XPeng launching free-to-use Full Self-Driving rival in Australia in 2027 but existing G6 will not support VLA 2.0

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XPeng says it is ready to launch its VLA 2.0 supervised full-self driving technology outside of China, with the rival to Tesla’s FSD technology set to be switched on in Australia in 2027.

“We think that we might be the only competition to Tesla globally in terms of automotive,” XPeng international marketing lead Daniel Wu told Australian media, including Chasing Cars.

Head of international markets Alex Tang said: “what I can say is that 2027 will be the first year we roll out VLA 2.0 into the global market…and for Australia, it will be in the first batch of the markets.”

The icing on the cake is that XPeng says it will not charge owners to use VLA 2.0. Tesla currently allows access to FSD in Australia for $149 per month, but the brand previously allowed buyers to purchase a vehicle access pass for around $10,000.

However, there is a catch: VLA 2.0 only works outside of China in XPeng cars that were built with three of the company’s new Turing AI large model chipsets. That means some XPeng cars will get VLA 2.0 in Australia and others will not.

Because the outgoing, pre-facelift XPeng G6 used Nvidia Orin chips, existing owners of the model that launched in Australia in September 2024 will not be able to access VLA 2.0.

Even the incoming, upgraded G6 (which launches next month) will not initially support VLA 2.0 because it packs just a single Turing chip, rather than triple-Turing setup required.

In China, cars built with one Turing processor can run a simpler, ‘distilled’ version of VLA 2.0, but this adaptation is not expected to be deployed overseas in the short term.

Instead, VLA 2.0 will launch in Australia in the more affordable XPeng Mona L03, which will be revealed in early July ahead of a local launch in the next few months.

“Newly launched models, starting from [Mona] L03, will all adapt to the latest technology [with] three Turing chips,” Wu said.

The triple-Turing hardware that powers the full “large model” version of VLA 2.0 is only guaranteed to be available on all-new XPeng models.

XPeng will also launch an as-yet unrevealed G9L flagship large SUV in Australia later in 2026. As a brand-new model, it is highly likely that three Turing AI chips will be installed and that VLA 2.0 will become available.

It may be a mixed bag of VLA availability as XPeng is about to embark on a major product offensive in Australia—and one that includes both all-new models and existing cars already on sale in China.

However, while the X9 people mover that is likely to land in Australia later this year has already been revealed abroad, it is essentially a new model, and it has the Turing hardware from the factory.