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The XPENG G6 offers an impressive driving experience, long range, lots of space, and the latest tech at a much more affordable price than many rivals – and the company also makes flying cars!
XPENG is one of the latest Chinese brands to appear in the UK. Founded relatively recently in 2014, XPENG has been working on advanced autonomous driving technology, and Volkswagen has invested in the company. XPENG has also been developing ‘flying cars’: electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft as well as a very cool-looking six-wheel drive range-extended electric ‘Land Aircraft Carrier’ vehicle, out of which appears the aircraft. The Land Aircraft Carrier is due to go on sale in 2026 with an estimated price of around $275,000 with China initially being the main market for its ‘low-altitude mobility’ products. So is XPENG the Chinese brand to watch?
The XPENG G6 is a pure-electric mid-size coupe SUV (4,753mm long) with lots of rear legroom and a large 571-litre boot, increasing to 1,374 litres with the rear seats folded. You can even recline the front seats to be virtually flat and select experiences such as for ‘mindfulness’ on the touchscreen. The cabin, like most Chinese EVs, is minimalistic, with the touchscreen being the main feature, and even opening the doors from the inside means finding a very small button on the door trim. The cabin looks and feels high quality, with a very light-coloured ‘leatherette’ interior trim on our test car.
The G6 is rear-wheel drive, with two battery options: 66 kWh LFP or 87.5 kWh NCM, both of which are integrated as part of the car’s platform.
The XPENG G6 has a towing capacity of 1,500 kg.
The term ‘premium’ has been over-used for many years in relation to cars but we’re going to use it again anyway: the XPENG G6 offers a premium driving experience. This includes the tactile feel of the steering wheel, the weight of the controls – including steering and brakes – and critically, the way that the suspension insulates the car’s occupants from most poor road surfaces. As well as good ride comfort, and unlike some rivals, there’s some agility in the chassis, and the handling is enjoyable thanks to rear-wheel drive – although there’s not much entertainment, even with the traction control system switched off. Unlike some Chinese cars, the G6 was fitted with high-end tyres, Michelin Pilot Sports. With a 0-62 mph acceleration time of 6.2 seconds, performance is good.
Virtually all electric cars are refined, but the XPENG G6 feels more refined than most, and is very quiet on long motorway journeys.
One of the best things about the G6’s driving experience compared to many Chinese EVs is the absence of constant beeping from driving assistance systems.
However one thing in common with most Chinese EVs is the complete lack of any physical buttons in the cabin and the reliance on all controls being on the large, 15-inch central touchscreen (you also get a 10-inch screen in front of the driver). The touchscreen and its information is dark, including the satnav graphics, and more useful shortcut buttons would be helpful, but the main issue is that when Apple CarPlay is in use, you lose all controls on the touchscreen for items such as climate and assistance systems (there’s a huge number of menus and sub-menus on the assistance screen). When CarPlay isn’t being used, pop-up boxes appear on the touchscreen asking if you want to switch off items such as audible speed limit warnings, but these don’t appear when CarPlay is on the screen.
In the absence of buttons to press for car controls, Chinese manufacturers would like you to speak to the car to tell it what you want. We tried this on many occasions with very mixed results; the most common response that we got was “XPENG doesn’t know how it works”.
There’s one final, big item for improvement: adjustment of the door mirrors. There are no physical controls on the doors to adjust the position of the mirrors. You can initiate this process through the touchscreen, but it’s not user-friendly. The best solution we could find – after many attempts of trying with different forms of words – was to ask the car to adjust the mirrors, and then you change the position of the mirrors using scroll wheels on the steering wheel. Compared to this, traditional physical controls on the inside of the door to adjust the mirrors is massively more user-friendly – and safer.
The XPENG G6 RWD Long Range has a WLTP combined electric driving range of 353 miles; the real-world range averaged 320 miles on test, which is impressive.
Also impressive, thanks to the 800-volt electrical architecture, is the ultra-rapid charging rate of 280 kW, which should allow a 10% to 80% DC charge in 20 minutes. The G6 can charge using AC current at up to 11 kW.
The G6 has a WLTP energy consumption figure of 3.6 miles/kWh, with its efficiency being helped by a slippery drag coefficient of 0.248 and standard fitment of a heat pump.
The XPENG G6 is available with two batteries: a 66 kWh Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) battery with a 270-mile WLTP driving range, or a Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide (NCM) battery with a net capacity of 87.5 kWh and a 341-354 miles WLTP driving range. The XPENG G6 RWD Standard Range is priced at £39,990; the XPENG G6 RWD Long Range is priced at £44,990.
Standard equipment includes XPilot 2.5 Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS), a 960W 18-speaker audio system, and over-the-air (OTA) software and firmware updates. Six exterior colour options are available and a choice of either a black interior or a light grey and black two-tone finish.
There are increasing numbers of Chinese companies coming to the UK offering electric cars. We’ve reviewed the EVs from all the main brands and the vast majority are better than most people would expect, but the XPENG G6 takes things to the next level. The driving experience has a genuinely premium feel, it has a long range, ultra-rapid charging, lots of space, and the latest technology. And all that for under £40,000 for the G6 RWD Standard Range model, and under £45,000 for the G6 RWD Long Range model, meaning that the G6 is priced more competitively than many rivals. The G6 would benefit from permanent shortcut buttons on the touchscreen for controls such as climate, visible even when Apple CarPlay is being used, and a more user-friendly solution for adjusting the mirrors is needed, but overall the XPENG G6 is awarded a Green Car Guide rating of 9 out of 10. European manufacturers need to take notice of many of the latest Chinese EVs, but especially the XPENG G6.
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