In the West, there is a lot of blabber about the future of electric vehicles. Some say that the future will never arrive, others say it is coming soon. In Europe, things are speeding up a bit, but many carmakers are wrestling with legacy cars and factories. BMW, for example, still offers a diesel version of that fancy new 5-Series. In the U.S., the EV situation is Tesla, and then not much else. In China, however, the future has arrived.
And you can see it every day on every street. The endless roads of Beijing are packed with futuristic, wildly designed long-range New Energy Vehicles (NEVs), as the country calls the vehicles its government heavily subsidizes. And if you go to any dealer area, you will see dozens more new cars ready to launch on the market in the upcoming days or weeks. Let’s have a look at 18 modern Chinese NEVs that I saw in Beijing over the summer.
A common misconception is that Chinese carmakers make “cheap” electric cars. There are surely lots of those, but that market is relatively small in size and even smaller in earnings. The real action is in the middle segment and the lower end of the top segment. This is where most new Chinese NEVs are launched, this is where the famous new companies operate, and this is where the big money is made.
These cars are not cheap. Sure, you get a lot of car for your money, but it’s still a lot of money. Most cars discussed in this article are priced at around $30K. Folks who can afford these vehicles are mainly from the booming Chinese middle class in the big cities, with a dual income and one or two kids. They usually live in high-rise apartment buildings with chargers in the underground parking garage or at the office. Outside the big cities, sales of this kind of EVs are still tiny. Folks there don’t have the cash and charging is way more difficult. So the boom happens in town.
Aion Y Plus (埃安 Y Plus)
Aion is one of China’s best-selling NEV brands. It is owned by Changan Auto, a large state-owned conglomerate. Aion makes a series of affordable and capable electric cars. The Aion Y is a great family car; I checked it out at an Aion dealer, and the packaging is brilliant, with loads of space and storage inside. On the street, I saw a lady with two babies and a stroller, plus a lot of stuff, and she dumped it all in the rear-seat compartment – she didn’t even need the trunk. That’s how big it is. There were a lot of these Aions on the road; it’s a popular machine.
If I still lived in China, and if I still had small kids, I would buy our little family an Aion Y. I would look so hip and young-family-ish. Honk honk. Stroller. Honk honk. The car in the photo is painted in Elegant Gray and the trim level is called “70 Enjoy Edition.” It is a front-wheel drive single-motor car, with an output of 150 kW (200hp) and 225 Nm (166 lb-ft). That’s all the power a sweet and happy Chinese family needs. The top speed is a modest 150 km/h (93 mph).
The Aion 70 Enjoy Edition has a 61.7 kWh LFP battery for a 510-kilometer (317 miles) range. It costs 125.800 yuan, or $17.6K. That is such a good deal that Aion sells every Y they can make. Even so, Aion also sells a base model called Aion Y Younger, with a smaller battery and colored bumper bits and such. I feel too old for that one.
Aito M5 EV (问界M5)
Aito is a brand under Huawei (yes, the 5G Huawei). They make a line of high-tech electric cars with a relatively unassuming design. Production of Aito cars is outsourced to Seres, another Chinese carmaker. This kind of contract-production construction is common in China. Huawei makes electric motors, the ADAS system, the infotainment system, and the sound system — software and hardware. Huawei is also one of China’s largest smartphone, smartwatch, and laptop makers. In China, you can walk into a shopping mall, go to a Huawei shop, and check out an Aito car and a smartphone at the same time and place. They have the car standing next to phones and computers, and the operating system is all the same, so everything connects seamlessly.
Chinese consumers dig this kind of ecosystem setup. The Aito M5 is a compact crossover, available with EREV and EV power trains. The car in the photo is the M5 EV Standard Version. It is a single-motor rear-wheel drive car. The output of the Huawei DriveOne electric motor is 272 hp and 360 Nm (265 lb-ft). The top speed is 200 km/h (124 mph) and 0-100 takes 7.1 seconds. Electricity is stored in an 80-kWh CATL lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery and the range is 620 kilometers (385 miles). The price is 259.800 RMB, which translates to $35.8K.
ArcFox Alpha T (极狐 阿尔法T)
ArcFox is a brand under the Beijing Auto Industry Corporation (BAIC). Their first car was the ArcFox Lite, a trendy city car, but it was too expensive for its size and it flopped and got canceled. ArcFox cars are manufactured by BAIC Bluepark Magna, a car-manufacturing joint venture between BAIC (51%) and Canadian automotive firm Magna International (49%).
The Alpha T looks interesting but a bit dull compared to many other new Chinese cars. The logo depicts an Arctic fox’s (Vulpes lagopus) head. ArcFox uses the Latin script ‘α’ for Alpha on the car, which is cool. The Glacier Blue car in the photo is a Forest Edition 480. This version has a single motor and front-wheel drive. Output is 238 hp and 360 Nm (265 lb-ft). The top speed is limited to 180 km/h (112 mph) and 0-100 takes 8 seconds. Electricity is stored in a 61.8 kWh battery for a range of 480 kilometers (298 miles), hence the ‘480’ in the name. Many Chinese car EV makers have the car’s range in the rim-level name. Others use the torque number or the battery’s size.
A note on color names: I translate color names as best as I can. The official translation, if there is any, may be different. Chinese consumers care about car color names. I quote myself now, from my previous article: “Car color names are always poetic in China. When a new car comes onto the market, car makers often release separate press releases about the names of the exterior and interior colors.”
Avatr 11 (阿维塔 11)
Avatr is a brand jointly owned by Changan and battery maker CATL. As one may expect, the battery comes from CATL. But I’d guess the electric motors, the infotainment, the ADAS, and the sound system are sourced from Huawei, the same folks that own Atio.
The Avatr 11 is a mad SUV crossover — a massive machine with a wild design. It has three lidar sensors, one in the bumper and one on each front fender. These days, Huawei and Xpeng are commonly believed to make the best ADAS systems in China. Also, see my earlier article on important ADAS matters. I talked to a guy who worked for Avatr. I met him at an Avatr experience store in a shopping mall. He told me he used to work for Tesla China, working on a localized version of FSD. But, he said, development was slow so he quit, and went to work for Avatr to work on the integration of the Huawei ADAS in the 11.
According to this fellow, Huawei’s ADAS was far superior compared to Tesla’s FSD. The Avatr 11 is available with RWD and AWD. The white car in the photo is the Avatr 11 116-degree single-motor RWD version. Output is 313 hp and 370 Nm (273 lb-ft), good for a 200 m/h (124 mph) top speed and a 0-100 of 6.9 seconds. Below the floor lies a big 116 kWh battery, hence the name, for a CLTC range of 730 kilometers (453 miles). This great machine costs 335.000 yuan or $46.2K. The brand just launched a new sedan, logically called the Avatr 12.
BYD Seagull (比亚迪 海鸥)
Build Your Dreams (BYD) is China’s largest NEV brand. The company makes EVs, PHEVs, and EREVs under various brand names and lines. The Seagull is BYD’s cheapest EV. It is part of the Ocean series, hence the seabird name. Other cars in the same series have names like Dolphin, Seal, and Frigate 07. The Seagull is a sharp-looking little thing with cool black wheels. Launched in China in 2023, BYD exports the Seagull to various markets in Southeast Asia where the EV market is slowly starting to grow as well.
The car that I saw is painted Sprout Green. A sprout? It looks like yellow to me too, but Sprout Green it is. The BYD Seagull is a front-wheel drive car. The motor poops out 75 horses and 135 Nm (99 lb-ft). Top speed is 130 km/h (80.7 mph). BYD does not list a 0-100 but they do list the 0-50. That is quite common for these small EVs. They are allowed on the highway but most buyers use them within the city only. The 0-50 time is 4.9 seconds. The BYD Blade LFP battery holds 30.08 kWh of electricity for a range of 305 kilometers (190 miles). The Seagull is 4.8 meters long and seats four fellows. And it’s cheap: only 73.800 RMB or $10.2K. It is a hugely popular car; I saw dozens of Seagulls each day.
Auto, Automobile, Motor or Motors?
The English names of Chinese car companies are usually a combination of Name + Auto/Automobile/Motor/Motors. What is the difference? There isn’t any. In Chinese, the terms for auto and motor are the same, and there isn’t a singular/plural messiness in Chinese. The term is 汽车 (qìchē). For example: Li Auto (理想汽车), Changan Automobile (长安汽车), BYD Motor (比亚迪汽车), Xpeng Motors (小鹏汽车). Companies just choose the one they like the best.
Deepal S7 (深蓝 S7)
Deepal is a brand under state-owned Changan Automobile. The Deepal brand is positioned high-mid-market. It was launched in 2022, making it the youngest brand in this post. The S7 is the brand’s second car, launched earlier this year. The Deepal S7 is a sharply cut SUV coupe.
The one shown was brand new, still without license plates but with a temporary plate behind the windshield (on the right side of the vehicle). When you buy a new car in China, you always get such a plate until you finish all the paperwork for your official plates. The Deepal S7 is available with EREV and EV powertrains. Deepal is also working on an FCEV version, which will launch later. The car in the photo is the EV version, with the S7 250 Pro trim level. It is painted in a color called Nebula Green. Well, it looks like nebula green to me, so Deepal did a fine job there.
It has cool aero wheels and aero blades in the bumpers. It has a single-motor RWD powertrain with 258 hp and 320 Nm (236 lb-ft). The top speed is 180 km/h (112 mph) and 0-100 takes 6.7 seconds. It has a 66.8 kWh CALB ternary lithium battery and its range is, you guessed it, 520 kilometers (323 miles). The Deepal S7 250 Pro can be yours for 179.900 yuan or $24.9K.
Denza D9 EV (腾势 D9 EV)
Denza is a brand under BYD. Denza started life as a 50-50 joint venture with Daimler. The brand’s first car was called Denza. That was a bit unclear, the Denza Denza, and later on they renamed it Denza 500. After that, nothing happened with Denza anymore. In 2021 BYD took control, and it now owns 90% of the Denza brand. Since then, things have gone much quicker. They are no longer held back by those gruffy slow-moving slow-talking Germans.
In only two years, Denza has launched three new cars, with many more on the way. In the late 2010s, I spoke to a German engineer who worked at Denza. He was not too happy with the folks from BYD. He complained that “The Chinese always want everything tomorrow.” Yeah duh, man. The Germans always want everything in five years. See where that got you? The crap-soaked Mercedes EQS, that’s where. And don’t get me started about Volkswagen in China! Don’t! Okay. I will write about Volkswagen in another story.
Back to the business at hand. The giant Denza D9 MPV is currently Denza’s best-selling vehicle. It is available as a PHEV and as an EV, like the car in the photo. It is not pretty, but it surely is impressive. what a grille! Fake, of course, but that doesn’t matter. Some car makers that sell PHEV and EV versions of the same car have ‘EV’ in the EV version’s name. Get me? Like Denza D9 EV, wherein EV is part of the name. Denza does that, but, for example, Deepal doesn’t. The car in the photo is a Denza D9 EV 600 AWD Premium. The color is called Night Black, which looks like dark blue to me. The chrome bits don’t have a color name. Power: all-wheel drive dual motor, 374 hp and 470 Nm (346 lb-ft). It does 0-100 in 6.9 seconds, which is fast for a car of this size. The 103.36 kWh (Chinese car makers are very precise with battery capacity numbers) Blade battery is good for a 600-kilometer (373 miles) range. It costs 435.800 yuan ($60.4K).
Enovate ME7 (天际 ME7)
Enovate was a brand owned by a company called Enovate Motors. Enovate was founded in 2015. In 2022 they went under after slower-than-expected sales. So slow indeed, that I had never even seen one before. My first Enovate, I was very happy and took like two dozen pics of the car. De 3-line logo depicts an ‘E’. The Enovate ME7 is a fine-looking compact electric crossover launched in 2019. At the time, they had quite impressive tech, like a screen for the front passenger. That’s normal now, but in 2019 it was very special. Enovate was also ahead with the bar that runs between the headlights.
That’s a trend now (see Leap C11 and Li L9), but in 2019 Enovate was the first. Too bad the company didn’t make it. I am sure they would be churning out flying cars now. Enovate took it easy with the trim level names. They had the ME7 410km and the ME7 530km. The ME7 that I met is a ‘410km’, painted in Fantasy Blue. That’s a fantasy-tastic color name.
It is a front-wheel drive single-motor car, with an output of 218 hp and 330 Nm (243 lb-ft). The top speed is a modest 165 km/h (102 mp/h) and 0-100 took 7.7 seconds. A 54 kWh ternary lithium battery made for a 410-kilometer (254 miles) range. In 2022, it sold for 238.800 yuan or $33.1K. The death of the company came very suddenly and was very radical. Just now I was going through some online forums, and owners are complaining that they are without software updates, that dealers closed down, and that nobody picks up the phone. Well, the Chinese car market is a Wild East. Both companies and consumers have to be tough to survive.
Geely Geome Panda mini (吉利几何 熊猫mini)
Geome is short for Geometry. Geometry was a brand under Geely Auto, which is a division of the Geely Group. But last year, Geometry was downgraded to a mere series under the Geely brand. Follow? Before: Geely Group > Geely Auto > Geometry. Now: Geely Group > Geely Auto > Geely > Geely Geometry. Mostly, Chinese car makers go the other way: they upgrade series to brands. That’s their thing, you know? But not this time. Geely, the Group, is the undisputed champion of name-changing, re-positioning, re-shuffling, and whatnot-more-ing. They are worse than Dongfeng! Chinese car media gets confused about it too. Sometimes they mess up brands and series. Geely isn’t big on updating its websites, which doesn’t help. It is all great fun.
And it gets a little weirder still: All the Geometry cars are branded Geometry, except the Panda, which is branded Geome. The Chinese name is the same. It is unsure why. Chinese media speculates that Geely may be planning to use Geome for an upcoming mobility brand. That wouldn’t surprise me, at all. Geometry is aimed at young car buyers, so the marketing is hip and somewhat fuzzy. The Geome Panda mini (mini without capital = hip) is an electric minicar with a cute design and big round headlights. Geely used to sell another car called Panda in the 2010s, that one looked like a panda bear.
The Panda mini that I saw is painted in a color called Billowing White. The trim level is, hold on now, Super Cute Bear. So the full name is Geely Geome Panda mini Super Cute Bear. They also have the Cute Bear, the Long Range Bear, the Smart Bear, and a special edition called the Asian Games Bear, for the Asian Games. And recently, Geome launched the Panda Qishi off-road edition. The Super Cute Bear has 27 hp and 85 Nm (62 lb-ft). It does 0-50 in 5.41 and the top speed is 100 km/h (62 mph). The range is 120 kilometers (74 miles) with a 9.61 kWh LFP battery. Money: 32.900 yuan or $4563.
JAC Yiwei 3 (江淮 钇为 3)
JAC is a large automotive conglomerate, making everything from mini cars to heavy trucks. Back in the glory ICE days, they made a cool Mercedes-clone. Somewhat sadly, today they are best known as the contract manufacturer for NIO (see below). But that is unfair as JAC has been making EVs much longer than NIO. JAC had its first electric cars on the road in the 2010s. They were a bit too early and their EV-operations kind of fizzled out. But they are back again now with a brand-new EV series called Yiwei. The first car of the series is the Yiwei 3, a cool hatchback with big round headlights. It was launched earlier this year. The color name of the car in the photo is ‘Fresh Rice’, and I am feeling hungry now. This is the base car, with the ‘405km Lite’ trim level. It has front-wheel drive and the motor puts out 95 hp and 135 Nm (99 lb-ft). The top speed is 150 km/h (93 mph). Electricity is stored in a 41 kWh LFP battery for a range, you never guessed, of 405 kilometers (251 miles). The JAC Yiwei 3 405km Lite costs 89.900 yuan and that is $12.4K.
NEV?
NEV stands for New Energy Vehicle. This is a Chinese category that includes: EVs, PHEVs, and FCEVs. The PHEV part includes EREVs. HEVs are excluded. This distinction is important because only NEVs get the subsidies and other perks. There are various purchase subsidies in China, some from the central government and many more from local governments.
Leap C11 (零跑 C11)
Leap is a brand under Leap Motor. The Leap C11 is a mid-size SUV available in EREV and EV forms. The Leap brand is aimed at families, and their cars are marketed as comfortable and spacious, instead of sporty. An in-car karaoke system is standard on Leap Motor’s larger vehicles. The Leap C11 is a pretty car with a streamlined body with a drag coefficient of 0.282 cD, it also has aero wheels and pop-out door handles. Unlike most Chinese EV makers, Leap Motor develops and builds its own electric motors.
The Walden Green/Metallic Black car in the photo is the EV version, with the base ‘500 Comfort Edition’ trim level. It is a single-motor rear-wheel drive machine. The output is 272 hp and 360 Nm (265 lb-ft), good for a modest 170 km/h (105 mph) top speed and a 0-100 in 7.9 seconds. Under the floor sits a 69.2 LFP battery and the range is, check the trim-level name, 500 kilometers (310 miles). The Leap C11 500 Comfort Edition sells for 155,800 yuan or $21.6K, and that is a good deal for the car you get.
Li L9 (理想 L9)
The Li brand is owned by Li Auto. The founder of Li Auto is Li Xiang. Yes, he named the company after himself, just like that fellow Ford did. The company makes three SUVs right now: the Li L7, the Li L8, and the Li L9. The L9 is the biggest one, with seven seats and a length of 5.2 meters, and that makes it the longest SUV in this article. Bigger is better! Recently, Li launched its first MPV, the bonkers Li MEGA, a full-electric seven-seater with a 3.3-meter wheelbase.
Li Auto has a unique export strategy: They don’t export. And that’s very rare these days, as most Chinese car makers have gone abroad already. But Li wants to grow in China first. The three Li SUVs are all EREVs, and they all use the same powertrain: a 1.5 turbo plus two electric motors. The combined output is 449 hp and 620 Nm (457 lb-ft). It has a 65-liter fuel tank and a 44.5 kWh ternary lithium battery. The combined range is a massive 1315 kilometers (817 miles) and the EV-only range is 215 (133 miles). The car that I saw is painted in Green Special Edition Pearl, and the trim level is the top-spec L9 Max, which sells for 459.800 yuan ($63.8K). That’s a lot of cash but the L9 is loaded with luxuries, like a huge fold-down screen for the second row, and equipped with an advanced ADAS system including a lidar above the windscreen.
Neta S (哪吒 S)
Neta is a Chinese NEV brand owned by Hozon Auto. The company started with cheap compact hatchbacks and crossovers, but in 2022 they launched the Neta S, a stylish electric sedan-coupe with an aerodynamic body, a striking split-headlight design, and spacey alloy wheels. The S was a game changer for Neta, suddenly everybody knew about the brand. It is a low-slung car with a sporty stance. Neta sells EREV and EV versions. The car in the photo is an EV, the Neta S 650 AWD to be precise.
The color is Raptor Brown, and that is a super cool name but it looks more like pink to me. I had to check it twice, but it really is Raptor Brown. All right Neta, if you say so. The 650 AWD has two motors for a combined output of 462 hp and 620 Nm (457 lb-f), the exact same torque number as the Li L9. The top speed is 185 km/h (115 mph) and it does 0-100 in a speedy 3.9 seconds. Electricity is stored in a big 91 kWh ternary lithium battery for a range of 650 kilometers (404 miles). For so much power it is not expensive: 259.800 yuan or $36.3K. I like Neta. I think Neta is cool. Neta also makes a brilliant electric sports car called the GT. It wasn’t launched yet when I was in China but I went to a Neta dealer to check it out. They had an electric kiddie car that really looked like the S. More on all that, hopefully, in another story.
NIO ES6 (蔚来 ES6)
NIO is probably the best-known ‘new’ Chinese EV-maker. Their unique selling point is battery-swap technology. In China, NIO has a network of 2135 battery swap stations, and those have swapped over 32 million batteries. The car in the photo is the new ES6, NIO’s best-selling car in China. The old ES6 looked slightly less comprehensive. It is an interesting design, with split headlights, pop-out door handles, black wheel arches, and small aero wheels. The machinery above the windshield is NIO’s ‘Watchtower’, with lidar and two high-resolution cameras. The color is Aurora Green.
The NIO ES6 is a dual-motor AWD car. The combined output is 490 hp and 700 Nm (516 lb-ft), good for 200 km/h and 0-100 in 4.9 seconds. Folks can get a 75 kWh battery for a range of 490 kilometers (304 miles) or a 100 kWh battery for 625 (388 miles). In China, you can swap the batteries. For day-to-day, you can use the lighter 75 kWh unit. Do you need to go on a longer trip, well, then you can swap it for a 100 kWh unit. NIO will soon launch even larger batteries, which, in a way, kind of undermines the point of swapping.
The 100 kWh NIO ES6 costs 396.000 yuan ($55.8K). NIO is the only Chinese brand that has extremely fanatic Western fanboys on Twitter, they defend everything the brand does and discussions can be nasty. Some of it may be real admiration, but most of the fuzz is caused by NIO’s listing on the NYSE, where the stock price has been going down for a while.
ORA Good Cat (欧拉好猫)
ORA is a somewhat fuzzy car brand under Great Wall Motors (GWM). ORA cars are named after cats. This one is the Good Cat, but they also sell the Good Cat GT, the Lightning Cat, and the Ballet Cat, and they are working on a new one called the Punk Cat. In the past, they also sold the White Cat, the Black Cat, and the iQ. The latter was the only one not named after a cat. It wasn’t very popular because it was a little ugly. I have to be more precise here. ORA also sold a car called the R1, but it was renamed to White Cat after a year and a half. The ORA Good Cat that I met has Tianjin license plates. Tianjin is a giant port city some 100 miles southeast of Beijing.
The color name is the weirdest of most: Ten Thousand Meters. The color names for the Good Cat were chosen after an internet vote. ORA came up with nameless colors, and netizens could make up names and vote. The other colors are just as odd: Muppet White, Blue Wave, Forgive Green, Big Orange Gold, High Heel Red, Wisdom Brown, and Siam Black. (Well, Blue Wave is kind of normal I guess).
In the late 2010s and very early 2020s many Chinese automakers organized this sort of internet vote for color names and even for car names. But they don’t do it anymore today. Too bad. The trim level name is boring in comparison: ‘401km Standard Range’. Yawn. It is a single-motor front-wheel drive car. Output is 143 hp and 210 Nm (155 lb-ft). The top speed is 150 km/h (93 mph) and 0-50 takes 3.8 seconds. The LFP battery stores 49.82 kWh of electricity for a 401-kilometer range (249 miles). The ORA Good Cat 401km Standard Range has a good price: 149.800 yuan ($20.9K).
Weltmeister EX5 400 (威马 EX5 400)
This is another dead one. The Weltmeister brand is no longer with us. Weltmeister was launched in 2018, founded by a fellow named Freeman Shen, who previously worked for Geely. There was lots of hilarity about the ‘English’ name of the brand. Weltmeister is a German word, that means World Champion. The Chinese name was odd too: 威马, Weima. This means Weimar, as in the German Republic. They started well, with two factories and five model lines.
Sadly, a lack of investments, COVID-19, and supply-chain problems forced the company into bankruptcy in 2023. They are still trying to restart the business but it seems unlikely they will succeed. The EX5 was Weltmeister’s first car, a compact crossover SUV with a nice but somewhat messy design. It is a front-wheel drive vehicle with a single electric motor with 160 kW and 225 Nm (166 lb-ft). That’s not a lot now, but in 2018 it was decent power. The car in the photo is the Weltmeister EX5 400, with a 52.7 kWh ternary lithium battery for a 403-kilometer CLTC range. They should have called it the EX5 403! That’s why they went under, potential buyers underestimated the range. The color name is cool: Extreme White.
Xpeng G6 (小鹏G6)
The Chinese name of Xpeng is Xiaopeng. The brand is owned by Xpeng Motors (Xiaopeng Qiche). The founder is He Xiaopeng. Yes, he named the car company after himself. But, uniquely, after his first name instead of after his last name. Like that fellow Ford would have named his car company Henry. The Henry Crown Victoria. The Henry F-150. Xpeng made the best ADAS systems in China until Huawei came along. Now they make the second-best ADAS, which is still quite good.
The Xpeng G6 is an SUV coupe launched in 2023, it is aimed at the Tesla Model Y. It has a pretty black lightbar atop the bumper, which houses the daytime running lights. The one that I saw is painted in a color called Molten Cloud Orange, the trim level is top-spec ‘700 AWD High-Performance Max’. It is a dual-motor all-wheel drive car, with a combined output of 487 hp and 660 Nm (487 lb-ft). The Xpeng G6 700 AWD High-Performance Max does 0-100 in 3.9 seconds and tops out at 202 km/h (125 mph). All this power costs only 276.900 yuan ($39K), and that is such a good deal that the G6 has become Xpeng’s best-selling car after just a few months of sales.
Zeekr 001 (极氪 001)
Zeekr is a brand under the Geely Group. It is positioned somewhere amid Lynk & Co, Polestar, and Volvo. Where exactly? Nobody knows and nobody cares. The Zeekr 001 is a sedan coupe. Zeekr calls it a station wagon sometimes. The official government classification is ‘sedan’. Who is right? I guess I am. The 001 has Zeekr’s distinctive headlight design, with the daytime running lights located almost on the hood. Cool, but not very well-liked, and probably expensive to produce. So Zeekr’s new models, like the Zeekr 007, have their lights back where they belong.
The car in the photo is the 001 WE 100 kWh, painted in Extreme White, and that is the same name as the color of the Weltmeister EX5 400. Zeekr must have thought: Weltmeister dead, we take their colors. The Zeekr WE 001 100 kWh is a powerful dual-motor AWD machine. Output is 544 hp and 686 Nm (506 lb-ft). With that, it tops out at 200 km/h and sprints from 0-100 in 3.8 seconds. The CATL 100 kWh battery stores enough electricity for a 656-kilometer (407 miles) range. The 001 is not cheap, the WE 001 100 kWh costs 328.000 yuan or $45.8K. Zeekr also sells a version with a novel 140 kWh battery with a range of 1032 kilometers.
Concluding
These great cars are just the tip of the iceberg. I could easily write two more with cars from other brands, and ten more with cars from the same brands. And as I write these words the busy Chinese carmakers are launching yet more brands and series and cars. It is like the entire car sector is on high-kW charging rates. Not all brands will survive, of course, but many more are ready to give it a shot. The future is here, in China, and will be here for a while.
Next article: Visit to an Aion dealer in China.
I went to Berlin a couple of months ago and saw two Chinese EVs that absolutely stunned me. The first one was some display model parked in a pedestrian zone, I never managed to figure out what it was (it was Lucid-sized), and it was absolutely gorgeous.
Then I saw a parked ORA Funky Cat (is it better or worse than the ORA Good Cat 🙂 ), which was the cutest thing this side of a Twingo, with absolutely amazing color choices, inside and out.
Not sure what and how it is under the hood, but damn is it good looking.
Regarding the Avatr’s trim name (116-degree single-motor RWD), battery capacity is measured in 度, the Chinese unit for kWh, which also shares a character with Chinese temperature units (also 度) and angle measurement units (still 度). So 度 = kWh = degrees (temperature) = degrees (angle).
Hope you can show the Changan Lumin Corn in the next Chinese EV roundup! It’s just so freaking cute, sat in one at a local dealer in Zhejiang and it didn’t disappoint either (for something that starts at 5500USD).
That Changan Lumin reminds me of Jason’s Pao (except without the front bashed in by a deer).
This is definitely one of my favourite series on this site. I love everything about it, especially the writing style.
What’s amazing is that on top of all of these EVs, the major cities in China also have decent public transit.
Of course they do, they’re a communist (ish) country! Not like here in Freedomland where there’s a car for everyone, regardless of whether they want one or not (or should have one)!
I love that so many of the cars you’ve shown us actually have a colour.
It’s telling how bereft of creativity the modern automotive zeitgeist in the USA is when the “communist” Chinese are showing greatly more creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. The US manufacturers better come up with a new strategy, or they’re going to get left behind.
The Chinese have a pretty well deserved reputation for intellectual property theft. Most of these designs look pretty generic.
It’s very telling that they haven’t progressed far from the 2000s when everybody made fun of them for being bootlegs. The JAC Yiwei 3 is a facelifted version of another ICE car they sold as a Chery which was a bootleg of the revived BMW Mini R50. The Geely Geome Panda mini is a bootleg of the Honda N-One placed on the body of their bootleg of the Toyota bB. The BYD Seagull is a combination of the design of the Lamborghini Aventador and Urus. The Zeekr 01 rips it’s face from the Ferrari 488, the Denza D9 steals from the Toyota Alphard, and the Li l9 And Xpeng G6 are blatant copies of the Lucid Air.
Okay, I’ll play this game:
The current best selling crossover in world is the Tesla Y per first quarter FY 2023 results.
It is a design copy of the third gen Ford Escape, which is an evolution from the first gen Ford Escape.
The first gen Ford Escape is a copy of the first gen Toyota Rav4.
The first gen Toyota Rav4 is clone and evolution of the GEO Tracker.
The GEO Tracker was developed by Suzuki and is derived from the Suzuki Jimny.
The Suzuki Jimny was originally created in 1970 to compete against the Jeep CJ-5.
The Jeep CJ-5 directly comes from the engineering of the Willys MB (Military Jeep)
The Willys MB was created because John Willys acquired Russell Motor Car Company, which saw a need to build cars in Canada as they originally built bicycles.
Therefore all SUVs are actually Canadian 🙂
I, for one, welcome our Canadian overlords! Also, they didn’t steal the colors…
They didn’t steal the colors.
I used to think EPA and NHTSA standards would prevent any offerings from China or India from making it here. EVs remove the EPA part. They will eventually get here and I hope it’s a wake up call for all of the automakers in the US like the 70s Japanese cars were. Or that they see them coming and start offering affordable EVs with comparable (modest) range and power.
Don’t worry, the big 3 will lobby Congress to pass some absurd import tax because “free market” and what not.
Creating joint ventures in Mexico or Canada, with 51% Mexican or Canadian ownership, 49% Chinese, should take care of that, as long as 62.5% of the vehicle value comes from US/Mexico/Canada. NAFTA is still in effect.
Sure but that 62.5% really cuts into China’s cheap manufacturing advantage.
If you told me back in 2013 that China will be dominating the electric market, I would never believe it. What is going to happen in the next 10 years? Impressive!
> What is going to happen in the next 10 years?
Chrysler, Dodge, GM go bankrupt or nearly so, again.
“What is going to happen in the next 10 years?”
Republicans will dominate all branches of government. Coal will make a roaring comeback to power all the EVs the Republicans couldn’t kill before taking over. Those EVs will be towing smelly, smokey diesel generators as a long range solution and to vice (as opposed to virtue) signal
e.g. FU, whattya gonna do about it?
Well?
Yeah, that’s what I thought!
Wind turbines will be moved to cities and converted from power generators to wind generators, used to push the smoke and soot created to power them over the borders. Solar power plants will be destroyed with tire fires by angry pro coal mobs. Nuclear plants will be shut down due to lack of public support, with private companies bilking said public for trillions to “guard” the waste while in reality they already chucked it into the ocean and spend their windfall on hookers and blow.
In related news business for high end hookers and drug cartels will be booming.
Air travel will continue to get more out of control necessitating all sky marshals to be required by law to safeguard “the people who matter” in first class from the extraneous ruffians of coach. To do this the marshals will be seated between business and coach as a human curtain. Business class will unofficially be used as a sacrificial buffer between coach and first class should the marshals be overwhelmed.
WFH will be a distant memory with employers and government both demanding all employees work on site under the pretense of “efficency and teams” but in reality to inflate corporate property values, tax base and to force workers to buy more cars, burn more gas and eat expensive restaurant food. Gas will get more expensive, commutes will be longer and there will be more speeding, red light running, etc. Actually this has already been happening throughout the pandemic.
The future’s so bright I gotta wear shades.
The Chinese can crank stuff out faster than anyone, and at huge scale. You would think they would run out of factories, materials, labor, capital, or even ideas but they never seem to. That type of insane churn must have been what the US was like during the Industrial Revolution.
Thank you very much for the reporting on Chinese EVs Tycho, I enjoyed it! 🙂
I went to Shanghai and another close city a month ago for the first time. So many EVs, more than the Boston area which is loaded with them. Any car with a green plate = EV.
So many Teslas (factory nearby) and I liked seeing the Zeekr in real life. The BYD models, with “build your dreams” written out in English on most models on the rear, always made me laugh a little.
My favorite models by far were the Xpeng P7 sedan and the G9 suv. If those were sold in the US, at a price that is a direct yuan to dollar conversion, they would sell every single one they get in the country. Check them out.
The Panda mini is the only one that interests me, but I bet you can’t get DOT legal snow tires in whatever size tire it uses so that would kill it for me even if I could get it here.
I need an Ora Angry Cat
Yes, yes you do.
(Especially if you can reprogram the sounds of the horn and backup alarm).
I, for one, welcome crazy car colors and names to take over all.
“High Heel Red”, “Wisdom Brown”, “Muppet White”… Poetry
Why is there such a disconnect, these all seem to be in the $35,000 range and some are pushing 350+ miles of range. Why in the US does it cost $10k more for less range? Is building to NHSTA safety standards more expensive than in China? I would ask about labor, but many EVs are imported anyway. It seems to me that if you can undercut the market by $10k that makes up for not getting the $7.5k of federal money. Am I missing something?
The CLTC range estimates are even more optimistic than the famously optimistic WLTP estimates. To be somewhat more charitable, they are geared toward different driving styles. EPA estimates would be significantly lower and likely go even lower in real-world, cold weather usage.
EDIT: In poking around it looks like a good rule of thumb is to assume the CLTC number is ~40% higher than what the EPA range would be. So 350 is really 210 and even then it’s probably closer to 150-160 in cold conditions since I sincerely doubt these have heat pumps.
Maybe a better “guesstimate” is to look at the battery capacity?
Also, without a heat pump or preconditioning… the range gets halved at best even in NYC winter weather. I used to have an i3 REx that was good for ~120mi on paper IIRC and in the winter I got <60mi out of its 42kwh battery.
Does the REX not provide heat for the battery?
If it had it, it didn’t work very well. Also a couple of times when it got properly cold (that’s in the teens for me), the car electronics would freeze. As in the screens would be full vertical colourful lines and wouldn’t update with any inputs. You could start and drive the car but had no screens – i.e. no speedo for example!
The REX I think would only come on when you were driving. If your car was parked for a long time in cold weather perhaps it was assumed you’d keep it plugged in.
[deleted as I had replied in wrong spot]
the ranges seem like they might be inflated, or at least end up significantly different because of the differences to the official testing to figure out the ranges, not to mention the safety features and protection that may or may not be built into these to make them weigh less.
Manufacturing is generally cheaper by a large degree over the US. And having battery material sourcing and manufacturing close to these vehicle manufacturing I’m sure plays a large part in it. I don’t know about gov’t testing and certification but that could save on R&D vs USA.
I’d like to know what the supplier network looks like. Are any of these companies vertically integrated? Where are parts coming from? How much are parts being shared between models from the same make and between makes?
Fascinating piece. I would love to read some test drives or reviews.
I thought this title sounded familiar.
Sept 2022 – https://www.theautopian.com/an-electric-corvette-clone-a-19000-electric-sports-car-wacky-looking-trumpchis-there-are-the-wildest-chinese-electric-sports-cars-you-havent-heard-of/
April 2022 – https://www.theautopian.com/a-deep-dive-into-the-first-generation-of-chinese-sports-cars-which-came-out-in-the-2000s-and-which-youve-never-heard-of/
April 2023 – https://www.theautopian.com/why-this-chinese-car-youve-never-heard-of-could-be-a-real-tesla-model-y-competitor/
Those Google search results aren’t gonna click themselves!
“Super Cute Bear” and “Punk Cat” are my boyfriend and feline companion, respectively.
I wonder what these would cost in the states after the tariffs?
Denza D9 EV please. The US market is missing a true EV minivan. I wonder if the Volvo badged version will be made in Belgium (like the EX30) so it can be imported here.
I may be a customer as the wife and I are trying to make baby #2. We don’t need a minivan. However, the next time a car needs to be replaced, it would be nice to have an EV minivan option.
I am right there. I would also like the PHEV version to cross the ocean as well.
Add me to the waiting list for one, too!
Agree, I was swooning for the Denza! Minivans are great for any life situation.
I didn’t know so many shades of pastel pink brown existed.
They like Rose-Gold iPhones too.
Ewww!
It’s like the Chinese NEV executives accidentally stumbled into a ‘plastic stuff made for hospitals’ expo, and collectively had a huge epiphany…
Either China is all downhill and in a vacuum or I am calling BS on those range numbers with such small batteries.
Since every Chinese parent claimed they walked uphill both ways to school when they were younger, it’s only fair that it’s all downhill now, to balance things out.
The CLTC is insanely optimistic even factoring in the mostly city, lower speed driving people are doing. Cut the numbers by 40% or so and you’d get something closer to reality (in good weather).
Chinese KMs are shorter.
That Panda Mini has my attention. Just crank the top speed to 70mph so I can safely hop on an urban freeway for 6 exits – and I’m sure that’s mostly just a software issue. The battery is so tiny that I bet it could fast charge (if they added that capacity) in about 10 minutes at a public charger (faster than getting gas at Costco!) For my use, that would be about one charge every 5 days. I could deal with that.
That’s “Geely Geome Panda mini Super Cute Bear” to you
I wonder if Jason could import a Super Cute Bear and get away with driving it around his town like the Changli.
So they nearly all look like Hyundai/Kia/VW ID4/Lamborghini Urus mashups EXCEPT the little cute ones. The Geely is a Honda e ripoff, and the other two look like the Dodge Neon and the Nissan Leaf had a pair of unholy love children.
I have no fomo whatsoever. Well, maybe a little for a Geely Geome Panda mini Super Cute Bear…
I’m a little upset by how good (and cute!) some of these look
That BYD is a remarkable achievement for the price. Would like it even more with a smaller battery and a little ICE in a PHEV arrangement, but I accept that’s not where the marketplace is these days
I’m curious about crash safety, as it might actually be good. China moved to C-NCAP which is modeled after Euro NCAP, but I can’t tell you the differences without a fair bit of research. Generally Euro NCAP is far from garbage, and EU vehicles are safe.
China’s road vehicle deaths per 100,000 population in 2018 was 18.2, versus 12.4 in the US, but that’s possibly with a larger percentage of vehicles produced prior to the adoption of C-NCAP, so I would generally expect the gap to shrink unless the number of vehicle registrations in China continues to explode.
Yes, you don’t want a BYD Seagull to be hit by a 5000-7000lb pickup truck, as you’ll be disfavored in such a collision. Yet if the Seagull is adhering to C-NCAP (and future models should only improve), it would increasingly fare better against older vehicles.
BYD has offices in the US. They’re planning a strategy, and I believe they’re eyeing a US market entrance towards 2030. They’re going to be one to watch, even with tariffs.
All I care about is whether its good enough to pass the bare minimum government standards to be sold here without jacking up the price. If so, I think there’d be buyers
The chances of the gov allowing China to sell cars here without a massive tariff is about the same as Congress passing the budget on time every year.
China does sell cars here already though, SAIC and Geely are both exporting right now.
Yes, with a 27.5% import tariff.
Ask YouTube and you shall receive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jxOt6mL6FQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCsBIF-VoHY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H9jeF_ADG4&t=103s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYiMFcgECsg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KcBrybB-Y4
Cool, though the Seagull’s test results is the one I’m the most interested in since it’s the smallest, cheapest, and ergo its the most cost constrained.
If the Seagull is performing similarly to something like a modern MINI, then I will give a hearty, “Well done!”
Ha, the one I really want is the MEGA, even though I have zero need for it.