'A couple of thousand kilometres of range in a year or two': Amazing battery technology is just around the corner that would be game-changing for electric cars said Xpeng local importer

Xpeng is one of the most ambitious new car brands to launch in Australia recently.

The Chinese brand is under the stewardship of TrueEV in Australia and boss Jason Clarke said some big battery tech is just around the corner.

He said range extender hybrids — which use a petrol engine to power a battery that feeds electric motors — weren’t on the cards for Australia as battery technology was moving so fast.

"[Range extenders are appealing] in Australia because of the expanse, but look, I don’t worry too much about that. This is now, and we are talking about 570km of range,” said Clarke.

“If you research what’s happening in battery tech, quite heavily, the last thing you’d do is set up a charging station. If you know what is coming to battery tech where you might have a couple of thousand kilometres of range in a year or two or even 10,000km of range.

“That’s crazy, and that’s more likely to come forward than range extenders and hybrids. I don’t worry about hydrogen too much because of the storage needs,” he said.

The battery tech Clarke is likely alluding to is solid state batteries that are lighter, smaller, more energy dense, cheaper and less fire prone than current batteries.

Several Chinese brands are close to bringing the future tech to market, with Toyota and Nissan still several years away.

Xpeng has just launched its G6 mid-size electric SUV in Australia and it caused quite a stir at the Sydney International EV show the past week, with the brand’s stand swamped with interested parties.

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.

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

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 has big plans in Australia with a range of products expected to arrive over the coming years.

On the agenda first are the X9 people mover, G9 large SUV and the p7 sedan and the cut-price Mona hatch are potential starters, too.