Xpeng G6 vs Peugeot 408

What's the difference?

I can’t say this was the verdict I was expecting going into the XPeng G6 with no major expectations, but I really like this car. It's not only a fantastic EV with future-proof tech, but it’s practical, stylish and a great car to drive.

Mainstream carmakers should be worried if we’re seeing cars this good from brands that have only been building vehicles for a few years.

The Peugeot 408 GT Hybrid delivers heaps of standard equipment and safety tech for what is now a much more competitive price. It’s also super fuel-efficient, which is right for these turbulent times, offers thoughtful practicality and the wagon-fastback-crossover-SUV look is striking. The price paid for miserly economy is a peaky small-engine powertrain and the ownership promise isn’t exactly class-leading. That said, it deserves consideration in its new, even more competitive under $60K mid-size SUV segment.

Don’t dismiss the XPeng G6 as just another generic “jelly-bean” shaped EV. Yes, there’s a roundness to the G6’s body that’s very much the trending look but the details in the design are quite special. 

JuanMa Lopez is XPeng’s VP of design, having been in charge of exterior design for Ferrari and there are sportscar touches to the G6’s styling that point to his involvement.

Look at the G6 from that rear three-quarter angle. The way the roofline curves into the tailgate is superb and very Porsche-like.

I also like the G6’s frameless side windows, the expansive windscreen and wide bonnet, the alloy wheels (and not plastic aero hubcaps) and LED strip lighting.

Actually the LED daytime running light strip that runs the width of the bonnet is new for this update and so is the sleeker tail-light design, too.

The G6’s cabin is modern and minimalist but unlike other new EV brands it’s also refined and that goes for the look and the feel of the materials and styling.

The soft Nappa leather seats lift the cabin’s look and feel to a luxurious level.

However, the white interior of our car is not the most family friendly option and we had a strict no-eating-in-this-car policy with our five- and 11-year-old. That wasn't very fun for anybody so if this was our car we’d be choosing the Dark Grey upholstery and eating hot chips without stressing.

Peugeot Design Director Matthias Hossann has been guiding the brand’s look and feel since 2020 and the result is a recognisable approach across the range with enough flexibility to give each model its own personality.

Recurring themes include the dramatic, fan-like grille with body-colour elements, narrow angled LED daytime running lights (DRLs) slicing through the outer edges of the nose and sinister tapered headlights set into the front corners.

The rear end maintains the visual drama with a stacked, angular treatment sectioning off the ‘Claw Effect’ LED tail-lights (the Peugeot brand mark is a Lion), chamfered mid-section and chunky bumper.

And among what increasingly feels like a mass of same-same newcomers the 408’s sloping turret and high, wide haunches give the car a distinctively sporty fastback look.

The interior is classy and clean although the almost uniformly grey colour palette is unrelenting.

The two-tier dash adds visual interest and a combination of sweeping curves and clean, straight lines around the cabin lift the tone. Nappa leather trim with the ribbed seat centre panels using perforated hide also looks classy.

But then we come to the ‘iCockpit’ instrument display and steering wheel combination. It’s based on the idea that reducing the size of the steering wheel and lowering its position while flattening its top and raising the location of the instrument binnacle is a better solution than the traditional look-through-the-steering wheel approach.

It doesn’t work for everyone and it doesn’t work for me. As noted in previous Peugeot reviews, after more than a decade in existence various members of the CarsGuide editorial staff continue to struggle with the arrangement, while others love it. 

For me, the wheel feels too low, yet the top of it obscures the lower part of the instrument panel. While it may work well for others I see it as the answer to a question no one was asking.

The G6’s cabin is spacious to the point of cavernous, despite its not-so enormous exterior dimensions. t’s 4758mm long which is considered medium sized and almost identical to the length of the Model Y and BYD Sealion 7. 

So space up front is good even for giants like me and second-row space is outstanding with excellent leg-, head-, and elbow room.

Parents beware though, the window sills in the G6 are oddly high and children may struggle to see out, but to me that feels safer than the opposite.

Storage is decent, too, with oversized door pockets along with cupholders, front and back, and there’s a storage bay under the floating centre console.

A standout feature is the proximity unlocking which picks up the key from about five metres away and unlocks the car, popping the door handles out. The safety and convenience of this can’t be exaggerated and the auto locking feature when you walk away is great for when you have armfuls of grocery bags or kids… or both.

We could have done without the giant glass roof, though. During the warm Australian spring days the cabin heated up fast under than huge sheet of glass even with the climate control trying its hardest to keep us cool. Yes, it is tinted but I felt like I needed to wear a hat when the sun was directly overhead and there’s no shade or screen.

A 517-litre boot (measured to the parcel shelf) is bang on the cargo capacity offered by rivals such as the BYD Sealion 7, but unlike that competitor, the G6 doesn't have a front boot.

The G6 doesn’t have a spare wheel, just a puncture repair kit.

At close to 4.7m long, around 1.9m wide and a bit less than 1.5m tall with a 2790mm wheelbase, the 408 sits in the middle of the typical mid-size five-seater footprint.

Ample room in the front, although the lower section of the two-tier dash protrudes a fair way towards the driver and front passenger and the centre console is broad so it feels snug rather than airy.

Storage includes generous door bins with room for larger bottles, a lidded (and illuminated) bin between the seats that doubles as a centre armrest, two cupholders in the console with an oddments tray ahead of them and a decent glove box with an extra pocket built into the lid.

Switching to the rear, sitting behind the driver’s seat set for my 183cm position, there’s loads of leg- and headroom and enough width for three adults when required and more than enough for a trio of up to mid-teenage kids. Centre rear is less of a short-straw position, too, thanks to a relatively low and flat central tunnel.

The lack of a fold-down rear centre armrest is a miss mainly because it means there are no cupholders in the rear. But there are decent door bins with a space for smaller bottles, netted map pockets on the front seatbacks and a storage cubby at the back of the front centre console.

Speaking of which, individual air vents in the back of that console are a welcome addition.

 The boot is large for the class at 508 litres (VDA) with the rear seat upright and 1583 litres with the 60/40 split-folding backrest folded down. The power tailgate (with foot sensor and pedestrian detection) also makes life easier.

Other thoughtful touches include four load tie-down anchors, a netted pocket on the right-hand side, elasticised straps on the left-hand side, specific lighting and a pair of bag hooks.

Power and connectivity options include two USB-C sockets, a 12-volt outlet and a wireless phone charging pad in the front, another two USB-Cs in the back and a second 12V plug in the boot. So no problems with charging capacity for phones and other devices.

Maximum braked trailer towing capacity is a useful 1300kg (750kg unbraked) but we have to put a big black mark against provision of a repair/inflator kit rather than a physical spare. Not good enough for the Aussie market. 

The previous plug-in version of the current 408 Hybrid was a 1.6-litre, turbo-petrol, four-cylinder paired with a relatively large electric motor and cost-of-entry sat at $67,990, before on-road costs.

A shift to this car’s mild-hybrid powertrain, built around a 1.2-litre, turbo-petrol, three-cylinder engine matched up with an appreciably smaller battery and electric motor coincided with a 15 per cent ($10,000) price reduction to $57,990, BOC.

Convenience or consequence? Either way, it’s opened up a new competitive set with the focus shifting from the likes of the Lexus NX, Mazda CX-60 PHEV and Volvo XC60 to a fresh batch of sub-$60K rivals.

Think Honda CR-V e:HEV RS ($59,900, drive-away), Hyundai Tucson AWD 1.6 Hybrid Premium ($58,350, BOC), Kia Sportage GT-Line HEV FWD ($57,370, BOC), Nissan X-Trail Ti e-Power 5 seat AWD ($58,215, BOC), Subaru Forester AWD Hybrid Touring ($55,990, BOC) and the Toyota RAV4 XSE Hybrid AWD ($59,015, BOC).

Suddenly the Peugeot’s included features list sits in a new context and aside from the performance and safety tech we’ll get to shortly, standard equipment highlights include dual-zone climate control air, full-grain Nappa leather seat trim, a leather-trimmed (heated) steering wheel, Alcantara door trim, 3D satellite navigation and 10-speaker 690-watt Focal audio (with digital radio) as well as wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.

Then there’s power-adjustable driver (eight-way) and front passenger (six-way) seats that are also heated with a ‘multi-point’ massage function, keyless entry and start, a 10-inch digital 3D instrument panel, a 10-inch multimedia touchscreen, auto LED matrix headlights, eight-colour ambient lighting, chrome trimmed pedals, a power tailgate, heated power-folding exterior mirrors, a panoramic glass sunroof, 19-inch alloy wheels, auto rain-sensing wipers and more. 

Then you can add over-the-air updates, access to remote services via the ‘MyPeugeot’ app and ‘Ok Peugeot’ voice recognition.

That’s an impressive basket of fruit for an under-$60,000 car. 

The Rear Wheel Drive Long Range features a single motor making 218kW and 440Nm driving the rear wheels with the largest battery. To me that’s the ideal setup because you don't really need all-wheel drive which will drain power and reduce range for the sake of better traction and quicker acceleration.

Besides, the 0-100km/h time of the RWD Long Range is 6.7 seconds and that’s plenty. By the way, the 1984 Holden VK SS Commodore with a V8 had exactly the same sprint time and it had less power and torque than the XPeng G6. What I’m saying is, you’ll be fine with the grunt.

The Peugeot 408 Hybrid is powered by a 1.2-litre, turbo-petrol, three-cylinder engine producing 100kW at 5500rpm and 230Nm at 1750rpm.

This compact, all-alloy, direct-injection unit works in concert with a single 15.6kW/51Nm 48-volt electric motor integrated into the six-speed dual-clutch auto transmission and energised by a 0.9kWh lithium-ion battery.

Drive goes to the front wheels only and Peugeot claims a 0-100kmh sprint time of 9.4 seconds.

The G6 Rear Wheel Drive Long Range has an 80.8kWh battery and XPeng says this gives it a driving range of up to 525km. After a week of our regular driving (approximately 215km) we had 58 per cent of our battery charge left.

Energy usage was excellent, with our trip computer reporting 13.8kWh/100km, which is better than XPeng’s official claim of 17.9kWh/100km.

The big news for the update is the change of battery from Nickel Manganese Cobalt (NMC) to Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) which reduces range but lowers production costs.

 LFP batteries also have less thermal runaway and are therefore safer.

The other big news is an update in electrical architecture from 400V to 800V and this means much faster charging. The G6 RWD Long Range can now charge from 10-80 per cent in 12 minutes flat at a DC rate of 451kW.

That of course requires a 450kW charger of which there are none. The fastest publicly available in Australia is 400kW and there’s fewer than a handful of them in the country.

But this means the G6 is future-proofed and that’s much better than having an out-of-date car in a couple of years.

The 408 Hybrid’s official fuel consumption figure for the combined (urban/extra-urban) cycle is 4.5L/100km, the 1.2L turbo triple emitting 102g/km of CO2 in the process.

And it’s important to point out those official (ADR 81/02) numbers for the 408’s consumption and emissions are better than any of the direct competitors we’ve called out in the ‘Price & Features’ section above. 

Over a week of mainly city and suburban running with some freeway sections thrown in, we recorded an on-test average of 6.0L/100km. Impressive for a mid-size crossover weighing in at a bit over 1.4 tonnes.

Brim the 52-litre tank with minimum 95 RON premium fuel (ethanol blends not recommended) and using our real-world figure you can expect a handy driving range in excess of 860km.

The XPeng G6 RWD Long Range is one of the few new EV brands that's both a great tech package and a great car to drive. Many new EV brands can’t master the combination, or specifically the driving side, which established brands have refined over decades.

The G6 RWD Long Range has a soft ride, but good dynamics. I tried to unsettle it in some of the quicker corners on my regular test route and it refused to even hint at coming unstuck. That’s great for engaging driving but more so for safety where this car feels planted and stable even under pressure.

Steering is light and direct, and the cabin is tranquil even at higher speeds where road and wind noise is also remarkably low.

Honestly I’m quite amazed. I thought the G6 would just be a sophisticated tech device. But it's also a good car to drive.

Even with the assistance of an electric motor in the transmission and a turbo on the engine, a 1.2-litre, petrol three-cylinder powering a more than 1.4-tonne five-seat car is always going to be an interesting equation.

And in practice, although the small triple’s peak torque (230Nm) is available from just 1750rpm it lacks the smoothness of larger capacity mild- and full-hybrid combinations. Especially at slower speeds, the powertrain feels relatively edgy and agitated.

Outright acceleration is fine (claimed 0-100km/h acceleration is 9.4sec) with decent mid-range pulling power for confident overtaking or decisive lane changing (a 15.6kW/51Nm boost from the motor playing its part) and the dual-clutch auto is a more polished example of what can be a fractious device. 

But engineering and tuning for maximum fuel-efficiency has an impact on driveability. For example, we noticed the air-conditioning system’s output softened at standstill, which led to some mild window fogging in stop-start traffic on a particularly humid morning. Haven’t seen that for a while. 

The strut front, torsion beam rear suspension delivers a compliant ride and responsive handling in classic Peugeot fashion. The steering in particular points accurately and provides good road feel. 

We’ve covered the intricacies of the i-Cockpit instrument and steering wheel configuration in the Design section as its shortcomings (for me, anyway) are more ergonomic than dynamic.  

The car is relatively quiet, thanks in part to sound-dampening acoustic glass and the Michelin e.Primacy tyres (205/55) which also grip persistently if you decide to slice through your favourite set of corners. Push the engine harder and it’s revvy note and exhaust rasp will start to make their presence felt. 

Regenerative braking is helpful and the physical brakes (ventilated discs and the front and solid rotors at the rear) are nice and progressive.

The front seats are firmer than the Peugeot norm but remain comfy enough and they provide enough side support to keep you well located. 

Despite the swoopy fastback design, all-around vision is surprisingly good and an overall length under 4.7m, an acceptable 11.2m turning circle, a clear reversing camera and a 360-degree camera view make parking straightforward. 

The 408 has a maximum five-star ANCAP rating from assessment in 2022 with active crash avoidance tech including Auto emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian and cyclist detection, junction assist and backover detection, adaptive cruise (with stop & go), lane departure warning and lane keep assist, blind spot monitoring, traffic sign recognition, a 360-degree camera view, rear cross-traffic alert, forward collision warning, driver fatigue monitoring and tyre pressure monitoring as well as front and rear parking sensors.

If a crash is unavoidable there are six airbags onboard (front, front side and side curtain) but a front centre bag is notable for its absence. 

On the upside, an active bonnet helps protect impacted pedestrians from striking hard engine parts under the bonnet and multi-collision brake minimises the chances of subsequent impact after an initial crash. 

For child seats there are three top tether points across the second row with ISOFIX anchors in the outer positions.

The XPeng G6 is covered by a seven-year/unlimited kilometre warranty and servicing is recommended every 20,000km or 12 months. While there’s no capped-price servicing you can expect to pay about $2000 over five years.

The battery is covered by an eight-year/160,000km warranty which is the industry standard.

There’s good news for owners as well regarding XPeng’s presence in Australia. Xpeng took back distribution of its vehicles from a third party and is selling its car directly with an expansion of the dealer network to 66 locations around Australia.

New owners will also benefit from complimentary roadside assistance and an improved parts supply chain.

Peugeot covers the 408 with a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty, which is perilously close to sub-par in 2026 with an increasing number of brands at seven, eight and up to 10 years conditional. The battery warranty at eight years/160,000km matches the market.

Roadside assistance is included for five years, service is recommended every 12 months/15,000km and pre-paid servicing is offered across three-, four- or five-year plans, with the latter at $2070.

That’s a not insubstantial average of $414 per workshop visit, which Peugeot says will save you $893 compared to pay-as-you-go over the five years.

For reference, a Toyota RAV Hybrid service for any of the first five years is $260, although pricing steps up after that period.

Peugeot has a well established network of 31 dealers mainly covering major cities and key rural areas, primarily on the east coast. Currently, no presence in Tassie or the Northern Territory, while Perth and Adelaide are the only representation in WA and SA.