Wuling, on December 27th, released official pictures of its forthcoming Zhiguang EV. The Internet seems to know the car as Wuling’s kei car, although the dimensions of the car are actually larger than a kei car, and it is not Japanese. The official pictures show that perhaps this is the electric combi everybody has been waiting for and it has 20 expandable storage areas. This means the car should be an electric Swiss army knife of a vehicle.
For those unfamiliar with the term combi, it is a term given to vans, which are a cross between a panel van and a minibus. What is known in the US as the Volkswagen Type 2, in many parts of the world, is known as the Volkswagen Kombi.
On the outside, the Wuling Zhiguang EV has a boxy look somewhat similar to a 5-door version of the first generation Wuling Hongguang Mini EV. Both the rear doors slide like a van and can open up to 595 mm. The tailgate angle also is quite large, opening up to nearly 90°. On the other hand the height of the tailgate sill is only 569 mm, about knee level, making loading and unloading easier.
Although Chinese media are referring to the new Wuling as a kei car, it is not. The Wuling has dimensions of 3685, 1530,1750 mm (l/w/h) and a wheelbase of 2600 mm. A kei car is the smallest class of car legally allowed on roads in Japan and offers some legal benefits over regular cars, but since 1998, have been limited to a maximum length of 3.4 meters.
Where the Wuling Zhiguang EV comes into its own is with storage flexibility. It has 20 M6 standard threaded mounting holes. These can support the installation of common expansion accessories such as storage compartments and placement racks.
The rear bench folds down nearly flat, as does the front passenger seat. This likely creates a space big enough for a person to sleep if needed. The trunk has 527 liters of space, and with all the seats folded down, this increases to 1117 liters. In addition there is a luggage rack mounted on the roof.
There are various accessories that can be mounted on the passenger dashboard, including multifunctional folding tables, cup holders, and mobile phone holders.
Wuling, which is officially a joint venture between SAIC, GM, and Wuling, has made nine optimizations, which it claims reduce wind resistance. These include the angle of the front windshield, the front protective air curtain, and the design of the rear. So far, no range figures have been published, so quite what difference this makes is difficult to know.
The car has a top speed of 100 km/h, and it’s powered by a 30 kW electric motor. Energy is stored in a 17.6 kWh battery pack. It’s claimed that in the future, there will be a version that uses battery swapping through CATL’s Evogo battery swap network. This uses a small chocolate box-type battery, each of which is 26.5 kWh in capacity. Such an arrangement should give the car a range of around 200 km.
A front slow charging port supports 220V AC external discharge up to a maximum of 3.3 KW. In the rear is a 12V DC power interface which can support up to 120W discharge power.
Sales of the Wuling Zhiguang EV should begin in early 2025. Prices will likely begin at around 50,000 yuan (6850 USD), and exports are highly probable.
Source: Autohome
