New XPeng L03 2026 review: a capable but forgettable electric SUV

Verdict

The XPeng L03’s strengths will be its super-keen pricing, generous level of standard kit, and the allure of up to 425bhp for around £40,000. To drive, it is perfectly proficient and capable – but also largely unmemorable. It’s a fuss-free way of getting from A to B, but there’s a heck of a lot of talented alternatives in this market sector for the L03 to truly stand out.

XPeng considers itself a technology company, more than it does a carmaker. You only have to bear witness to the press presentation for its second model for Europe, the L03, which was 45 minutes long and spoke of humanoid robots, flying cars and robotaxis, long before it showed us a 20-second slide that actually pertained to the vehicle we were there to drive.

Still, the brand’s first effort for the European market – the larger and Tesla Model Y-rivalling G6 – was a fairly well-polished thing, so hopes were high that XPeng could pull off the same trick with a slightly shrunken version of much the same formula.

The L03 is, ostensibly, a C-segment coupe-SUV powered purely by electric. That positioning by its parent manufacturer, and a range likely to start from around £33,000 when UK order books open in November, places it in the same sort of arena as contenders such as the Renault Scenic E-Tech, the Kia EV3 and the Skoda Elroq, to name a few.

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But because the L03 isn’t much smaller than the G6, plus the fact it caps its line-up with a 425bhp all-wheel-drive variant, it’s inevitably going to encroach upwards and be compared to the likes of the Cupra Tavascan and Toyota bZ4X.

Despite confusion about precisely where it sits in the market, it doesn’t lack for kerb appeal. Its swoopy form was said to be designed by a team led by ex-Ferrari JuanMa Lopez, and it’s so slippery of shape that it cuts through the air with an impressive 0.228Cd drag coefficient.

That said, the front of it isn’t half redolent of some of Polestar’s aesthetic output, while the rear aspect is a convincing duplicate of the Porsche Macan Electric.

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Inside is the usual Chinese-car cabin architecture. There’s one whopping central touchscreen, a letterbox digital instrument cluster, no buttons and some testing ergonomics.

Admittedly, the Google Maps-enabled main 15.6-inch touchscreen reacts pretty sharply to haptic inputs and presents its graphics cleanly, but there are still some annoying menu configurations within its systems and that lingering desire from the driver for a few more buttons for key controls.

It’ll take you a while to get used to it, but one prod of switches on the L03’s flattened steering wheel adjust the temperature and fan-speed of the in-car climate control. Unless you’re using cruise, that is, when the same buttons then switch to that functionality instead.

Practicality-wise, the L03 isn’t bad. Its 2.85-metre wheelbase and flat rear floor provide plenty of space for taller occupants, and even the slope of its roofline and inclusion of a massive 1.3-metre-square panoramic roof don’t impinge too deleteriously on headroom in the back.

The boot’s not massive, though, at 367 litres, and even with the 40:20:40 rear seats folded down, there’s just 1,131 litres on offer. XPeng makes up for this by providing a frunk, which stands at 89 litres in rear-driven models and 44 litres in the AWD Performance we’re testing here.

Anyway, material quality in the XPeng’s passenger compartment is generally decent, so with its spaciousness, airy ambience, comfortable driving position and broadly amenable (rather than annoying) tech, the L03 will do little to deter punters in the Chinese firm’s UK showrooms.

XPeng’s UK representatives suggested we’ll get a four-strong model line-up here. Kicking things off will be the RWD Standard, with a single rear motor, 219bhp and 280Nm, a 57.6kWh usable LFP battery pack, and a range of about 276 miles to a charge.

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Buyers can then step up to a RWD Long Range, predicted to be the best-seller on these shores, which has a more potent 245bhp/280Nm motor and a 70.4kWh LFP battery for a 323-mile range. This comes in regular format or with the Ultra package.

Ultra adds 20-inch wheels (the L03 runs on 18s otherwise), yellow brake callipers, a 20-speaker sound system, massage front seats and, most crucially in its parent firm’s eyes, the three Turing AI control chips for the driver-assistance systems. That would potentially make the L03 capable of Level 3 autonomous driving (XPeng calls this ‘Next Generation Pilot’, or NGP), local legislation permitting.

Sitting above the Long Range duo is the AWD Performance. A motor is added to the front axle as well as the rear, ramping up drivetrain outputs to a robust 425bhp and 451Nm of combined torque. The 0-62mph time here is 4.5 seconds – a good two seconds and more quicker than any other L03 – but you pay for that with range, which is less than the small-battery XPeng at 273 miles. Maximum DC charging speeds on all models allow for a potential 20-minute 10-to-80 per cent top-up time.

Regrettably, in a crowd of talented electric SUVs, it’s all rather anodyne. On the move, the L03 AWD Performance does nothing notably badly, but nothing particularly brilliantly either.

It is a comfortable, quiet and nicely refined car at all road speeds, rarely being unsettled by surface imperfections despite the fitment of 20-inch wheels.

But there are times the suspension, passively sprung and damped, runs out of ideas during more challenging sections of road taken at higher pace, which – with almost feel-free and curiously weightless steering – does enough to erode driver confidence in the L03’s handling abilities. 

The cupboard is not bereft in this department, though, because there’s plenty of grip from the XPeng and body lean isn’t excessive in the corners either.

The problem with it is, it’s all so forgettable. Despite the excellent straight-line speed you’d expect of a punchy EV weighing just over two tonnes, there’s nothing much else to the L03’s dynamics than that. XPeng’s own G6 is a more engaging steer.

So while the L03 is high-tech, spacious and reasonably sophisticated, so are a good many other EVs of a similar ilk in this market sector – and plenty of those drive with more sparkle than the mediocre XPeng.

Sharp pricing, above all else, will therefore be the principal appeal of the XPeng L03. It was hinted to us that the AWD Performance could be available for around £40,000 – and that’s a tempting proposition for such a fast and well-equipped electric SUV.

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