Xpeng prides itself on the expertise of its automobiles. The G6 boasts 29 sensors—together with 5 millimeter-wave radars, 12 ultrasonic wave radars, and 12 cameras—and runs on an Nvidia Orin-X processor with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8155P cockpit chip.
That is all used to run the in-house infotainment system (wi-fi Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are coming by way of a software program replace later this 12 months, apparently) and the corporate’s XPilot security system. This consists of all the normal autonomous security tech, like emergency braking, blind spot warnings, and site visitors gentle recognition, plus lane-keep help and the G6’s lively cruise management. As with so many trendy automobiles, the G6 typically misreads highway indicators and incorrectly warns its driver about being over the velocity restrict.
There isn’t a European equal to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised). So whereas the G6 could be purchased with lidar and more advanced semiautonomous driving in China, that’s lacking from its EU providing.
Because it stands, the system works nicely sufficient, however isn’t probably the most intuitive—our check automotive didn’t make any form of sound to point when the system was enabled or disabled, and not one of the steering wheel buttons used to handle velocity and distance are labeled. The result’s you’re going to mistake the quantity management for the velocity adjuster in your first outing.
Lastly, the voice assistant responded shortly to “Hey Xpeng,” however till its grasp of English is improved, it provides much less performance than in China. We requested it for the climate forecast, but it surely replied with the automotive’s vary. Higher was the way it understood a passenger stating “I’m chilly” and turned up the temperature on that facet solely.
Out within the Chilly
Must you purchase the Xpeng G6? Massive import tariffs imply Chinese language automobiles stay off the menu within the US, however should you’re in Europe the G6’s aggressive worth could possibly be interesting (however perhaps not for much longer). It matches as much as the Tesla Mannequin Y in a whole lot of key features, and even exceeds its American rival in terms of worth, the upcoming inclusion of CarPlay and Android Auto, and journey high quality.
However there’s nonetheless work to be performed for the G6 to completely impress. It’s disappointing that we couldn’t check out the most important UI replace, known as model 15, that’s attributable to roll out in July. However that no less than demonstrates Xpeng is eager to shortly evolve, even when meaning swapping out your entire mapping system for an alternate and remodeling the consumer interface structure to accommodate smartphone casting. We applaud that, and stay up for seeing what different tech upgrades it has deliberate.
All that stated, the G6 left us chilly. It carries a whole lot of equipment for the worth, and a go to to Xpeng’s cavernous Dutch showroom suggests it means enterprise, actually parking itself between Kia and Nio. It additionally has a roadmap for infrastructure enlargement, partnering with present service heart teams to offer consumers peace of thoughts. However there’s little right here to actually set the G6 other than high-quality rivals just like the Kia EV6, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Škoda Enyaq, Ford Mustang Mach-E, and naturally, the Tesla Mannequin Y.
Upstarts want to supply one thing new. Tesla’s Supercharger network drew in prospects throughout its early years; Nio provides battery swapping; BYD already had huge scale on its facet earlier than coming into Europe.
For now, Xpeng looks like an also-ran. The G6 is a par-for-the-course EV that can attraction to drivers who need precisely this mix of measurement, vary, worth, and quick charging however don’t care in regards to the badge. If that’s you, wonderful, however for now the G6 does little to get WIRED really excited.
