps getting better while you sleep".
From a green technology perspective, this matters because software is what multiplies the impact of electrification:
- Smarter routing reduces congestion and energy waste
- Predictive energy management squeezes more range from the same battery
- Fleet-level data improves urban planning and charging infrastructure
2. The car as part of a smart energy ecosystem
BYD and others don’t stop at the vehicle. They connect EVs to home batteries, rooftop solar, and smart grids.
Here’s the thing about truly green transport: it’s not just about what powers the car, it’s about how the car interacts with the entire energy system.
Forward-looking EV brands are:
- Building vehicles with bi-directional charging (vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid)
- Integrating with home energy management systems
- Using AI to charge when grid carbon intensity is low and prices are cheap
This is where AI quietly does the heavy lifting—optimizing charging schedules, forecasting demand, and balancing loads across homes, depots, and city districts. Customers don’t need to understand the algorithms; they just see lower bills and a cleaner footprint.
3. A cabin that feels like consumer tech, not automotive tech
XPENG’s presentations look more like smartphone launches than old-school car reveals. Big screens, fast interfaces, voice assistants that actually work, and entertainment options tailored to commuters and families.
Most buyers now compare their in-car experience to their phone and smart TV, not to last year’s dashboard. If the car UI feels clunky next to a TikTok feed or a Netflix app, you’ve already lost the battle for attention.
For automakers, this means the competitive set has broadened. You’re not just competing with other OEMs. You’re competing with:
- Apple and Google’s software experiences
- Tesla’s expectation of OTA and constant improvement
- Chinese EVs pushing rapid innovation cycles
Again, the green technology angle: if people love using the product, they’ll adopt it faster. Smooth, smart experiences accelerate the transition to cleaner transport far more than another lecture on CO₂.
How Automakers in 2025 Can Actually Break Through
So what should automakers and mobility companies focus on if they want to stand out in a world where electrification is baseline?
There are four levers that consistently matter: intelligence, integration, experience, and trust.
1. Compete on intelligence, not just range
Most companies over-index on hardware specs: kWh, kW, 0–100 km/h. Those are now hygiene factors.
A stronger differentiator is: How smart is the vehicle in real life?
Practical ways to stand out:
- Context-aware assistance: Driver-assist that adapts to weather, traffic patterns, and driver habits, not just lanes painted on perfect roads.
- Learning over time: ML models that personalize drive modes, seat/AC preferences, and routing.
- Transparent software roadmap: Publish a clear cadence of OTA feature updates so customers know the car will improve.
If you’re a supplier or tech provider in the green technology space, this is where you can add huge value—by offering plug-and-play AI modules, data platforms, or simulation tools that let automakers improve intelligence without reinventing everything.
2. Build a clean energy ecosystem, not a standalone product
The big unlock for both sustainability and customer value is connecting EVs to broader clean-energy systems.
For automakers and energy companies, that means collaborating on:
- Smart charging: Cars that automatically pick low-carbon, low-cost charging windows.
- Vehicle-to-home (V2H): Use the car battery as backup during outages and peak demand.
- Vehicle-to-grid (V2G): Aggregate thousands of parked EVs as a flexible grid asset.
From a business-development perspective, this opens new revenue:
- Subscription services for optimized charging
- Bundled offerings: EV + solar + home battery
- Grid services contracts with utilities
If your company sells solar, batteries, charging infrastructure, or energy management software, partnering with EV brands now is smart positioning. In a few years, customers will expect their energy and mobility to work together like one system.
3. Obsess over the ownership experience, not just the sale
When electrification is normal, experience is the new horsepower.
Areas where most automakers still drop the ball:
- Fragmented apps that handle charging, remote control, and navigation separately
- Confusing public charging experiences
- Poor integration between dealers, apps, and customer support
You win when the driver’s life actually gets easier:
- One app that really works: Charging, navigation, payments, updates, support—all in a single, reliable interface.
- Predictive support: Use data to flag issues early and book service proactively.
- Transparent total cost of ownership: Make it obvious how much the customer is saving over time vs. ICE.
A lot of this is software, process, and data—classic green technology territory where AI can quietly streamline everything behind the scenes.
4. Tell a different story than "we’re electric too"
Brand storytelling has to evolve along with the tech. The message that worked for early adopters won’t sway mainstream buyers who now see EVs everywhere.
Stronger narratives in a mature EV market sound like:
- "This car is your mobile power bank and AI assistant."
- "This fleet cuts emissions and cuts downtime using real-time data."
- "This ecosystem connects your car, home, and solar into one clean energy loop."
If you’re leading marketing or product in a green technology company, one useful exercise is to ban the word "electric" from your next positioning draft. Force yourself to describe the value without relying on the buzzword. You’ll usually end up much closer to what customers actually care about.
Where AI Fits in the Next Phase of Green Mobility
Because this post is part of a broader green technology series, it’s worth saying this clearly: AI is the multiplier on electrification, not the replacement.
Electrification cuts tailpipe emissions. AI makes that transition faster, smarter, and cheaper by:
- Optimizing when and where EVs charge
- Improving range through smarter energy management
- Reducing traffic and congestion through better routing
- Managing fleet operations and predictive maintenance
- Helping grid operators integrate massive new electric loads
The companies that will win the late 2020s aren’t just “EV companies.” They’re AI-driven clean mobility platforms that treat data as infrastructure.
And that loops us back to the original XPENG example: they’re not selling themselves as “another electric brand.” They’re positioning as a software-intense, intelligent mobility company that just happens to be riding the wave of electrification.
What This Means for Your Next Move
Electrification is becoming the expectation, not the differentiator. Once that happens in your market, you can’t rely on range, charging time, or “zero emissions” messaging to stand out. You need to compete on intelligence, integration, and experience.
If you’re building products or services in green technology—whether that’s EVs, charging, smart grids, or energy management—now’s the time to:
- Shift your story from “we’re electric” to “here’s how your life and operations get better.”
- Invest in AI and software that make your clean technology feel intuitive and effortless.
- Build partnerships across mobility, energy, and data so your solution plugs into a larger ecosystem.
The next decade won’t be defined by who electrified first. It’ll be defined by who turned electrification into intelligent, connected systems that people actually love using.
If your team wants to rethink how you position or design your next EV, charging solution, or clean-energy product, start by asking: What will we offer when “electric” is no longer impressive—just expected?