Tesla Model Y-bashing XPeng G6 opens order books ahead of Australian deliveries in 2024
Pre-orders for the Tesla Model Y-rivalling 2025 XPeng G6 have officially begun following the announcement that the advanced, all-electric SUV will land in dealers in late 2024.
Pricing for the XPeng G6 has yet to be revealed but interested buyers are being asked to place a fully refundable $1000 deposit to reserve the first batch of cars.
When they arrive, the new all-electric SUVs will be available for collection at new locations in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane. A free home-delivery service for most locations will also be available.
Primed to be the biggest threat yet for the Tesla Model Y, the latest Chinese brand to enter the Australian market hopes to tempt buyers away from the best-selling Tesla, with the Xpeng G6’s appealing blend of state-of-the-art tech and high levels of equipment.
Buyers will have the choice of just two rear-wheel-drive variants – a Standard Range and a Long Range variant, with both boasting a powerful 800-volt electrical system for ultra-fast recharges.
In Australia we won’t get the fastest all-wheel-drive version until 2025. Until then, the base model gets a single e-motor that drives the rear wheels and musters 190kW and 440Nm of torque and has a smaller 66kW battery, which enables it to cover up to 435km on a charge.
The bigger 87.5kWh battery in the Long Range version sees the G6 drive beyond 570km before it needs plugging in, while producing a little more power (210kW) but the same amount of torque.
Both deliver brisk rather than class-leading acceleration (6.9sec or 6.7sec) and miss out on the serious thrust the 350kW/660Nm dual-motor version delivers. That one can launch from 0-100km/h in just 4.1 seconds.
Technological highlights of the new XPeng G6 include the fact that in can complete a 10-80 per cent charge in just 20 minutes on a 280kW charger, plus the option of Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) bidirectional charging.
XPeng has kept the line-up simple, once you’ve chosen which powertrain you want there’s the choice of just five colours: white, silver, grey, black or orange, which can be combined with either a light or dark-coloured interior, while large 20-inch alloy wheels are standard.
It’s not clear if the cars imported Down Under will match the class-leading, European-spec levels of standard kit, which includes a large 15-inch infotainment screen, a 960W 18-speaker premium sound system (that includes two-speakers within the headrest), plus a 10.2-inch digital instrument cluster, dual 50W wireless smartphone chargers, which are cooled so your phone doesn’t overheat, a heated steering wheel, heated and cooled front seats, heated rear seats, four USB ports and a full panoramic glass roof.
It’s expected the XPeng G6 will come with a full range of semi-autonomous driver aids but it will miss out on the most advanced LiDAR tech offered in China, which will give the G6 a full eyes-off-the-road driverless (Level 3) capability in geofenced areas, like Chinese freeways.
XPeng has declared the G6 will be among the safest in its class but has yet to receive an official EuroNCAP or ANCAP rating.
In Europe, the XPeng G6 has already won acclaim by winning both range and efficiency tests in markets like Norway, where journalists found the G6 outperformed 26 rivals.
As far as price position goes, it’s been reported that the importer wants to avoid challenging the likes of the very cheapest MG, BYD and GWM models. Instead, XPeng will price its G6 closer to what’s charged for more preimium mid-size SUVs like the Tesla Model Y and Hyundai IONIQ 5.
