Xpeng Reviews
Volkswagen bought Xpeng's autonomous driving software to use in its own cars — the first time a major legacy carmaker has purchased core AI technology from a Chinese EV startup. Here's what road tests say about the cars that software was built for.
The Rare Case of the Student Teaching the Teacher
Xpeng was founded in 2014 by a group of technology entrepreneurs with backgrounds in software and AI rather than traditional car engineering, and half its R&D team still works purely on software rather than hardware. That technology-first approach has paid off in a genuinely striking way: Volkswagen has formed a joint venture with Xpeng to build the electric and electronic architecture for its future Chinese-market cars, and separately agreed to integrate Xpeng's autonomous driving software directly into Volkswagen-badged EVs starting with a mid-size SUV — a genuinely rare arrangement in which an established global manufacturer is buying core technology from a much younger Chinese rival rather than the other way round.
Reviewers consistently point to Xpeng's charging speed as a standout, with the G6's 800-volt architecture enabling a 10 to 80% charge in around 12 minutes, genuinely competitive with the fastest-charging EVs on sale at any price. Xpeng only launched in the UK in 2025, working through International Motors' distribution network, so independent reliability data over several years genuinely doesn't exist yet — worth factoring in alongside the strong on-paper technology credentials. The summaries below cover what several independent testers actually found behind the wheel of the model launched here so far.
Every Model, One Place
Rather than picking a single opinion and running with it, each review here pulls together several independent road tests and highlights where they agree — and where they don't. Pick a model below to see the full breakdown.