Another year, another “facelift” for the Xpeng X9, which went on sale in Thailand last week – just two weeks after it was launched in China. This time, the changes, seen at the ongoing Bangkok International Motor Show (BIMS), are much more substantial, albeit not ones that we haven’t seen before.
That’s because the seven-seater electric MPV’s new design touches have actually been lifted from the PowerX range extender model, revealed in the Middle Kingdom in October. These include a new front bumper with a larger centre air intake that replaces the body-coloured hexagonal array, fitted with an active grille shutter. The latter works with the also-new corner air curtains to cut drag by 22 points.
Meanwhile, the rear bumper features a body-coloured lower section with a black valance – the inverse of what was offered before, in other words. The new-for-2025 20-inch multi-spoke wheels with Rolls-Royce-style self-righting centre caps have been retained for higher-end models, while the colour palette has been expanded to include two new colours – Polar Violet and Lambent Cyan.
The changes are just as minor on the inside, with a new steering wheel that centralises the Xpeng logo and adds a 360-degree camera shortcut button and a “Mode” switch, plus ayous wood trim and a new cloud rose and brown and white colour scheme.
Beyond that, the car is identical to before, sporting the same metallic ripple-effect air-con vents, a massive 17.3-inch infotainment touchscreen, a 10.25-inch digital instrument display, a 21.4-inch roof-mounted rear monitor, a rear fridge and 18-way power-adjustable second-row captain’s chairs with heating, ventilation, massage and one-touch “zero gravity” recline.
It’s good to see that the export X9 also gains features added to last year’s Chinese-market car, such as soft-closing front doors, ISOFIX child seat mounts on both outer second-row seats (previously only on the right side) and the third row, and physical rear side window switches. The latter replaces the old capacitive ones.
Mechanically, the X9 EV’s single front motor has been boosted by 27 PS (20 kW) to 346 PS (255 kW), while torque holds steady at 450 Nm. New for global markets is a dual-motor all-wheel-drive setup that produces a sum total of 537 PS (395 kW) and 640 Nm.
Battery sizes have also been increased to 94.8 kWh (up from 84.5 kWh) for the LFP pack and 110 kWh (up from 101.5 kWh) for the NMC unit; the dual-motor all-wheel-drive version is only available with the larger battery. This, together with the aerodynamic improvements, have netted a decent increase in WLTP range – 535 km (up from 500 km) for the smaller battery and 615 km (up from 590 km) with the bigger one, both with the single motor. The dual-motor AWD version obviously has a shorter range, at 580 km.
Charging speeds have also seen a massive jump to a whopping 537 kW for the 94.8 kWh battery and 542 kW for the 110 kWh pack (previously 317 kW max). All models now charge from 10 to 80% in a blistering 12 minutes, down from 20 minutes – deeply impressive for such large batteries.
Last but not least, the X9 EV gains the latest Turing AI chip for driver assists, offering up to 2,250 TOPs of power. In China, this enables a second-generation visual-language-action (VLA) model that is said to improve the car’s highly-automated driving features. The company is working towards full Level 4 autonomy with the system in “one to three years,” it said in a press release. Obviously, this won’t be offered in export markets, which get the usual Level 2 semi-autonomous driving functionality.
Prices start at 2,399,000 baht (RM292,400) for the base 94.8 kWh Premium model, rising up to 2,599,000 baht (RM316,800) for the 110 kWh Executive and 2,799,000 baht (RM341,200) for the top-spec Luxury AWD. Given that product updates tend to arrive in Malaysia quite soon after they were introduced in China, expect the revamped MPV to go on sale imminently, possibly once CKD local assembly kicks off.
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