XPeng G6

FIRST DRIVE As if to prove how fast things move with EVs, the G6 - which only arrived this year - has already been updated

- Neil Briscoe

XPENG is one of China’s younger automotive brands, having only been producing cars since 2014. However, its ambitions are massive, and don’t encompass merely four-wheeled vehicles, but also artificial intelligence, humanoid robots and personal flying taxis. It’s a company that wants to be taken seriously as a competitor for the likes of Audi and BMW, never mind Tesla.

When the G6 electric SUV first arrived in the UK earlier this year, that might have seemed like over-ambition. It was a solid Tesla Model Y clone, but little more. However, XPeng has already given the G6 an update, and although the tweaks seem small on the surface, they do add up.

The biggest change is to the car’s battery. Previously, the long-range, single-motor version of the G6 - which accounts for 80 per cent of UK sales - used an 87kWh nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) battery. Now, XPeng has improved that pack – by making it smaller.

No, seriously, it has. The G6’s new battery is a lithium-iron phosphate pack (LFP), which means it’s potentially more robust and long-lasting than the NMC set-up. It has also been given a massive boost to its charging speed; the G6’s previous battery would charge at up to 280kW on a fast charger – the same as an Audi Q6 e-tron. This new battery manages up to 451kW, which allows XPeng to boast of a 10-80 per cent charge time of just 12 minutes.