2025 Xpeng X9 electric people mover gets upgrades before its Australian launch

The 2025 Xpeng X9 people mover – confirmed for Australian showrooms later this year – has made its official global debut in China with a more luxurious, reconfigured cabin among a host of upgrades for the same sticker price.

The update of the X9 is the last significant change ahead of the five-door people-mover’s planned arrival in Australian dealerships, as the Xpeng brand establishes itself down under.

Australian X9 specs and pricing are yet to be confirmed, but the latest global update gives a glimpse of the possibilities for local showroom models planned to arrive here later this year.

While the X9’s core attributes remain – given it was introduced in China in January 2024 – Xpeng has amped up the luxury appeal of the vehicle without a permanent price rise once initial ‘launch pricing’ ends.

This will be welcome news as the X9 hasn’t sold as strongly as Xpeng anticipated against rivals such as the Zeekr 009, which is also coming to Australia in 2025 priced from $135,900 before on-roads.

The Zeekr 009 costs more than the Xpeng in China, with prices starting at ¥500,000 ($AU107,205) against the entry level X9’s ¥359,800 ($AU77,145) and flagship model’s ¥419,800 ($AU90,009).

Xpeng claims the 2025 update brings ¥80,000 ($AU17,196) worth of upgrades “focused on elevating comfort, technology, and intelligent driving capabilities” over its predecessor.

That means little on the outside for the 5293mm long, 1988mm wide and 1785 people mover, which is slightly bigger than the Kia Carnival currently in Australian showrooms.

A new 20-inch alloy wheel option is joined by three new colours – Nebula Purple, Galaxy Blue, and Matte Starship Grey – for a total of seven paint choices (but don’t count on all coming to Australian).

Given it’s a luxury model – with Xpeng saying more and more people mover buyers in China are looking for high-end features – there’s only seven (2+2+3) nappa-leather trimmed seats to ensure passenger space and comfort.

The front two rows now come standard with ‘NASA-inspired’ Zero-Gravity seats, claimed to reduced pressure on occupant joints, delivering a 10-point massage function, with a 16-point function optional.

The 2025 X9 also has greater space (165m) between the second-row seats to allow both more room for passengers but also better access to the third row.

There’s more reason to use the third row, too, with upgrades including an infinitely adjustable backrests and head restraints, one-touch-of-a-button folding with the chair’s ability to sit completely flat for more cargo space.

The reconfigured cabin gives the 2025 X9 a total 7.7 square meters of space and 1360mm interior height.

As well as the previous 21.4-inch rear entertainment screen, there’s now a 220V power outlet, a karaoke system (of course) and a 10.8-litre fridge/warmer.

Materials have improved, and while it’s hard to imagine what the total 26.6 metres of soft-touch materials – an increase of 3.2 metres – actually looks like, it’s clear the X9 has a lot of luxury padding inside.

There’s also more sound insulation for 2025 for better cabin refinement, with comfort and dynamics benefitting from the carry-over air suspension and rear-wheel steering tech.

The X9 uses an 800V architecture and has a choice of a 94.8 kWh LFP (Lithium-Iron Phosphate) and 105kWh lithium-ion battery packs.

There are two single-motor front-wheel drive and two dual-motor all-wheel drive models in the 2025 X9 line-up in China.

The front-wheel drive pair uses an unchanged 235kW/450Nm electric motor, kicking off with the ironically-named Long Range Max.

It uses the smaller 94.8kWh battery for a claimed 650km range (under the China Light-Duty Vehicle Test Cycle or CLTC).

The Ultra Long Range Max gets the larger 105kWh battery extending range to 740km with both front-drive models offering 0-100km/h acceleration of 7.7 seconds.

All-wheel drive X9s start with the Performance Max – running a rear-axle motor with 135kW/190Nm as well as the 235kW front motor – with 702km between recharging, the same distance as the top-level Starship Edition.

Both use the larger 105kWh battery to lop a full two seconds off the 0-100km/h sprint, down to 5.7 seconds (for a people mover!).

Tech additions include Xpeng’s Turing AI Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) – with more powerful processing from its own in-house developed chip – as standard across the X9 line-up.

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