Xpeng – Tech company or car company?

Xpeng is set for a New Zealand launch soon. It will lead its assault with the G6. We check it out in China ahead of its arrival here.

If you have not heard of Xpeng yet, you will soon. The Guangzhou based brand has been circling New Zealand for a while, entering Australia early through a distributor then waiting for the right moment to arrive here direct from head office. There is a reason for that. Australia’s cars came through a partner arrangement, but New Zealand’s allocation will be factory backed. EV groups have already spotted the first arrivals being unloaded, even if final specification, pricing and dealer details remain under wraps. 

Xpeng?

While new to New Zealand, Xpeng has several generations of vehicles on the road in China and selected export markets. It also has serious automotive and tech pedigree behind it. The company was founded by GAC alumni Xia Heng and He Tao, and named for its current chairman, former Alibaba executive He Xiapeng. Xiaomi founder Lei Jun was an early investor. 

Xpeng is often billed as China’s Tesla, although that sells the company short. Founded in 2014, it has grown well beyond carmaking. It builds its own EVs, develops an in-house autonomous driving stack, operates the AeroHT eVTOL project and is preparing to mass produce a humanoid robot called Iron. It even produces its own Turing AI processor chips. So while the G6 destined for New Zealand presents as a conventional five door coupe SUV, the depth behind it runs far deeper. 

G6: tech heavy

The model quietly arriving now is the updated 2025 G6, built on Xpeng’s SEPA 2.0 platform with an 800 volt electrical system. The facelift is subtle but effective. A full width light bar sits up front with the main headlamps tucked low in the bumper, and the rear gains a cleaner diffuser and a neatly integrated ducktail. The silhouette is familiar Model Y territory, but the surfacing is stronger and the detailing more intricate, particularly in the lighting and wheel designs. 

There is no frunk. Xpeng instead prioritises cabin and boot space. Luggage capacity is quoted at 647 litres with the seats up and 1752 litres folded, with underfloor storage and useful oddments space in the centre console. 

A walk around the car shows where the brand’s tech obsession comes to the fore. Cameras are mounted everywhere, supported by ultrasonic sensors and a suite of radar hardware to enable its XNGP style supervised self drive. 

Our Guangzhou test car ran on 20-inch wheels yet still rode impressively. Suspension compliance rivals the best in the class. It irons out rough surfaces without harshness and maintains tidy body control. Steering is light but consistent, and the whole car feels more mature than a first effort from a new brand usually does. 

Inside, the G6 follows the modern EV formula with a slim instrument display and a large central touchscreen handling most functions. You can tell Xpeng has studied both Tesla and Mercedes. The software looks polished and the voice assistant is quick, although there is a learning curve as most functions sit in nested menus. After a short drive loop my notes read “composed, comfortable, mature” which is far from a given for a market debut.  

Drivetrains?

Xpeng had not confirmed the New Zealand range at the time of writing, but export-market spec gives a clear indication of what to expect. Two battery packs are offered: a 68.5kWh lithium iron phosphate pack and an 87.5kWh nickel manganese cobalt pack. Three basic configurations are built off those.  

Standard and Long Range rear drive models use a single motor delivering around 210 to 218kW and 440 to 450Nm. Xpeng quotes mid six second sprints to 100km/h and WLTP ranges from about 435km for the smaller pack up to roughly 570km for the long range version. Performance AWD variants add a front motor for 358kW and 660Nm combined, delivering a claimed four second sprint and ranges in the low to mid 500s. 

The big step change is charging. The 2025 update brings new 5C battery packs and an 800 volt silicon carbide powertrain. In China the small pack peaks at 382kW DC and the larger pack at 451kW. Xpeng quotes 10 to 80 per cent in as little as 12 minutes under ideal conditions. The updated G6 supports up to 6.6 kW V2L output. 

Our own forecasting suggests a four grade local line up made from some combination of Standard Range RWD, Long Range RWD and AWD Performance. Equipment levels will likely climb with wheel size, audio upgrades and driver assistance features. Whatever the final mix, G6 should sit close to a long range Model Y for performance and range but with far quicker peak charging rates and that useful V2L capability. 

XNGP, Turing?

Numbers alone do not define Xpeng’s approach. The company positions its cars as showcases for its autonomous technology. The 2025 G6 debuts a Turing AI intelligent driving system in China, drawing on the company’s VLA physical AI model and running on Nvidia Orin hardware. It delivers assisted driving across most road types rather than limiting help to motorways. Future versions will migrate to Xpeng’s own Turing chips. 

The sensor suite is vision-first, combining cameras, millimetre wave radar and ultrasonic sensors rather than lidar. Europe is already receiving the system as XNGP via over the air updates. 

Our brief Guangzhou drive offered only a small taste, but in modest traffic it handled lane keeping, sign recognition and adaptive cruise with confidence. The way it merges, changes lanes and moderates speed feels closer to Tesla’s FSD supervised mode than the conservative systems used by mainstream brands. It remains supervised driving and local calibration will be important, but the foundation is strong. 

Will New Zealand get it at launch? Initially the answer was no due to Australian regulatory constraints, but once we explained New Zealand’s far more permissive framework the conversation softened. The brand has since followed up. Watch this space. 

P7, yes please

Waiting in the wings is the new generation P7 fastback sedan, only recently launched. On paper, it is a serious rival for the Tesla Model 3 and BYD Seal, with styling that leans unexpectedly toward a Nissan Z Nismo. 

It shares the 800 volt platform and Turing based driving stack with the G6 and offers two battery choices: 74.9kWh and 92.2kWh. The standard rear drive model produces roughly 270kW while the dual motor version jumps to 437kW for an estimated 3.7 second sprint. 

We only managed a very short drive, yet like the G6 it impressed with excellent ride quality and a surprisingly accommodating rear seat. There is no confirmation for New Zealand, although it is under consideration.  

I have a Chinese licence

Driving a Chinese car in China required obtaining a temporary local licence and the process is quite the experience. While Chinese visitors can rent a car in New Zealand and drive the South Island in a three tonne camper, Kiwis face a harder path in reverse. International licences are not accepted and only a few centres issue temporary permits. For us, Xpeng stepped in to help. 

The process took half a day at a police licensing office as piles of documents were scanned, stamped, then scanned again by uniformed staff. The final step was a mandatory thirty minute viewing of crash videos, mostly truck versus scooter incidents, along with cautionary footage of breath test arrests. It felt a bit like watching Highway Cops and Motorway Patrol back to back, only with fewer laughs. 

You are monitored throughout. One local applicant was sternly warned for checking his phone mid-video. Part of me wonders if a similar refresher might be useful here before we renew our own licences to drive several tonnes of metal around New Zealand’s roads.