Image Credit: XPeng.
If you squint a wee bit and tilt your head to the left, you'd swear upon your mother's finest china that you're looking at a brand-new Range Rover. The blackened pillars, the floating roof, that split tailgate at the back - it's all there! But wipe your glasses, lads and lasses, because this isn't a British aristocratic yacht. It's the XPeng GX, a Chinese full-size crossover that shamelessly borrows the homework of Land Rover and actually makes the math better. I know, I'm as shocked as you are!
Under that suspiciously familiar metal suit is a proper bag of witchcraft. XPeng built this new chariot on their new SEPA 3.0 architecture. It's got an AI-powered chassis that thinks faster than I do after a pint of Guinness, automatically adjusting to whatever ruined road you're bouncing across. Throw in an AR heads-up display, Level 4 autonomous driving, and a steer-by-wire system with no physical connection between the steering wheel and the tires. Terrifying? A little. Brilliant? Heck yeah!
Image Credit: XPeng.
To process all this wizardry, XPeng crammed in four Turing AI chips pumping out 3,000 Trillion Operations Per Second. You could probably use it to mine Bitcoin while driving. But what about the shove? The fully electric rear-wheel-drive model gets a solid 362 horsepower. Step up to the all-wheel-drive trim, and a second front motor brings the total grunt to almost absurd 577 horsepower. Both top out at 125 mph, though XPeng is keeping the 0-60 acceleration times strictly under wraps. As for battery sizes, they're keeping those numbers locked away too, but we do know they're using CALB-made packs.
If you break out in a cold sweat thinking about dead batteries in the middle of nowhere, listen to this. There is an Extended Range version that carries a 1.5-liter turbocharged gas engine, which acts purely as a generator. It feeds two electric motors delivering a combined 496 horsepower. Powered by a 63.3-kWh battery, you get about 200 miles of pure electric range. But with a full tank of gas powering the generator, you are looking at over 621 miles of total driving. Range anxiety? Toss it in the bin!
Image Credit: XPeng.
Make no mistake, this is a hefty chunk of machinery. Tipping the scales between 5,930 and 6,371 pounds depending on how you spec it, it is a proper heavyweight. But it hides its mass well over a massive 122.6-inch wheelbase. The front overhang is 38.5 inches, the rear stretches 46 inches, and it rides on either 21 or 22-inch wheels. The 18-degree approach and a 20-degree departure angle make it easy to accidentally mount a curb at the local mall. You also get active air intakes and retractable door handles.
XPeng set out to fix the "impossible triangle" of three-row SUVs - comfort, handling, and actually having room for luggage when all the seats are full. Shockingly, they nailed it. But that's not even the best bit. The shocker is the price - this tech-loaded rolling supercomputer is estimated to cost between $57,600 and $72,000. Of course, that's in China, but it doesn't make the shock any easier to deal with. For a fake Range Rover that drives itself and does not run out of juice, that is an absolute steal. Set it free, XPeng. Bring it to other markets and let the purists twitch while the rest of us have a laugh.
More about XPeng on MSN:
Buy a van, get a free plane: XPeng’s $287k madness
You should never meet your heroes? That’s absolute baloney
XPeng P7+ is an Austrian-built 'Chinese' EV troll that is eating VW’s lunch
My Other Car is a... $280,000 Flying Truck
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