This time, it’s XPENG!

In July 2026, Film8 travelled to Munich, Germany, to produce a global media review film for the new XPENG G9L, a flagship five-seat SUV developed with global markets in mind.

The project was particularly meaningful for us: it marked the first time Film8 took full responsibility for an automotive video production, from creative planning and route scouting to filming, technical execution, and post-production.

The project was planned by Scandinavian Haining Center AB and fully directed and produced by Film8 Studio.

Rather than simply documenting a vehicle presentation, the production was designed around a more fundamental question: How does a large, technology-focused SUV perform when placed into the real driving environments of Europe?

That question shaped everything from the route to the cinematography.

A Global Media Test, Filmed in Real European Conditions

XPENG Chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng personally led the global media test, bringing together media representatives from multiple countries and regions to experience the G9L on European roads.

The test was not limited to a controlled proving ground.

Instead, the driving route moved through a variety of environments representative of everyday European driving:

Narrow streets in historic city centres
Small and winding local roads
German Autobahns
Urban traffic environments
High-speed motorway conditions

For Film8, this was also an opportunity to approach automotive filmmaking from a production perspective rather than simply a coverage perspective.

The route itself became part of the story.

Before filming began, the locations and driving routes were scouted, tested and evaluated by Film8 together with local collaborators. The goal was to identify roads that could naturally reveal different characteristics of the G9L while remaining practical and safe for a professional media production. This approach is particularly important when producing automotive content outside a controlled test facility.

From Concept to Full Production

For this project, Scandinavian Haining Center AB was responsible for the overall planning and project concept, while Film8 handled the production and visual execution.

This included:

Creative development → Route scouting → Crew coordination → Technical planning → Production → Cinematography → Data management → Post-production

For Film8, this represented an important step forward in automotive production. Our previous automotive work had already taken us into some of the most demanding environments in the Nordic region. The XPENG project allowed us to bring that experience into a completely different setting: urban and highway driving across mainland Europe.

The Cinematography Team

A major strength of the production was the combination of Nordic production experience with cinematographers who have worked across international film, documentary and television projects.

Lerno Kong — Director & Director of Photography

Lerno Kong served as the project's director and one of its Directors of Photography. His background spans cinematography, camera operation and film production. Public film-industry records list him as a cinematographer and camera/electrical department professional, with credits including the documentary/TV project Mind Decoded.

That distinction matters in automotive filmmaking. A technically beautiful car shot is not necessarily an effective automotive story. The camera has to communicate movement, scale, road surface, acceleration, stability, interaction with the environment and the driver's experience. The challenge was therefore to create imagery that felt cinematic without losing the authenticity of a media test.

Saulius Lukosevicius — Director of Photography

Joining Lerno as Director of Photography was Saulius Lukosevicius, an award-winning Lithuanian cinematographer. Saulius has worked as a freelance cinematographer across film, television, documentary and commercial productions since graduating with a BA in Audiovisual Arts in 2010. He was selected for Berlinale Talents in 2012 and received the Best Cinematography Award from the Lithuanian Association of Cinematographers in 2017.

One of the most recognisable projects on his résumé is HBO's award-winning Chernobyl. Saulius worked on the Chernobyl HBO BTS mini-series as its Behind-the-Scenes Cinematographer, documenting the production of the acclaimed television series directed by Johan Renck and photographed by cinematographer Jakob Ihre. His own portfolio specifically lists Chernobyl as a 2019 HBO BTS project.

For an automotive project, this kind of documentary background is particularly valuable. Automotive media films often have to work within real production conditions: changing light, moving vehicles, unpredictable traffic, limited windows for filming and constantly changing locations.

Film8 and Automotive Production in the Nordics

Although the XPENG G9L project was our first automotive project for which Film8 took responsibility for the full production workflow, it was not our first experience working with automotive and EV projects.

Over the past several years, Film8 has increasingly worked across the Nordic region on automotive and electric vehicle productions. Our experience includes some particularly demanding environments.

DCar Global Winter EV Test

From November to December 2024, Film8 participated as the Overseas Producer in DCar's large-scale global winter EV test. The project spanned three continents:

China → United States → Sweden

The testing environments included:

Heihe, China
Alaska, USA
Umeå, Sweden

The project involved nearly 40 automotive brands and more than 90 vehicle models, with a total testing mileage reported at approximately 100,000 km.

In Sweden, the production took place around Umeå, including sections of the World Rally Championship Sweden Snow Rally track. This project gave Film8 direct experience with one of the most challenging areas of automotive production: filming vehicles in extreme winter conditions while maintaining a reliable international production workflow.

Beyond the Arctic Circle

Film8's automotive experience continued through productions across Iceland, Sweden and Norway, supporting EV brands and automotive media with winter testing and documentary-style content.

Our work has included location scouting, driving-route planning, lead-car operations, drone cinematography, follow-car filming, road-safety coordination and multi-day logistics in extreme weather.

In one recent project, Film8 worked with DCar in Iceland on “Journey to the Ultimate”, documenting the performance of next-generation EVs across Iceland's volcanic landscapes and unpredictable weather conditions.

The team subsequently worked on Geely Galaxy's winter testing programme across Sweden and Norway.

These projects have gradually shaped a specific production capability within Film8:

We don't simply film cars in the Nordics. We understand how to build a production around the environment in which the vehicle is being tested.

That means understanding roads, weather, daylight, driving safety, vehicle logistics, camera vehicles, local regulations and the practical realities of moving a film crew between locations.

Project Credits

Brand: XPENG
Vehicle: XPENG G9L
Project: Global Media Review
Location: Munich, Germany & European driving routes
Production: Film8 Studio
Planning: Scandinavian Haining Center AB

Director: Lerno Kong
Producer: Shawn @ Film8 Studio
Production Assistant & DIT: Zhanyi @ Film8 Studio
Directors of Photography: Lerno Kong, Saulius Lukosevicius
1st AC: Zou Daqiang
Camera / Lighting Assistants: Luo Benwen, Chen Chengwei
Editor: Tianhan Chen
Technical Director: Yang Pengfei
Concept & Planning: Scandinavian Haining Center AB