Mazda MX-30 vs Xpeng G6

What's the difference?

The MX-30 is a tough one to give you a clear verdict on. In summary, though, the math just doesn’t add up. This car is way too expensive and offers next to no range for Australia’s vast intercity distances, essentially resigning buyers to a life within city limits.

On the other hand, I love the design ethos of this little SUV. It’s truly a statement, and it’s rare to find a car that is so committed to its uniqueness. It’s also easily one of the best EVs to drive right now, so those who understand its compromises will no doubt be left with smiles on their faces.

You never know quite what to expect when you jump into the first model from a brand-new brand, but the XPeng G6 was a pleasant surprise. And at this price, with these features, it should really give Tesla Model Y shoppers something to think about.

The MX-30 oozes design. I would go so far as to say this car is more focused on being a design statement than it is an SUV (as evidenced by its lack of practicality…) or an EV (as evidenced by its lack of range…).

Mazda’s Kodo design language is already eye-grabbing, so it’s to the MX-30’s credit that it manages to be striking, even against other members of the Mazda family, as it strays from a well-refined formula.

The large grille has been dumped in favour of something much smaller but the 3D effect of the Kodo face still persists. The light clusters adopt their own personality - they're inspired by the Mazda3, arguably, but they stand on their own.

The side profile, squat dimensions, and contrasting panel work (in our car’s case, a matte grey against the brand’s signature ‘Soul Red’) alert you to the fact that the MX-30 is something quite different indeed. And all this is before you notice the fact that it has clamshell rear doors.

Yep, that’s right, the MX-30 reaches into the brand’s history and brings back the outward folding door design once seen on the RX-8 rotary sports coupe. Opening it up is an event, and those doors wow onlookers with their unusual unfurling. Unfortunately, it’s not as smart as it looks, but we’ll get to that in the practicality part of this review.

The inside again blends familiar Mazda themes with entirely new ones. The material design is incredible. For the first time in a long time, I felt like a kid in some kind of tactile science museum, prodding, squeezing, and scratching at this car’s many interior elements to see if they were, in fact, made of the occasionally unbelievable materials they seem to be.

It doesn’t disappoint. Yes, the door cards really have a splash of an odd grey carpet material, very Volvo, the seats are really trimmed in some sort of synthetic leather, the quality grain of which has to be felt to be understood (it's very Mercedes), and the centre console is really made of recycled cork panelling, which is very BMW.

All of this might sound a bit silly (and the cork stuff perhaps is) but along with the stepped centre console design, weird semi-digital dash cluster and familiar bits out of other Mazdas, it is difficult to not enjoy being in such a creative and unusual space.

The commitment to this funky, unusual design, has some major practicality drawbacks, which we’ll take a look at next.

There’s more than a little Tesla Model Y in the XPeng’s exterior design, with the two sharing the same kind of soft-edged, swept-back SUV styling. 

It helps make the XPeng look familiar and inoffensive, and while I wouldn’t go so far as to call it ground-breaking, I think it has enough exterior flourishes to break up the body work, and I don’t mind the way it looks, and the way it sits on those big alloys.

Inside, it’s a spacious and pretty stylish space. This giant screen is super responsive, and is easy enough to navigate, with the key functions (like climate) glued to the bottom of the screen so you don't have to paw through menus to access them. The idea begins to fail when you have Apple CarPlay or Android Auto active, though, as you have to revert back to the car's home screen to access anything.

The XPeng uses its steering wheel controls to access air-con fan and temp controls as a kind of shortcut, but confusingly they change to distance adjustment when you’ve got the cruise control on. An easier, and much better solution would be to bring back buttons.

I also don't love the stalk-style gear selector, which doubles as a cruise control activator, and, with a double pull, as your autonomous helper. It just feels super old-school in a vehicle this modern.

What is a massive win though is the driver screen. Tesla fans can scream minimalist aesthetics all they want, but the drive experience is simply better when you can see your speed and other key info right in front of you.

Put simply, the MX-30 is about as practical as a sports coupe, which is a feat given it has the footprint and height of an SUV.

It starts with those clamshell doors. Sure, they look amazing, but they’re annoying to open because the handle is on the inside, so you have to open the front doors before you can open the rear ones. At best this costs you time when you’re just trying to load objects, pets, or kids, at worst it makes the rear of the cabin nearly impossible to access in a tight car park.

Even in my unit parking spot, I could barely access the rear seats, making it especially annoying when I just wanted to chuck a bag in the rear footwell.

Even if you don’t have trouble getting an adult back there, space is limited. Behind my own driving position, my knees were up against the seat in front, and while I had plenty of headroom, it feels a bit claustrophobic, thanks to the tiny windows and high beltline.

I’ll hand some credit to the commitment to this car’s design, though, the odd carpet trims continue into the rear doors, and there's even a plush padded surface for your elbows on either side. Nice touch. The seats also feel unusually low and sporty for an SUV, particularly an electric one.

As if it couldn’t be more clear that this car has the intention of being some sort of sports coupe, the front seats are lovely. Comfortable, supportive, and with plenty of soft trims throughout the cabin, I felt as though I had plenty of room here. The raised console design means the multimedia functions and toggles were easy to reach and use, and while the climate functions are somewhat awkwardly placed on a touch panel, at least they were set and forget most of the time.

There’s a tactile dial for volume control, and although the multimedia interface is dial-based rather than touch, Mazda’s system is one of the easiest to use once you get used to it.

There’s a large storage area under the centre console, hosting two USB ports and a household power outlet, and atop that there’s a cork-finished tray, which flips up to reveal dual bottle holders in the centre. Behind this there’s a small armrest console box, trimmed in the same plush padding as the doors and seats. Front occupants can also make use of small pockets in the doors and a glovebox.

Unlike some electric cars, the MX-30 doesn’t score a ‘frunk’, which seems like a wasted opportunity because the engine bay is half empty. Serviceable items look incredibly easy to access because of this, with liquid tanks and coolant hoses on display, but I can’t help but feeling Mazda could have put a small storage space here with some packaging trickery. It’s equally possible that there’s a crash-safety consideration, however.

Moving to the boot, and unfortunately there’s a small-hatch-sized 311 litres on offer, because there’s also next to no underfloor space, and you’ll have to store your charging cables in there, too, further reducing the space. With the cable bags strapped in place, the boot fit our largest (124L) CarsGuide travel case with little extra room to spare. It’s weekender luggage space at best, but then I suppose you won’t be able to go away for long with the range on offer anyway…

At 4753mm in length, 1920mm in width and 1650mm in height, the XPeng fits into the fast-growing mid-size electric SUV space. 

And it ticks a lot of practicality boxes, like with its 571-litre boot, swelling to 1374 litres with the seats folded. But its real party trick is in the back seat, where the space is properly massive. 

I have another mid-size SUV, powered by a petrol engine, at the moment and our baby seat presses against the back of the passenger seat. In this it feels like I could fly a kite in the space between them.

It’s the same for passengers, too. Honestly, the real estate on offer is massive, and that includes for the middle-seat rear passenger, where the lack of a bulky tunnel eating into legroom means adults can sit there comfortably.

There's a pull-down divider separating the back seat that's also home to two cupholders, and there are twin USB connections, as well as air vents (though no temp controls).

There's no spare tyre, though, which means fiddling with the repair kit should you get puncture, or waiting for roadside assist.

Okay, first things first – what the hell is XPeng? It's been around for about 10 years in China, but only made its way to Australia last year. It was founded by some former car company execs and tech tycoons — one of whom is telecommunications billionaire He Xiaopeng, which is where that name comes from.

Anyway, this one is the XPeng G6, which launched in Australia with two trims – the Standard Range, which is $54,800, before on-road costs, and the one we’ve tested, the Long Range, which is $59,800. The difference is in the battery size, of course, but we’ll get to that in a minute. 

As of now, the new Model Y can be ordered for $63,400 for the Standard Range or $73,400 for the Long Range, which makes the XPeng a whole heap cheaper.

Outside, you get LED lighting all around (including the DRLs), a massive glass roof, auto door handles, an auto-opening boot, a V2L connection, which allows you to use your XPeng’s battery to power whatever you plug in and big 20-inch wheels wrapped in Michelin rubber.

You also get some cool high-tech features, accessed through the XPeng app, like the ability to drive your car out of tight parking spots remotely.

Inside, there are synthetic-leather seats that are heated, a heated steering wheel, dual-zone climate, a massive 18-speaker sound system (with speakers in the headrest), wireless charging and two very handy screens — a responsive 15-inch central screen with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, and a 10.2-inch digital dashboard.

There’s also more safety stuff than you can shake a crash test at, but we’ll come back to that in a second.

The MX-30 has an electric motor on the front axle with a single-speed reduction-gear transmission. It produces low-sounding figures of 107kW and 271Nm of torque, which is less than most of its rivals, although it has more power and less torque than the equivalently sized (but much cheaper) MG ZS EV.

Although these power figures don’t look as impressive as rivals, it’s worth remembering that the MX-30 has much less weight to carry around, so when it comes to driving it’s a much better story than it appears. More on that later.

The MX-30 offers three levels of regenerative braking, controlled through the wheel-mounted paddle-shifters, a necessary touch, and one that offers decent feedback on how your driving style is affecting range, via the dash and multimedia screen.

This G6 is a rear-wheel drive affair, with a single electric motor housed at the rear axle. It produces 190kW and 440Nm in Standard Range form or 210kW/440Nm in Long Range guise, which don’t sound like massive numbers — especially given the 2.0-tonne-plus weight of this XPeng – but it gets up and moving just fine.

The 100km/h sprint is a claimed 6.2 seconds, while the top speed is 200km/h.

The MX-30 has some advantages here, in that its tiny (35.5kWh to be precise) lithium-ion battery pack means it charges up pretty quickly. The downside? It’s not as quick as it could be, and its efficiency leaves a little to be desired.

As already discussed at length, this small battery means a very short range – between 200 and 224km depending on which standard you want to go by, and the MX-30 is claimed to consume 18.5kWh of energy on the combined cycle.

This is disappointing because not only is the claim higher than rivals like the Kona electric and Nissan Leaf, but in reality, I couldn’t best it with predominantly city driving, as I have previously been able to in all its rivals. Over some 250km of testing I managed a dash-reported 18.9kWh/100km.

The MX-30 EV takes a European-standard Type 2 CCS charger, the most popular kind in Australia, and will charge up at a rate of 50kW on DC or 6.6kW on AC.

It would have been nice to see that boosted to at least 7.2kW AC to be a bit more competitive on AC charging speed. For a car that will need to be charged frequently, even a 10-minute difference in charging time is important. While 50kW DC is about right for a battery pack this size, I assume there will be cooling issues pushing that to 100kW+ as the Hyundai Kona electric and Tesla Model 3 with nearly twice the battery size are capable of.

Mazda estimates a charge time of 36 minutes on DC, three hours on a three-phase AC charger, or nine hours from a ~2.4kW wall outlet. I charged my MX-30 a single time before returning it, from about 10 – 80 per cent, with it maxing out at around 50kW. It charged in less than 40 minutes, however, as promised.

The Long Range version of the G6 nabs a 87.5kWh battery (compared to 66kWh in the Standard Range), unlocking a claimed driving range of 570km. 

The official power use figure is 17.5kWh/100km, but I did a fair bit of driving on all sorts of roads and my number was more like 14kWh.

When it does come time to charge, the G6 is set up for 280kW DC fast charging which means, should you find the right fast charger, a 10-80 per cent charge should arrive in just 20 minutes. Home charging will take a lot longer, of course – we’re talking overnight plugged into a regular wallbox.

Usually, it’s easier here to talk about how electric cars are different from their combustion counterparts, or how they are great for an electric car. In the case of the MX-30, however, it’s just a great car to drive.

I’ll admit, I didn’t expect this little EV to match, much less exceed the driving experience of its CX-30 sibling, but it was a pleasant surprise to find out how great it was.

It turns out that having a much smaller battery, and therefore a much lower kerb weight than most EVs, means the MX-30 feels light, agile, and rapid compared to all of its rivals, which goes some way to making up for its lesser outputs.

In fact, I had no trouble with the motor at all, with the MX-30 feeling faster and more responsive than the Hyundai Kona electric or the Kia Niro EV.

Mazda’s handling prowess is also on full show here, with the smooth and accurate steering allowing me to point this little SUV with remarkable accuracy. The steering tune is lighter than the Kona electric, but a bit more significant than the Kia Niro's. It emboldens you to have a bit of fun, and again, unlike rivals, Mazda’s suspension tune has your back.

It’s sporty enough to engage you, but not so firm that it sends tremors through the cabin, an impressive feat considering it has a less complex torsion bar rear. If anyone had asked me, I would have sworn it was multi-link all-round.

The whole experience feels very similar to helming the CX-30 or Mazda3, but I’d even say the MX-30 feels better over the front end, with less rough rebound than its siblings.

It also makes a cool noise. Mazda have given the MX-30 an artificial tone, plumbed through the speakers, and unlike the science-fiction hum generated by the Hyundai group EVs, the Mazda’s is a warm drone, more reminiscent of a combustion engine.

To be clear here, the MX-30 is no Tesla Model 3. That car is seriously rapid, with mind-bending handling, although I will say there’s a certain poise and refinement to the way the Mazda drives. Even in the corners, it’s confidence inspiring, with the torque-vectoring magic built into the electric motor on full show.

Perhaps one of the reasons that this car is a tad less efficient than its rivals is its lack of weight, which would allow more energy to be fed back into the battery during regenerative braking. Or perhaps its regen braking modes are a bit too forgiving, either way it’s nice that the Mazda offers three easily controllable levels via the paddle-shifters. I even became a fan of the quaint analogue power dial, even if it does give you a bit less feedback than the sleek software suites in Hyundai Group or Tesla offerings.

The MX-30, then, hits an unexpected niche. The benefits of its smaller battery pack and a focus on handling make this car one of the best EVs to drive today, even if you’re restricted to city limits, and regular recharging.

How much you love your time behind the wheel of the XPeng G6 comes down to what you're looking for from your mid-size electric SUV.

Speed and sportiness? There's not much of either. But it does serve up tons of space and technology, surprising refinement and a calm and cosseting ride.

And I think you can mount a pretty solid argument that all of that is pretty important in a mid-size SUV, more so than the ability to carve corners.

I did some solid driving in the G6, including a round trip from Sydney to the start of the NSW South Coast, taking in every road type and surface imaginable, and XPeng proved super comfy, pretty quiet and very, very easy the entire time.

Sure, it's not one of those EVs that makes the scenery blur when you put your foot down. Its outputs and acceleration are a bit more user-friendly than that. But it also doesn't ever feel underpowered, with the plenty of poke away from the lights and even some in reserve for freeway overtakes at 110km/h.

The steering, even in its 'Dynamic' mode, is fairly soft, and you can never magic away the weight of the XPeng in corners, where that compliant suspension does allow for some roll, but it also doesn't feel entirely disconnected from the road below in that disconcerting way some vehicles can.

So, if comfort is mission critical in your SUV space, the XPeng delivers.

Oh, and I know that big screens aren't that uncommon these days, but the multimedia unit in the XPeng is a treat. It's super fast, even when scrolling across maps, and it's relatively user friendly, too.

The XPeng G6 wears a maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating from assessment in 2024, owing mostly to a flood of active safety features that arrive as standard, including AEB (with pedestrian, backover, cyclist, motorcycle and crossing detection), lane departure warning, lane keep assist, speed sign recognition, driver monitoring and more.

But it could also lay claim to a unique record – the first Chinese EV in which the safety systems don't make you want to make you pull your hair out with their incessant chiming and bonging.

Only on the freeway, where an intermittent chiming incorrectly warned me I was leaving my lane, were the safety systems at all overzealous. Otherwise, they were entirely liveable.

If a crash is unavoidable, the airbag count runs to seven (dual front, front side, side curtain and front centre) and multi-collision brake is standard, to minimise the chances of a secondary crash following an initial impact.

The MX-30 is covered by Mazda’s industry-standard five-year and unlimited kilometre warranty, while the battery pack is covered by a separate eight-year promise, on par with its Korean rivals. Mazda includes roadside assist for the duration of the warranty.

The EV has service intervals of 12 months or 15,000km whichever occurs first, and a five-year service plan comes in at $1273.79, working out to an average of $254.76 a year. That’s getting close to Toyota levels of cheap servicing, and so it should, given electric cars (at least in theory) have much less to attend to when it comes service time.

I'm scoring the regular warranty offering here, which is five years or 120,000km, with the battery covered for eight years or 160,000km. Keep an eye out for deals, though. At the time of writing XPeng was offering a 10-year warranty on both, for example.

Service intervals are 12 months or 20,000km. The cheapest individual service is $238, but over five years the total cost is $2064, averaging out to more like $410 per year.