'Only seven will survive': Onslaught of Chinese electric car brands isn't sustainable as new challenger Xpeng takes the fight to legacy brands such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz and wunderkind BYD

The Australian new car landscape is changing rapidly with the onslaught of new Chinese brands landing on our shores in the past 12 months.

Xpeng is one of the recent crop of new recruits, launching in the past few months with electric G6 mid-size SUV.

It is just one new arrival amongst a sea of fresh names such as Deepal, Geely, Skywell and Zeekr.

These brands all have one thing in common, they are planning electric-only line-ups.

The boss of Xpeng’s local importer TrueEV, Jason Clarke, said the word from China is not all new brands will survive.

“There’s more like 200 [EV brands in China], and the chairman of Xpeng said only seven will survive. So, he clearly thinks he’s going to be one of them,” he said.

The same story applies Down Under, as Clarke said not all the Chinese brands coming to Australia would survive and even legacy brands will “find it hard”.

Xpeng G9.

The G6 epitomises the threat these new brands pose to conventional carmakers.

The G6 is packed with luxury kit and hi-tech features with a very appetising $54,800 (before on-roads) price tag for the Standard Range variant and $59,800 for the Long Range version.

That’s cheaper than a Tesla Model Y Standard range and much more affordable than a Toyota bZ4X and Hyundai Ioniq 5.

Base versions of the G6 use a 66kWh battery and the long-legged examples have a 87.5kWh battery that delivers a driving range of 435km and 570km, respectively.

Xpeng Mona.

Standard range versions use the cheaper and less energy dense lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) battery, while the Long Range examples fit a more expensive and energy packed nickel manganese cobalt (NCM) cells.

They can accept a max charge rate of up to 215kW and 280kW, which is good enough to refill the battery from 10-80 per cent in 20 minutes.

Both use a single rear-mounted electric motor with 190kW or 210kW and 440Nm, with a top speed of 200km and a 0-100km/h time of 6.6 seconds in the base version dropping to 6.2 seconds in the Long Range.

It has desirable items such as 20-inch alloy wheels, a circa-15-inch central touchscreen and a 10.2-inch digital driver display, synthetic leather trim and power adjustable, heated and ventilated front seats, a heated steering wheel, panoramic sunroof, two wireless device chargers and a booming 960-watt stereo.

Xpeng P7+

Xpeng isn’t just stopping there, though.

It has a formidable line-up waiting in the wings, which include the X9 people mover, G9 large SUV and the P7+ sedan and the cut-price Mona hatch are on the cards, too.

“The Mona is the (Made on new AI), that’s the first model with the Volkswagen joint venture, and that’s the one that sold 10,000 units in 50 minutes in China and that’s sub-US$20,000. That’s gonna change a lot,” said Clarke.

Xpeng is already pilfering customers from some of the biggest names in the game according to Clarke.

“What I’m finding is the trend is BYD. That hasn’t really cut it for them,” said Clarke.

Xpeng X9.

“Then it’s your typical small SUV ICE cars, which is consistently what we see is being traded in. So, RAV4s, Q3s, Mazda3, that type of buyer.”

The brand is also proving a hit with older, tech savvy buyers.

“We did the Future Drive show in Melbourne and I was surprised by the maturity of the attendees,” he said.

“Surprisingly, quite a lot of our market segment is older tech, EV, electrician, solar lifestyle. It’s really surprising. They love it, they know the brand.”

Clarke said people are excited by the battery tech who are thinking about what the car will do for them at home rather than just on the road.