Last year, the Chinese car company Xpeng launched its brand in Australia with its sleek, tech-driven G6 electric SUV. It has also been teasing its luxury electric people mover (MPV), the X9, at multiple EV shows in Sydney and Melbourne.
Now the company has announced that it has started production of the right-hand-drive version of the popular MPV in Indonesia as part of its global localised production strategy.
Deliveries of the first Indonesian assembled X9 to local customers in Jakarta began last week, the chairman and CEO of Xpeng, Xiaopeng He, said.
Along with the deliveries of first delivery of the Indonesian-produced X9, the company also showcased the first right-hand-drive version of the popular G6 SUV.
It’s the first time the updated G6 has been showcased in that drive configuration, marking a big milestone for the brand, given that the model includes a dozen updates over the previous generation G6 SUV.
The new 2025 G6 is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295 chipset and Nvidia Orin-X processor.
According to the company, it has 7.5 times the AI processing power and 3x the graphics speed of mainstream cars’ computing power found in that local market.
This processing power helps with infotainment screen operation, smart driving software and advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), which many drivers use in EVs today.
Given that the company has showcased the updated model of the G6 in Indonesia, it’s likely to begin it’s production in the coming months for markets like Australia too, bringing with it this tech to local drivers.
Going back to the X9, the latest version of the car was revealed in April at Xpeng’s brand night in Hong Kong.
At that event, the company showcased the key changes to the outgoing model with 10-80% fast-charging times as low as 12 minutes at its 480 kW chargers. That’s thanks to the 800 V architecture found on the X9, G6 and many new models from the company.
The updated X9 was offered in China with four variants, starting from $A77,200 and going all the way up to $A90,100 for the top-spec 7-seater.
It included key luxury MPV features, including captain’s chairs and luxury for all passengers.
Feeding the X9 are two battery packs. The first is a 94.8 kWh battery with a CLTC range of up to 650 km on a single charge. That’s likely to be closer to 580 km on the WLTP cycle.
This variant can accelerate from 0-100 km/h in just 7.7 seconds as it’s powered by a 235 kW front-mounted motor that delivers up to 450 Nm of torque, which is great given the size of the vehicle.
For those wanting more power and range, the all-wheel-drive variants come with a larger 105 kWh battery offering a CLTC range of up to 740 km. That’s likely to be closer to 650 km on the WLTP cycle. For this pack, charging times of 10-80% take around 20 minutes.
These variants also pack an additional rear motor, which helps reduce the 0-100 km/h sprint to 5.7 seconds.
This latest localised production strategy for right-hand-drive markets like Indonesia, South-East Asia, and possibly even Australia in the future could mean greater access to the latest EV architectures and platforms from Xpeng.
It also shows the speed at which Chinese EV companies are expanding in international markets, delivering more options to EV buyers in Asia Pacific than ever before.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.