Browse
Log in / Register
Share
May 7, 2026 – XPeng, the Chinese electric-vehicle maker that prefers to describe itself as a technology company rather than a traditional carmaker, has acknowledged a series of software and quality-control issues affecting vehicles delivered in Australia and New Zealand. The company says local teams are still on a learning curve and are treating every reported problem, from minor software niggles to more serious safety-related faults, with the same level of urgency.
XPeng Australia and New Zealand’s Head of Marketing and Creativity, Damian Royce, told reporters that the brand is aware of complaints and is continuously working to resolve them. Royce said the issues are the kind of early-stage challenges any new automaker can face when establishing itself in a fresh market. He stressed that the company is listening to customer feedback, acting on reports, and trying to make sure the ownership experience matches the quality of the vehicles themselves.
The most visible complaints involve the XPeng X9, a people mover that had been handed to Australian media for testing. Journalists reported multiple failures, including vehicles that would not start, gearboxes that refused to shift into Drive, sudden loss of power steering that caused the wheel to lock, and charging failures at some public fast chargers. Online owners have also flagged multimedia system crashes and other intermittent glitches.
While these incidents have not been described by the company as safety recalls, power-steering loss is a serious concern for any vehicle. XPeng has not confirmed a fix timeline, but Royce indicated that each report is being logged, investigated, and addressed through over-the-air software updates where possible.
Royce acknowledged that the Australian and New Zealand operation is a new group and that some of the problems stem from adapting vehicles to local roads, charging networks, and customer expectations.
“They’re the teething problems that you may get with a new brand establishing itself,” Royce said.
He added that the company is active in collecting feedback from early adopters and media outlets, and that the information is being fed back into development for the local market. The goal, he said, is to make sure vehicles are genuinely suitable for the region, not just homologated for sale.
When asked whether XPeng had rushed vehicles to market or was effectively using customers as beta testers, XPeng Australia’s communications manager Terry Zhang rejected the claim.
Zhang argued that Australian customers are highly tech-savvy and tend to push vehicles to their limits, which is why they are discovering edge-case issues in everyday use. He said the company was not testing unreleased software on customers, and that the most important measure is how quickly issues are resolved after they surface.
Zhang’s comment reflects a broader industry shift: software-defined vehicles are now updated like smartphones, but automakers are still learning how to manage the gap between engineering validation and real-world conditions.
XPeng is planning one of the most aggressive product launches in its short history in Australia, with five new models arriving within about six months. The lineup includes the L03 coupe-SUV, X9L large SUV, and GX luxury large SUV, along with the existing G6 and X9 variants.
That kind of rapid rollout inevitably raises questions about quality assurance, especially for a brand that has only recently started serious retail operations in the region. XPeng has denied that it is rushing vehicles to market, saying each launch follows its own development timeline. But skeptics point out that simultaneous platform launches can strain service networks and software integration teams.
Although XPeng does not currently sell vehicles in the United States, the Australian problems offer a preview of the software-quality challenges the company would face in a more regulated market. In the U.S., the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has made it clear that over-the-air software updates can be treated as recalls if they address safety-related defects. Automakers must report such campaigns to regulators rather than silently patching them.
For U.S. consumers who have been following XPeng’s global expansion, the lesson is not that the brand is inherently unreliable, but that software maturity will be a determining factor in its success. A car that drives brilliantly but fails to wake up from sleep mode will not survive customer scrutiny for long.
Automotive quality experts note that modern EVs are essentially computers on wheels, and initial software bugs are common across almost every new model, including established brands. What distinguishes a trustworthy automaker is how quickly it identifies faults, communicates with owners, and delivers permanent fixes.
XPeng’s public acknowledgment of the issues is a step in the right direction. The company is saying the right things, and over-the-air updates should allow many problems to be resolved without a workshop visit. But the clock is ticking. Early adopters in Australia and New Zealand are relatively few, and word travels fast in online owner communities.
XPeng is walking a familiar tightrope: scaling quickly while maintaining product maturity. The company insists it takes every complaint seriously, and its local leadership says feedback is driving continuous improvements. For now, existing and prospective owners will be watching whether the promised fixes arrive quickly enough to close the gap between marketing claims and real-world reliability.
In a market where Chinese EV brands are increasingly competing for attention, trust is the rarest currency. XPeng may be confident in its software, but its actions in the coming weeks will determine whether customers believe it.
