Xpeng “Tesla like” G6 electric SUV previewed: First experience on Australian roads

The Xpeng G6 is a Tesla Model Y-sized electric SUV and the first offering in Australia from rising Chinese car maker Xpeng, and it was on show for the first time this weekend at the Electric SUV expo in Melbourne. 

Not only was the car being showcased, but to my surprise, I even got a chance to test ride in one, or at least be in one as Tom from Ludicrous Feed took the controls.

But it was enough to get a sense of the quality and the offerings in this vehicle, which in many respects gets closer to the top-selling Tesla Model Y than any other. It is already available for order, for a $1,000 deposit, but the actual price details have yet to be released.

So here are some key takeaways from the experience after spending around 30 minutes in one, including the test ride around the streets of South Melbourne.

Starting with the look, the design is more angular at the front and rear of the car which would help its efficiency of the car when on the road, and it has indicators and running lights that help it stand out from the pack.

This Long-Range model which Xpeng calls just “Long” comes with a larger 87.5 kWh battery offering a range of up to 570 km.

Inside the car, there were clear differences between the G6 and many other EVs on the market. First of all, the software which although appeared quite “Tesla-like” had some unique features, including full integration with Android Auto and Apple Carplay. 

On top of that, the software itself felt very intuitive and the menus were easy to follow. One area which was quite interesting to observe was the animation that shows the driver what many of the settings will do to the car’s behaviour and dynamics on the road.

Past that, the customisation of the nearly 15-inch landscape screen was also quite easy with Xpeng’s user interface (UI) offering lots of variations to the app icons which appear at the bottom section of the screen while the car is being driven.

On the road, the comfort levels and the cabin noise even over bumpy roads was quite good and up there with many similarly sized electric SUVs.

According to Tom, the regenerative braking was an improvement over his BYD Seal and was very close to that experienced in EVs that offer one-pedal drive.

On the drive, the car was able to pick up traffic signals and their status along with bikes and other road users around it in real time. 

Placing the car into reverse activates multiple camera angles and even in low light conditions of an underground car park, it provided a clear view of the rear and repeater cameras on the main infotainment screen.

From the beginning of the drive, the car was able to see everything around it and visualisations were displayed on the centre screen as well as on the screen behind the steering wheel.

As soon as the car moved from the car park into the daylight, the infotainment screen changed into light mode which a few popular EVs take a bit of time to adjust to their environment. This was not the case for the G6.

The car’s moon roof also made the rear of the car quite a spacious place to be in and the seats felt quite soft and nice.

This is possibly the closest system to that seen on Tesla vehicles and provides a lot of confidence for when we can test the autonomous capabilities of the G6 with a longer test drive in the coming months.

The car’s moon roof also made the rear of the car quite a spacious place to be in and the seats felt quite soft and nice.

After the initial test ride, we look forward to spending a bit more time with the car to see how it performs on longer drives on Australian roads.

Full video of the test-ride experience on YouTube