Smart 3 vs Xpeng G6

What's the difference?

Smart is back.

Not with the classic ForTwo two-seater city car, oddball four-seater ForFour hatch or dinky Roadster targa top. Those were yesterday’s cars.

Today, Smart – as a 50/50 joint-venture between Germany’s Mercedes-Benz (the brand’s originator) and China’s Geely – is all about SUVs. Electric SUVs.

The boxy #1 (pronounced “hashtag-one”) is a small SUV and the sleeker #3 is the coupe-esque performance crossover version. Both are made in China and use Geely technologies.

We take a long, hard look at the range-topping #3 Brabus, the speediest, sexiest and exxiest of the lot. Let’s go.

The XPeng G6 is this Chinese brand’s rival to the Tesla Model Y and Zeekr 7X and I am testing the updated version of the model that originally arrived in Australia in 2024.

This new and vastly improved G6 has some important differences compared with the original. But fear not, I’ll take you through all of this.

The grade on test is the Rear-Wheel Drive (RWD) Long Range which I think is the pick of the line-up that also includes an entry grade Rear Wheel Drive Standard Range and the top-spec Performance. There’s also a Performance Black that sits above this too, but it’s more of a cosmetic styling package to add a bit of ‘attitude’ to this SUV.

My family and I lived with the updated XPeng G6 RWD Long Range for a week. I am impressed, but I have a few notes of what I'd change as well.