XPeng G9 Review | Goodwood Test

The XPeng's interior ticks all the boxes you'd expect of a big, posh SUV without you having to tick any boxes because almost everything you see comes as standard. Its air suspension drops to aid entry, and the soft-close doors need the lightest tugs to pull shut. Inside, you get a passenger-side display that means your wing wo/man can browse the internet, flick through music, or watch a film independently of the central infotainment screen.

Quality is decent but not as earth-shatteringly amazing as we've come to expect of cars like the BMW X5[1] and Mercedes GLE[2]. Nappa leather (more on that in a second) covered almost all our car's interior. Still, some areas let the side down, like the plastics on the steering wheel, and the XPeng doesn't have feel-good features like the intricate speaker covers in a Mercedes or the haptic-feedback screens of an Audi.

It also tries a little too hard to reinvent the wheel at times; the screen-controlled air vents are far tricker to use than the manual ducts you get on pretty much every other car - if they're good enough for Rolls Royce, then they're probably good enough for the G9. Up front, the seats feel like sofa chairs. They don't offer much lateral support, but they're deeply padded, come with almost every adjustment option, and move away (painfully slowly) from the steering wheel to aid entry and exit.

The seats are even better if you go for the Premium Comfort & Audio Pack (EUR3,990 in the Netherlands, or GBP3,400), which adds extra seat adjustment and passenger leg support, and wraps the whole lot in that welcomingly soft Nappa leather mentioned earlier. The same pack adds a stonking Dolby Atmos Stereo with speakers everywhere, including in the seats, and a reclining back seat with a massage function - it's a set of options that would cost five figures in German rivals. Even without the pack upgrade, rear-seat passengers won't find much to complain about.

The seats have the same sofa-like qualities as the ones up front; there's loads of knee room and an embarrassment of headroom, despite the car having a panoramic glass roof that sucks light into the cabin. The boot is another area that is not short of space. Its huge opening and square cargo bay mean you can use up every last one of the car's 660-litre capacity, and there's a button at the door that makes the G9 drop to its knees for loading.

The XPeng gets the same handy features found in rivals, including a small netted cubby, tie-down hooks, and a 12V power socket.

References

  1. ^ BMW X5 (www.goodwood.com)
  2. ^ Mercedes GLE (www.goodwood.com)