IN what has become a very crowded market, another Chinese brand has joined the electric vehicles competition in Ireland in the form of Xpeng. The first model, the G6, is directly targeting Tesla’s Model Y on both price and specification levels.
BY BRIAN BYRNE
It’s only a decade since the company was formed in China with the backing of a highly successful tech entrepreneur, He Xiaopeng.
The first car rolled out in 2018, and by 2022 Xpeng were selling in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands.
By the end of this year the brand will be a contender in no less than 16 European-related markets and 60 countries globally.
Back in their home, Xpeng are front runners in the world’s most competitive EV market and have sold more than half a million vehicles.
The company is also developing robots and electric flying vehicles.
The G6 is a mid-size SUV coupe, a tad longer than the Volkswagen ID.5.
The styling is clean and the technical aerodynamics with a Cd (drag coefficient) of 0.248 is impressive on paper.
Design details in the LED lights and frontage are distinctive without being heavy.
A modern and smooth version of what we used to call a Kamm-back rear stylistically works very well, and promises that rear headroom won’t be compromised.
The overall aesthetic seems well thought through.
The interior styling and finish is minimalist with a little bit more, featuring artificial leather and the unfortunately de rigeur large centre screen, but unlike the Tesla rival there’s also a driver instrumentation pod.
The high centre console offers dual phone charging pads, with open storage underneath and a deep storage box that doubles as a driver’s armrest.
There’s a real tilt to comfort features, both front seats have full heating and ventilation and position memory.
Details include electric door openers. The finish throughout as an impression is somewhat bland, but trim quality is perceptively high. It’s a roomy car for those in the rear and the boot has a good 571L capacity.
The G6 comes with a choice of standard or long-range batteries, rated respectively at 435km and 570km ranges and with a 20-minute time to charge from 10pc-80pc.
What is a more interesting figure is that, with a high-power charger, a quick 5-minute charge will add 120km, so for many longer journeys there’s likely no need to factor in an extended break to get to destination.
Both versions are RWD and acceleration can be as fast as 6.7s to 100km/h if that’s your need.
It’s a typically very high tech Chinese car in terms of cameras and monitors, and one of those is watching the driver all the time to catch yawning or other signs of tiredness or inattention.
When I have a longer opportunity with the car I’ll see if these are over-sensitive to irritation level.
Other cameras are monitoring your car while parked, and if anything bumps or anyone tries to interfere with it, a video record will be kept and alarm raised via the owner’s phone.
In what was a relatively short initial experience with the car — an hour or so — it felt a good place to be, and the aerodynamics certainly seemed to work in a lack of wind noise.
The drive itself was seamless and virtually silent. It all reinforced the concept that has become reality, electric cars are not the future.
They are the now, and however much the new version of President Trump might rail against them in favour of his fossil fuel friends, he is merely a President Canute against the waves. And like it or not, the biggest waves are coming from China.
The G6 will be the only model in Ireland from Xpeng this year, but two others already in LHD markets in Europe are the G9 large SUV, and the P7+ coupe. All three have achieved top level ENCAP safety ratings.
