XPeng G6 review: Tap to park, push for progress
The XPeng G6 is far more than a Tesla Model Y clone. It’s an existential threat to conventional premium SUVs
SO SWIFTLY and smoothly does the XPeng G6 park itself after a few taps on the touchscreen, watching it in action was enough to rattle my sense of manliness. Lots of cars can slot themselves into a parking space, but the G6 does it with alarming precision and speed. It’s a small taste of just how self-driving Xpeng wants its cars to be.
This focus on autonomy comes straight from the founder, He Xiaopeng, a coder who struck gold by selling his web browser to Alibaba in a deal reported to be China’s biggest acquisition at the time. Instead of retiring to a private island, he thought, “You know what? I’ll start a car company.” Because that’s what you do when you’re young, flush with cash and have a penchant for electric, connected, self-driving cars.
What He ended up with in the G6 looks very much like the Tesla Model Y’s Chinese cousin. He could have done worse, seeing how the Model Y was the best-selling car in the world last year. The two share a similar size and shape, down to the coupe-like lines. And like the Model Y, the G6 has smooth sheetmetal that makes a baby’s bottom look like sandpaper in comparison. Its slippery shape boasts a drag coefficient of just 0.248, and isn’t just a matter of vanity – every drop in that number by 0.01 means an extra 7 kilometres of range.
Speaking of range, XPeng offers two flavours of G6 here: a more powerful model with 286 horsepower and the ability to cover 570 km on a single charge, and the standard version I tested, which manages 435 km and gets by on 258 horsepower.
Based on the couple of days I spent with the G6, I don’t see it struggling to hit the claimed range, but there’s some nuance here if you’re trying to decide which version to buy. The standard model’s 66 kWh battery has lithium iron phosphate chemistry, meaning it can be charged regularly to 100 per cent, unlike the nickel cobalt manganese 87.5 kWh battery in the long-range model, which is more energy dense but degrades faster if you regularly charge it past 80 per cent. That means you’ll end up with similar range with both cars if you use them as intended, but the long-range model does have extra capacity for that occasional road trip to Kuala Lumpur.
Either way, you’ll probably enjoy your time behind the wheel. Even the less powerful G6 feels as fast as a good turbodiesel, only it responds with instant torque and is much more silent and smooth.
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With slightly vague steering and a little high-speed floatiness, the XPeng isn’t set up like a BMW, but what it lacks in dynamism, it makes up for in comfort. The cabin is plush, quiet and feels premium pretty much everywhere, so it’s a lovely, inviting place to spend time.
The headroom is astonishing, like they designed it for King Charles to drive in full regalia, and the interior looks like it was styled by Brunello Cucinelli – it’s the perfect blend of muted colours and clean lines, and it exudes minimalism without feeling bare. That minimalism is why you won’t find physical buttons anywhere on the dashboard. As they say in tech circles, that’s a feature rather than a bug. The upshot? You need to be prepared to re-learn how to operate a car, although on the plus side the UI is as customisable as a smartphone. That means after you set things up, if you can’t find the seat ventilation button it’ll be because you misplaced it yourself.
Two things worth complaining about are that the clear glass roof lacks a roll-out shade, putting you at the mercy of the sun, and the fact that you need to use the touchscreen to aim the air-con vents, which I think is as gimmicky as a Bluetooth toaster.
In terms of non-tech, regular car stuff, the G6 is a mixed bag. Space for passengers is a strong point because it’s ultra-roomy in the back. Room for stuff, less so, because the boot doesn’t look very big, even though the numbers say it’s a commodious 571 litres.
You can fold the rear seats down to expand cargo capacity to 1,374 litres, so the XPeng is as practical as you’d expect a sport utility vehicle to be, but there are still a couple of rookie mistakes here – no hooks for grocery bags, and nowhere to stow the luggage cover, for example.
Still, these are minor quibbles for a car that offers remarkable value for money. The G6 is spacious, fast, refined, modern and well-equipped, enough to have you wondering if it’s really worth spending an extra six figures on a German rival. When I handed back the key, I realised it isn’t my masculinity that’s under threat from the XPeng – it’s the very existence of combustion cars from the old guard.
XPeng G6 Standard Range Motor power/Torque 258 hp / 440 Nm Battery type/Net capacity Lithium iron phosphate / 66 kWh Charging time/Type Less than 7 hours (at 11 kW AC, estimated), 10 to 80 per cent in 28 minutes (at 215 kW DC, estimated) Range 435 km 0-100 km: 6.6 seconds Top speed 200 kmh Efficiency 17.5 kWh/100 km Agent Premium Automobiles BEV Price S$228,999 with COE Available Now
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