During a recent trip to China in association with D-Car
Category
🚗
MotorTranscript
00:00Three, two, one.
00:06And then down here, there's a super sport mode. Watch this.
00:11You get some really loud, fake engine noise.
00:14We're in the famous Yangweng U8, and we're going to do tank turn.
00:19And there's so many unique features here that we really don't have anywhere in the US.
00:23Welcome to sunny mainland China.
00:26No, I'm joking, of course.
00:27Look at the rain the heavens have well and truly opened.
00:30But we are here at a vehicle testing proven ground facility to drive some Chinese EVs.
00:36It's a very, very exciting thing that we're doing despite this ungodly rain.
00:43We were invited out by our friends at DCAR,
00:46China's most popular automotive news platform, to their annual summer test,
00:50where we could do something that not a lot of American journalists have done.
00:54Drive some Chinese made EVs.
00:58And look, here's the deal. We are excited about this.
01:01I think we all know that China has made some great strides in automotive tech and production in recent years,
01:06and we were keen to find out what's going on.
01:08So in this series of films and articles, you are invited to come on a journey with us
01:14as we learn about, get to critique, question and crucially drive a whole lot of Chinese made EVs.
01:23And let me introduce you now to the cars that we have on offer.
01:26We'll start here, of course, the Porsche Carrera, the 992 generation.
01:30You know this car, we know this car.
01:32Why is it here?
01:33Well, because it offers a spectacular benchmark of dynamic performance, especially in the rain.
01:39We can use this to test all of the other cars by comparison.
01:43So that's why this is here.
01:44This three litre Carrera has 379 horsepower and 331 pound feet of torque.
01:51Not massive numbers, but as we all know, with Porsche, it's not the power on offer so much as how the car puts it down.
01:57The 911 sets the benchmark by which all others will be judged, especially this next car.
02:03You know the Porsche, but have you ever met the MG Cybuster?
02:07No, neither had I.
02:09It's kind of comparative to the Porsche, right?
02:11Two seats, a sports car, it's got 544 horsepower.
02:16However, this thing is a porker.
02:19It weighs some 4,376 pounds.
02:23That is surely going to affect performance.
02:26We'll be interested to see how this guy handles the track.
02:28The Cybuster is produced by the state-owned manufacturer SAIC
02:33and is said to take visual inspiration from the NGB Roadster of the 1960s.
02:39You can have the Cybuster with either a 64 or a 77 kilowatt hour battery
02:44in either rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive,
02:46and with either 310, 335 or, as with this one, 544 horsepower.
02:53The most impressive thing is probably the price,
02:56which comes in at the equivalent of 50,372 US dollars.
03:01That Porsche we just looked at?
03:03181,720 dollars.
03:08Yeah.
03:09Next up, we have the Avatar 12.
03:11This is kind of a sports saloon, maybe like a Model S-type thing.
03:16It's good-looking.
03:17It doesn't have a rear window, kind of similar to the Polestar,
03:20and kind of futuristic inside.
03:22It's got kind of like a square steering wheel.
03:25It's nice. I like it.
03:26And then, if you follow me down, next we have the Li Auto L6,
03:30kind of a compact SUV.
03:31And this is actually a plug-in hybrid,
03:34which brings me on to quite an interesting thing
03:36about plug-in hybrids here in China.
03:38They're called plug-in hybrids,
03:39but they're not really plug-in hybrids in the way that we would know it,
03:43because the petrol engine, the gasoline engine,
03:45doesn't actually drive the wheels.
03:46It just operates as a generator,
03:49generating electricity, feeding that into the battery,
03:51which in turn powers the EV motors, which drive the wheels.
03:55A more accurate name is E-Rev, or Extended Range Electric Vehicle.
03:59And to give you some context on that,
04:01the published range of this Max Edition L6 is 132 miles of pure electric range.
04:07But by factoring in the additional charge available through that range extender,
04:12the range estimate rockets up to 864 miles.
04:17Now, it's worth also saying here that these are CLTC Chinese range estimates,
04:23and they are spectacularly optimistic,
04:25even by the standards of the EPA range rating that we use here in the US.
04:29It's likely that the real-world range of a vehicle like this
04:32might be as little as 50% of that claimed range.
04:36Up next, we have the Xiaomi Sushi, the SU7.
04:40This is one of the more interesting cars here.
04:42I'll tell you why.
04:43Remember when Apple, that famous upstart little cellular phone company,
04:48said, hey, we're going to make a car,
04:49and then they tried and tried and tried,
04:51and then ultimately shelved the project?
04:52Well, Xiaomi is a cell phone company, kind of the Apple of China.
04:57And guess what?
04:57They've made an EV.
05:00And you know what?
05:01It's pretty good.
05:02It's got 673 horsepower,
05:04and people have drawn some similarities visually to the Porsche Taycan.
05:10Looks pretty good.
05:11Feels really nice to drive.
05:12This is a contender, I would say, for the best car here.
05:15It's certainly a Model 3 beater.
05:17We'll get onto that in a little bit.
05:19Produced in collaboration with the state-owned automotive company BAIC,
05:24the SU7 is available in three variants.
05:27SU7 and SU7 Pro work on 400-volt architecture,
05:31whereas this SU7 Max runs on a completely different 800-volt system.
05:36The D-Car journalists who were assisting us on this trip
05:38told us that the SU7 is the first real performance EV to come out of China,
05:43a fact Xiaomi are very proud of.
05:45However, they did forget to finish adding traction control to the first few cars
05:49which went out to journalists and influencers,
05:51and which, according to one source,
05:53resulted in some pretty out-of-control driving moments.
05:57Thankfully, the Xiaomi now comes with a beginner mode,
05:59which limits the power in the hopes of keeping you facing the right way.
06:03Next up, we have the D-PAL G318.
06:07Now, D-PAL is kind of like the bougie upscale version of the Chang'an brand,
06:12kind of how Yanguang is to BYD.
06:15So this is kind of like the slightly more fancy version.
06:19And this is interesting.
06:20This is kind of, apparently, the thing in China right now.
06:23These big, rugged, off-road, capable-looking SUVs.
06:27This is all the rage here in China at the moment.
06:30This is the D-PAL.
06:30This is another one of those plug-in hybrids,
06:32which is more of a generator into the battery system.
06:36Pretty cool, huh?
06:37The G318, after which this car is named,
06:40is, in fact, the highway connecting the east coast of China to Tibet.
06:44And fun fact, the D-PAL features over a dozen drive modes,
06:48and this specific model is the upscale air suspension version.
06:51The infrastructure in rural China is still in development,
06:54and so rugged-looking vehicles like the D-PAL
06:57are a firm favourite for people in those areas,
07:00as it allows them to traverse the poor-quality roads that they might come across.
07:04Up next, we have the Lincoln Co. Zero A.
07:07This is a fascinating car.
07:09This is a joint venture between Geely and Volvo.
07:12Geely owns 78% of Volvo,
07:15and like with their other joint project, Holstar,
07:18this Lincoln Co. gives us an insight into how that partnership manifests.
07:23That includes sharing the CMA platform on which this car is based,
07:27with the likes of the Volvo XC40, the Polestar 2,
07:30and as well as a dozen Geely and Lincoln Co. vehicles.
07:34It's got some very interesting design motifs.
07:36I like the headlights here and the stanchions where the side mirrors go.
07:41That's to the quiet taste, but it's interesting.
07:43So this has got 430 horsepower from the motors,
07:46163 horsepower from the engines,
07:49so there's 590 total horsepower.
07:52Pretty good, nice looking, pretty nice on the inside.
07:55This is one of those cars that you could see very easily coming to a foreign market.
07:59I'll be interested to see how this performs.
08:02Up next, the Volkswagen ID.7,
08:04a car you may not be familiar with,
08:06but you soon will be because this is going to be sold in America.
08:10Now, power-wise, it doesn't have anything worth writing home about.
08:14However, this is coming for the Model 3.
08:17This is going to be your chief Model 3 competitor in the US
08:22when we start to see them arrive in the third and fourth quarter of this year.
08:26So it's fascinating that we have one here.
08:28We get to compare it not only to the Model 3,
08:30but also to some of these Chinese EVs.
08:32We get to really get a good lay of the land.
08:34That's going to be fascinating.
08:36Interestingly, Volkswagen just released details of the ID.7s bound for the US,
08:41and surprise, surprise, the US market 7s are getting a lot more power.
08:46282 horsepower and 402 pound-feet of torque,
08:50up from 201 horsepower and 229 pound-foot of torque for this Chinese model.
08:56For context, the 2024 Model 3 rear-wheel drive standard range
09:00has 257 horsepower and 266 pound-feet of torque.
09:05Up next, my favourite car here, the Yangwang Mu-A.
09:09Now, Yangwang is kind of the luxury subsidiary of BYD,
09:14and this is their most outrageous, biggest, most bombastic, exciting vehicle.
09:19It's got 1197 horsepower.
09:22This thing can do tank turns.
09:23Yeah, that's right, 360-degree tank turns.
09:26This thing is an animal, and on the inside, it's pure luxury.
09:30I really mean it.
09:31It's very luxurious, really nice to drive.
09:35This thing's cool.
09:36I could see this in America, couldn't you?
09:37As well as tank turns, the U8 also boasts up to 55 inches of weight height
09:42and even, get this, yachting mode,
09:45where the two-litre turbocharged gasoline range extending combustion engine shuts down,
09:50the windows lock shut, the sunroof opens,
09:53and you can float fully for up to 30 minutes.
09:57The wheels will even gently rotate and turn to propel you along at up to 1.8 miles per hour.
10:02Imagine that at your local lake on the 4th of July weekend.
10:08Up next, we have the BYD Han.
10:10Now, this is kind of like a Model S competitor.
10:13Again, it's a plug-in hybrid, kind of a, you know, legacy car on the inside.
10:18It feels more like a car that we're familiar with.
10:20It kind of feels like the interior is quite GM,
10:23and I don't mean that in a bad way, but I don't really mean it in a good way either.
10:26It's an interesting car.
10:27BYD is a growing company, and they've got a lot of different cars
10:30for a lot of different market subsects.
10:32So, you know, yeah, the BYD Han, there you have it.
10:36This 2024 glory edition has 570 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque,
10:42comes in at just $34,972 US dollars.
10:48Here's your big Model Y rival from China, the Xpeng G6.
10:53Now, this is an 800-volt architecture electric car.
10:57It's nice and roomy on the inside, looks good on the outside.
11:00And guess what?
11:01Volkswagen liked this car so much that they actually decided to buy 5% equity in Xpeng.
11:08So, you know you're onto a good thing when that happens.
11:11296 horsepower, 325 pound-feet of torque.
11:15Couldn't you see this in America? I certainly could.
11:17At just $35,686 US dollars, this all-electric rear-wheel drive
11:24Ultra Long Endurance Max edition of the G6 has a claimed CLTC range of 469 miles.
11:32And whilst it almost certainly won't hit that number,
11:34it's worth saying that the equivalent single-motor Model Y's CLTC range is 344 miles.
11:41So, even if the G6 is shy of its range target by a quarter,
11:45it'll still be comparable to the Model Y.
11:48One of the most interesting cars without doubt here is this, the NIO ET5.
11:55Absolute pure Model 3 competitor, but with an edge.
12:00Because NIO offers battery swapping.
12:02Yes, that's right, that thing that Tesla have been promising but never actually deliver.
12:06This car can do it.
12:07You drive into a little self-service checkout area.
12:11It backs it in automatically.
12:14The car raises up.
12:15The battery is withdrawn and within five minutes,
12:18a fresh 100% charged battery is put into your car and you are out of there.
12:23That is amazing technology.
12:26NIO are absolutely crushing it here in the Chinese market.
12:29If any car could come for the Model 3, I think it could be this.
12:34In another shrewd move which is not unlike Tesla's supercharger network long play,
12:39NIO have set up what they call power journey routes.
12:42These are roads which go from major cities in China to touristic hotspots such as the Great Wall,
12:48on which NIO has increased the frequency of their charging and battery swap
12:51facilities along in anticipation of the higher EV traffic.
12:55Up next, we have the GU01.
12:58This car shares a platform with the Polestar 4.
13:00And there's actually an interesting little tidbit that we've learned during our time here.
13:03Obviously, we all know the Polestar is a division of Volvo owned by Geely.
13:07There's a lot of part share, platform share going on.
13:10Well, interestingly, it seems from what we can tell,
13:13the Polestar and Volvo aren't getting the most recent chassis and things like that, parts.
13:19Those are going to EV brands from China, such as this.
13:22The other interesting thing about this car is it's got what they describe as
13:25the Robocar self-parking system.
13:27It's voice activated parking.
13:30While the majority of vehicles we've seen today operate their various levels of ADAS
13:34and autonomous driving using a mixture of LiDAR and cameras,
13:37the GU only uses cameras like Tesla.
13:41With this system, they claim to have near level four autonomy.
13:45Now we weren't able to verify that, but it's worth noting that almost all of these cars
13:50have some form of autonomous driving feature,
13:53something which is very clearly important to the Chinese market.
13:57Up next, we have the Zika 007, 007 as I'm sure they'd like me to call it.
14:03This is a rear wheel drive Model 3 competitor with 422 horsepower.
14:08Good looking, kind of like a baby Lucid, right? I like it.
14:12Zika is another Geely owned brand.
14:14This 007 claims to have a super fast 500 kilowatt charging capability,
14:20though we never saw that in action, so we can't verify.
14:23Ah, yes, another one of our editor's favorites is the Baoyang Yundu, the cloud car.
14:29Yeah, this is kind of your little city car.
14:31Quirky design, really nice functional, but comfortable interior.
14:37Pretty cool, right?
14:38The most affordable of all the EVs we tested, this fully loaded Yundu
14:43comes in at just 17,612 US dollars with 136 horsepower and 148 pound feet of torque.
14:53It's not going to win any races.
14:54However, with 286 published miles of range, it's a perfectly adequate city car
15:00for half the price of the cheapest Model 3 you can buy in the US.
15:05Next up, we have the Eto'o M9.
15:08This full size luxury six seater is a collaboration
15:11between the automaker Ceres and the technology company Huawei.
15:15Huawei are one of the big players here in the kind of Apple car play type space,
15:19the user interface of cars like this.
15:21This one has got some really nifty tricks on the inside.
15:24The other big focus from Chinese automakers for their domestic market comes in the form
15:29the interiors, which takes precedent over everything else, including how a car drives.
15:34Comfort, luxury and convenience are essential for the prospective buyer,
15:39with our friends at D-Car telling us that most people want to get into their car,
15:43turn on their car's version of autonomous driving and relax
15:46as they're taking to their destination in comfort.
15:49Because of this, all of these cars have infotainment systems,
15:52the likes of which we in the West aren't really exposed to,
15:55with almost all of the cars here featuring some form of AI voice activated assistant,
16:00as well as games and things like karaoke and messaging services.
16:04Having such extensive experience in the field of operating systems,
16:08many of the cars on the Chinese market license their OS from Huawei,
16:13kind of like Apple CarPlay here in the States.
16:16Next, the cheapest car here, the Chery iCar.
16:19What do we like about the iCar? Well, pretty much everything.
16:21This car costs nothing and delivers everything.
16:24It's so good to look at. It's fun to drive. It's functional.
16:28This is, without a doubt, we think, the car that if it came to the American market,
16:32it would do the best. We really, really like this car.
16:36The one you see here comes fully loaded at US$23,772,
16:43with a long-range battery and all-wheel drive.
16:46Still, a $23,000 Jeep competitor? Sign me up.
16:52And then we have this absolute beauty.
16:56This is the Volvo EM90, super duper luxurious,
17:00hundred plus thousand dollar luxury electric minivan.
17:06This is the coolest car here, right? Surely.
17:08Why do we not have this in the States?
17:10This is your kind of like Mercedes E-Vito type competitor.
17:14It's very cool. The most luxurious ride I've ever felt.
17:17I really like it.
17:18And finally, basically the car that everyone here is trying to beat,
17:23the Tesla Model 3, all-wheel drive, long range.
17:27This is, as we would know it, the Highland, the revised Model 3, the new Model 3.
17:33This is the one we're all trying to take down.
17:35So here's what we're going to do. We're going to drive all of these cars.
17:38There are going to be articles and photographs
17:40on every single one of these vehicles.
17:42We're going to test them all.
17:43And we're also going to compare them all.
17:45We've got a five car comparison against this Tesla here.
17:48We're going to compare the Porsche and the MG.
17:50And we're going to compare the two cheap city cars.
17:53This is a fascinating experience.
17:55We're really happy to be a part of it.
17:57You've got questions about Chinese EVs.
17:59So do we.
18:00So let's jump in. Let's do this.