Pons began his motorsport career on motorcycles, winning the Spanish enduro national championship in 1998. That same year he competed with the Spanish junior team at the International Six Days Enduro and won the Junior World Trophy. He was part of the victorious Spanish team again in 2000, and continued to achieve strong results in the Spanish enduro championship — finishing runner-up in both 2000 and 2001 — while also earning success in the European and World Enduro Championship circuits.
In 2002, Pons made the move to four-wheel rallying. He quickly made an impression, capturing the Spanish national Group N gravel title in 2003 and finishing second in the national asphalt championship. He debuted in the World Rally Championship at the 2003 Swedish Rally.
In 2004, Pons competed in both the Junior World Rally Championship and the Production World Rally Championship. In the production car category, he took two victories and finished fourth overall in the standings. In the junior class, he placed ninth overall, with a best result of third at the Acropolis Rally. He also scored his first outright WRC championship points that year, finishing sixth at the Rally Australia.
Pons' 2005 season comprised 11 rallies in a World Rally Car — driving a Peugeot 206 WRC and a Citroën Xsara WRC — alongside four production-car events. He collected points twice that season, with his best result being a fourth place at the Rally Catalunya. Seven points placed him 16th in the overall championship standings.
For 2006, Pons joined Kronos Total Citroën on a full WRC season, partnering two-time World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb. His form was inconsistent early in the year, and after accumulating just 11 points through the first nine rounds at Rallye Deutschland, the team replaced him with Dani Sordo to consolidate manufacturers' points. However, when Loeb was injured and could not start the Rally of Turkey, Kronos opted for Colin McRae as substitute rather than promoting Pons. Despite this, Pons himself finished fourth in Turkey and was subsequently reinstated as the team's second driver. He closed the season strongly with fourth-place finishes in Australia and New Zealand and fifth in the Wales Rally Great Britain, accumulating 32 points to finish seventh in the championship overall.
Pons' best individual WRC result is fourth place, an achievement he reached five times: at the Rally Catalunya in 2005, and at the Rally d'Italia Sardegna, Rally of Turkey, Rally Australia, and Rally New Zealand in 2006.
After failing to secure a competitive drive for 2007, Pons announced his withdrawal from the WRC but later received a mid-season opportunity with the Subaru World Rally Team, joining for the remaining events of 2007. A planned full 2008 season with Subaru did not materialise, and Pons returned to Spanish national rallies.
In 2010, Pons returned to the WRC in the newly formed Super 2000 World Rally Championship class, driving a Ford Fiesta S2000 for Nupel Global Racing. He won the opening SWRC event at Rally Mexico and followed it up with a second consecutive class victory in Jordan. He went on to win the Super 2000 World Rally Championship title in 2010, the most significant championship success of his career.
Xavier Pons remains one of Spain's most experienced WRC competitors of the 2000s, notable for his career-defining 2006 season alongside Sébastien Loeb and for claiming the 2010 Super 2000 WRC title. His background in enduro motorcycle sport, a relatively unusual route into rally driving, is a distinctive element of his competitive story.