Xpeng G6 vs Tesla Model Y

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.

If you like the five-seat Model Y, then you'll like the six-seat L version even more. I think this the best example of Tesla's electric SUV to date, and the cabin layout just makes a lot of sense, and would suit plenty of families who don't need to squeeze someone into a compromised middle seat.

Note: The author, Andrew Chesterton, is a co-owner of Smart As Media, a content agency and media distribution service with a number of automotive brands among its clients. When producing content for CarsGuide, he does so in accordance with the CarsGuide Editorial Guidelines and Code of Ethics, and the views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.

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.

Spoiler alert - it looks a lot like a five-seat Model Y, doesn’t it, albeit a slightly bigger one. And you’d have to be a bigger Tesla head than me to immediately spot the differences at a glance.

The wheelbase is longer, the rear doors are bigger as are the rear 3/4 panels and the roof line is higher, helping with headroom in the third row.

Still, safe to say if you like the look of the five-seat Model Y, you’ll like this one. And if you hate it, well, good luck.

The alloys are 19-inch and shaded by the aerodynamic caps and there are light bars front and rear which debuted on the updated five-seat Model Y when it arrived mid-last year.

The bigger changes are inside, of course. I promise we’ll get to the second and third rows in the Practicality section, but let’s talk about the look and feel first.

There’s a love/hate relationship with Tesla’s stripped-back aesthetics, and I’m probably somewhere in the middle. I like the airiness of the space in the cabin, and I think it feels nicely put together, and I really dig the contrasting fabric used on the doors and dash which add a little visual interest to the cabin.

But I hate using the central screen to select a gear and I hate not being able to see how fast I’m going without turning my head. A head-up display would work wonders in the Model Y L cabin.

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.

Captain’s chairs are simply a more luxurious version of second-row seating. With that there is no argument and the heated and cooled chairs that occupy the second row of the Model Y L are pretty good examples of them.

Space, both knee and headroom, is ample, and you can adjust each seat individually if you want to grant a bit more space to any third row occupants. Armrests deploy at the push of a button — as do the two hidden cupholders — and it really is easy to settle in and get comfy.

The third row is a bit more hit and miss. I’m 175cm and found I had enough legroom and headroom, but the big plastic mouldings that emerge from each side of the Model Y (which house a cupholder) are a miss. They end up pushing you into the seat next to you, and I can foresee a lot of arm rubbing with anything like two adults back there.

Also confusing is how to actually get out of it. You can fold the seat in front of you flat, but then you have to climb over it. I found it easier to just walk out between the seats.

There are another two USB-C ports in the rear row and you get air vents but no temperature controls. 

The Model Y L stretches 4969mm in length, 1668mm in height and 2129mm in width, which is roughly 18cm longer and 4.5cm taller than the five-seat model. The extra space doesn’t sound like that much, but start dropping rows and you find a heap of storage space.

Both the second and third row stow electronically from the boot, but with them in place you’ll find 420 litres of storage in the double-layer boot. Drop the third row, and that number grows to 1076 litres. With the third row folded there is a massive 2423 litres of space. The frunk serves up another 116 litres.

There’s also room (and the ISOFIX attachment points) for four child seats.

The Model Y L sits smack bang between the $68,900 Long Range AWD and the $89,400 Performance, setting you back $74,900, before your on-road costs. It’s also the only three-row option in the Tesla family.

Aside from people movers, we’re not swimming with options in the three-row electric space, either. The Kia EV9 will get it done from $97,000, the Hyundai IONIQ 9 starts from around $120K and the Volvo EX90 is more expensive again (from $124,990).

Anyway, in Tesla land, the Model Y L rides on 19-inch alloy wheels, has a glass roof, automatic wipers and Tesla’s smartphone access key, as well as the little credit-card swipe.

Inside, there’s a 16.0-inch central screen that handles everything. And I mean everything. It's your gear selector, your speedometer, and everything else, too. There’s no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, but you can access things like Spotify and podcasts through the in-built apps and the on-board navigation system is a good one, too.

All of that pairs with a 19-speaker sound system, and there are dual wireless charge pads. All three rows of seats are heated, while the first and second row get ventilation, too.

A second 8.0-inch touchscreen in the middle row then handles things like the seat heating or cooling, music and games to amuse the kids. And the Model Y L also debuts V2L, or Vehicle to Load, for Tesla in Australia, using a connector in the external charger.

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 Model Y L gets Tesla’s dual-motor AWD powertrain, with two electric motors producing a total 378kW and 590Nm. That’s enough, Tesla says, to knock off the sprint to 100km/h in five seconds flat.

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.

Tesla is always a little vague when it comes to the size of its batteries, but reports point to the Model Y L carrying a 84Wh (useable) NMC battery.

Whatever the specifics, the range is strong, with Tesla promising a 681km driving range on the WLTP combined (urban/extra-urban) cycle.

It’s also set up for 250kW DC fast charging, which should see you take on 288km in 15 minutes, according to Tesla.

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.

Honestly, it feels like the Tesla Model Y has grown up. I didn’t love earlier iterations of this car and I found the Performance to be fast but lacking any emotional fizz.

This one, though, feels solid and composed, and the power on tap (of which there is ample) is more about effortless progress than it is attempting to offer sports car excitement.

The steering is now nicely weighted and feels direct enough without being too sharp, and the cabin is well insulated, with often the slightly off-putting sort of rubbing noise the steering wheel makes when you turn it the only intrusive sound.

One drawback is a ride that definitely errs on the side of firm. This Model Y L gets electronic damping designed to iron out some of the more jagged stuff, but it still feels brittle in places, and you can definitely feel some sharpness in the cabin. Now, to be fair, it’s not too firm for me, but it might be for you.

Another is a bizarre turning circle which constantly reminds you you’re driving a big bus, especially when you try to complete a tight three-point turn.

But despite its stretched dimensions, I found the Model Y L easy to drive and park in the city, and once you're up to speed with Tesla's operating system (there's no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto), then the screen is pretty easy to use, too.

The Model Y L gets the same maximum five-star ACNAP safety rating as the rest of the Model Y range, with nine airbags (up from seven in the five-seat model), and things like AEB (Auto Emergency Braking), lane-keeping assist, 'Forward Collision Warning' and blind-spot monitoring all along for the ride.

Interestingly, the curtain airbags from the five-seat version haven't been replaced, with coverage still only extending to the second row. New airbags have instead been added for third-row occupants.

One more analogue quirk of the Tesla Model Y L is the thick B-pillar, which does a good job of almost completely obscuring driver-side blind-spot checks (for those of us who still like to do those manually).

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.

Tesla warranty is a these-days-underwhelming five years and unlimited kilometres, while the high-voltage battery is covered for eight years or (a wildly specific) 192,000km.

There’s also five years' of roadside assistance, including puncture repair (a good thing, given the lack of a spare wheel). I also couldn’t find a puncture repair kit and later research suggests Tesla sells them, rather than provides them as standard.

Tesla servicing is condition-based, so there’s no fixed schedule, with a summary on the car’s touchscreen providing a record of when vehicle maintenance was last carried out and prompts for when they should be performed next.

In the absence of a combustion powertrain the emphasis is on things like wheel rotation, balancing and alignment, brake fluid testing, air-con servicing, camera precision, radiator cleaning and high-voltage battery maintenance.

Expecty a ‘Vehicle Health Check’ to come in under $300 with ‘General Diagnosis’ at around $270 per hour.