► Xpeng launches in the UK with new G6 SUV
► A Model Y/Ioniq 5/Sealion rival
► Prices to start at around £45k
Another month, another electric car competitor rises to the call to be your next EV family car. This G6, from Chinese brand Xpeng, is the latest to launch – marking the start of the brand’s operations in the UK.
We’ve already had a go in one in Europe, but how does this new EV fare on UK tarmac?
At a glance
Pros: Plenty of performance and space for the money, refined on the move, filled with kit, (mostly) well-built interior
Cons: Anonymous to look at, synthetic steering, busy infotainment takes some time to get used to
What’s new?
Xpeng is a brand from China that was founded in 2014. It bills itself as a properly serious technology company that manufactures cars, as well as having its hand in subjects like software, robotics and even flying vehicles.
In the UK, the Xpeng brand is managed by International Motors, the business that’s also responsible for importing Subaru, Isuzu and Great Wall Motors models as well as Mitsubishi’s aftersales service.
‘The brand is very much focused on future mobility,’ William Brown, International Motors’ UK director tells us. ‘It’s always looking forward into the future to try and foresee what future mobility will look like, which seems a bit farfetched now in terms of things like flying cars and autonomous driving but the view is that, at some point, some of the parts of technology developed here will make their way into cars.’
Xpeng has been slowly rolling out across Europe with a range of models. In the UK, the business properly starts in February 2025 with this: the G6. The G6 is about as heartland as you can get in terms of EVs available in the UK: a crossover SUV that’s in the £45k-ish ballpark (finalised UK prices are coming in February) and it tackles several rivals including the ubiquitous Tesla Model Y. It’s a largely anonymous thing to look at, with clean looks and a ‘robot face’ designed to keep drag nice and low.
What are the specs?
Two power variants of the G6 are available in the UK: RWD Standard Range and RWD Long Range. You can broadly get the gist of how each version intends to perform, and that means no all-wheel drive dual motor version is available. The G6’s chassis architecture, named SEPA 2.0, runs on an 800-volt architecture for super-fast charging speeds.
RWD Standard Range features a 254bhp e-motor and a 66kWh battery pack, claiming 270 miles on a charge. Xpeng says that this model is capable of charging speeds up to 215kW, and is good for a 6.6sec 0-62mph sprint.
The Long Range model features a larger 87kWh battery pack and a modest boost in power from its single, rear-mounted motor, dropping the 0-62mph time down to 6.2ec and the range up to a claimed 340 miles. The Long Range model can also charge at up to 280kW.
Other than that, though, there are no trim options to choose from – just one fully-loaded model that’s armed to the teeth with tech. That means loads of semi-autonomous driving assistance via Xpeng’s ‘XPilot 2.5’ technology, automated parking, heated and cooled seats, a massive touchscreen with natural voice assistant and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Both also feature 20-inch wheels and come with Michelin tyres – no naff non-brand tyres to be found here.
What’s it like to drive?
Perfectly fine and, in some cases, quietly impressive.
Broadly, as illustrated by the way this thing looks more than anything else, this isn’t designed to be some sharp driver’s car, which is reflected in many of its controls and functions. The steering, for example, is rather synthetic in feel but light and direct enough to give you at least a base level of confidence in it.
Get a little more aggressive in your driving and the G6 behaves commendably but very neutrally. Everything’s just… fine behind the wheel. Not exciting or particularly sharp, but not soggy or overly soft either.
Acceleration is more than enough, regardless of which model you choose, whisking you into the middle distance with some urgency. That can be tempered by the drive modes (Eco, Standard, Sport and Individual – the latter allowing you to tweak pedal response, brake and steering weight) and you can go for a near-one-pedal driving mode with the customisable regen modes.
The ride is neatly balanced and well damped. It’s a smidge firm, but not crashy or harsh even over some seriously rough and potholed roads while we were out on test. Road noise is kept to a reasonable level, and that slippery front end helps keep wind noise kept to a minimum, too.
What’s the interior like?
What you notice first as you sit down is the high centre console, trimmed with a couple of (rather pokey) cupholders and a pair of fast wireless chargers. There’s an enormous storage area under the lid where your elbow rests, as well as another beneath the centre console.
The overall design is clean and pretty minimalist, with precious few significant details or features to the way it looks. There’s an oval-shaped wheel in front of you with some chunky buttons and scroll wheels attached to it, some neat window switches (and powered door releases) and a short, wide driver’s instruments display. Some of the buttons on the steering wheel can be customised in terms of what they do and allows you to change things like the fan speed and temperature or activate the parking assist.
And then you get to the huge central screen. The way the software is laid out (on here and on the drivers’ instruments, in fact) is very Tesla-like, which is both a benefit and a disadvantage. Positively, that means super crisp visuals and impressively fast responses to inputs, and neat details like a natural voice assistant that can help you locate certain features helps take the edge off what is, inevitably, a busy screen full of info. Venture into the settings menu (and all of its sub-menus) and you’ll be there for some time, reading all sorts of data on the car and tweaking everything from how the car’s modes handle to what whooshing sound it makes when it accelerates and every adjustment you could imagine to the safety tech. As well as the steering wheel buttons, there’s a swipe-down menu for quick access to the most used features, which comes in handy quickly.
The only clanger in the interior? The indicator and drive shift stalks, which are old Mercedes ones that were ditched by the Three Pointed Star years ago. This almost echoes Tesla, which did something similar with its early Model S cars and manages to feel jarring in the G6 when the rest of the interior is bespoke and well-appointed. Of course, no one will really notice where these stalks are from other than car dorks like us, but the fact they’re quite plasticky doesn’t help sell the interior quality ambience when you use them so regularly.
Impressively, despite being loaded with safety aids and technology, the G6 isn’t a nag behind the wheel by bonging senselessly for blinking too fast or coughing. It’s relatively laid back, and when it bongs it even asks you if you want the bonging to stop if it’s annoying you. The ambience is also helped via the ‘i-Private’ speaker in the driver’s headrest, which directs certain audio like navigation info to you directly.
Space is also impressive, too. Besides the high centre console that feels like a wall between driver and front passenger, the cabin feels airy – no doubt helped by a fixed glass roof. Rear space, even with the front seats moved as far back as possible, is plentiful for tall adults. The front seats can recline entirely horizontally, and the rear seats have 12 recline settings, too. Boot space is rated at 571 litres with the rear seats up, or 1374 litres folded flat – larger than a Renault Scenic and Hyundai Ioniq 5. It’s also competitive against a Tesla Model Y but, frustratingly, Tesla measures its boot volume to the roof and not the parcel shelf – so we can’t measure the two accurately until we get the two together with a tape measure.
Before you buy
More than anything, you must acknowledge that this is a fledgling brand in the UK that’s only just setting up shop, and therefore doesn’t have a large footprint at the moment. The brand plans to open 20 dealers in 2025 in key locations, says Brown, to kick off the brand’s launch in the UK. More will open in the years ahead as the brand (and its range of models available to UK buyers) will expand. That said, Xpeng has been doing business for more than a decade and has been manufacturing and selling cars in its home market that whole time, so it’s not an entirely new enterprise.
Given its market placement, the G6 has a huge amount of competition. A circa-£45k price tag aims it squarely at the Model Y, as well as the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6, BYD’s new Sealion and top-spec versions of Renault’s Scenic E-Tech. That’s one heck of a roster of very good cars that may draw you away from the G6.
Verdict: Xpeng G6
Xpeng has tried its hardest to keep up with the very best in what is possibly one of the most crowded classes of EV right now, and has mostly succeeded. The G6 is smooth, refined, spacious and well built – making it more than competitive enough against Tesla’s Model Y.
Is it perfect? No. It’s also as bland as a Model Y to look at (perhaps even more so) and far from the most interesting thing to drive but offers it plenty else besides. A good start for Xpeng.
Specs are for an Xpeng G6 RWD Long Range