I’ve been driving a Tesla Model 3 AWD Long Range since 2020. I’ve never regretted it. It’s fast, efficient, reliable, and charging is as straightforward as refueling used to be thanks to the Supercharger network - actually even more straightforward, because I charge 90 percent from my own photovoltaic system and the kilowatt hour costs me just 8 ct. in summer. One full charge: 4.40 € for almost 400 km of range - that currently buys you 2 liters of premium fuel. Oil crisis and petrol price explosion? Pffffsss …
With my Sungrow PV system , 16 kWh storage and 14.5 kWp, I’m practically self-sufficient from March to the end of October. I still have my BMW Z3 as a fun youngtimer, but I would never consider a combustion engine for everyday use again.
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At the second TÜV inspection: zero defects. In five years, one notable repair - rear brake discs. That’s a reliability record that combustion engine drivers would be happy about - and yes: It’s the car that has given me the most joy so far and that I still very much enjoy getting into. Even after 6 years.
Nevertheless, I’m seriously thinking about a change right now. Not because the car has become bad. But because the surrounding circumstances have changed - and because five years of everyday life with a vehicle also sharpen a view of its weaknesses that you initially gloss over with enthusiasm.
The Musk problem
I’m not someone who ties purchasing decisions to likability ratings. But at some point, a brand becomes inseparable from its owner - and Elon Musk has ensured in the last two years that Tesla has acquired a different connotation for many people than it had in 2020. I don’t need to elaborate on this. Everyone knows what I’m talking about.
On top of that, there’s a strategic uncertainty that I wouldn’t have thought possible five years ago: Tesla is increasingly an AI and robotics company that also builds cars on the side. Whether that’s good or bad, I don’t know. But it means that the focus on the car product is no longer a given. You can see this in the lack of updates, the hesitant model policy in Europe, and a pricing policy that has more to do with quarterly targets than with customer loyalty.
Another point is that the resale value is currently still okay and there are still 2 years of warranty on the battery and drive unit.
What has really annoyed me in five years
Let’s start with what Tesla drivers rarely talk about publicly, because the enthusiasm for the overall package long outweighs - but eventually has to be put on the table.
The automatic wipers. Five years, countless OTA OTAOver-The-Air – firmware update without cable, directly via Wi-Fi/network. Many ESP-based devices (ESPHome, Tasmota, WLED) can be conveniently updated this way updates, and it’s still the most annoying feature in the car. Too sluggish, too aggressive, incorrectly calibrated - a different disappointment depending on the weather. This isn’t a niche problem, it’s a basic function.
The high beam. Automatic, yes. But with a nervousness that distracts rather than helps on country roads. Constant flashing between high and low beam in situations where you yourself would have made a clear decision long ago.
The interior. Loud. Not unpleasantly loud, but for a car in this price range quite surprising - wind noise at the A-pillar and mirror, rolling noise that is more pronounced in the interior than with the competition. Having a conversation with passengers in the back seat at 140 km/h on the motorway: difficult. The new Model Y is said to be significantly better here. My 2020 Model 3 is not.
The detachable tow bar. Manual, heavy, socket hidden. A ritual that you first have to learn and then curse every time anyway. Quickly go to the compost site with the trailer or put the bike rack on? You think twice about that. The fact that this is still solved this way with the top dog of the electric car market in 2024 says something about priorities. Remove a cover, remove a cover on the hitch connector, insert the hitch horn and hope it clicks in right away, etc.
No CarPlay, no Android Auto. For Tesla, this is a design decision - for me, it’s a limitation. I’ve come to terms with it, but I’ve never accepted it.
Autoparking and lane change. With the Model 3 only at an extra charge, in practice sobering. The lane change assistant works - sometimes. Autoparking is a demonstration, not an everyday feature. That’s still the state of affairs five years after my purchase.
I never expected FSD and don’t expect it in the next few years either. In the meantime, however, other manufacturers are already significantly further ahead.
The trunk of the Model 3 is not small, but awkward. I previously had a Subaru Outback and its cargo volume was downright absurdly high. I missed that more with the Model 3 than I thought I would.
I’m not writing this to badmouth Tesla. The car has survived all of this and drives flawlessly. But these are points that I no longer want to accept with the next vehicle. To be fair, it must also be said that the combination of performance, low consumption, constant OTA updates at this price is very hard to beat. With Audi, VW, BMW or Polestar you pay significantly more. But of course you then have German panel gaps - a discipline on which German car manufacturers have rested for decades - and missed out on software and electric car technology. Panel gaps are just a thing for people who are interested in panel gaps.
Xpeng - who are they actually?
Xpeng was founded in China in 2014 by entrepreneur He Xiaopeng, who had previously sold his software company to Alibaba. The name still means little to the German buyer - but the numbers speak a different language: 190,000 vehicles were delivered worldwide in 2024, 50,000 of them in Europe. Volkswagen has taken a stake of just under five percent and is jointly developing a new electric drive platform for the Chinese market with Xpeng - which also retrospectively explains why the vehicles have reached a quality level that European manufacturers in this price range are only just aiming for.
This is no longer a no-name brand that you observe with skepticism. This is a manufacturer to be taken seriously with Volkswagen as a strategic partner behind it.
The G6 - a deliberate Tesla answer
Anyone who sees the Xpeng G6 for the first time inevitably thinks of a Tesla Model Y. That’s no coincidence. Xpeng probably deliberately orients itself towards Tesla - not only in design, but in the entire software philosophy: large central touchscreen, minimalist cockpit, consistent OTA updates, a tech brand that builds cars and not the other way around. The concept is familiar. The implementation, from everything I’ve seen and read so far, seems astonishingly mature.
What particularly interests me: The assistance functions with the X-Pilot and XNGP system go significantly beyond what Tesla offers as standard in Europe. Automatic lane change, autonomous parking (even without the driver in the car) in tight spaces, predictive navigation integration - and that as standard, without an extra-cost subscription. That’s a different philosophy.
The G6 Performance — what specifically interests me
I live in the Fichtelgebirge. Country roads, hills, winter. All-wheel drive is not a lifestyle feature for me, but common sense - and the Performance variant of the G6 is the only one with AWD. 358 kW, 660 Nm, 0-100 in 4.1 seconds. I don’t need that.
What I need is confident overtaking on winding country roads and a drive that doesn’t get into trouble in snow and ice. It delivers both.
I’ve driven two Subarus, which undoubtedly have the best all-wheel drives in combustion engines. But the all-wheel drive with the two motors of the Tesla is a completely different ball game. Electric motors can simply react much more precisely and quickly and distribute the power.
What else specifically appeals to me:
Charging. The G6 relies on 800-volt architecture with up to 451 kW peak charging power. Irrelevant in everyday life — I charge from the PV. But on the rare long-distance trip, this means: 10 to 80 percent in a good 15 minutes at a powerful HPC station. Twice as fast as my Model 3. That’s quite something. Not that the few charging stops of the Tesla at the many Superchargers ever bothered me, but this is simply a new generation of charging technology.
V2L - Vehicle to Load. 230 volts directly from the charging port, 3.3 kW. Tools, devices, in an emergency a coffee machine :-). Not necessary, but very nice.
Android Auto - standard, without discussion. Done.
Automatic wipers that work. That sounds like a matter of course. With the Model 3, it never quite was.
Automatic tow bar - electrically retractable, up to 1,500 kg towing capacity (braked, 750 kg unbraked, 75 kg nose weight) and the socket on the side of the horn. Press once, done. That’s how it should be - without having to crawl under the car.
The interior is quiet. Very quiet. All tests confirm this unanimously, and the 2026 facelift has apparently improved it even further. For someone who values acoustic quality, this is not a detail - it’s a buying argument.
I will test the sound system with 18 speakers extensively. What “sounds good” for an automotive journalist and what “sounds good” for someone with a home recording studio and 35 years of production experience are possibly different standards. I will report on it.
Reclining seats in the front with electric footrest - a detail that no test really takes seriously, and that I mention anyway because it shows the care with which this interior is designed.
What I’m not looking for
I’m not a sporty driver - whatever that’s supposed to be. There’s nothing sporty about pressing a pedal. Cornering dynamics, steering feel, handling at the limit - those are criteria for others. According to all tests, the G6 is a cruiser: comfort-oriented, softly tuned, little feedback in the steering. For what I do with a car, that’s not a disadvantage. It’s what I want. The 2020 Tesla Model 3 is rock hard and quite uncultivated, and I’m slowly getting too old for that.
The open questions
The workshop network is still thin. For me, this concretely means: Nuremberg or Forchheim, Bamberg. That’s acceptable - but it’s a limitation that I’m consciously aware of. It’s no different with Tesla. I also had to go to Nuremberg here.
The residual value risk of a young brand without a used car market history in Germany is real. Nobody knows what a G6 will be worth in four years. That’s the reason why leasing is the rational decision here: The risk stays with the lessor, I retain flexibility.
What comes next
A test drive. And after that, I will report on the sound system with the ear of someone who knows monitors and microphones, on the software, the handling, the space, etc.
Whether I’ll switch in the end, I don’t know yet. But the consideration is more serious than I would have expected - and that, I think, says more about Tesla than about Xpeng. In fact, the Xpeng G6 seems to be the only alternative to a Tesla Model Y - and probably even beyond that.
More info: https://www.xpeng.com/de/g6
Hi! I'm Markus – the Fricklr. ⚡ Electrical engineer, 🎵 musician (bass, guitar, keys) and professionally 'something with the internet' 🌐 for over 30 years – nowadays with AI too 🤖 – a 55-year-old generalist from Bavaria, Germany.
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