The latest Chinese electric family SUVs compared
Skyworth? Omoda? Jaecoo? Chery? Leapmotor? You might want to make a list as there are plenty more Chinese car manufacturers on their way to Britain to join MG, BYD, Ora and others all vying for your attention.
Britain is seen as the prime frontier for these marques, especially as the UK Government is showing no sign that it will be joining the EU and America in imposing stiff tariff barriers on Chinese car imports.
After a lengthy investigation, the EU Commission found that “the battery-electric vehicles (BEV) value chain in China benefits from unfair subsidisation, which is causing a threat of economic injury to EU BEV producers”.
The thing is, however, it’s not only Chinese battery-electric vehicles. Tough domestic competition with a struggling economy and an unravelling property sector, together with Britain’s open-door trade policy, means the Chinese have set course for the UK with petrol models as well.
Europe’s legacy car makers are fearful, not only of a tidal wave of cheap imports but also of reciprocal action by the Chinese government blocking off their dwindling lifeline of exports to the People’s Republic from Europe.
The balance of imports versus exports depends on where you sit. Premium car makers such as Germany’s big three – Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi – together with UK-based marques such as Jaguar Land Rover, Bentley and Aston Martin are worried about the implied threat to their Chinese exports, where mass-market car makers such as Stellantis or Volkswagen are concerned about Chinese imports undercutting their cars.
Everyone seems to have an opinion, but there are nuances. For example, Stellantis has counter deals in China and owns its own premium brand, Maserati. Volkswagen also has (diminishing) deals in China and owns Audi and Bentley. Then there’s the role of Nissan and Toyota, which have sizable factories in the UK and Europe which bring jobs, research and development and investment, similarly with Kia/Hyundai with its European plants or Chinese firm BYD which is planning a European factory.
Car industry in downturn
The backdrop is a sluggish European economic recovery, along with a car-buying public cautious of big spending in an environment of shifting Government requirements and bans.
As we saw at the Paris motor show in October, the simultaneous imposition of European emissions regulations along with Britain’s tight zero emissions mandate fines of £15,000 per non-compliant car, means European manufacturers are struggling to sell electric cars to a reluctant market.
This August, EV sales in Europe were down one third year-on-year and in Britain, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) reckons the motor industry is subsidising its own EV sales to the tune of £2 billion a year merely to avoid paying fines.
In the meantime, the Chinese keep coming – so we have taken a couple of typical examples to gauge what you’re being offered.
Omoda E5
Behind Omoda (and Jaecoo) is Chery, China’s fifth largest Chinese car maker, state-owned and founded in 1997 by officials of the Wuhu municipal government. Omoda produced its first cars in 2022 and this is its first family SUV.
Available as a 5 petrol model and as an E5 battery electric, this five-seat SUV is pitched at the same ubiquitous market as the Kia Niro, Hyundai Kona, Vauxhall Frontera, MG ZS EV, BYD Atto3, Peugeot E-2008 and Honda e:Ny1, among others. The marketing from Omoda says it offers a lot of equipment for the money, with prices starting at £33,055 for the base Comfort trim and £34,555 for the top Noble spec. For the record, MG’s ZS EV starts at £30,500 and the Kia Niro at £37,325.
The specification is fairly modest, with a 61kWh lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery powering a 201bhp permanent magnet motor driving the front wheels via a step-down gear, giving a range of 257 miles, 0-62mph acceleration in 7.2 seconds and a respectable efficiency of 4.2 miles per kWh.
LFP batteries are more robust, cheaper and long-lasting than the more common lithium-ion nickel manganese cobalt (Li-ion NMC) alternatives but they have a lower power density; to get the same energy takes up more space in a car, while they don’t have a great capacity for rapid charging. For example, the E5 will only charge at a maximum of 80kW, so the 28 minutes fast charge claim is for 30-80 per cent rather than the usual 20-80 per cent.
The look is generic family SUV with a smooth front (the petrol model has a punched grille). Walk away and you’d struggle to recall anything about the E5. I also found several faults in the test car, including detaching strips of dried glue trailing from the roof lining, as well as some questionable panel gaps.
The interior is also generic but with fabrics and plastics which look and feel cheaper than the European opposition. The facia is dominated by touchscreen technology, with everything controlled via tiles on the screen and a similar non-touch-sensitive panel in front of the driver. It takes some learning, is slow to react and lags between screens. The centre console is finished in easily marked piano-black, with cup holders and cubby holes.
Accommodation in the front is generous, not quite so much in the rear seats where your knees will touch the seat backs. The 380-litre boot is small for the class.
The 201bhp motor gives a good account of itself, with decent acceleration from low speeds, but it tails off above 50mph. And sustained motorway use kills the efficiency, dropping as low as 3.4 miles per kWh after only 20 miles.
The motor is noisy, too, and it joins the wind and tyre noise to create quite a racket inside. What’s more, the body feels soft and twisty, which creates even more noise as the door seals struggle to do their job. In fact, everything feels noisy on this car, there’s a strange metallic ringing from the drivetrain and even the indicator repeater seems offensively loud.
It’s unexceptional to drive, with over-assisted and woolly-feeling steering, clanking and abrupt-feeling suspension and a soft primary ride over larger bumps but a sharp response to smaller bumps and ripples. It feels simultaneously floppy and harsh. The brakes feel sharp, unprogressive and grabby as you come to a halt.
In summary, the Omoda E5 has a decent enough specification and is not completely unattractive. The seven-year warranty and keen pricing, along with an extensive UK dealership, will hook more than a few in. But the car feels strangely like the Eric Morecambe line from the 1971 sketch with André Previn: “I’m playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order.”
Leapmotor C10
Along with the T03 small electric car, this £36,660 family SUV was launched in Italy recently. It’s slightly longer than the Omoda, but such small distinctions put it into a different order of family SUV, competing with such cars as Tesla’s £44,990 Model Y, last year’s worldwide best-selling car. Other rivals include the Ford Mustang Mach-E, which starts at £43,330, Skoda Enyaq at £36,970 and the £42,860 Toyota bZ4X.
Leapmotor was formed in 2015 and produced its first car in 2019. Founded by Zhu Jiangming, an electrical engineer, the company specialises in integrated manufacturing (it makes 60 per cent of the T03) and naked ambition; it has plans for a five-model range and sales of 250,000 this year.
In 2023, Stellantis purchased a €1.5 billion, 20 per cent share in Leapmotor. Together, the two companies have a half share each (Stellantis has 51 per cent) in Leapmotor International, a joint venture which is responsible for design and manufacturing outside of China.
The C10 is one of its first models in the market and marks the company’s first use of its own EV chassis/floorpan – which features cell-to-chassis technology, which saves weight and build costs. There’s only one drivetrain, a rear-drive, 215bhp/236lb ft motor powered by a 70kWh LFP battery.
The top speed is 106 mph with 0-62 mph in 7.2 seconds and a range of 262 miles, which means a low-to-middling efficiency of 3.1miles per kWh, a bit less than rivals such as the 283 mile range Tesla. Similarly, the maximum fast charging is only 84kW, which means a 10-80 per cent recharge will take 40 minutes, far slower than the Tesla (which will accept 250kW) while also slower than European and Japanese rivals.
The operating system is only 400 volts, although Leapmotor’s jam-tomorrow-packed presentation majored on the over-the-air update potential, implying it could have up to 800-volt capability soon, which would speed the rate of charge of the battery.
To look at; it’s not exactly distinctive. But the window line and front end are attractive and the whole is reminiscent of the Kia EV9, if not as standout as that car. Colours other than white help in this respect and I’d go as far to say it’s more of a looker than the Tesla.
Inside, you can see what they were getting at with a sparse, Tesla-like feel, particularly the facia. As with the Omoda, almost everything is controlled by the touchscreen including: adjustment of the steering-wheel position and power assistance; door mirrors; heater and air-con; and other functions, which require several keystrokes to access.
The regenerative braking has several settings including “one-pedal” driving – but they, too, are hidden in a sub-menu which you can’t get to unless stationary in Park. It’s all very frustrating and very typically Chinese, where high tech novelty is considered a premium quality. There is a voice-control option, but it didn’t seem to understand a word I said. An illustration of the frustrating muddle-headed choices made by Leapmotor designers is that it took only two finger stabs to call up the excruciating 256 colours for the interior ambient lighting, but four to turn on the foglights…
The interior is functional, but a bit cheap in the materials even in the top model Design trim, which is the only version offered in the UK. I thought the artificial leather wasn’t nice to touch, the seats were uncomfortable with poor lumbar support and the synthetic felt in the door trims was horrible. The lack of grab handles in the ceiling seemed a strange omission in a car which was continually compared with expensive German rivals. Useful, however, is the ability to fold the front seat flat to fit in super-long loads.
On the road, the C10 in standard mode is gentle and quite progressive in its response to the accelerator. Switch to Sport mode, however and the tyres spin on even the mildest press of the pedal.
Like a lot of Chinese-originated cars, the dynamics are fairly one-dimensional. The ride over smooth roads is acceptable, but sharp-edged bumps clatter the cabin and passengers. The front and rear of the car appear to be reacting in completely different ways to the same road surface, while the steering feels unresponsive. The same applies to the brakes.
Much was made of the car’s chassis set-up at the Alfa Romeo test track at Balocco in northern Italy, but I’m not sure Leapmotor’s engineers took much notice of the facility’s renowned test drivers. Nor is there the peace of mind of a long warranty, only four years/60,000 miles being offered.
The Telegraph verdict
As I write, Volkswagen has just announced the closure of three of its European factories and mass layoffs around Europe. It’s a measure of the pain being suffered by the motor industry at the moment, which analysts are blaming on a combination of soft European demand, stricter European regulation and requirements, plus Chinese competition.
Yet, on this evidence, the Chinese products, while cheap, are inferior in both the tangibles of quality of the interior, driving range and noise suppression, but also in more intangible qualities such as dynamic ride and handling. They also come from a different culture where high-tech electronics, touchscreens and voice commands are considered highly desirable, rather than confusing, distracting and generally a bad idea.
Even if you leave out the questionable politics and human rights of China, their cars aren’t good enough.
However, one day they will be and while they’ll be more expensive as a result, the big question is, when that day dawns, will there be a viable European industry still punching its weight?