Xpeng aims high: the GX flagship SUV steps into China's premium six-seater fight

© B. Naumkin

Xpeng is preparing to launch its most expensive car yet. The flagship GX SUV will be officially unveiled on May 20, and the pre-sales price is already known — 399,800 yuan, or roughly $58,820.

For Xpeng, this is more than just another large crossover. The brand’s sales today are driven by more affordable models, especially the Mona M03 sedan. The GX has a different job: to break into the premium segment, where margins are higher and where buyers choose not only on range, but on the level of technology they get.

The rivals are serious: Nio ES8, Li Auto L9 and Aito M9, the latter backed by Huawei. This is China’s tightly packed class of large family SUVs, where being merely roomy and quick is no longer enough. Buyers expect advanced driver assistance, powerful electronics, real comfort and confidence on long trips.

The GX is built on the new SEPA 3.0 architecture and, according to Xpeng, was engineered with Level 4 autonomous driving in mind. The car runs three of the company’s in-house Turing AI chips with a combined performance of 2,250 TOPS. They support an advanced Vision-Language-Action AI model designed to read the road and the driver’s commands more accurately.

Xpeng CEO He Xiaopeng said the GX was built to be a car you can trust across very different scenarios. One of the stated focus areas is driving in underground car parks without a GPS signal and without lane markings. If the system actually works reliably, it will be more than a marketing line — it will be a genuinely useful feature for an owner of a big SUV.

Two powertrains will be offered: a pure-electric BEV and an EREV version with a range extender. The split is meant to keep buyers who want an EV but still worry about long drives and charging stops on board.

The GX is entering a market where Chinese brands no longer compete on price alone, but on how much customers trust their technology. For Xpeng, it’s a test: can the brand move beyond the mass segment and convince buyers that almost $59,000 for its flagship is not just paying for ambition.