► Xpeng is hoping to pick up where Tesla left off
► The P7+ does everything the old Model S could…
► … and a bit more, where self-driving tech is concerned
Xpeng, the Chinese automaker and technology company, has big plans for 2026. The brand is finally taking its assault on the European electric car market seriously with this – the P7+. It’s a five-seat family fastback designed to serve the niche that was forged (and has since been abandoned by) the Tesla Model S.
The P7+ has been on sale in China since 2024 and, in its home market, it has a starting price of 209,000 Yuan (roughly £23,000). I don’t expect the price will stay that low by the time import duties have been added, but it should at least cost less than the £50,000 required to put a Volkswagen ID.7 on your drive.
To mark its grand debut in the west, Xpeng has given the P7+ a few cosmetic tweaks. Should European buyers care, though? On the face of it, Xpeng seems like yet another Chinese OEM desperate to gain a foothold in the west by undercutting its established rivals – but its plans are a bit more sophisticated than that.
Xpeng is throwing a lot of resource at AI. In fact, Xpeng says it has one of the most sophisticated semi-autonomous driving modes on the market – and the P7+ is the first time European buyers will be able to experience the fruits of the company’s labour.
The firm also promises the P7+ will be more spacious and more convenient to own than its European rivals, thanks to its simply gargantuan proportions and ultrafast charging tech. Scroll down to learn everything we know about the car.
Europe will get three versions of the P7+, called RWD Standard Range, RWD Long Range and AWD Performance. The entry-level car features a 61.7kWh battery pack that offers a 279-mile driving range, while the Long Range and Performance variants have larger 74.9kWh batteries that offer longer maximum ranges of 342 and 310 miles respectively.
The cheapest model gets a single motor on the rear axle with 241bhp and 332lb ft of torque, which Xpeng says is enough for a 0–62mph time of 7.9 seconds. The RWD Long Range variant has a slightly punchier 309bhp motor but, because it produces the same amount of torque as the base model, it only improves the car’s 0–62mph time to 7.4 seconds.
The range-topping Xpeng P7+ AWD Performance is much sprightlier. It gains an extra motor on the front axle, boosting power and torque to 496bhp and 494lb ft. That extra poke trims the car’s 0–62mph time down to 5.1 seconds which, importantly, beats the 5.4-second time set by its closest rival, the Volkswagen ID.7 GTX.
Every version of the P7+ gets the same 800-volt electrical system, meaning it also charges faster than most of its European rivals. Xpeng claims the battery can accept DC speeds of up to 446kW, and that you can dispatch a 10–80% charge in as little as 12 minutes.
Interestingly, Xpeng also made quite a big fuss about the girth of the P7+’s battery pack. Apparently, it’s only 109mm thick, which it says allowed it to create more space inside for passengers and lower the car’s roofline. That, in turn improved the aerodynamic profile to 0.211Cd which, again, is better than the 0.23Cd of the ID.7.
Then there’s the space. It’s more than five metres long and has a wheelbase of more than three metres. That equates to around a metre of legroom in the back and a boot capacity of 573 litres, which is 41 litres more than a Volkswagen ID.7 and 28 litres more than an Audi A6 e-tron Avant.
Not that much. Xpeng doesn’t want to highlight the improvements between the China-market P7+ and the European-market P7+, as it’s planning to introduce it to us as an all-new car. But, because I also drove the pre-updated P7+ on the same trip, I pestered the company’s executives for more information.
Apparently, most of the changes are cosmetic. Up front, there’s a reshaped splitter with active air dams rather than vents and a new LED light bar that runs the full width of the front bumper (the Chinese cars’ light strips are split into three sections). The rear bumper also gets a new black painted section that runs further up the panel.
European cars will also have a slightly less sophisticated version of Xpeng’s self-driving tech, as legislation here stipulates drivers still need to take a more active role in the driving process. However, I have sampled the tech in China on the pre-updated version of the P7+, and it’s one of the most impressive self-driving systems I’ve yet encountered. Read my review to find out why.
Frustratingly, the brand is launching a new saloon called the P7. Not to be confused with the P7+ or indeed the previous-generation P7 saloon that was launched in 2020.
It represents the next step forward for the brand. It’ll be built on the company’s new SEPA 3.0 architecture and will feature the latest version of Xpeng’s self-driving technology, which can apparently ‘think’ and react more like a human driver. It’s fitted with the company’s new Turing AI chip and running on Xpeng’s VLA 2.0 software. The first cars will roll off the production line in 2026 for the Chinese market.
Despite its autonomous capability, Xpeng says it’ll pitch the next P7 as more of a driver’s car than the P7+. The cheapest version will have a single motor on the rear axle with an output of 362bhp and 342lb ft of torque, while the top spec dual motor model has 596bhp and 512lb ft of torque. Xpeng says that’s enough for a 0–62mph time of 3.7 seconds, which is a tenth quicker than the BMW i5 M60.
We’ll have to wait and see whether Xpeng can uphold those performance claims – and, indeed whether the new P7 can handle even remotely as well as its biggest European rival.
Roll on my next trip to China.
Luke is the Deputy Editor of our sister site Parkers, but he spends plenty of time writing news, reviews and features for CAR. He's been a motoring journalist since 2018, learning his craft on the Auto Express news desk before joining the Parkers/CAR team in 2022. When he isn't yoked to his laptop, he's tearing his hair out over his classic Mini restoration project or pinballing around the country attending heavy metal gigs.
By Luke Wilkinson
Deputy Editor of Parkers. Unhealthy obsession with classic Minis and old Alfas. Impenetrable Cumbrian accent