The cars that saved China

The Chinese car market is evolving rapidly and just as mainstream Japanese and Korean car-makers have matured over the decades, the same effect is taking place in China.

It’s true that some Chinese car-makers are guilty of building blatant copycat cars and stealing intellectual property, as seen in our recent ‘Cars that ate China’ story.

But there is a flipside to that coin: cars that are raising eyebrows for the right reasons.

From Volvo’s sister brand Lynk & Co to a couple of hotly-anticipated MG models and some seriously impressive electric and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, China’s auto industry is not without originality nor innovation.

As China’s car giants including SAIC Motor, Geely, Great Wall, Dongfeng, BYD and others continue to chase advanced engineering, design and technology solutions, we’ll see more and more really cool cars emerge from China. Here’s a selection of our current favourites.

BYD Han

Revealed mid-2020, the BYD Han is a big deal for the Chinese car-maker, given it plans to deliver the sleek new premium sedan to global markets – including Australia.

Boasting a 600km cruising range from a 77kWh lithium-ion battery pack and compelling acceleration (0-100km/h in 3.9sec), the BYD Han EV also shows off a sleek, smartly-executed exterior design. The avant-garde design is partnered with an elegant interior featuring luxury materials, a massive 15.6-inch central LCD infotainment screen and a digital instrument panel.

A full raft of advanced tech and safety features are touted and NFC-based smartphone car entry and motor start is offered, which works “even if their phone is out of power or has no signal,” says BYD.

Priced from around $46,000 in China and potentially arriving in Australia in 2021, the most intriguing news is that BYD has been agitating to begin Aussie manufacturing and is now partnered with local firm Nexport to develop a site in Moss Vale, south of Sydney, to build EVs here in the next five years. Watch this space.

For the record, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway company owns a whopping 25 per cent of BYD.

MG5

While there is a hint of Mercedes-Benz CLA to the rear-end design of the new MG5, which was revealed at the 2020 Beijing motor show in October, the overall design and interior fit-out show that China could soon be ready to take on Korean and Japanese brands.

The Toyota Corolla sedan-sized vehicle is offered with a pair of 1.5-litre petrol engines, one turbocharged (129kW/250Nm) and the other naturally-aspirated (89kW/150Nm), to offer price-sensitive and premium versions.

Speaking of which, the interior of the MG5 small sedan features a rather upmarket look and feel, with a large central touch-screen, a digital instrument cluster, leather seat trim and a sunroof. MG Australia has previously indicated its desire to sell this vehicle in Oz, but it’s not yet build in right-hand-drive.

MG sells four models in Australia today, including its latest premium compact SUV, the MG ZST – reviewed here. The mid-size MG HS has also been facelifted and should be arriving in Australia in the next year or so.

Nio EP9

If you want a dynamic and innovative car industry, high-performance machinery and forays into motorsport are crucial, and China has shown it’s not afraid to headbutt global players. Exhibit A, your honour: the Nio EP9.

Developed using know-how gained from FIA Formula E Championship involvement, the exotic machine set an EV lap record at the notoriously challenging Nurburgring road circuit in Germany in mid-2017, with a lap time of 6:45.9 minutes. In wet conditions.

The road-legal EP9 exotic car is still the fifth-fastest car outright at the Nurburgring and second fastest EV behind the Volkswagen ID.R (which isn’t road-legal), providing crucial street-cred for the Chinese brand.

Powered by four electric motors, the Nio EP9 supercar bangs out a gob-smacking 1000kW of power and has a top speed of 313km/h. Nio initially planned to produce just six EP9s, at a price of around $2 million each. But due to high levels of demand it confirmed it would build another 10 at least.

Nio also has several less extreme SUV EVs in its range, including EC6, ES6 and ES8 models, with more products in the pipeline.

Lynk & Co 02

Owned by Volvo’s parent company Geely and leveraging the same platform architecture and technology as our 2018 carsales Car of the Year, the Volvo XC40, the Lynk & Co 02 was launched in 2018 and represents a paradigm shift for Chinese cars on several levels.

It has a striking design inside and out but also drives remarkably well. We had a chance to test the Lynk & Co 02 SUV in China and it drives like, well, a Volvo. No surprises given Volvo’s Gothenburg-based boffins helped engineer the SUV.

Perhaps the biggest shift for the Lynk & Co 02 and all its vehicles is how you obtain one. Instead of buying a car, you pay a subscription similar to a smartphone plan that may last for 12 month,s for instance, with all costs taken care of.

We’re talking about insurance, maintenance, rego and a lifetime vehicle warranty. Indeed, Lynk & Co believes that more people need cars, they just don’t want to own them and be saddled with depreciation costs.

Given the Chinese brand is launching in Europe – and specifically the UK – from 2022, right-hand-drive vehicles are locked in, which means there’s scope for an Aussie launch.

GAC GS5

If the GAC GS5 was sold in Australia today it would be taking aim at mid-size SUVs like the Toyota RAV4 and Chinese compatriots such as the MG HS.

Brandishing a striking exterior design with a bold grille and slim LED headlights, the facelifted GAC GS5 was launched at the Paris motor show in late 2019, spearheading the Chinese car-giant’s European market assault. GAC president Yu Jun said he has an eye on the Aussie car market too: “One day we will consider going to Australia."

In China the SUV is also badged under the Trumpchi brand, which has been changed to GAC for export markets (for obvious reasons).

The GS5 SUV has a mature, upmarket cabin design with a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and a cleanly integrated central 10.1-inch touch-screen infotainment display.

The five-seat Mazda CX-5 rival is powered by a 1.5-litre turbo-petrol engine (124kW/265Nm) hooked up to an Aisin six-speed automatic transmission. Fuel economy is rated at 7.0L/100km and there's modern safety features like blind spot detection, adaptive cruise control and high-beam assist.