2026 XPeng X9 Pro review: After four days, the range was a surprise

[SINGAPORE] At first glance, the XPeng X9 Pro doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be. Is it a family bus for hauling children, grandparents and luggage along on a small expedition? Or is it the kind of rolling boardroom where serious people brood seriously while somebody else does the driving?

Whatever the case, this three-row electric multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) has just had a facelift, gaining a noticeably smoother but more generic face. It also has new wheels with self-righting centre caps that always keep the XPeng logo upright.

That’s not the only thing the X9 has in common with a Rolls-Royce. It’s more than 5.3 m long, which is nearly as lengthy as the Cullinan, the venerable British brand’s bestseller. Before you get excited by the thought of all that size, you might want to note that the minimum length for a parallel parking spot in Singapore is just 5.4 m.

Happily, there’s active four-wheel steering, so the massive X9 can actually pull tighter U-turns than a Volkswagen Golf. Just as impressive is its ability to spot car park bays and slot itself into them at the touch of a button, which is so good that it could do to parking skills what the calculator has done to mental sums.

These two features subtract a lot of the stress that piloting a car this size would usually entail. But more than that, they’re prime examples of what sets the X9 apart from other luxury MPVs. Everyone else does their own take on the same fancied-up-van idea, but the XPeng seems like the creation of tech bros who started from a blank sheet of paper, and asked themselves (or their wives) what a big, plush MPV is actually for.

Children need entertainment? Let’s put in a 21.4-inch flip-down cinema screen. VIPs need a break? Zero-gravity second-row seats with 10-point massage. Harried father needs a back rub during a long day (and which poor dad doesn’t)? Massage chair for the front row, too. Snacks or drinks? Let’s throw in a fridge that also works as a food warmer.

Many cars have those features, but the X9 mogs them all with its boot. With all seven seats up, it still offers 721 litres of space. Then you press buttons and the third row seats stow themselves electrically, leaving a flat floor for groceries, strollers, sports kit, the entire contents of an Ikea trolley, and whatever else you can fit into 2,554 litres of room. Other big Chinese MPVs, such as the Denza D9, Maxus Mifa 9 and Zeekr 009, are also built to pamper, but they’re nowhere as versatile.

The good news has to end somewhere, though, and that somewhere is the driver’s seat. With 347 horsepower from a single front-mounted motor, and despite weighing roughly 2.7 tonnes, the X9 is decently lively in a straight line. But it’s still a big and hefty thing, so fast cornering can feel like a battle against physics. And physics rarely loses. It’s not as soft and bouncy as most electric MPVs, but buying this for driving engagement would be like buying a microwave oven to dry your clothes.

The best you can say about the driving experience is that it’s an easy car to handle, in spite of its mammoth footprint. It’s also big on isolation and composure, because the active suspension reads the road ahead and adjusts its dampers accordingly, so the cabin stays serene while the road surface does whatever it likes.

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That comfiness will come in handy because the X9 Pro does have long enough legs for road trips. It comes with two battery options, the smaller of which packs 535 kilometres of range. XPeng claims 615 km from the Long Range version tested here – although when I returned it with 32 per cent left in the battery it suggested I still had 237 km left to go, implying 740 km of range.

Say you need electrons in a hurry, the 800-volt battery can go from 10 to 80 per cent in as little as 12 minutes, but only if you find a 542 kW DC charger, which you won’t unless you leave the country.

Mind you, I’d just as soon settle into a middle-row seat, raid the fridge, put on Netflix and hope that the charging goes slower, not faster. Whether XPeng set out to make a family bus or boardroom on wheels, the X9 excels at being both, and it’s also a mighty fine cinema.

XPeng X9 Pro Long Range Motor power/Torque 347 hp/450 Nm Battery type/Net capacity Lithium nickel cobalt manganese/110 kWh Charging time/Type Approx. 11 hours (11 kW AC), 12 minutes 10 to 80 per cent (542 kW DC) Range 615 km 0-100 kmh 8.2 seconds Top speed 200 kmh Efficiency 20.0 kWh/100 km Agent XPremium BEV Price S$349,999 with COE Available Now