Chinese firm's 440 hp electric SUV promises built-in range extender

Chinese electric vehicle maker Xpeng has launched the G7 extended-range electric SUV, which combines a 1.5-liter gasoline engine acting as a range extender with a 218 kW (292 hp) electric motor. The SUV offers about 202 miles of pure electric range before the gasoline generator recharges the battery on the move. The G7 features a sleek “Robot Face” design with a coupe-like roofline, a drag coefficient of 0.238, and is positioned in the mid-size SUV segment with spacious seating and advanced driver-assist technologies. A standout feature of the G7 is its AI computing power, enabled by three Turing AI chips delivering over 2,200 TOPS, which Xpeng claims is equivalent to the processing power of nine NVIDIA Orin-X chips—between three and twenty-eight times more than typical industry chips. This hardware supports Level 3 (L3) autonomous driving capabilities, although Xpeng notes the vehicle will achieve full L3 status only after