SAIC R Auto ES33 concept previews new Chinese EV brand

One of China’s biggest car-makers has revealed more details and images of the high-tech SAIC R Auto ES33 concept – a sleek four-door SUV ‘coupe’ that could be sold in Australia as an MG.

Once the largest auto-maker in China, the giant state-owned SAIC conglomerate owns the MG, LDV and domestic market-only Roewe brands, but is now ready to launch a new premium EV sub-brand to be called R Auto.

Based on a dedicated new EV platform called R-TECH – unlike the existing MG ZS EV small SUV and the MG HS Plug-In Hybrid medium SUV – this BMW X4-style SUV will be revealed in full at the Shanghai motor show on April 19.

It’s just one of a bevy of new SAIC models that will make their public debut in Shanghai next month, including the MG5 Electric (a battery-powered wagon version of the new MG5 already confirmed for Australia), the MG Marvel R Electric (a triple-motor version of the HS) and the MG Cyberster electric sports car.

The latter will make its global online premiere tomorrow (March 31) and is likely to ride on the same new R-TECH EV platform, but none of these three MG models have been confirmed for Australia.

Nor has the production version of the R Auto ES33, which will go on sale globally in 2022, but carsales understands it’s the most likely SAIC EV to come here, potentially wearing an MG badge.

According to SAIC, the ES33 will combine next-generation design, EV and autonomous driving technologies, and its architecture previews a new approach to battery tech with ‘plug-and-play’ capability and cutting-edge computing power and sensor tech.

No performance data has been released, but the R-TECH ‘high-energy intelligent body’, which was developed at a cost of $A4 billion, is said to herald “key partnerships with some of the world’s most advanced sensor and computing companies” and provide “a compelling glimpse into the future for upcoming products”.

The R-TECH architecture will incorporate the ability to swap batteries, with SAIC claiming the ES33’s battery can be replaced in just two minutes. No details are given, but the battery itself will feature two-way charging and cloud-based thermal management to provide ultra-high levels of safety.

Computing power for the R Auto ES33 comes from NVIDIA, whose DRIVE AGX Orin chip is purpose-designed to support high-level autonomous driving, features 17 billion transistors and can perform 200 trillion operations per second.

Hence, the ES33 features high-power lidars that can spot objects up to 500 metres away and 4D imaging radars that can detect objects as small as a drink can at up to 140 metres.

In total, there are 33 sensors aboard the ES33, including laser radars, imaging radars and 22 cameras in and around the car. The lidar sensors, built in conjunction with US company Luminar, are built into the roof of the ES33, while 5G-V2X mobile connectivity will allow for full Level 5 autonomous driving functionality.