XPeng G6 review: Chinese electric SUV impresses on Irish roads despite resale concerns

Improved handling, strong range and sharp pricing signal rapid progress for Chinese EV brands in Ireland

Review of the XPeng G6 electric SUV as DoneDeal research shows Irish motorists concerned about Chinese car resale values.

XPENG G6
Rating	★★★★★
Price	From €42,000-€50,600 as tested
Power	80kWh which produces an output of 296bhp
Range	525km but you can realistically expect closer to 450km
The Spec	Everything but the kitchen sink
Verdict	Rapid improvement from the Chinese very evident here

HOW Irish consumers perceive the huge influx of Chinese cars has been highlighted by online marketplace DoneDeal.

The findings were unsurprising
to this quarter: 72% of respondents said Chinese products offer better value, while 61% had a positive perception of Chinese brands. The one stat that leapt out was that 41% said resale value concerns would stop them buying Chinese. That latter gem was also unsurprising, but valid. People, understandably, want a
decent return on their investment and buying a car that would have little resale value was a no-no.

Most Chinese cars’ residual values are untested here, so Irish consumers are justifiably wary about losing money and would prefer to spend their dosh on a car they knew would be worth something when it came time to sell it on.

This is a problem the Chinese will encounter across all the new markets they are navigating, and it will, obviously, take time and patience for them to bed in and for the residual prices of their new cars to permeate in to second-hand values.

Obviously, the manufacturers and their dealers will try to massage this by persuading customers simply to swap one Chinese car for a direct replacement, with the manufacturers properly taking whatever hit is necessary to establish themselves in the marketplace.

That is a potentially long and arduous process, but one that must be undergone until Chinese manufacturers establish their credibility across the customer base.

Mention the name of many Chinese brands to anyone these days and you will be greeted by one of two responses: One will be a quizzical look that implies, “I have no idea what you’re talking about”; the other will be a knowing nod and a smirk that say, “I’m ahead of the posse here, mate, I’ve already got one”.

Xpeng G6 interior

Irish consumers are broadly aware of what the Chinese have to offer, and many punters have already done the research to prove to themselves that buying a car made in the People’s Republic (or from one of the growing number of their European manufacturing plants) is worth it. But mention of certain brands still provokes mystification.

You’re driving an XPeng, you say. I can only presume that it’s Chinese.

That was a typical response from people who politely asked me what I was test-driving this week.

XPeng is the brand name adopted by the Guangzhou Xiaopeng Technology Co Ltd, which is headquartered in Guangzhou and has offices in California and Munich. It was only founded in 2014 and produced its first car, the G3 SUV, in 2018; its second, the P7, a four-door saloon, came along in 2019.

Our tester this week, a G6, was first seen in 2023 and, now, just three years later, has been updated technologically and given a slightly revamped look. We drove one last year and, like many of the first Chinese products landing here, found it to be good, albeit rough around the edges.

The Irish distributor is MSL, long the Irish agent for Mercedes-Benz, and, more recently, another Chinese manufacturer, BYD. MSL rarely takes a misstep in its business dealings and, frankly, looks like a long-term winner with these two Chinese brands.

The concept of intelligent personal mobility forms most of the thinking behind XPeng’s products, and that’s not terribly new, to be honest. It has generated a lot of garbled waffle from manufacturers down the years. The Chinese are especially good at it.

The G6 is an upmarket SUV, oozing with tech and luxury features, and it comes with a price tag of just over €40k for the entry-level versions. Right now, the G6 is the only model that XPeng have on sale here, but there are loads more coming down the tracks and at speed.

It is also an example of Examiner Motoring’s pet hate: The SUC Coupe. Ideologically, these designs are alien to the concept of coupe motoring, but enough people seem to like the idea of them to make them viable for manufacturers to produce.

But the G6 is an impressive thing. Initially, Chinese cars battled against European road conditions and were found wanting.

Xpeng G6

They’ve adapted with startling alacrity, and the second generation of many of their cars has ironed out the problems. This upgraded G6 certainly has.

Ropey handling and technological issues that would baffle a rocket scientist were the main problems. The new G6 is still largely buttonless and switchless, which means you need plenty of time to get to grips with it (you still have to utilise the giant infotainment screen to adjust the door mirrors, for example).

On the handling front, they’ve adapted quickly, and I have to say that I tried — really, I did — to get the G6 out of its comfort zone on a varied and often testing West Cork route. But rather than getting it out of sorts, it was so good I found myself getting out of my own comfort zone. That, I felt, was a fair compliment to the abilities of this thing.

The annoying Chinese specialties, such as the invasive driver monitoring systems that chide you every time you divert your eyes from the road, are present and correct, but can be switched off. You do have to switch it off every time you drive anywhere, but it can be done.

The naked facts of the car show it to have a battery capacity of 80kWh, which produces an output of 296bhp, a 6.7-second, 0-100km/h time and a top speed of 202km/h. The official range of this long-range spec version is 525km, and that’s not the usually over-optimistic claim. They’ve optimised the battery and you can reasonably expect to get somewhere near the 450km mark.

On bad road surfaces, the G6 will, somewhat unusually for a rear-wheel drive, tend a smidge towards understeer, but not so as to be a problem. That means you can enjoy the well-designed cabin, which is hugely roomy and pretty luxurious, unconcerned by iffy handling.

The boot, too, is massive and, for those for whom such things matter, the towing capacity (braked) is 1,500kg, which will certainly resonate in some quarters.

Was this car a pleasant surprise? Yes, definitely. But, then, since the start of the Chinese automotive tsunami, we’ve really known this was always going to be the way of it: A consistent improvement in quality, design, and on-road ability.

Early adopters might have reason to feel peeved as the upward curve passed their models by, but what we have now is damned good and only going to get better. I genuinely never thought we’d reach this level so quickly, but this G6 thing has definite five-star qualities.