2025 Xpeng G6 Review
If you were to open up the Oxford Learnerâs Dictionary website (nobody reads books these days, do they?) and search âcarâ, youâll be met with this definition: âA road vehicle with an engine and four wheels that can carry a small number of passengersâ.
I did exactly that while pondering my time with the Xpeng G6. By that definition (the engine in this case being an electric motor), itâs hard to think of any better way to describe the SUV. It is, for better and worse, nothing more and nothing less than âcarâ.
That may read a scathing review of something that should be pretty intriguing â after all, hereâs a new car from a new brand to the UK â but thereâs more to it than that. Letâs start from the top.
Xpeng G6, rear
Xpeng is, as it feels like we say every week at this point, another brand established in China that has decided it was to come and compete in the European car market. Its arrival in the UK is marked by a singular car, the electric G6 SUV.
You may have taken a look and thought to yourself. âThat looks a bit like an AI-generated close approximation of a Tesla Model Yâ, and err, I wonât disagree. Thatâs just the first of the Model Y comparisons here, too. Sorry.
Itâs priced pretty similarly as well. Go for the standard range G6, and thatâll set you back ÂŁ39,990. A longer-range model (and weâll come to specifics in a bit) will be ÂŁ44,990. The latter matches the entry Model Y, and if you want the Tesla with a bigger battery and still a single motor, thatâll be ÂŁ48,990. Those comparisons draw themselves together naturally.
Xpeng G6, side
Inside, the interior is a sea of⊠nothing. Sounds familiar, right?
Youâve got a 15-inch screen slapped centrally on the dashboard, which is used to control pretty much every function of the car, bar the actual driving. Mirrors are adjusted through the screen, as is the direction of your air con vents, heated and cooling elements for the seats, driving modes⊠You get the picture.
While the base software is snappy and sharp enough to handle all of that, it doesnât make it less of a pain to control things when youâre on the go. Having to divert your eyes away from the road and tap through menus before trying not to misjudge your vent positioning is annoying.
Xpeng G6, front
Worse still, if youâre mirroring your phone with Android Auto, you then need to come out of that if you want to do anything more than change the temperature. Or if you want to change your drive mode, the level of regenerative braking and maybe just tilt your mirror a bit.
It detracts from an otherwise perfectly reasonable cabin. Thereâs plenty of space both in the front and rear, thereâs a neat area in the centre console for storage, and the build quality is generally decent. Nothing is stand-out impressive, but nothing that bad, either.
That last sentence could be used to describe the way the Xpeng G6 drives, as well. Itâs utterly anonymous in the way it goes about its business â the steering wheel turns the car, the throttle will speed it up, and the brakes will slow it down.
Xpeng G6, interior
A slightly sarcastic way of saying it drives incredibly neutrally. Steering is well-judged enough to make nipping around town easy, but never to inspire much excitement on a back road. It rides well enough in most circumstances but doesnât do a fantastic job of isolating potholes, and gets a bit jelly-like when youâre pushing towards the national speed limit on twistier routes.
Entry-level versions of the Xpeng G6 draw power from a 65kWh net capacity battery pack, quoted as returning 270 miles on a charge. Go for the long range, and thatâll be 354 from an 84kWh pack.
A week with the longer-range G6 returned 3.15mi/kWh, at which rate youâd get around 265 miles from a single charge. At 75 per cent of the quoted capacity, thatâs about par for the course for EVs.
Ultimately, I suspect most people who end up with an Xpeng G6 will be doing so because it looked favourable on a company car scheme. If thatâs the case, simply as something that functions from A to B in the most âfineâ way possible, itâs hard to argue strongly against giving the G6 consideration.
Xpeng G6, rear
As an object of desire, though? I donât envisage a world where anyone actively wants an Xpeng G6. Although not my personal stance, there are people out there who desire a Tesla â and I canât see anyone directly taking the G6 as an alternative for anything beyond cost.
Beyond a Model Y, there are many more interesting alternatives out there, too. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 is seriously cool-looking, while a Skoda Enyaq is going to be significantly more practical. Even a Volkswagen ID4 is going to offer more badge kudos, and thatâs just scratching the surface in the vast sea of EV SUVs.
As something that fits the definition of a car? The Xpeng G6 is that. To some, thatâs fine. To those who want a bit more than that, though, you may want to shop elsewhere.
