XPeng and Tesla Take the Only Self-Driving Slots at the Paris Show

XPeng has confirmed its Paris Motor Show programme, and the most telling line in it is not about a car. The company will take part in the show's official Autonomous Lab — and, in its own words, "XPENG and Tesla will be the only automakers participating". For XPeng it is the first large-scale NGP test-ride experience outside China.

The show runs 12–18 October 2026 at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. XPeng's press conference is on 12 October, 11:10–11:25, Hall 6, Booth A51, with a brand event the night before.

The commercial substance: the G9L's European launch

The headline act is the global launch of the G9L on 12 October, at which XPeng will open European order books and announce European pricing. That is the moment the car moves from a Chinese launch (17 September, from ¥231,800) to a global rollout — we covered the full pricing and specification stack here.

Also in the release: the G9L becomes the fourth XPeng model produced in Europe, alongside a stand of more than 1,000 square metres in Hall 6 arranged as a "Physical AI Museum" — brand technology stack, AI-defined vehicles, humanoid robots and flying cars — with the G9L, L03, P7+, G6, G9 and X9 on display.

The part that matters for credibility

Public test rides are a different kind of claim from a launch. In Amsterdam, XPeng's second-generation VLA was demonstrated in a comparison organised by Xinhua and filmed for broadcast (our coverage of that test). The Chinese coverage framing it now is that Paris is the second public-road meeting of the two systems, after Amsterdam, and the first that XPeng is walking into voluntarily — under its own campaign line for the second-generation VLA: that it "has memory, can predict, can think". In Paris, European media and members of the public get the wheel — or at least the passenger seat — in ordinary show conditions, next to the company that has been the benchmark for this technology.

XPeng frames it as localisation work rather than a stunt: it says it is adapting intelligent driving to European roads, traffic and regulation using the generalisation of its foundation model, with its Munich R&D centre doing the local work.

Which car, and who else was asked

The car doing the demonstrating is the L03 — the smaller SUV coupe XPeng took to Europe after its Munich debut in July, and the model already on sale in Australia (our September delivery coverage has where it has launched). That is a deliberate choice of vehicle: the cheapest and newest thing XPeng builds is being put in front of European media to make the point that the driving stack, not the flagship, is the product.

The same post adds a claim about the field that XPeng's own release does not make, and it comes from an account Chinese coverage describes as an XPeng Group vice president: on his account, the Paris show invited every exhibiting automaker to join the Autonomous Lab, and the others withdrew once they understood what taking part involved — hundreds, potentially thousands, of international media driving the systems on real Paris streets. Only XPeng and Tesla accepted.

Whether or not that is the whole story, one fact about it is checkable and striking for a European motor show: no European automaker appears in the programme at all.

The European numbers behind it

• More than 100,000 vehicles delivered overseas, of which over 60,000 in Europe.
• More than 6,000 in France since entering the market two years ago.
• Q2 overseas deliveries above 20,000, up 81% year on year.
• IRON, its humanoid robot, rolled off a newly commissioned production line in September, part of a robotics business that raised over US$900 million in a first round.

The leak, clearly labelled

The Weibo post that flagged the invitation — from an account Chinese coverage describes as an XPeng Group vice president — adds two items it labels as insider gossip, and they should be read that way:

1. XPeng's VLA 2.0 completed testing in Paris the previous week, following Amsterdam.
2. An "L05 native-RT" model will reach production-line SOP in Q4, with road testing in Germany in February 2027.

Neither is in XPeng's release, and we have not been able to verify either. The Autonomous Lab participation, by contrast, is confirmed by the company and was picked up independently by at least one EV outlet under a headline making the same "alone in Paris" point.

Caveats

• "The only two automakers" is XPeng's own characterisation of the show's Autonomous Lab line-up. It is a strong claim and we have not seen the organisers' own participant list; one independent outlet reported it the same way.
• The "the others declined" account is the company's version. It comes from the XPeng-linked poster, not from the show organisers, and we have not seen the organisers' own explanation of how the Autonomous Lab line-up was formed. The absence of any European automaker from the programme is checkable; the reason is not.
• The test-ride scope is not specified — whether it is press-only, public, or both, and what route or supervision applies, is not in the release.
• The L05 and the Paris VLA testing are leaks, unverified, and the "native-RT" designation is the poster's.
• The vice-president attribution comes from Chinese media describing the account; we could not confirm the individual's name or title independently.
• Nothing here implies Australian timing. The G9L and L03 are both headed here on separate schedules; our September delivery coverage notes where the L03 has already launched.

The bottom line

Amsterdam was a test that XPeng did not organise and could not control, and it came out well. Paris, on the account now circulating, is the one everyone else declined. Paris is the opposite: a company-run, company-framed demonstration in front of the European press, in the same programme as Tesla, with the G9L's European price attached. If the system behaves the same way in front of a sceptical French crowd as it did in that Dutch footage, the Amsterdam result stops being a talking point and becomes a product claim. If it does not, everyone will be watching.

Source: 托马斯电火车 and 杨骏驱 (Weibo), with XPeng's Paris Motor Show release of 30 September 2026 — translated & adapted for XPENGTech.

Update, 12 October: the first reviewer verdicts from the Autonomous Lab are in — we have collected what the overseas testers said, and what the Paris footage shows, here.