Exlantix ES GT gives Chery a luxury wagon

The standout model in the Exlantix range confirmed for Australia is the ES GT, previewed as the ES7 GT at last year’s Guangzhou motor show as the brand's first wagon.

A mid-to-large shooting brake built off the ES sedan's E0X platform, it cuts something of a groove, boasting a 3,000mm wheelbase and roughly 4,950mm of length in sedan form, with a slippery drag coefficient as low as 0.205 Cd helping the efficiency figures.

We've seen the ES GT in right-hand-drive form during a visit to Chery's vast new R&D and design headquarters in Shanghai, and it features some significant improvements over the early ES models, with the cabin a genuine step-change.

A slimline panoramic display stretching more than 40 inches spans the rear of the dashboard, backed by a 15.6-inch 2.5K central touchscreen, and an audio system with around 23 speakers.

Sporty seats finished in leather and microfibre on this mock up, with luminescent contrast stitching, set the tone for a sporty feel, with acres of soft-touch artificial leather and metallic-infused carbonfibre-like inlays all around.

Expect Snapdragon’s slick 8295P processor behind the scenes, as well as Apple CarPlay and 50W wireless phone charging on board.

The drivetrain numbers are serious. The pure-electric ES GT is expected to near enough match its ES sedan donor with up to 353kW and 663Nm on tap from dual motors, and a sub 4-second 0-100kph sprint, A 97.7kWh CATL NMC battery delivers between 835–860km of range in sedan form.

The EREV trades some outright pace, just the 4.9 seconds 0-100 time, for touring ability, but makes up for that with as much as 1,231km of total range and 6.3L/100km on the WLTP cycle in the sedan, with around 205km of electric-only driving before the petrol engine stirs.

Charging makes full use of the 800-volt architecture with as much as 120km of range reclaimed in five minutes, and a 30-80% charge time of around 15 minutes.

Some rumours suggest the ES GT could get a 1000-volt plaform, adding up to 450km of range in just five minutes, but we’ll hold back from expecting these figures on our version.

Air-sprung double-wishbone front and five-link independent rear suspension with adaptive damping offer some promise for the ride and body control, though we’ll hope for some local tuning on that.

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