Although the vehicle’s wrapping conceals some details, the white and black patterned film cannot completely hide the characteristic shapes at the front and rear. The vehicle charging at an E.On Drive Infrastructure hypercharger in Denmark is not a prototype from a European car manufacturer: It is an Xpeng X9, which is currently only available in China. Xpeng also exhibited such a vehicle at the IAA Mobility in September, but the X9 is not available for purchase in Europe at the moment.
The van, which seats up to seven and is 5.29 metres long, is an impressive sight. The wheelbase stretches over 3.16 metres, which should provide ample space in the interior. In China, such premium vans are very popular as VIP shuttles, luxury chauffeur cars or mobile offices. Volvo also offers such an electric van in China, which is not available for purchase in Europe. Mercedes is also eyeing this segment with its EQV successors, the VLE and VLS.
While it is clear that Mercedes-Benz Vans will also offer these models in Europe, the situation is less clear for Xpeng. A single prototype leaves a lot of room to manoeuvre, from purely technical tests to test drives of a revised version in Europe in order to conceal it from the Chinese public. But the fact that the Xpeng is apparently drawing power from a CCS charging station in Denmark without an adapter suggests that Xpeng is at least considering launching the X9 in Europe.
Xpeng Germany is still holding back on a possible market launch of a CCS version of the X9 adapted for Europe. “Our R&D in Munich currently has vehicles for testing, but that doesn’t mean that a European market launch will follow,” said a spokesperson contacted by electrive. “We will communicate whether this will happen in due course.”
In China, Xpeng had unveiled two versions of the X9 at the end of 2023, one with a 235 kW front-wheel drive and an optional additional 135 kW electric motor on the rear axle for all-wheel drive. The front-wheel drive model had LFP cells from Eve Energy with a total energy content of 84.5 kWh in the underbody, while the all-wheel drive model had NMC cells from CALB, combined into a 101.5 kWh battery pack.
However, this data is already two years old – quite a long time in the Chinese electric car industry. Xpeng has already revised its G6 and G9 SUV models, which were only just launched in Europe this autumn, equipping them with new batteries with a charging capacity of up to 525 kW, among other things. Find out how the G6 Performance performed on its first outing in our test drive report.
