Xpeng G6 review

One of the companies that will be displaying cars and offering test drives at the event is 11-year-old Chinese car maker Xpeng. (Ford Motor Co was 11 years old in 1914).

I recently picked up a squeaky clean, brand new Xpeng G6 from a big vehicle distributor situated halfway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. The light in Queensland is bright, dazzlingly bright, almost as bright as the car.

This proper dazzling G6 is very easy to find in a car park full of white Teslas and Toyotas, seemingly the two most common cars in Australia. Oh, sorry, I said cars, the Teslas are cars, the Toyotas are all massive pick-up trucks known locally as Utes. My bad.

However, this is not just a review of the Xpeng, which, after 924 kilometres (574 miles) of driving has proven to be incredibly reliable, easy to drive, quiet, cool (average external temperature around 32c) with properly impressive range. It will also contain a small rant, sorry, I mean measured opinion piece about rapid chargers in Australia and how finally, things are changing for the better. But I digress.

At AU$54,000 (£27,376) for the standard range G6 it comes in at just over $1,000 cheaper than a Tesla Model Y. I don’t want to do any more comparisons, it’s a very different proposition, but it’s a bit cheaper and goes a bit further on a charge. And as I’ve already said, the one we drove is very orange.

The wide range of electric cars now available in Australia is impressive. Due to the country’s smallish population size, (about the same as greater London) there has often been historic disappointment here as they use right hand drive cars and some manufacturers have never launched their cars here.

That, I believe, has really changed. And it’s all about China.

More than 80 per cent of EVs sold in Australia, including Teslas, are already manufactured in China. As many readers will know, BYD is now the biggest EV company in the world, recently overtaking Tesla and still accelerating. Xpeng, a company less well known outside China, are also making big inroads in Australia and more recently in Europe.

When I think back 16 years or so to the first time I was aware of cars built in China, to be perfectly honest I was not impressed. They looked a bit dated and even with my lack of appreciation for the subtleties of design and build quality, I could tell the cars on display were, well, a bit shonky.

Cut forward to today, and lordy, they know how to make a very fine car. The G6 is a slick sophisticated machine. The interior is subdued and calming, the road noise is minimal, the sound system crisp and clear. The screens and infotainment system work seamlessly, even the voice activation is spot on, with very competent voice recognition.

“Hey Xpeng, how do I open the charge port?’ I asked on day one. The charge port immediately popped open, and the screen showed me the numerous ways you could access the charge port from the steering wheel buttons or screen.

The reason I’m saying this is because I learned the various work arounds and quirks of the car in minutes, by asking it. I know I shouldn’t be impressed as these capabilities become commonplace, but I know from long experience not all cars are quite this easy to navigate.

So, on the day of our drive from Brisbane to Sydney, we set off at 6am, before it got too hot. I had charged the car to 100% the day before from my sister in law’s solar panels. The range indicator suggested we had 739 kilometres or 459 miles of range!

I was sceptical about the accuracy of this claim and about 20 kilometres into our journey, my doubt was confirmed. The range indicator dropped from the frankly ridiculous 739 km range to 538 in short order. However, from then on it sorted itself out and reduced at the same rate as the actual distance we covered, as in after 100 kilometres of travel, the range indicator dropped by 100 kilometres. Nice.

Battery management software is complex and subtle, batteries are weird and run on magic, (that’s a joke, just saying this for the more pedantic reader) so I don’t let quirks like this worry me. It became obvious as the journey progressed that the car could gobble up well over 500 kilometres at constant highway speed of 110 kph (68 mph) with ease.

After driving 296 kilometres (183 miles) we stopped to charge at an Evie rapid charger next to a filling station at Tyndale, New South Wales. Now, a little update on charging infrastructure in Australia.

Breath in, aaaand relax, let that tension go. It’s bad for your heart.

In New South Wales all new rapid chargers being installed from now on have to have a ‘tap to pay’ option, you know, really weird modern technology that no one uses 10 million times a day.

And that, dear reader, is a critically important step. If electric cars are going to be accepted by the mainstream, they must be very easy to use.

Because the charger we used in Tyndale required an app or an RFID card. Both of which I have because I’ve driven EVs in Australia before and have been witnessed (many years back) lying in a foetal position at the base of a wretched rapid charger in the hot dust screaming for mummy.

A very nice man in a Polestar was trying to make one of the chargers work, my heart sank. A Hyundai Kona was at the other charger, same problem, the woman had been on the phone for 10 minutes trying to get some electrons.

Meanwhile, at the petrol and diesel pumps, there was an impressive queue of Utes piled high with Australian leisure equipment waiting to buy toxic imported refined fossil fuel. It was a joyous scene for all.

When the other two drivers gave up, I was prepared to drive on and try the next one, I want to note we could have covered a further 150 kilometres with zero anxiety regarding the battery but alarming anxiety regarding my bladder.

However, my wife, another hardened Australia EV driver made me try the charger. Explain me this, the damn thing worked instantly, giving us 195 kilowatts without hesitation.

If I want to buy some milk, a can of beans, a banana, a toothbrush I don’t have to download an app, apply for an RFID card, join a special club.

If I stop at a petrol filling station in a combustion car, I can pump the toxic liquid into my tank, walk into the store and pay the cashier. Job done

We all make dozens of these basic, run of the mill transactions every day. Where, for pities sake, did the idea come from to make the first generation of rapid chargers so incredibly difficult to use. My attitude toward the bozos who set up the systems we poor electric car drivers have had to rely on is, I’m trying to be polite . . . very negative.

Here’s a bitter example from a previous journey in the Antipodes. I stopped at a BP fuel stop where they had a couple of BP pulse chargers. I have the right app, connected to my debit card, all set up. I’ve used it numerous times in the UK.

This, I want to remind you, is a system installed and run by BP. A multinational, multibillion dollar company with true global reach. Oh but of course, the BP pulse app doesn’t work outside the UK. Some over paid beeping beeper who ‘runs the IT system’ is either so pathetic they can’t operate a door handle, or it’s deliberate and they’ve set up a stupid system to stymie any chance of people not buying their toxic fuel.

Explain me this BP executives. If you have bothered to try and greenwash the brand by putting electric vehicle chargers on your forecourt, how effing hard would it be to set up a system where I can pay for the wretched electricity at the counter in the store like a normal person.

And this next point is as annoying as it is relevant. The Xpeng G6 we are driving is part of the first batch of these cars to arrive in Australia. It has literally been in the country a week when I picked it up. It is not yet ‘homologated’ to be able to successfully charge on Tesla’s open Supercharger network which does exist in Australia. All the other cars we have driven here, including MG’s, Polestars, BYD’s have been able to use Superchargers.

So I don’t want to give the impression that it’s difficult to complete long electric car journeys in Australia, it was almost impossible 8 years ago in anything but a Tesla but now it’s not. There are six Tesla Supercharger stations between Brisbane and Sydney that any car can use, way more than we would need in the G6.

Why is this important? Because Tesla superchargers always, always work. They are easy to use and really fast and there’s a load of them in every location. I’m sure there is peak time congestion, but I have never had to wait. Yes, you need the Tesla app in Australia for the existing network, but all new Superchargers installed will now be tap to pay.

Our next stop was after another 253 kilometres (157 miles) just outside the coastal town of Port Macquarie. Here we arrived at a ChargeFox rapid charger installed by the NRMA, (National Roads and Motorists’ Association) who have been at the forefront of installing an impressive network of chargers aaaand . . . . the people in a BYD Atto 3 using one of the two chargers told us the available one wasn’t working. They had tried to use it 3 times and gave up.

And breath into the pain, let that fury and bitterness float off into the clouds.

But once again, explain me this. We plugged in, used the ChargeFox app to register the charge and click, it all worked without a hitch. 125 kilowatts. Nice.

So the absurdity is, both chargers worked faultlessly and we eventually arrived at our friends house with 36% of battery capacity remaining, which is always part of my master plan.

After a total of 924 kilometres (574 miles) we were relaxed, happy and genuinely not tired. There had been three of us in the car, we all took turns driving, we all had a nap in the very spacious rear seats. It was, all in all, a very low stress and enjoyable long drive.

The Xpeng G6 is what I would call a luxury car, very smooth and quiet, amazing air conditioning, I had to turn it down when I was driving because my hands were so cold. The exterior temperature was by then in the mid 30’s.

I’ve got to say this. After a mere 14 years, this Chinese company is producing exceptional cars, easily on a par with the very best that German car companies can produce. It is a very good example of the challenge the legacy automakers are facing.

Okay, the orange is a bit intense for my old eyes, but they come in a variety of colours, I wouldn’t personally go for the white interior, but again, they offer a wide range of choices there too.

I’ve got a gripe though, if you yawn when you’re driving the Xpeng G6 a little warning message pings up on the screen, saying ‘driver tiredness alert, stop and rest.’

It’s a safety feature. Fair enough. But then my wife said something outrageous and probably offensive and I laughed with my big open gob. Ping, up came the warning ‘driver tiredness alert, stop and rest.’

I bellowed some expletives into the car in the hope someone in China could hear me. Foolish? We shall see.

Get your tickets for Everything Electric AUSTRALIA NSW live in Sydney on the 7th 8th and 9th of March.