The best place in the world to be an electric vehicle consumer is definitely China. Automakers are duking it out to offer the most incentives and the most features at the lowest cost. The government continues to prop up sales with its own mix of inducements. There’s also more variety in the Chinese market than, possibly, all other major markets combined.
China is a large place with a lot of people that’s long prioritized the development of its electric car industry, so this makes sense. Conversely, Britain is a relatively small place with fewer people that’s lately torpedoed its own car industry. Yet, in many ways, Britain is on the verge of becoming the other best place to buy an electric car.
Admittedly, you could make an argument for the United States, which has a lot of endemic EVs that aren’t for sale elsewhere as well as generous tax credits (for now). Norway, too, has made huge strides in electrification, although that’s partially because car buyers there have been strongly nudged in that direction.
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David, Beau, and I went to the UK last summer for the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and the place was absolutely dominated by new Chinese electric cars. There’s a logic to this, and it has to do a lot with Brexit. When Britain exited the EU it also exited its trade regime, meaning the newly-applied tariffs against Chinese automakers don’t exist in the UK. The breakup may have been an effort by the country’s conservatives, but it might be Britain’s left-wing parties and Chinese companies that benefit the most, as I previously wrote:
The politics of all of this are fascinating. The new Labour government in the UK wants to phase out combustion-powered cars by 2030, which is going to be much easier with Chinese cars. Even if the UK puts a small tariff on Chinese-built EVs there’s a lot less of a domestic car industry to be worried about ruining and the environmental upside might be worth it for the country’s new leaders.
For now, Chinese cars pay the same 10% tariff that all other importers pay to bring cars to the UK.
While it’s not the biggest market in the world, the United Kingdom is a ripe target for Chinese automakers. And with growing global displeasure over Tesla’s CEO possibly dragging down sales, the Model Y is a good place to start.
Meet The XPENG G6
The last time we wrote about Chinese automaker XPENG outside of The Morning Dump, it was to talk about its E-VTOL flying car concept. Flying cars aside, it’s a serious player in the Chinese space, having just surpassed Li Auto in January of this year with 30,350 deliveries.
In the UK, the first vehicle for sale will be the XPENG G6, which is what they call an “Ultra Smart Coupe SUV.” It’s a crossover that looks and acts very much like a Tesla Model Y, but cheaper.
At launch, the G6 will only be available in the RWD standard trim, which gets 270 miles of range on the WLTP cycle and costs £39,990, or about $55,000. The cheapest of the refreshed Model Y in the UK starts at £46,900 and goes 373 miles. If you want a lot more range, the G6 RWD Long Range costs just £44,990 and goes 354 miles.
It also offers 280 kW of charging speed thanks to its 800-volt architecture. In most ways, it seems quite competitive with the Tesla Model Y. Autocar‘s editors got their hands on one and found it to be a “close match” for the Tesla.
The G6 is a good car, in short, but Xpeng’s marketing people will have a hell of a job on their hands making people take notice of a car that doesn’t seem to have many distinguishing features.
Then again, perhaps its unnoteworthiness is in itself a feature. In the G6, we haven’t been annoyed by a tetchy ride, jerky accelerator, mandatory one-pedal driving or poor adaptive cruise control, as we might have been in a Model Y, but we were driving a car that for all intents and purposes does the same things for less money. The product is objectively impressive; we’re just not sure how you turn all of that into a catchy marketing slogan.
Tesla’s Musk might be helping here, as “not a Tesla” might appeal to some people. At the same time, it’s also available in this sweet orange color. Orange cars sell themselves.
Next time I’m in the UK I’ll be tempted to drive one, unless Adrian beats me to it.
I was in the UK last summer too and didn’t see a single Chinese car. Maybe because I wasn’t at Goodwood?
Interesting to see the comments about this car’s looks. Has anyone here actually seen a Model Y? This car will hold up just fine to any visual comparison with that specific car (its main competitor).
“The UK’s Latest Tesla Model Y Competitor…”
Was anyone else expecting to see an article about a British car?
Because I find myself utterly baffled to be reading about a Chinese car that happens to be sold in the UK, among other places
That would be like publishing an article about a new Porsche or Mercedes-AMG, which is being reviewed in Portugal – and titling the article “We Drove Portugal’s Newest Sports Car!”
It looks like a giant supository.
Totally!
The G6 is probably XPeng’s ugliest car on sale in my opinion, it’ll probably get an update this year that fixes the styling. When that update arrives to the UK/Europe, they’re gonna get accused of copying the Model Y refresh, which is ironically a styling copy of XPeng’s P7+. The G6 doesn’t appear to be doing amazing in the Chinese market, as the styling and the lack of PHEV/EREV options have pushed customers elsewhere. The interior is pretty generic ‘premium-ish Chinese EV’, but with slightly less concealed air vents.
Around 75% of their sales recently have been from their P7+ and Mona M03 sedans, which are extremely well priced yet competent.
“Same but cheaper” sells a lot. Look at Harbor Freight and their success. Doing the same thing maybe 90% as well but 80% of the price is going to sell.
Great example of this is the Harbor Freight Predator engines which are cloned previous gen Honda designs. I’ve got two of these on go karts, my Toro snowblower has one under a different name, and I’m swapping one on my old rototiller. China can build reliability if proper processes and management oversight is in place.
And if they crack the whip often enough on the laborers.
Many people have reservations about buying HF and other too-cheap-to-pass-up Chinese tools.
Chinese EVs are very competitive, though, and they range from boring to very creative. I can see them successfully burrowing their way into a good percentage of the market.
Yeah, just tell people that it has “Tesla guts” and inside is same thing only it sell for cheaper, they don’t need to be paying for a brand
What does it say when companies identified with Elon Musk look worse than those that are enmeshed in the state capitalism of a country engaged in the kind of political repression to which we haven’t quite descended in the US – yet?
“Tesla will build a better car once it can engage in Chinese-style labor practices.”- Musk and every GOP member.
I’m afraid the visuals here don’t do it for me. Its very “generic EV” looking to me. Like if I was told instead this was the design for a car from GTA6 called the “Coil Why”, I would totally believe it. I look forward to the day where we discover new looks that achieve decent aerodynamics. Not that I buy new cars anyway, so my opinion is pretty meaningless.
But will they charge more to escape from the world of boring black cars? Because people know you got that throw away money when you can buy an actual color for your tesla! They have such a range like grey. And darker grey. And lighter gray when youre adventurous.
Who would ever want that bright orange?
You can get a Model Y in grey? I’m sure here in the UK they are almost all white.