(Yicai Global) Oct. 28 -- Chinese new energy vehicle maker XPeng Motors has followed in its domestic rival Li Auto's footsteps and offered to install a sought-after sensing technology to new vehicles later amid the global chip shortage.

XPeng P5 buyers can wait for delayed delivery or receive their vehicles without millimeter-wave radars, the Paper reported today, citing messages that the Guangzhou-based automaker had allegedly sent to clients.

If buyers choose to receive their cars without the radar that detects the vehicle's surroundings by emitting electromagnetic waves, Xpeng will install the technology by March 2022. Moreover, the firm will give each client a driver-assistance system worth CNY10,000 (USD1,562) for free.

Carmakers around the world are struggling with a lack of semiconductors. The shortage is likely to cause a drop of two million vehicles produced in China this year, Chen Bin, executive vice president of the China Machinery Industry Federation, said previously.

The sedan XPeng P5 with a driver-assistance function has five millimeter-wave radars, public information shows. Xpeng didn't disclose its safety protocol for the cars that will lack the LiDAR alternative.

Changzhou-based Li Auto has revealed a similar plan. The electric vehicle maker will first install three out of five millimeter-wave radars in its new Lixiang One sport utility vehicles. The rest should follow between December and the upcoming Spring Festival next February.

Carmakers may be taking legal risks by changing their products' features as their registration parameters should be as declared, an automobile analyst told the Paper.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi