We explore the world of XPeng, a Chinese brand challenging for market domination in the UK

And so to Billingsgate, central London, for yet another debut event for a Chinese automotive brand. Following on from last month’s arrival of Jaecoo, now it’s the turn of XPeng, an all-electric car company that hopes to field a strong challenge to established premium European brands before the decade is out.

If the name sounds familiar, it’s because XPeng was the name behind the willfully outrageous Land Aircraft Carrier showcased at the start of the year. It’s not all six-wheelers however, for XPeng is deadly serious about attaining and retaining premium status.

The key target slice of market for this challenger brand is a familiar one – the biggish SUVs that make up the vast majority of cars sold across the UK and Europe. XPeng’s entry to the genre is the G6, an SUV coupe. It’ll be joined by the P7+, a flagship sedan that claims to be ‘the world's first AI-defined vehicle’.

In time, we’ll also see the G9, a full-size ‘Ultra Intelligent Flagship SUV,’ along with the X9 seven-seater. Look a little further, and maybe, just maybe, the eVTOL X2 flying car will make an appearance. Built by the subsidiary brand XPeng AEROHT, like the six-wheeler, the X2 was on show at Billingsgate but will presumably not meet stringent UK and European aviation legislation.

In fact, a lot of XPeng’s high-tech profile and subsequent success in China depends hugely on that country’s unconventional mix of tight social control and embrace of innovation. It’s the reason why XPeng’s XGNP suite of self-driving technology can be so granular and focused; the company’s navigation system can effectively deliver ‘parking space to parking space’ navigation in Chinese cities.

To achieve all this, 40% of company staff are devoted to R and D, and half of them are focusing on AI. And then there are the flying cars, and the humanoid robots, and a scale and cost of corporate ambition that European legacy brands find hard to match. XPeng is now number 3 in the roster of global EV makers, with over 30,000 deliveries a month. Not bad for a company that produced its first model, the XPeng G3 SUV, in late 2018.

This is also why Volkswagen has decided that collaboration is better than competition. In 2023, the VW Group invested $700 million in XPeng to take a 4.99% stake. Going forwards, VW will collaborate closely with XPeng to shape two forthcoming EVs for China, set to go on sale in 2026 and bear the VW badge.

While VW might need XPeng, will XPeng need VW? The Chinese industry has cracked the magic formula for churning out hundreds of thousands of biggish electric SUVs and saloons, many of which seem to feature near identical packages of equipment, instrumentation and connectivity. It’s incredibly impressive, even if the resulting cars look and feel a little bit bland and same-y.

The same can’t be said for the X2, with its futuristic blend of gullwing doors, four dual motor, dual rotor ‘wings’ and stripped out cockpit. The impression given by the speeches at the launch event was that XPeng as a brand considered mobility to be a human need, one that could be enhanced by technology.

One of the nascent company’s early backers was businessman He Xiaopeng, founder of Chinese browser giant UCWeb, subsequently acquired by Alibaba. The name XPeng derives from his name – imagine a car company named BZos, for example. The accelerated entrepreneurialism of modern China finds its expression in companies like XPeng, aided and abetted by the absence of the culture war-infused debates surrounding EVs that are stymying growth in the West.

XPeng is being brought to the UK by International Motors, a relatively low-key UK importer with an impressive track record in identifying brands on the cusp of global success. Since 1976, IM has introduced eight brands into the UK, including Subaru in 1976, Isuzu in 1987 and Ssangyong in 1994. Most notably, the company introduced Hyundai to the UK in 1981. Now it is bringing XPeng, a brand that believes it can be a market leader in short order, with a side order of AI and whatever else that technology brings.

Ten years or so, there were stats going around detailing the number of engineers graduating from China's universities and colleges. It was orders of magnitudes more than in the West. What we’re seeing now is the result of that focus. Around the same time, I visited the Shanghai Auto Show; the resulting display of Chinese car manufacturing didn’t seem especially competitive. Instead of innovation, there was intellectual property theft, a lack of design originality and poor finishes. All that has gone.

XPeng kicks off its UK range with the G6 SUV coupe, on sale. It’s an impressively rounded package, combining 5-star safety rating, ultra-fast charging and a range of up to 354 miles. Inside, there’s the company’s Xmart OS 5.0, which 'brings the laptop experience into the cabin', along with a 'multi-language voice experience' and a cutesy little robot avatar to represent the car’s AI capabilities. Legislation precludes the company from throwing the switch on any form of self-driving beyond a standard ADAS suite, but the G6 incorporates no less than 12 radar sensors, 5 high-definition radars and 12 cameras.

The question markets and manufacturers around the world are asking is whether XPeng is as all-seeing as its cars, complete with a road map to market domination all drawn up and ready to go.

XPeng G6, from £39,990, XPengcars.co.uk, XPeng.com