Seven day test: 2025 XPeng G6 Long Range — “I think I want one”

This is exciting. I’ve heard good things about the XPeng G6, not least of all from EV Central’s very own Bruce Newton, and I have a sneaking suspicion this might prove the best of the new breed of Chinese electric SUVs — not to mention a genuine rival to the Tesla Model Y.

And, on paper at least, it certainly seems to stack up. The price ($59,800) is sharp against both the Tesla and the new BYD Sealion 7, the equipment list looks suitably stacked, and the motor and range promises seen solid, too. 

But it will have to survive a real-world week with my family and I, and vice versa, to really prove its mettle. 

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2025 XPeng G6 Long Range Review: Why the latest Tesla Model Y rival to land in Australia is more than a copy and paste imitation

Day 1: What the hell is that?

My wife is used to seeing all manner of weird and wonderful automotive curiosities parked at our place, and that’s only ramped up in recent years thanks to the steady flow of new Chinese product touching down in Australia.

Still, the stark white SUV with its ‘X’ logo and ‘XPeng’ stamped on its rump elicits the question that I’m sure many of you are also wondering: “what the hell is that?”

It’s an XPeng, launched in China in around 10 years ago, and which landed in Australia late last year with this one model, the G6.

You can have a cheaper one with a smaller battery, but ours is the Long Range, with its 87.5kWh battery offering up driving range of 570km. 

But before we even get close to stretching its legs, my wife tests the thing that, all of a sudden, matters more to us than almost anything else. Can the boot fit our pram, does the rear seat have easy ISOFIX points, and can the space between the backseat and the back of the passenger seat easily fit our newborn car seat, which so unfathomable gigantic it appears to have been modelled on a baby elephant?

Yes, yes, and yes, are the short answers. The backseat of the G6 can’t just fit out baby seat, but could likely swallow the Octomum’s brood (I just Googled it, by the way, and she now has 14 – FOURTEEN – kids), such is its football-pitch dimensions. 

Having wrestled this gigantic baby seat in and out of midsize SUVs in which it was butting up against the seat in front, the space on offer in the XPeng alone just about has my wife ready to order one. 

Day 2: How do the Chinese brands do this?

The kit on offer in the XPeng is wild — if this was wearing a German badge, it would be carrying you into six-figure territory. But this G6 is sub-$60k, and there’s not an option box you ever need to tick.

Ok, so you expect LED lighting, but our car’s 20-inch alloys aren’t wrapped in some Aldi middle-aisle rubber, it wears Michelins. The door handles pop out automatically, the boot is automatic, too, the roof is glass and — should you download the XPeng app — you can even command the G6 remove itself from tight parking spots rather than you having to Cirque du Soleil yourself into the cabin.

Then there’s the leather (well, leather-like) seats, the stonking 18-speaker stereo, the massive 15-inch central screen, the also-massive 10.2-inch digital dash, and the five-star ANCAP rating-earning active safety kit, which is far too long and tedious to detail here.

Just know that it’s all there, and — unlike some of the XPeng’s rivals — isn’t so intrusive that you want to pluck your eyebrows out on every drive.

Day 3:  Comfortable yes, dynamic no

Is it possible we ask too much of these eleventy-billion-kilogram electric SUVs, in that we want them to carry a big, heavy battery to deliver plenty of range, but also don’t want them to handle like a sack of concrete should we stumble across a twisting road?

This thought was ricocheting through my head as I took the XPeng on a solo jaunt, with the aim of putting its dynamics to test, without putting my wife’s patience through a similar exam. 

The XPeng G6 is no sports car. It’s a two-tonne-plus SUV that prioritises comfort over all else. The steering is vague even in its sportiest setting, the suspension is soft and compliant, and so allows for plenty of movement when being pushed, and even the straight-line acceleration — a claimed 6.2 seconds — isn’t really peel-your-hairline-back stuff.

But, and this is a big but, it’s bloody comfortable. We’re talking composure, refinement and cabin calmness here, which is probably far more important in day-to-day family life than need-for-speed its middle-aged owner (me) occasionally feels.

Day 4: The road trip

My wife has decided that a car can’t truly be tested unless I take it (and her, and our baby) on a longer road trip of at least 100kms. Which I ostensibly agree with, though I am slightly suspicious that said road trip always conveniently ends at the type of ludicrously expensive lunch venue where asking for tomato sauce is considered a crime against humanity.

Still, it does give me the chance to stretch the XPeng’s legs (and possibly submit a questionable expense claim to the good folks at EV Central), with a total 115km roundtrip beckoning.

And I’m going to come right out and say it – this is my current fave among these new crop of electric SUVs. It’s super spacious, comfortable, quiet in the cabin, cruisy on the freeway, and the range is very, very liveable.

We know already that this Long Range version gets the biggest battery and longest range, but I was also pretty happy to score better efficiency than XPeng promises on the tin. The official power use figure is 17.5kWh/100km, but my number was more like 14kWh.

The G6 is set up for 280kW DC fast charging, which means a 10-80 per cent charge should take just 20 minutes when using the right charger.

I say “should”, because I didn’t charge it. Franky, I didn’t need to.

Day 5: A win for form, less so for function

Call me crazy, but I suspect there may be a picture of a Model Y hanging in XPeng’s design office. Both share the same soft edges, the same swept-back silhouette and the same kind of blobby electric SUV-ness.

But in the battle of who wore it better, my fam is handing it to XPeng, which scores enough exterior highlights — the strip lighting up front, the McLaren-style black light housings, the rear spoilers — to break up the design a little bit.

Revolutionary? No. But inoffensive, and also premium enough, especially sitting on its big 20-inch alloys. 

I think the cabin has the Tesla beat, too. It might share its vaguely minimalistic sentiment with the Model Y, but life is simply better with a screen in front of the driver. 

But there are some irritating ingredients in XPeng recipe. That big central screen has its air-con control buttons permanently along its bottom, but using Apple CarPlay undoes that good work, filling all the space and ensuring you have to revert back to the main XPeng screen frequently.

You can use the steering wheel buttons to change the temp and such, but you also use the same buttons as a shortcut to control distance to the car in front when you have cruise control on, which can get a little boggling when you’re not totally used to the car, too. 

There’s a simple solution, of course. Bring back physical buttons.

Day 6: Practicality proves the biggest perk

We’re off to a mate’s place for dinner, which used to mean my wife and I jumping into the car holding nothing more than bottle of wine.

Since the arrival of the little one, though, it means packing like we’re laying a city to siege, with prams, rockers, fancy auto-swinging chairs, bottles, toys, travel cots, you name it.

Our luggage load has defeated plenty of SUVs lately, but not so the XPeng. At 4753mm in length, 1920mm in width and 1650mm in height, the G6 is technically a mid-size SUV, but its EV packaging makes it feel a whole lot bigger inside.

The flat-floored boot is 571-litre boot, or a massive 1374 litres with the seats folded flat, and anything we couldn’t fit there we popped into the cavernous back seats. 

I’m left thinking this might be the single biggest perk of XPeng ownership. 

Day 7: “I think I want one”

If nothing else, the XPeng has won my wife over, who I heard muttering “I think I want one” more than once over our week with the G6. Not a phrase she says about most vehicles, and one I’ve never heard her utter in a Tesla…

2025 XPeng G6 Long Range specifications

Price: $59,800 (plus on-road costs)
Basics: EV, 5 seats, 5 doors, medium SUV, RWD
Range: 570km (WLTP)
Battery capacity: 87.5kWh
Battery warranty: 8 years/160,000km
Energy consumption: 17.5Wh/100km (WLTP)
Motor: 1 rear permanent magnet synchronous, 210kW/440Nm.
AC charging: 11kW, Type 2 plug
DC charging: 280kW, CCS combo plug
0-100km/h: 6.2 seconds