After a rocky start in Australia, Xpeng is gearing up for a product offensive to be crowned by the jewel in its range, a large three-row ultra-luxury SUV known as the GX.
Launched in China in April this year, the GX does not have a confirmed on-sale date in Australia yet. Naming will be tricky, too, given Lexus already sells a large SUV called the GX.
“I can confirm the [Xpeng] GX will come”, head of international development and service Alex Tang told Australian media.
“That’s our flagship model we just launched in China. Sales are very, very good so our colleagues in China are fighting for production to meet demand,” he explained.
The Xpeng GX will head to Middle Eastern markets first to compete with the full-size Range Rover and Lexus LX, though likely at a lower price. Its starting price of RMB279,000 in China equates to roughly $60K.
We would expect it to enter Australia priced beyond $100,000.
AI and autonomous driving
Sitting on the same underpinnings, the newly-revealed GX sits above the Australia-bound G9L in Xpeng’s line-up — like the full-fat Range Rover to the G9L’s Range Rover Sport.
Headlines include loads of technology, including a 17.3-inch multimedia touchscreen, roof-mounted 21.4-inch screen and a 33-speaker sound system.
Xpeng is known for impressive computing power and the GX continues this with the brand’s in-house chips running the media system and driver-assistance features.
The GX boasts camera-based level four autonomous driving capability and promises to operate like a self-driving taxi, if buyers choose the most powerful ‘L4 Robo’ driver-assistance chipset with 3000TOPS.
Xpeng is keen to promote its AI-powered driver-assist and is so-far the only company willing to promise a genuine challenge to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) systems, apparently from next year in Australia.
Powertrains
Battery and range-extender hybrid versions of the Xpeng GX are available in China.
The range-extender combines a 1.5-litre petrol engine and an electric motor to offer 370kW. With a 63.3kWh LFP battery pack the GX EREV promises EV-only range of 430km and a combined of 1585km in the lenient CLTC cycle.
Battery electric GXs come in rear drive with a single 270kW motor and 665km CLTC driving range, or flagship twin-motor guise with a larger 110kWh battery pack and 430kW peak outputs for 750km CLTC driving range.
Based on Xpeng’s 800-volt architecture, 400kW-plus DC fast-charging would see the seven-seater charge from 10-80 percent in 12 minutes, if Australia had quick enough chargers.
The GX has rear-wheel steering, height-adjustable active air suspension and Bosch by-wire systems for braking and steering.
It’s a big vehicle, with a six-seat two-two-two layout, the third-row elegantly folding flat into the floor. The GX measures 5265mm long, 1999mm wide, 1800mm high and rides on a 3115mm wheelbase.
Local release timing
“I don’t have a time[line] for that car yet. We have a lot of new models in the pipeline to launch. That car will be developed for global [markets]” Tang says.
The cars Tang is talking about include the just-refreshed G6, along with the incoming X9 people mover, L03 affordable EV and larger L05 coupe SUV.
“We have another, twin model of that GX [the G9L] which is also a full-size SUV with several options – five, six, seven seats — with both BEV and EREV available. That car will come to Australia very soon, the end of this year with deliveries beginning [at the] start of next year.”
Xpeng has pledged to bolster its Australian presence, having taken over importership from TrueEV as Xpeng ANZ.
The standard warranty is now seven years and unlimited kilometres, there are more bricks-and-mortar dealerships on the horizon, plus the promise of flying vehicles and humanoid robots in the very-near future.
